DESIGIRI

It’s business as usual

2011-08-22T21:25:00.001-05:00

When I watched Deepika Padukone dance with Sunil Dutt and Jitendra on the silver screen in the opening song of Om Shanti Om, which was a super impose of the frames from classic movies on the current one, I thought it was a cinematography excellence. Little did I know that 4 years later we would witness the same in just concluded Eng vs Dravid test series.

10 years from now if you happen to watch the recording of the this series and you start moving from test match to test match, you see Dravid toiling and toiling hard as ever and rest of the players just kept coming and going. Just like what happened in the opening song of the movie Om Shanti Om, it was Dravid playing and moving forward from Test match to Test match, images of rest 10 were being super imposed one after the another.

As human we are all fond of patterns, and the pattern started right in the first session of the test match. Scene of Hamstring Khan limping off the field was episodic. Then we had a shades of Ishant which we saw 4 years ago, promising yet failing to deliver; supported by Sree who has limited his on field spats to 140 characters through the global medium of twitter. Praveen once said “I will swing the ball 100%” and probably was one bowler who kept swinging the ball right from the Caribbean until Oval.

Then we had a surprising move from the captain to draft a bowler who had last played the longer format during the British Raj. R P Singh, whose name had more fire than his deliveries. And the ever laughing Munaf probably on tourist visa was barred from entering the field even during drinks break. And then we had a McDowell’s `License to spin` singh, who never made it large, finally making way for a compact middle order batsman Mishra, whose leg spin landed right on the middle of the batsmen’s bat.

We then had Mukund who scored a century in practice match only when he was sure that he wouldn’t be playing any further. Then we flew in the panacea of INDIA cricket, Viru right from hospital bed, who took a quick commercial break from the dressing room twice in a match. He does every thing King's style even the ducks. Gauti was quite in Gambhir state, spent more time nursing his on field injuries.

Very Very Special looked Very Very Silly when he kept pulling it to the hands of midwicket each time; very typical of VVS, playing handsomely and getting out with a sign of disbelief. GOD finally woke up on the last day of the tour who atleast restored the 5 day cricket back, or else BCCI’s Million dollar spoke person Shastry and Gavaskar would have advocated for 4 day test cricket, to which BCCI would have convinced ICC to enforce new change. To which Michael Holding would have called International Compromise Committee.

IPL king Raina has more wickets than run in the oval test match. He sure is a true replacement for Yuvraj. If UV can’t play the short ball so can’t I, if Yuvraj can't play spin so can't I. Dhoni would be unhappy that he failed to use this test series as a practice for the upcoming CLT20. Captain Excuse had the game of his life time in the 3rd test, well of course 2 70's in a test match. Hope he doesn’t complain about too much cricket b/w IPL and CLT20 and that test cricket hurting IPL.

Despite every Wall street kept piling runs and showed the world
It's business as usual.

Episode 11: The fun begins

2010-04-10T19:19:00.000-05:00

Episode 10 Click here

8 am on a beautiful sunny Monday morning Vijay stepped out of his apartment and headed towards his department which was a block away. At the same time the door at the opposite complex 100 feet away opened and Priya stepped out. Both had a quick look and their eye met; suddenly both shook their head away as if they never saw each other. Vijay then shifted his eyes towards his right to catch a glimpse of Priya and she was right there waiting for him to look. This increased his heart beat and he quickly turned away and began walking towards the department. As he walked towards the department Priya kept staring at him, he appeared smaller and smaller and finally he vanished into the crowd.

Priya was in a mixed state of emotions, this was for the first time she had caught a glimpse of Vijay after landing in US, and the moment didn't even last for a min. She felt extremely sad and angry at the same time with herself more than with Vijay. She couldn't believe her own reaction when she saw him, he was the same Vijay whom she had spent 20 hrs up in the air, laughing and talking. She felt something had changed, changed drastically. She was still figuring out the reason why she had shook away the first time and why her eyes kept staring at his path all the way till he actually got lost in the crowd. She neither had any answers to these questions, nor had anyone to discuss about it, she had only herself to figure out.

She probably began to feel something for him. She had the whole day to figure out as she headed towards the Univ Library, a place so silent enough to put you to sleep let alone attempting to read a book. She sat down in the corner read a big fat book when read Digital Signal Processing.

Marathe was looking at the scene below though the window; He had sensed something fishy about Vijay and his activities but never gave a deep thought to it. He was an idiot when it came to talking to women but had enough gray matter in his head to figure out that something indeed was cooking b/w them.

"Where can I take a print out from my email?” Vijay asked a simple question to the lib staff.
"You mean a public access computer connected to a local printer where you can check your personal email?” the lib staff replied back.

It sounded like a complex network routing algorithm to Vijay and it took him 5 secs and 6 blinks and couple of swear words to grasp and assimilate it. Vijay banged his palm on his head and walked towards the computer wondering why there people always like to complicate things. Selected the appropriate printer clicked print and began walking towards printer which was in the corner of the hall way. Sudden noise at the printer's broke the silence enough to draw Priya's attention. The noise spread to her ear drums like Sun rays hitting the ground cutting through the fog driving away darkness. She stood and began to look in the direction of the sound.

Vijay, humming his favorite Himesh Reshammiya chart number walked towards printer, suddenly caught a glimpse of Priya and in a split second quickly sat on the first available computer that hid him, like a batsman ducking at the Shane Bond's fast bouncer. Seeing nobody approach the printer Priya sat down and went back to her mark and continued processing the signals. Close, very close almost gloved the ball to the keeper Vijay mumbled and felt exactly like how a batsman felt when he survives the bouncer. Since he was in front of the PC he thought he might as well checkout cricinfo for the latest score. The game was getting interesting and so was the textual commentary, visualizing the shots Vijay got lost in the game.

Marathe who had to renew his Bio-chemistry book entered the library in his usual red Reebok shorts and white Nike shirt which made a statement yes that's right in blue. While he was at the counter renewing his book he caught Priya reading through the corner of his eye. The detective in him woke up; he was walking towards the hallway and suddenly saw Vijay in front of the PC in the adjacent row. He looked at Priya on his left and looked at Vijay on his right; three of them together formed an equilateral triangle. Looked at Priya on left, looked at Vijay on the right atleast 5 times as if he was watching Wimbledon from the first row perpendicular the net. Things became a bit clear now; he decided to approach Vijay and walked towards him.It was Monday anyways and his boss always came late to the lab, so had enough levy and reason to spy and loiter around.

“Bhimrao”, “could you please carry this book and meet me in the lab in 10 mins”, a familiar voice drew his attention; it was indeed his Boss who had played a spoil sport. “Yes Dr”, Marathe replied and he began walking away from Priya and Vijay turning an equilateral into a isosceles triangle and finally it was only a straight line that exist b/w Vijay and Priya

The geometry continues …

Episode 10: Project Avoid Priya

2010-01-22T21:11:00.000-06:00

Episode 9 Click here

It was 7 pm on a warm Saturday evening and the 3 idiots landed in front of the Indian grocery store. Vijay twisted his eyebrows and casually read the store name “Your brother’s”, looking at Dharmraj.
“Right every Patel is my bro, right from Sardar Vallabh bhai to Praful Patel to that idiotic cricketer Parthiv Patel”, Dharmraj Patel got furious at Vijay’s comments and it was evident from his tone and the way he pronounced the word Right. Actually the way “RIGHT” is pronounced speaks volumes about the mood of a person. Vijay had no clue what was happening and was wondering why someone would get furious about their last name.
“It’s like Khan among Muslims; common surname, do you think Imran Khan and Moin Khan were brothers“? Dharmraj added.

“Hero, get whatever South Indian Items you like” Marathe showed Vijay the section which had lot of packets which read MTR.
Vijay’s eyes lit up like a batsman’s eye when he sees a flighted ball from a spinner. He danced down the track towards the aisle. MTR was a famous brand in Karnataka, initially a famous hotel now a household name when it comes to spices and packed food items. And the sight of Kannada font which he even struggled to read on the packets made his eyes moist. Back in INDIA he hated that language, hated reading and writing it, because he was bad at written Kannada and his parents even till date doubt how he achieved 94 in that subject in his 10th grade. He began to read every printed word as if he had found a clue to the Treasure Island.

“Dude, grab the stuffs quickly you will have lot of time for reading while watching cricket”, Marathe tried to speed up the shopping but Vijay seemed confused and lost. Karnataka and its obsession with rice was a breakfast is worth a mention, VIBGYOR rice; i.e. a rice based breakfast with a color literally for each day. Vijay aimed at creating a few of them and ended up with a Puliogrey mix a Bisi Bele Bath mix and a couple of other rice mix.
Vijay got goose bumps when he sighted the green bottle of BRU instant coffee. There is nothing more to a South Indian than a cup of steaming strong filter coffee; they can literally survive on that for a day or two.
“Kem Cho”, the lady at the billing counter had a brief conversation with Dharmraj. Vijay felt jealous that he didn’t have a single person from his state to speak in his own language.

Vijay grabbed the grocery bag from the counter and suddenly his ears over heard a sweet conversation in Kannada language. He dropped the grocery bag in the cart and ran towards the voice like a batsman scampering a quick single. He was dying to listen to a Kannada voice, let alone talking to someone. Sooner he approached the voice it sounded familiar and his doubt led to clarification when he caught a glimpse of lady in red, yes it was his Priya. He awkwardly ducked below aisle to evade her like a batsman ducking to evade a bouncer from Bret Lee. His heart began to beat at the pace at which bouncer was delivered. The moment he caught a glimpse her `Project Avoid Priya` seemed to go down the drain, rather Project Seek Priya began developing. He was caught in two minds like a batsman neither playing forward nor backward.

Suddenly he felt like a batsman’s failing to differentiate between conventional and reverse swing based on the shine of the ball. Heart would say one, mind the other. Logically he had to Avoid Priya as per the Project, but her shear presence, her sweet voice eroded any ounce of logic. This was when he learned that there was a big difference between proposing a theory and implementing it. To catch a second glimpse he peeped through aisle and coincidentally she turned and got a glimpse of him. He had only .46 of a second to react to the situation, the same time a slip fielder gets to catch the ball. His heart began to beat like never before, so hard that he could hear the vibrations. He did that best he could do at that moment i.e. run away from her towards the exit following Marathe and Patel.

Priya blinked her eyes in disbelief; she was still wondering whether it was Vijay or someone else. Even though she wanted to teach Vijay a lesson, but from inside she wanted to see him. She walked past the aisle and towards exit and through the transparent door, she saw Vijay getting into the rear seat of a black Honda Accord. Vijay saw Priya staring at the Accord to catch a second glimpse; he felt bad for her, seeing her confused face searching for something made his eyes moist.

But the devilish mind had other thoughts; Project Avoid Priya is ON, like a spinner he had tossed up the ball to entice the batsman, it was upto the batsman to either scoop it in the air and perish or blast it away for a sixer. He has induced some interest in her now, either she could fall in the trap or completely go off track.

Priya stood staring at the transparent door as she saw the Accord exit out of the parking lot and enter the street. She was going through mixed emotions, she definitely wanted to teach Vijay a lesson, but she had no plan as to how to go about it. Her acts were all out of true instincts and emotions, no logic attached to it.
“Let’s get some more pickle, Priya”, her roommate broke the silence.
She picked up her stuffs and headed back towards the billing counter.

“Woh Aap Key Dost They?” the billing lady asked Priya as soon as she placed her items on the counter. “Who?” Priya had a question mark on her face and pretended as of nothing had happened. The billing lady had seen enough of these and didn’t need any explanations. I guess this is what experience is all about.

On the way back Priya began to think about Vijay, she began to recollect the conversations that she had with him right from the flight take off to the Mumbai airport. She also remembered how possessive he was, when he did his best to kick Ravi out of the scene, it was a childish act but she liked. She liked his sarcastic chirpy jokes rather poor jokes as he self proclaimed it. Even though she hated cricket she liked his passion for that sport. He had to be an Idiot to focus and talk about cricket when he was with a gorgeous young lady. She kind of liked that Idiot, and now she was missing him, missing him badly and realized it when she accidentally bumped into him twice in a day. May be it was destiny or in fact it might just be coincidence, but she felt something good about it and decided to pursue her interest.

After she went home, began jotting `Project Seek Vijay` and began working towards it in her own way.

At the same time `Project Avoid Priya` had entered phase 2 in Vijay’s notebook.

To know more about which Project would succeed and which would fail
Keep reading ….

Suggestions, Comments and Abuses are welcome as always.

Episode 9: Project Priya

2010-01-09T21:59:00.002-06:00

Episode 8 Click here
Vijay and Priya stood face to face for the first time; even though he was with her in the airport he never had this interaction. The elevator door was about to close, Vijay outstretched his hand to keep it open, Priya entered the elevator and pressed ground button. Vijay was stunned at her reaction, rather lack of it. She neither looked at him, nor spoke a word; In-fact he felt like seeing her twin sister, identical in looks but serious and angry faced. Vijay had his eyes wide open, his heart was beating like Venkatesh Prasad's slower delivery, slower and slower. The sound of the elevator door opening got him out of temporary coma, priya stepped out towards the mail boxes. Vijay stood silent and still like a rock in shock. The elevator door closed.

Vijay rested his palm behind his head and looked at the ceiling lying on his bed, wondering what actually happened in the elevator.
Firstly was she his Priya indeed or was he seeing Priya ever where?
Secondly if she was Priya was she suffering from short term memory loss?
Finally was she actually Priya but avoiding him? This sounded more realistic and non filmy. 'Dude she is playing a game! mind game!', Vijay spoke to himself.

"Hero come here, see how Shane Warne is playing mind games with the batsman", Marathe yelled from the hall.
"Kevin Petersen vs Shane Warne can't get better than this", Patel added.
"Both were best pals once when they played for Hampshire, but now they are rivals!, arch rivals", Marathe replied.
Analogies and parallel screenplays are good in movies, especially the one in 'Rang De Basanti' not in real life Vijay realized that.

"Hero, wanna make international debut today?, I mean cooking lunch!" Patel asked.
"OK sure, but I don't have any Ranji experience.", Vijay replied.
"Sala! it is difficult to run this house with this U19", Marathe grumbled.
"23, I am 23" Vijay asserted.

Vijay took out his notebook which read "Cooking Notebook" opened page 1, it read 'Beans Sambar'. Lit the burner, pour oil onto the vessel and dropped in a spoon full of mustard seeds, a minute later mustard seeds began to jump around, he ran away towards his room for shelter. Marathe and Patel stared at each other with a raised eyebrows, they never spoke a word but the expression told every thing.
"This is what happens when you pick an U19 player to AUSTRALIA series", Marathe pointed his index finger at Patel as if he had a point to prove.
Vijay came back and read his book 'mustard seeds would jump, take shelter, lower the flame and continue'. He continued with his cooking.
"But this guy has potential, ability to bounce back", Patel corrected Marathe.
"Yes that is what Merve Huges told about Tendulkar in 1991 Sydney test", Marathe emphasized.

"Hero, we will taste your food today and decide whether you would be in playing 11 or 12th man", Marathe raised his voice.
i.e whether you would cook or just be a cleaner. Vijay stared at the charred pile of vessels and decided to focus on getting the Sambar right. When you know what you don't want in life, life is pretty simple. 20 minutes later and after a couple whistles the selection committee sat for lunch. Five minutes into lunch he knew he would be in the playing 11, why not, he had used his mother's Sambar powder and desi ghee as part of his ingredient and it was steaming hot. It's like Raju Hirani, a great script and Aamir Khan what possibly can go wrong.
"We have a slot for all-rounder in the team, someone who can neither bat nor can bowl", Marathe gave him a thumbs up. Vijay had a sigh of relief and smiled looking at the vessels as if ridiculing it.

When your stomach is full, blood drains out of brain towards stomach, that is when all the weird thoughts sink in.
'Focus on the how to solve the problem rather than thinking why the problem occurred', a quote that he had read some where struck his mind.

Project Priya ' Vijay wrote

'Priya knows that I know where she lives, she saw my surprised face when she ignored me' Vijay began jotting down.
'Now she would expect me to follow her or contact her directly or indirectly,
what if I play the bluff.

Step 1: Make sure she sees you through her window.
Step 2: Ignore Priya when she approaches.
Step 3: Know all the places she goes daily.
Step 4: Avoid all those places totally.
Step 5: You will be in her mind, she will definitely hunt you down.

Reason: 'There is nothing more irritating to a girl when someone she likes suddenly ignores her' jotted this random sentence his friend had once quoted and decided to put it to action.

will he succeed keep reading ...

Comments, Suggestions and Abuses are Welcome.

Episode 8: The Chase Begins

2010-01-02T15:48:00.002-06:00

Click here for Part 7

Vijay was surrounded by 9 Priyas each depicting 9 different emotions(rasas) from Śringāram to Kārunyam to Shāntam and Vijay was trying to convince and console each one of them as to why he had left her alone at the airport. Suddenly a big strong dude with a mase (gadha) on his shoulders entered the room driving all the Priyas away.
"Hero, stop snoring we are unable to hear the cricket commentary" Bhim Marathe knocked the door which woke Vijay up.
It was 9 am and scorching sun rays had already heated up the room, Vijay rubbed his eyes and walked towards the kitchen and drank a glass of water.
"Sale Naam Arjun Kharrate Kumbhakaran Jaisa" (u call yourself Arjuna and snore like Kumbhakaran ), Marathe yelled at him.

"Which match?", Vijay stared at the 50 inch white screen hung on the wall and a projector which had property Dept of Bio-Chemistry engraved onto it. They had surround speakers placed at all the 4 corners of the hall and the sound quality enough to pick even the faintest edge. Vijay stuck his tongue out as he saw the revolutions on the ball that left Shane Warne's hand and crashed into Andrew Strauss's leg stump. He was wondering whether to appreciate the ball or the technology that these idiots had at their apartment. It was more like a ESPN studio than a grad student apartment. "Ashes!" Vijay got goosebumps and thanked the lord for placing him in the Ayodhya of cricket, apt 309.

The glimpse of a girl raising the window blinds in the opposite apartment complex caught Vijay's attention, her face wasn't visible but his heart felt she was Priya.
"Hero, look at the replay, the ball pitched 2 and half feet outside the off-stump and crashed into the leg-stump" Marathe shouted looking at the screen.
`Replays and highlights can wait but not the lady in red`, Vijay mumbled in his mind and ran to his room, took out his pair of binoculars and focused on Priya's apartment. He could see girl with long hair but before he caught her face as she turned around the her window blinds closed. "Dam no replays", Vijay mumbled in his mind in utter disdain.

He decided to chase Priya the hard way the Engineer's way, he drew a matrix on a sheet of paper, rows representing floor level and columns representing apartment number. Most of the apartments had 3 bed rooms and a hall, all adjacent to each other. This meant every 3 sets of windows constituted one apartment; it wasn't all that easy, some apartments had two bedrooms. So he ran to the leasing office and got the floor layout. 1 2 3 4 he counted her window from the bottom. So 4th floor 'row = 4' he marked on the sheet of paper, and quickly saw the floor map. 4th floor had 2 bed room apt only in the corner and rest were 3 bed rooms. After couple of minutes of calculation he came up with col = 5. A(4,5) he wrote it on the sheet of paper,`Vijay this is it!, go for a sixer he patted his back`. 'A(4,5) is apartment 407, apt 407 baby' he shouted loudly apt 407,"Hahhahah", he laughed loudly.

"Dude this guy is from Rakshas family snores like Kumbhakarn and laughs like Ravan, hope he turns out Vibhishan in real life or else we are screwed" Dhamraj expressed his unhappiness.
"Leave him, focus on this new lad Kevin Petersen, dude I tell you he would be the next big thing in test cricket", Marathe diverted his attention.

Now Vijay had two options either directly drop into apartment 407 and face Priya or talk to her first and then take things from there. He decided to take the 2nd step, called up the leasing office and asked for the phone number of apartment 407.

"Sorry sir we are not supposed to reveal the phone numbers of our residents", the leasing office hung up the phone.
'Dam you privacy bull shit rule', Vijay thew the cordless on to the bed.

Suddenly a thought struck his mind, he ran towards her apartment complex and punched in the key associated with apt 407 at the buzzer at the main door. As soon as the buzzer began to ring Vijay's heart beat began approaching the speed of Shoab Akthar's ball 100 and when the call got connected his heart skipped for a sec.

"Hello" a sweet familiar voice that came out from the speaker reinstalled the heart beat.
"Fedex, I have a package for Miss Priya V", Vijay used his commentary skills and produced Tony Greg's voice.
"Please come in" Priya replied and pressed the # button on the phone to open the main door. Vijay entered the elevator and exited out at the 4th floor and headed towards apt 407 after taking a right.

As Vijay was approaching the apt 407 the door opened, a lady in blue jeans put her right foot out. Seeing this Vijay's entire face began red, he could feel his veins busting out and in anxiety he jumped into the elevator. Apartment 407 door was left ajar, the lady in jeans walked towards the elevator, Vijay could hear the tapping of the shoes approaching the elevator. He pressed the door close button quickly.

Before the elevator door closed the lady in jeans appeared right in front of Vijay.

to be continued ...

Story Series 7: 3 Idiots and someone ...

2009-12-27T18:51:00.000-06:00

Click here for Part 6

Vijay followed Marathe into the apartment # 309, Sehwag's highest score", Marathe indicated as he unlocked the door. As they entered Vijay saw a shoes popping out of stack onto the left and unwashed vessels overflowing from the sink on the right. Stinking socks smell compounded with stale smell from the sink had an fragrance that could make an empty stomach throw up. 24 hrs without a shower, and with hot and humid Chicago summer Vijay didn't smell any better. "Aage Sey Right", Marathe showed Vijay his room.

"Chay Peye Ga", Marathe asked him as Vijay was unpacking his stuffs, Vijay nodded his head for an yes, "Ek Cup Mere Liye Bhi Bana", Marathe replied. Vijay froze for a min with eyes wide open, "You are the first south Indian in my apartment so I will make TEA, don't worry", Marathe laughed loudly. "You south Indians drink only coffee right, we can get some coffee when we go to groceries this week", Marathe told him. "You were playing some game you said when I came in, which game?", Vijay broke the silence while dipping in ParleG biscuit into the tea. "CRICKET, what else a DESI plays in a tennis court". "That's one good thing the British did when they left INDIA, taught us CRICKET". Red Label tea with ParleG began to taste better as he heard the words CRICKET. "You play CRICKET right, that is an important condition in this apt", Marathe questioned him. "Yes I do", Vijay replied.

"'Chal', Lets go, they are waiting for me downstairs and you can meet all your south INDIAN friends there". Both finished their tea and walked towards the tennis court. "Tu Naseeb Wala Hai", you are lucky to be playing cricket right after you stepped into US; 'Sala' it took me a year and half to find a real man who played cricket. In last three years this is what I have created, he showed Vijay his team. "Dharmraj Patel, left arm medium" a fair slim guy introduced himself, "Vijay Arjuna, right arm fast medium" Vijay replied. One by one every introduced themselves, it looked like like a national team selection camp than grad students introducing themselves. They played cricket for the next one hr until the game was curtailed due to a fight over wide. Dharmraj Patel, Bhimrao Marathe, Vijay Arjuna walked towards their apartment complex, "wow we form the first of the three Pandavas in our apartment", Vijay spoke in excitement. "We had Karan Agrawal in this apartment before, now that 'drohi' dejected us for an old friend of his". "You know Karan right, the guy who picked you from the airport", Marathe replied.

While walking back Vijay suddenly realized that he had completely forgotten about Priya, neither had he taken her phone number nor her apartment number. The sight of lady in red top and blue jeans with long braided hair the entering the opposite building caught his attention; and with her luggage size one could say she was a grad student. From distance her body structure resembled Priya's and fading light and tired mind led into believing in it. Vijay desperately wanted to meet Priya and apologize for not meeting her after the flight had landed. It wasn't his his fault either, Claudia and the immigration had taken a toll on him. "You guys leave I will have to meet some", Vijay told both of them and headed towards the opposite building.

By the time he entered the main entrance she had just stepped into the elevator and doors closed before he could sneak a peek at her, 4th floor was what elevator showed. In INDIA stairs are close to the elevators, but in US stairs were far away from the elevators Vijay realized this when he had to walk a long way to the stairs. He then gathered strength and began climbing up the stairs, the fourth floor looked serene, no sign of any activity, neither Priya nor her luggage. Dejected Vijay walked back to elevator and headed down, just then apt 409 opened and the lady in red walked towards the elevator. She pressed the elevator button, Vijay got of the elevator and walked out of the apt complex kicked the stone with his right foot and walked into his apt complex. Lady in red walked out of the elevator and headed towards the car to pick her remaining stuffs and headed back.

`Mila` your friend, Marathe asked as he had his cheese pizza. "No I lost her before I could talk to her", Vijay replied as he sipped his sprite. "Her!", "saala you have a girl friend in US already," Marathe crushed his empty can of coke. "Friend! who happened to be a girl, she came along with me in the flight" Vijay replied. "In the last 3 years even the shadow of any female hasn't passed our apt", Marathe trashed his can in anger. "Girl friend for his creature!" Vijay spoke to himself as he smiled. "I don't know why girls run away when I talk to them" Dharmraj joined. "Stop chewing and spitting tobacco, someday your luck might turn around", Vijay replied. "`Abey chikne` stop giving me your advise," Dharmraj got furious. "Baccha hai, leave him"; "Your capital investments grader, whats up with her?" Marathe diverted his attention. "`Saale` stop rubbing on my wounds, if I don't focus on studies she will turn me into a disinvestment this semester, boss MBA is tough" Dharmraj replied as he drank his Pepsi. "As if knocking the mouse in the lab is easy!, one day I will get a cat and kill all the mouses", I don't know why I am doing a PhD, should have been an umpire or a cricket commentator", Marathe put all his frustration on the cheese pizza and finished it.

While laying on the bed random spark of thoughts began in Vijay's head, whether it was a good choice quitting his 5 figure salary for higher education, whether he would get an on campus job, whether it was the right apartment and whether he would meet Priya again. With the last spark he dozed off.

to be continued ...

Story Series 6: The Beginning

2009-12-20T20:49:00.008-06:00

Click here for Part 5

The flight began its ascent, both the babes beside him were quite normal, completely contrast with Priya who was petrified. Vijay began to recollect how he had cooled down when flight first took off from Bangalore; how he had used Jai Kali Maa as an anxiety pill every time she was petrified. Priya was innocent at heart, and she appreciated his witty jokes and that had drawn him closer to her. She had responded sweetly to all his stupid and blatant jokes. He had done all the Ram Leela Nautankis and she had appreciated it like a devotee joining her hand. Sitting between the English Mam's he felt like performing drama behind the curtains. He realized that audience support is an integral part of any act. They say, 'if you are thinking about someone even after then have left, then you have a thing for that person'. Vijay had to figure out what that thing was, whether it was just an infatuation or a crush or whether he was in love with her. He had the whole 6 hrs to decipher that, provided he stayed focused and diverted his attention away from the two beauties.

"I am Claudia" the German miss introduced herself again after the flight had reached its designated height. "Vijay, I will be joining the CS dept at UIC for my Masters" he replied. "I am a Doctoral student at the dept of Psychology, UIC", she replied back as they both smiled. "Wow UIC, how long have you been in UIC", Vijay asked. "My third year now", she replied. 'Experienced psycho' he mumbled in his mind and had a sarcastic smile. "Psychologist not Psychiatrist, she asserted him, as if she had heard what he mumbled". 'Man she is a mind reader! I better be careful', 'Oh no she might have heard it as well', Vijay was very nervous.

Vijay was under the assumption that Psychologist were mind readers, initially he was in grief and was missing Priya but now he couldn't stop thinking about the German babe. Vijay had already been awed by the tall and fair GERMAN women at the Frankfurt Airport. He had seen a few tall GERMAN women volleyball players on TV, but in airport everyone seemed a national player. He was amongst the tallest in his class, but there he felt like a Lilliput amongst the Gulliver s. Germany and German women were taking his focus away from Priya. Attempting to focus on Priya and diverting away from the German babe seemed very hard. 'Focus Vijay focus, remember how Tendulkar focuses on the ball, concentrate, concentrate ', he told to himself as he fell asleep.

Up in the mid air somewhere close to Arctic Circle the air-hostess woke him up for meals. The Oberoi's meal no longer excited him; he had no one beside to listen to his stupid sarcastic jokes on food. Claudia was enjoying her cold sandwich, and that green thing called salad. “Healthy and tasty isn’t it” she asked him as she began enjoying her salad. Vijay stared at her tongue and wondered if people in this part of the world had something called taste buds. What was considered cook’s folly in INDIA, was tasty in this part of the world. ‘Strange he mumbled’ as he chewed his paneer cubes dipped in tomato sauce aka paneer butter masala. ‘Air India food gets bad to worse as we move from East to West’, this really is a smooth transition” he mumbled.

Finally flight landed at O'Hare at 4 pm, picked up his luggage and headed towards the gate. "See you later at the school he waved at Claudia". Was it the sleep or the Claudia effect, he had totally forgotten about Priya. He was greeted by a student from Indian Student Association holding a name tag VIJAY – U I C, Karan Agrawal he introduced. They reached the apartment and Karan picked up his phone and yelled “Marathe, your new roommate is here”. “No no his name is Bhimrao S M”, Vijay replied after conversation ended; “Yes Bhimrao Shivajirao Marathe” Karan asserted. “Dude, here we call people by their Surname or their state name”, he clarified. “What’s your Surname” he asked. “Arjun, but that’s my Dad’s name, please don’t call me that”, he replied in a low tone. “You don’t have a Surname, Where are you from?” he asked in a loud tone. “Karnataka”, Vijay replied. “Madrasi?”, “No no Kannadiga”, Vijay replied. “What’s the difference anyways?” Karan laughed. ‘Cauvery River’ Vijay wanted to say, by then a big dude swearing in marathi broke their conversation “KYA REY!, tumko match key beech mey aana tha, Ie Z*v*da”? “Anyways I am Marathe; he shook hands with Vijay, and picked his suitcase and then headed towards the apt”.

Keep reading … a new series coming up ... read the last paragraph carefully ...

Story Series 5: Chemical Locha

2009-12-15T21:28:00.003-06:00

Click here for Part 4

Turbulent weather eased out but Priya didn't return to normalcy even though plane did; her pain was lot more than the turbulent weather. Priya and Vijay didn't speak for the next 2 hrs. Vijay began to ponder on the conversations he had it with Ravi and Priya, and was wondering what he had done. And what made him eliminate Ravi from the scene. Why were Ravi's sweet talks with Priya hurting him? Why was he behaving like a jack ass? What provoked him to take these extreme steps? Why was he being so possessive about Priya, she wasn't even his friend or classmate, forget about Girl Friend. A lot of short circuits took place in his mind, sparks of thoughts began to mess up his brain chemistry; or was there a chemical reaction developing for Priya in his head, he badly needed a catalyst. The flight landed at the Frankfurt International Airport, everyone boarded onto the bus that took them to the terminal.

It was 5 pm local time and SUN was at a position where it used to be at 1 pm in INDIA, "Something wrong with this country don't you think" Priya asked. “Why, what’s the matter?” Vijay asked. “First look at the SUN at this point of the day and second if SUN is so bright and shining why are we feeling so cold?, isn’t SUN the source of light and heat?”, Priya questioned. He looked at the heavens and then gave a cold stare. “When did u have your last meal”, Vijay asked curiously. “About three hrs ago”, she replied. “Your stomach is empty, so there is more blood flowing to your brain”. “Lets have something at the terminal so that there will be equilibrium”. Vijay replied. Priya was puzzled for a minute, and then gave a 45 degree angle stare and banged his head with her purse. “Now your head and stomach are both empty; in equilibrium”, she replied. “Are you sure the purse went through the metal detector?” he began rubbing his head and before she could reply he walked towards the food court and Priya chased him. He finally found a catalyst that would trigger their chemical reaction.

AI 127 was delayed by 3 hrs due to technical difficulties, Vijay thought this was the best time to fuel his chemical reaction; spend some more quality time with Priya. They had food coupons tagged with their boarding pass courtesy the 3 hr delay. They sat at a table and began munching at lively pace. “So what are your hobbies apart from cricket commentary and cracking poor jokes?” she asked. It is difficult when someone puts an answer as a question he wanted to say but instead he replied “Did someone tell you had beautiful eyes?” to divert her attention from the question. “Nine people have already told that, you are the 10th “, “but will still take it as a compliment any day”, she replied. Sometimes genuine appreciation of beauty works, women do like it, Vijay thought. "You didn't answer my question Vijay?" Priya brought back topic again. "Not this beauty" Vijay mumbled in his mind. "I blog a bit" Vijay defended. "Cricket and comic fundas I bet," Priya laughed, "no comments" he replied as his face grew red. "You are so chweet", Priya squeezed his cheeks, as if he was her puppy.

Whether it was the sandwich or the GERMAN air Vijay began talking in a nice and polite way totally orthogonal to his sarcastic, mean and chirpy ways, or may be it was the chemical reaction that was speaking. They chatted for the next two hours as if they were soul mates and Vijay got nice smacking on his shin from her leather shoes every time he was mean and sarcastic, he enjoyed every bit of it. They spoke from Bollywood to Sandalwood(Kannada Film Industry), from Amitabh to Hrithik, and from hated topics of Engineering Drawing to Computer Ethics. "You are not as bad as I though initially" Priya said. "I am like alcohol acquired taste, bitter taste wise but once you get a hang of me I am addiction", he stared into her eyes. "You and your PJ's" and rolled over her palm on his head and blushed. "Oh you have such smooth hair, didn't your female classmates tell you?" she asked. 'Only my barber complimented it, as he did not need to sprinkle water before the hair cut' he wanted to say but just smiled.

Boarding for the flight AI 127 heading Chicago began, Vijay saw his boarding pass it read 15B, Priya was behind him in the line. He went to seat 15, a gorgeous young lady was sitting in seat 15C. Vijay thanked his lucky stars, Priya on one side, English meam on other, he thought he must have done something really good in his last life. 5 minutes later 15A arrived to occupy her seat, she wore a jean, turtle neck sweater and had a pony tail, she was talking on the phone and sounded "zzzha zchu zheoo something something bye love you" and hung up the phone. Vijay figured out she was speaking in GERMAN and she wasn't his Priya and Priya had a different seat no allotted. Claudia Schweinsteiger she introduced herself and shook hands with Vijay after placing her bag in the shelf. He began pronouncing he last name in mind, and wondered why only south INDIANs were ridiculed for their long names.

He was feeling very uncomfortable sandwiched between two gorgeous women, and to add salt to injury neither of them were his Priya. They all fastened their seat belts and flight was all set for a take off. While the plane took an ascent Vijay began humming “Yeh Dooriyaaa, tadapati hai dooriaya ...

to be continued ...
comments suggestions abuses welcome

Story Series 4: Vijay Priya Ravi

2009-12-08T00:25:00.004-06:00

Click for Part 3 here

“SO howz Uncle and Aunty doing Ravi”, Vijay asked. “They are fine, absolutely fine, couldn’t be much better” Ravi replied looking at Priya. “Lovely, what a lovely name”, Ravi asserted continuing his stare at Priya. “It’s a pleasure meeting you”, Priya replied. “Pleasure is MINE”, Ravi replied. Priya began staring at Ravi as he moved back to his seat. "So where does Ravi work?" Priya asked, "Don't know some s/w company is CHI KA GO" Vijay replied. "Which part of INDIA is he from?" she inquired. "He was a State level Cricketer, represented our state", "Now he plays for some league there". "That's really great na; working and playing in the US". "He was a deadly fast bowler; evident from his height and strong shoulders I guess", "I should definitely get in touch with him" Vijay replied. "Yes tall and strong MAN he is" Priya replied thinking of Ravi.

"You follow cricket right?" he asked positively. "Cricket chi, I hate that stupid game"; somebody keeps throwing the ball all day long, somebody keeps hitting them, no meaning to that junk game", she raised her voice. "As correctly described 22 idiots play and 22 million idiots watch it". "Wooh wooh back off young lady, back off; take back you words". "Don't you dare call it junk and stupid", Vijay got furious. "And that throwing and hitting all day long is called test cricket young lady" Vijay got defensive. "Do you even know how much patience, stamina and perseverance it takes to play for 5 days madam?" Vijay questioned in high tone.

“Well one has to have more patience, stamina and perseverance to watch it for 5 full days ha”, she replied sarcastically. “On top of that look at how much money those buggers make?”, “And the moment they become a bit famous they start dating with actresses”. “Hmm should I blame the cricketers or the actresses for that act? Vijay scratched his goti beard. “Could you please leave the cricketers and actresses alone for a while the bearded gentleman interrupted their fight. “Sorry” both replied together.

“Breakfast Sir” the airhostess placed a couple of well wrapped and sealed pouches on Vijay’s foldable table. “Oberoi’s !” he raised his voice when he saw the logo on his breakfast pouch. “Wow, it's in fact a 5 star catered airplane, how lucky we are?” Priya replied. Vijay was shocked when he opened his meal which contained, salt less pasty Upma, cold bread with butter, small can of orange juice and couple of slices of apple. Stuffed his mouth with Upma and lubricating it with orange juice, looking at Priya he asked "How is it?", "Not bad" she replied, "How about you" she asked, “Walls are well plastered, and these cold bread slices and butter will suffice for the RCC” Vijay replied. “Just look over the window, you might find some hot idly, vada and chetney vendors”, Priya pointed towards the window and began laughing. At this point Priya began to enjoy Vijay’s sense of humor. “I tell you, Lalu should be made the Airline Minister”, “atleast the food that is served will improve if nothing else”. Both had a big laugh, big enough to consume the whole cold bread.

“I guess you are a Foodie” Priya said. “Leave my CRICKET and my FOOD with me you will be good”, Vijay raised his right hand and pushed his hair back. “Priya was all silent suddenly”, probably the sense of humor went over board. “Excuse me” Priya stood up and walked towards the restroom. While walking back from the restroom she suddenly heard some familiar voice calling her, “Hey Priya” Ravi called her. “Hi Ravi, nice to see you again”, she replied. “I believe you would have made some arrangement for accommodation by now close to your campus”, Ravi asked casually. “Yes found it via the Indian Student Association”. “That’s good”, he replied. “So where do you live?” she asked, “Downtown close to office”, he replied. “So had good sleep and breakfast?” he asked. “So far so good” she replied. Both struck a good chord and began chatting as if they were old lost friends.

20 mins passed by and Priya wasn’t back at her seat, Vijay started walking towards the restroom where he found Ravi and Priya giggling. “Hi Guyz” Vijay interrupted. “Let’s walk towards the passage and talk”, they moved to the passage adjacent to the cafeteria. Ravi began sharing his student life experiences in US, he began boast about his cooking and his hospitality skills. Priya was all drawn into his sweet talks. Nodding her head, staring at his eyes and laughing at every sentence, she was a complete fan of Ravi by now, why wouldn’t she be. Vijay sensed that.

“So how is your fiancé Ravi, is the marriage date fixed?” Vijay asked and that broke their conversation. “She is good”, Marriage next Jan, during Sankranti he replied. Fiancé and Marriage these 2 words struck a lightning in Priya’s head. Suddenly she closed her eyes and was about to lose balance when Vijay held her hand. She suddenly felt the plane tilting, shaking; Out came an announcement “We are experiencing turbulent weather, so I request all passengers to please return to their seats and fasten your seat belts”. Both reached their seat and fastened their seat belts. Weather went really bad and the plane was tossing and turning. The lightning called Ravi that struck Priya was bigger than the turbulent bad weather. She closed her eyes in remorse while Vijay began chanting ‘Jai Kali Ma, Jai Kali Ma’.

To be continued …

Open for comments, suggestion and even abuses ...

Story Series Part 3: Mid Air Crisis

2009-11-30T00:42:00.002-06:00

Part 2

Flight AI 127 has reached 36000 feet, you can now turn on your wireless devices, out came the announcement. Vijay searched all his 6 pockets in his pant, 4 pockets in his denim jacket and 2 pockets in his shirt, then jumped up and started searching his bag-pack, sweating all over his body, he sat down in despair, "You are sweating is AC!!!" she said. "I can't find my mobile", he replied. "Why did you get a mobile while coming to US? We get mobiles free with the service you know", she questioned". "That's a very good question, but let me find my mobile first and then I will think of answering it!" replied in a furious tone. Got up and checked all his pockets again, then sat down dejected. With almost tears in his in his eyes he replied "that was my first purchase with my first paycheck, kind of first love you see". "Feeling nostalgia and getting goose bumps" she asked, "that ain't helping the cause!" he chirped. "Do you remember where you kept it?" she asked casually, "I have no idea why people ask that question! Anyways I don't remember" he replied with a red face. "OK, OK cool down, lets back track; let me put it in a nice way, when was the last time you saw it". "At 9 pm I saw it in my sister's hand and at 10 pm in her bag" he said. "OK ... after that?" she questioned.

Suddenly he began laughing loudly. "What happened, why are you laughing like RAVANA?" Priya asked. "Thumping his right palm against his forehead he replied "I didn't bring any mobile with me, I gifted it to my sister". "The fact that I was missing my mobile from my pocket for the first time in 5 years is a bit tough to digest", "That is why I got so scared", Vijay began laughing again. "TUBE LIGHT", she joked. "NO SUNLIGHT he replied", "tube-light takes only 8 secs, sun rays takes 8 minutes to reach the earth's surface", "see I exactly took 8 minutes to figure it out", pointed his right index finger at his left wrist. "Priya was suddenly silent", thinking about what lies ahead she starting staring at his non-existing wrist watch.

"Do you know the 3 Idiots funda ? Priya asked, 'What?' he questioned. "YES Idiots are of three types"; Some look like, Some think like and Some are actual; and you don't look like one, Vijay felt his lips Fevi-Quicked, he couldn't move his lips.

"Coffee or Tea Sir" the Air hostess interrupted, "Coffee definitely Coffee please" Priya replied, "Coffee for me too" Vijay replied, Priya was glad that the focus was shifted away from the wrist watch. Vijay poured in sugar and creamer and began stirring the coffee. The aroma of hot steaming coffee was enough to charge his batteries, let alone the caffeine entering his blood stream. He drank a sip, twisting his face he turned towards her, "Is this coffee?” he asked her. "Don't expect a 'V V Puram' coffee house coffee in Air India Vijay" she replied. "Hmm V V Puram coffee shop coffee", "Dark and strong filter coffee with froth enough to sink in your lips, " Vijay began imagining the coffee. Suddenly out of curiosity he said "V V Puram coffee shop!", "You know about V V Puram coffee shop?" wow he said. "So you live in and around V V Puram area?" now he began his Q & A. "Jayanagar 4 th block she said". "I used to go to V V Puram Coffee shop when I was studying in Engineering college there". "Oh that Eng College, I stayed close to it, actually across the street, Wow What a coincidence", he replied "Yes I have seen you many going to that Coffee shop, via our campus, eating bhelpuri and dosa on the way" she asserted. Vijay was stunned, doing a Micheal Jordan, sticking his tongue out, eye balls bulging out, wondering whom he was messing with.

"Here you are Mr Vijay" his friend Ravi broke the silence. "Hey Ravi what a pleasant surprise man" Vijay stood and shook hands with Ravi. Vijay could hear the crushing sound of his bones in his palm, Ravi was well built, dark and thick haired, fair dude who could give any women a knee jerk. "So still working in CHI KA GO?” Vijay asked. "Yea still in SHI KAA GO, I love the wind", he replied in a sarcastic tone. Suddenly Vijay felt an elbow hitting right his side, it was Priya who was hinting him to introduce her to Ravi, and little did Vijay have a clue about this. He continued his conversation with Ravi ignoring the elbow pierce, the elbow piercing became more powerful and frequent; suddenly elbowing stopped, pinching began. Vijay had no clue why she was torturing him this way, thought coffee had made her hyper; he continued his conversation; Ravi noticed Priya and her unsuccessful attempts to get introduced. So he broke the conversation, "So you have a friend along with you ?", he asked Vijay looking at gorgeously fair Priya with sharp black eyes, parrot nose, cute dimple and glittering set of teeth, will complimented with her aesthetic dress sense.

"I am Priya V, she introduced herself, nice to meet you" she shook hands with Ravi, and both stared at each other in silence. "She is going to the same University, but different branch" Vijay interrupted.

"How you doing?" Ravi asked casually, Priya started to blush

to be continued ...

Story Series Part 2: Baatooni Priya

2009-11-21T11:20:00.005-06:00

Part 1 Seat 15A

Part 2 ...
Vijay looked at Priya, she was fast asleep even before the announcement of the flight reaching its designated 36000 feet came in. She was sleeping like a child on her mother’s lap, resting her head against the window. He couldn’t believe that she was the same talkative Priya who had given him such a hard time asking silly and irritating questions. He was also feeling bad for giving her blatant answers. Sitting back Vijay looked at the navigation screen which showed 45 min to Mumbai heading west so decided to take a nap. It was 6 am and sun was scorching through the windows from the east into Vijay’s eyes. He outstretched his hand to close the blinds but soon to realized that the slight movement of the blinds and the sleeping tigress would start roaring again, so he decided against it. Sun was hitting right into his face, he shifted his head to the right to avoid the sun; Priya subconsciously shifted her head position, now again the sun was right in his eyes. He moved his head to left a bit to avoid the sun, the stinking cigarette breath of the bearded gentleman pushed him like a same charge pole magnet pushing the other. Both his seatmates were giving him a hard time subconsciously and unintentionally, imagining what would happen when they wake up, Vijay dozed off staring at the navigation screen.

‘This is your captain speaking, we well be landing in Chhatrapati Shivaji International at 6:30 am”, out came the announcement, all the lights were switched on; fasten your seat belt instruction came in. Vijay was yawning and rubbing his eyes, suddenly he heard “Where am I?”, ‘Why are some many lights ON’ Priya began her Q & A session. “Chicago, we are just landing” Vijay replied. ‘So fast we reached aa’, ‘Air India is good man’, she asked in a typical south INDIAN accent. ‘Flight AI 127 would be parked at gate 2B at Chhatrapati Shivaji International’ out came the announcement. Confused initially and a minute later she soon giggled looking at Vijay laughing at her stupidity; they both had a big laugh while picking up their bag-packs. Checked his boarding pass, ‘2 hrs stop over’, he said to his student gang when they all met at the gate 2B. Yawning and stretching their arms and legs they headed to freshen up. Restrooms at Mumbai airport were filthy, worse than Bangalore Majestic Bus Stand, stinking and wet everywhere and looking at the queue Vijay joked ‘now I know why they gave 2 hr stop over at Mumbai’.

Flight got delayed by 2 hrs as result of rain, that seemed like a build up to 2012 doomsday in Mumbai that day. Vijay stared through the windows and was wondering how the airplanes were managing to take off in that rain, when with slight rain he would go off balance on his bike, was thanking for GOD that he was not a pilot. Milk, Cereals, Oat meals, scrambled eggs were served as part of complementary breakfast by the airlines; ‘We are being prepared for the US food culture’ one them joked. Neither of them knew that those food items weren’t just breakfasts in US, but were life saviors when their experiment in the kitchen failed.

Couple of hrs later boarding began and 15 A B C were occupied by their respective seats holders. Vijay was feeling bad about the way he had spoken to Priya earlier, he was very sarcastic in his answers and she was way innocent for it. So he decided to be as patient as possible while talking to her. Plane began to gather some speed; they always say the real fun of experiencing takeoff is by actually looking at the run way and rather than sitting back and closing your eyes as he did. He had read about same AI 127 skid off the runway a week ago from the same runway. He looked at the runway it was a bit damp, water spot here and there, thoughts of his bike slip and skid over the wet road near his house lingered his mind. “Hey look, the plane is going so fast she broke the silence”, “that’s 100 Mph the speed Shoaib Akthar bowled to Craig McMillan” he said indicating her in the navigation system, she smirked at him. The bearded gentle man stared at them at asked "First time plane experience?", "Second time actually, first time was from Bangalore to Mumbai 5 hrs ago, first international take off technically", she replied which was enough to silent the bearded gentleman. "Look at the speed" she pointed at the Navigation map, "Wow Michael Schumacher drives at that speed", he said. "Who" she asked with closing her eyes.

"Do u know swimming Vijay" she asked, "yes, but why that question on a flight?" Vijay replied. "If our plane looses balance in mid air and falls into the ocean I need someone to rescue me, I don't know swimming". she said "Don't worry I will save you, plus we have the safety jackets" Vijay assured her. "What are the odds of plane falling into the ocean and then me being able to swim and save someone!" he just mumbled. "What will happen if our plane skids while taking off" she asked again. "Last week AI 127 had a small incident and all the passengers were fine, so I believe we would be good too" he assured her again. "Aren't you feeling sleepy he asked her" yawning a bit just to cut short the conversation. "No I had a good nap from Bangalore to Mumbai, plus we had a breakfast na, I can't sleep after breakfast". "OK" Vijay replied in a very low and hopeless tone. "Guys, would you please leave Shoaib Akthar and Michael Schumacher alone for a while" the frustrated bearded gentleman stared at them. Vijay replied "Sorry" and thanked him in his mind for putting a full stop their conversation.

Admist this conversation the flight began to take off, he could feel vibrations of the wheels against runway, and suddenly the vibrations stopped; and all he could hear was 'Jai Kali Ma', 'Jai Kali Ma'. Scratching his goti beard "Vijay began wondering whether this indeed was the longest conversations he had with any female". He actually started enjoying her company, and was passing through a phase where her silence was more irritating than her talks. Thinking about what to talk to her through the journey Vijay enjoyed the take off.

... to be continued ... part 3 coming soon.

NOTE: The story is purely fictional, it bears no connection with living or dead

Story Series Part 1: Seat 15A

2009-11-15T00:34:00.011-06:00

Vijay checked his wrist watch it read 10:10; he had a 3 am AI flight to the Chicago; accompanying him were his parents, sister, two uncles and their spouses and their kids to see him off. Red tilak was drawn on his forehead, followed by a flower garland and a small arthi, all wishing for his safe trip. Vijay felt like either a soldier on his way to KARGIL or a goat being offered as a Bali to goddess durgra. This was soon followed by moist eyes and dripping tears. Vijay was in a mixed and confused state of mind; was sad that he was leaving his parents but at the same time was happy that he was pursuing his Masters his parents dream.

He entered the airport dragging three 70 lbs suite cases, 30 lbs as his carryon; it looked like a bullock cart in motion. Walked towards the luggage check in counter where he met a fellow student who was incidentally traveling to the same school. That dude was carrying same amount of luggage along with his 10 lbs leather jacket and 3 enormous medical books. Checked in the luggage and cleared the security before heading towards the lounge where he met 5 more student/co-passengers. At 2 am there was an announcement for a delay of 2 hrs. For the next 2 hrs Vijay got acquainted with others and had a good time chatting and expressing their fears and excitement about their future in an unknown country. Vijay had an emotion of a brick, so neither had fears nor any excitement, which was the reason why he could maintain his cool and calm till then.

Boarding began and Vijay walked towards his designated seat 15B middle seat, put his carryon luggage in the designated area and rested his arse and began staring at people moving in. Vijay always played this weird game of mapping people’s face and the seat numbers. He would guess their seat numbers looking at their facial expression as they approach their seats. A bearded gentleman walked towards his seat, Vijay was hoping that he wouldn’t be his neighbor even though his facial expression told the true story. He sat on the aisle beside Vijay 15C, trying to stay calm n compose was a bit difficult now. Such a narrow minded person some would say, but he was travelling in his first International flight.

The sight of a good looking lady in red top and blue jeans approaching his seat increased his heart beat to 100. He began his the facial expression mapping game with her, mapping it to 15A right next to his. He was sure that she would be 15A seatmate reading her facial expression; so he stood and made a gesture for helping her. She approached seat 15 and went past him, his heart beat went below 50 as he sat down in despair. He was about to pass out when he saw a stout elderly lady walk towards his seat, but she sat in 15D, the adjacent aisle.

‘Excuse me’, Vijay was woken by a soft sweet sound, he opened his eyes to see the same lady in red standing right next to the aisle, she indeed was 15A. After helping her placing her carryon in the designated area Vijay moved out allowing her to sit in her seat, Vijay sat down and smiled. ‘I saw you with your family doing all that pooja and arti’, she broke the silence. ‘You are lucky to be born in such a religious family’, she continued. ‘YES’ Vijay spoke hesitantly. Vijay had this problem of speaking with pretty females in the first instant, let alone looking into her eyes.

‘I am Priyadarshani Venkatasubramanian, she broke the silence again. ‘Vijay’ he replied.

Priya: ‘Are you going to Chicago?’, Vijay: ‘Yes the Flight is heading Chicago’
Priya: "You know this is my first international flight", Vijay: ‘Mine too’
Priya: "First time I am leaving my parents you know", Vijay: ’So am I’
Priya: "What if our luggage gets lost?”, Vijay: ‘May be baggage claim’.
Priya: ‘Are we going via London or Germany?’ Vijay: ‘Via Mumbai and Frankfurt.
Priya:" Did u read about Mumbai rains?” Vijay: ‘yea dam match might get canceled due to wet outfield’ she had no clue what Vijay was talking about; it was evident in her tone.

She was irritating him and the bearded dude was scaring him, he felt like he was in a torture room. Plane began to gather speed, ‘I am getting scared’ she mumbled, ‘Close your eyes and chant “Jai Kali ma” it might help Vijay assured. Couple of mins later the flight began to take off, she got so scared that see stopped speaking for next hr and dozed off finally. The sorrow of leaving his parents and the fear of landing in an alien country was over shadowed by Ms 15A.

... to be continued ...

Short Story 5: Curious Case of the Golden Shoe.

2009-11-08T07:48:00.004-06:00

Vijay was flying west and had just landed at the airport where he and his fellow classmates all were on course to a job interview. They began to discuss about the company and dress code for the interview the next day. Vijay was proud that he had packed a suit along with a formal shirt and trousers; and then the discussion moved on the color of shoes. He shifted his attention to the white Nike shoes and black socks as part of his journey apparel. Just then a dreaded thought struck like bullet in his mind; he had forgotten to pack his formal shoes for the interview. He realized that fear had the power that would make one sweat on the air conditioner.

No sooner he checked into the hotel, he began his hunt for his magic shoe. He began to wander like nomad in search of his treasure holding directions and looking for signs. The picture of him wearing a black trouser, blue suit, white shirt, red tie and white shoe; ‘Mera Naam Joker’ gave him a 440 volt spike which drove him towards the nearest mall. He entered a branded shoe showroom and a pretty young lady came upto him for help. She showed him a bunch of black leather shoes, Vijay picked up a decent shoe that went well with the trouser. Got it packed and moved to the billing counter. ‘440 dollars sir, credit or debit’ asked the lady in red. His so called magic shoe was now a golden shoe.

Vijay’s face turned pale, eyes opened wide open staring at the price tag. He had heard that leather was expensive in the country, but this was ridiculous. The shoe’s cost was more than his airfare, more than his rent check. By then his credit card was halfway through to the cashier via his outstretched hand, backing off was no more an option. “What is the return policy? in case of an exchange” Vijay asked the cashier. This sounded a valid question, but it was a brilliant idea that struck him that split second. Idea of using the shoe for one day and return it after interview was a golden one, nothing new though, he had used it for books, electronics and many more. Finally after signing the bill he picked up his golden shoe and headed towards his hotel. Logged into the internet and checked his credit card statement, it read USD 440, stared at it for seconds. He then placed his golden shoe beside his pillow and went to bed peacefully.

And by Murphy’s Law (`Anything that can go wrong will go wrong`) it was raining like cats and dogs the next day, he was still debating about risking his 440 dollar shoe for an interview. Finally decided to take his chances and stepped out his room. He positioned his umbrella in such way that it covered his entire shoe taking preference over his head, and headed towards the venue for the interview. The interview process lasted the entire day, he skipped a heart beat when every drop of water that fell on his shoe. He was more worried about his shoe than the interview, probably that too his mind off the interviews. Interviews went well and later that day he headed straight to the store to return his golden shoe. He had to go through awkward conversation with the saleswomen and cashier while returning the shoe. All he cared was his 440 dollars which was credited back to his card.

A week later he got a job offer from that company and gracefully accepted it. Finally when he joined the company couple of months later and at the end of first day when everyone would gone to the temple to thank the almighty GOD, Vijay went to the golden shoe store and picked up his lucky shoe and began staring at it and wondering whether wearing the magic shoe got him his job or returning the shoe. He walked to cashier and used the same credit card and bought the shoe.

This indeed was a curious case of golden shoe.

Short Story 4: Unforgettable Night

2009-11-01T22:12:00.004-06:00

At 7 pm Vijay entered the local terminal from the train that connected it to international. He looked like a punished prisoner with his 20 lbs bag-pack and dragging his two 50 lbs luggage running from one corner of the terminal to the baggage check. 8 PM was what the departure time printed on his boarding pass pushed over from 7:15. Next 30 mins he was roaming in the airport and wondering when he would rest his arse on the soft cozy bed of his. Suddenly the weather alert on the TV showing "Heavy snow storm in the City" drew his attention. His heart missed a beat when he saw his fight being delayed by an hour. Peeping through window he saw the snow covered the airport and with light reflection making it RIN SAFEDI white. He had forgotten that it was mid Jan and he was in countries most windy and snowy city; another update and flight delayed by 45 mins. He had heard “Delays were dangerous”, realized it was frustrating too.

The outside temperature read -20 C and it was 20 C in his native; not only were the two cities diametrically opposite, but also weather equally other side of 0C. Only Vijay could think about this when one’s flight gets delayed. By Airlines grace at 9:45 the boarding began, and by 10 all passengers were seated. Vijay was so tired that he could barely check out the Air Hostess as he always did, let alone listening to their seat-belt instructions. A loud crying kid across the aisle woke him, he heard the Air Hostess announcing about the heavy snow storm and that they were waiting for weather to ease out, he didn’t even bother for Air Hostess to finish he fell asleep again.

Roughly 2 hrs later Vijay was woken by a fellow angry passengers yelling at the crew and some using their weekend minutes out loud. He peeped out of the window and the scene looked familiar, and more over his destination airport was not that huge and there weren’t too many lights around. He was partially scared and partially hungry and that’s when one’s mind really works in the reverse direction. His sixth sense sensed something bad, and he heard the sweet golden words "WE REGRET TO ANNOUNCE THAT THE FLIGHT HAS BEEN CANCELED DUE TO BAD WEATHER" sorry for the inconvenience!!! Putting 2 and 2 together he realized that the flight never took off at all. It stood stand still like a rock, white rock was more appropriate.

One by one everyone moved out of the airplane into the gate and stood in the queue for a rescheduled flight. Vijay smiled at the attendant and picked up his ticket and the flight time read 2:40, he was happy that he could fly soon and then saw the text PM in bold letters (2:40 pm, next day afternoon). And just to rub salt on the wound there was no refund, as the cancellation was due to weather, now one more reason to hate weather, but they would provide hotel at a discounted rate of $70. He met an INDIAN couple with a 2 yr old; incidentally boarded from his native in the same flight, they decided to rent a car and drive back. They came out of the airport to headed towards the rental shuttle stand, out came the gusting wind at -20 C making him realize what winter was. Holy mother of GOD were his exact words, it was 20C when he had left his native. Since he was a shabby packer, he accidentally had small winter jacket (enough to keep me alive) in his cabin bag, which otherwise would have been in his check in luggage.

At 3 am they began their marathon drive in a weather, which mighty Airplane refused to take off. Sitting in the front seat and watching their car cut through the snow increased his heart beat and with more blood pumping into his brain helped him fight against the sleep, well supported by the jetlag. The visibility was so poor that they could barely see the headlights of the car ahead. For the first time in his life he was as focused as Arjuna of Mahabharata in watching the road, that he could barely hear the kid crying in the rear seat. Every mile covered was like an inch encroached into the enemy territory by the army. By GODS grace n Chevy Impala reached his apartment at 9 am and 10 mins later was found resting his arse on his soft cozy bed of his. The sense of relief and the joy of reaching home in one piece was enough to take his mind off missing his home town.

It truly was an Unforgettable Night

Short Story 3: Power Cut.

2009-10-20T14:34:00.004-05:00

Wind was roaring like a ferocious lion attempting to enter the apartment via the small opening b/w two sliding transparent doors; that stood b/w the warm cozy 75 F interior and the cold darn 0 F exterior. Vijay was seen comforting on his soft spongy bed, had no idea what the day had to offer him. Sudden flash of light entered his relatively dark room and woke him up. As usual flipped opened his laptop to take a look at the time, realized that it was out of battery searched for the power cord but it was inserted to the laptop. It felt a bit strange seeing his laptop’s battery dead as he never ever removed his power cord and his laptop always ran 24/7.

He then reached for his mobile, the only other source of date and time in the house it showed 10:10 am with its battery indicating low. Plugged the phone to charger and it wouldn’t charge. Still in the state of sub-conscious gazed through the window to see his car submerged upto the wheels in the heavy snow, it felt like dream land everything covered in snow. He needed cricinfo to charge him up, did everything to power his laptop up, switched chargers, switched ports nothing seemed to work, and finally realized that their building had a power outage.

Vijay felt like an INDIAN batsman entering an unknown territory of pace and bounce in Australia, he had entered the unknown territory of blackout. Even though he had been through the power-cuts in his native country; he felt lost and didn’t know what to do, as he had never experienced this situation in this country before. Back in his country they had candles, emergency lamps, flash lights as backups; he had nothing close to any of those at his apartment.

Suddenly he felt hungry and the whole idea of skipping dinner as part of weight loss didn’t feel good. He took out the milk gallon from the refrigerator poured it into his mug and placed it in the microwave as he did every single day. He pressed the magic button (the add 30 sec button) and wouldn’t respond as it needed Benjamin Franklin’s electricity. For the first time in this country he was proud of his kitchen as it had gas based burner, other apartments had electric ones; he turned the knob of the burner to auto-ignite, heard the click but nothing happened; it took him five attempts to realize that auto-ignite ran on power. How ironical, power is needed for something that is an alternative for power. He felt like driving on the wrong side of the one-way street.

He needed some form of fire to ignite the burner; for the first time being a non-smoker pinched him very badly, atleast he would have had a lighter and with the absence of mini-temple eliminated the oil-lamps and hence matchstick. Suddenly the picture of his good looking neighbor smoking in the balcony struck his mind; he always hated smokers, especially women smokers. “Wow she smokes, thank GOD she smokes, long live smokers” were his words, how ironical `long live smokers!!!`.He had lent her sugar one day now it was her turn to lend him fire or something that produces it. Stepped out of the apt and entered the hallway, it was pitch black dark, walked to her apartment and knocked her door.

In this country since guests call before they come in, the host generally knows who is coming to their apt, so when someone knocks the door, the first reaction is ‘who the hell is it?’ that was exactly what he heard from inside. ‘Your neighbor next door’ he replied, ‘coming’ was the reply. No sooner she opened the door ‘can I borrow a matchbox’ he asked in a very low tone. He had a problem talking to women especially the good looking ones; prettier the women lower was his voice, a problem similar to Raj Kootrapalli of Big Bang Theory sitcom fame. Without uttering a single word he picked up the matchbox nodded his headed back to his apartment.

When he stroked the matchstick against the matchbox to create fire and ignite the burner he had goose-bumps; he felt as delighted as Tom Hanks in CAST AWAY, though the later had used stone to ignite a spark. Milk began to boil and the aroma of BRU coffee filled his eyes with tears as it reminded him of the coffee house at his native. Poured steaming coffee into a cup and started sipping it, gazing through the balcony. He now had enough caffeine and sugar in his body to survive the entire day.

Short story 2: Maula Mere Lele Meri Jaan

2009-10-10T15:38:00.017-05:00

Last minute into the World Hockey Championship PAK leading IND 1 to 0. Kabir Khan was marching his team forward gets hit by the opponent player and topples over. Referee whistles & IND get penalty stroke. He held the hopes of entire country, his hockey stick & scooped the ball aiming over the goalie, but the misses he goalpost by a foot and IND lose the game 0 to 1. Kabir can’t believe that he missed such an easy shot, the shot which he had mastered over the years. As a fact of sportsmanship Kabir shakes hand with a PAK players and was captured by camera & is printed on the main page of the next day’s news paper. The issue blows out of proportion and Kabir is treated as a Traitor.

Vijay the last batsman walks with 3 runs needed of 3 balls for his team to qualify for the finals. His eyes lit up seeing the full delivery outside off stump; muscles it over the covers ball lands just behind the fielders & scampers for 2. Scores were level, out came the cry from the dugout, run for everything, non-striker take a start; he walked upto the non-striker and punched his fist against his and took a fresh guard. Instead of focusing on the bowler the memories of AUS-SAF WC 99 semi-final lingered in his mind. He swung blindly and missed the ball completely so did the keeper, the scene where Kabir Khan kneeling with head down and hockey stick in this hand was witnessed when Vijay rather than scampering for a single was found on his knees with head bowed down. He neither heard the cry from the non-striker nor abuses and swears from the angered dug-out as he was in a state of mental block ; He actually recreated AUS-SAF WC 99 semi-final.

7 years later Kabir Khan took the challenge of coaching the Women’s Hockey Team for the World Championship in-order to restore his lost pride. Scene shifts to the penalty shoot-out where INDIA lead AUS by 5-4. Australian striker attempts to lob the ball over the goalie but Vidya Sharma (Goalie) stood still between the ball & the post. There is sudden silence in the stadium, entire Aussie team was in tears but the victorious INDIA girls were jumping in joy. Emotional Kabir Khan is seen in tears, it was more than match to him; the scene where he watches the INDIAN flag shining high & “Maula Mere Lele Meri Jaan” playing in the background told the whole story. The tag of traitor was off his back.

Vijay is seen practicing his trademark straight-drive in the dug-out and was sunk in the memories of scoring a straight boundary over the bowler in the last over of the finals that he played a month ago in a different city & for a different team. Tension prevails in the dug-out; yelling and swearing continues, entire team was aware of Vijay’s heroics of scoring boundary in the last over and they were hoping for a Déjà vu. Last man Vijay walks in with the intention to take the monkey off his back; which was tagged onto him for a year now. The term “he did a Vijay” had become infamous. Two things were in his favor; bowler was bowling full and there was no long-off fielder. He just stood outside his crease and didn’t take guard this time and shut his mind off and focused on the bowler.

Bowler speared in a full length delivery and as a natural instinct his foot went to the pitch of the delivery and with high elbow swung through the line of the delivery. The meaty part of the bat struck the ball and he watched the ball pass the boundary with a couple of bounces. Out came the entire team in joy with captain literally lifting Vijay off the ground. He was their hero of the day.

Vijay was happy that the monkey of finals was off his back and felt exactly like what Kabir had felt when Vidya saved the goal for INDIA, he had tears in his eyes. And the background music “Maula Mere Lele Meri Jaan” kept playing in his mind.

Note: The character Vijay is purely fictional, and has no relevance to living or dead.

Short Story 1: Spring Break

DOSTANA AAJ KAL

2009-07-19T22:05:00.055-05:00

Movies have a tremendous influence on our lives, we pick a lot of things from movies, be it hairstyle or the way we dress or the way we talk and walk; we sometimes relate ourselves to the movies we watch atleast the realistic ones. Ain’t most movies extrapolation of real life scenarios? Doesn't Director use the social environment and stuffs it with cultures and values present in the society and create a complete package called movie? Even though all the characters are fictional & far too idealistic, efforts always remain to relate the characters in the movie with real life individuals. So the theme and thought process put forward is in and around that era or can only go a step ahead.

Movies of 70’s were built on concept of 'a friend in need is a friend indeed', coupled with twist in their friendship either due to wealth or women or a villain striking a discord between them. One movie that stands for all these is Dostana (1980). It’s a story of two friends Vijay( Amitabh as Inspector), Ravi(Shatrugan as Lawyer) both falling in love with Zeenat(Miss Sheetal). Their friendship was so deep that it never conflicted their professional lives. It’s a landmark in the INDIAN cinema as it represents Dostana or friendship of 70s or bromance as it could be called. Be it a friend sacrificing his love for the other, or a friend trying to destroy the other in the wake of misunderstanding, it truly was an epitome of friendship. "I can't build castle of mirth on the grave of my friend’s dreams"; that dialogue spoke for the whole decade of friendship.

Things changed drastically when Dostana(2008) hit the silver screen, it gave a new dimension to friendship that never existed much before or something that wasn't spoken or heard off, yes the three letter word 'GAY'. Until then there was a thick line b/w being true friends and being termed gay, but Dostana (2008) reduced it to wafer thin atleast among we INDIANs. To such an extent that it has made two men invariably maintain an arms distance, forget about putting arms over the shoulder. And our approach & thought process to this matter and is as unreal & lighthearted as gay relationship b/w Abhishiek and John in the movie. In today's world just like in the movie one would even pretend to be gay if the necessity demands, be it for an apartment or for a job or even getting close to female.

Yash Johar's 1980 Dostana was known for the dialogues b/w the legends Amitabh and Shatrughan & the intense characters that those two portrayed. Amitabh was an ideal son, responsible brother, caring lover & faithful friend. B/w them and along with Shatru it was a movie that represented the 70's culture. If Amitabh was the heartthrob of the 70's, Zeenat was the woman to watch out for. It was a movie close to be called complete.

Karan Johar's Dostana (2008) filled in all the void gaps that it's predecessor had left. It was complete movie, it had bikini clad Shilpa & Priyanka having a healthy competition for the men, muscular and brief clad John for the women, and the chemistry b/w John & Abhishiek for the rest.

And the term Baap Nambari to Beta Dus Nambari truly holds good for the Bachchans as later made 10 times more profit than the former.

PS: The blogs intention is not to hurt anyone’s feelings. Forgive me if I might have unintentionally.

Does Birbal Cat Strategy Work Everywhere ?

2009-06-27T05:03:00.016-05:00

In an episode in the sitcom "Everybody loves Raymond" (Sarabhai Vs Sarabhi is its INDIAN version) Raymond advises Robert, how to get away from doing the house hold chores. His strategy was basically to messes up the first time so that Debra, his wife never gave any important or extra chores. What struck me was that it was a no brainier strategy; it’s was the same old strategy that I was accused of using to get away from doing work. The fact was that I was inherently messy.

Just mess up a bit or give a cold response the first time and world would never assign you extra task. This strategy was demonstrated by the Great Birbal using a cat. Because he fed his cat with steaming milk for the first couple of days, his cat never drank milk and always ran away from milk. And after a month when everybody's cat had grown big and healthy, Birbal's cat was pale and lean. Birbal even showed Akbar that his cat never drank milk upon offer and always ran away for it. Akbar was astonished in the first place and then praised Birbal for his intelligence when the secret was revealed.

In our busy day today lives we tend to over look these Birbal's cat strategists. In grocery stores, super markets, malls, colleges, banks, offices you find them everywhere. These are the Amitabhs (angry young man), who would spur fire when approached; and with their grin, serious (read: scary) faces one would pass out rather than talking to them let alone seeking help. And with none of us having time/patience that Akbar had to analyze this, we tend to approach people with Madhuri (read: pleasant & smiling) faces and get the job done. The irony is that in the short run these Madhuri faced people tend to get the extra work just because they are approachable.

Next time just observe whom you would prefer to approach Amitabh or Madhuri and see if you can decipher and find those Birbal's cat strategists.

Software Companies and Premier League Franchises

2009-06-10T01:24:00.001-05:00

When a software company starts a new project it would divide the work load among its full- time employees, which would be a blend of experienced as well are fresh hires who would be trained in return for long term benefits towards the company. At times there would be a scenario where a chunk of work needs to be done at min cost and at a quicker pace. Training employees and then expecting an output from them might not be feasible all the time and that is where IT Consultants come into picture.

IT Consultants are experience and technically well equipped individuals who would advise, implement and deploy the IT System on businesses behalf. They are contracted for a predetermined duration on the project and are billed hourly. Because they add so much value they charge heavily and hence much is expected from them without much advice. Every project would have a cap on the amount spent on full-time employees and the IT Consultants. Also fixed is the number of IT Consultants that can be hired in some companies.

Premier League Franchises pick their team in no different way than a software company, which would be a blend of experienced cricketers who are at the top of their game. Well complemented with very talented fresh hires who would contribute and learn at the same in a hind view of long term benefits to these Franchises. To maintain proper balance in the team and to fill in the void gaps, specialist and experienced foreign players or over sea players are hired.

Because of the value they bring into the team they are purchased at a higher price and are typically auctioned and are contracted for a fixed duration of time. Expectations are high from them as they are paid heavily and so their contribution are heavily monitored. Every Franchise would have a cap on amount spent on local and foreign players.

If software companies earn by selling software produced by their employees, Premier League Franchises get richer by selling the game produced by their players. Users enjoy using their favorite software just as much spectators get entertained in watching their favorite game.

I might call that game cricket you might call it soccer.

Cricket and Swimming Pool - Interesting thought

2009-06-07T19:45:00.006-05:00

Have you ever noticed in a public swimming pool where the people density is the highest, it is at the shallow areas. With feet grounded and nose above the water level every one seems to be a winner. It is the only place where a beginner & expert are at par. If you zoom in a bit, you see that those are the ones who seem to be enjoying the most, jumping, peddling & splashing around. They always are keen on getting more attention from the crowd for various reason apart from swimming.

But there is a radically different scene happening at the other end of the swimming pool, where people are swimming intensely putting their head down without bothering about attention. Their strokes are perfect and feet peddling in sync making it look ridiculously easy. They are there because they technically sound enough to sustain the fact that their feet no longer touch the ground and water level is past their nose. As the time elapses owing to energy drain or lack of stamina one can easily separate the best from the rest, and the gap between them keeps increasing, the more these people swim.

Twenty20 and Test matches are no different from shallow and the deep areas of the swimming pool respectively. The fact that anybody can win in a T20 on his day makes it far me exciting and hence seeks in lot of attention. But the real connoisseurs of the game(read: test match watchers) would hate it calling it rubbish and would rather love to watch a dead Test match where winner is known before the toss(read Ashes), rather than getting a glimpse of T20.

Just as in a Quality Assurance reducing the bar level doesn't always guaranty quality products, reducing the number of overs in cricket neither guaranties QUALITY CRICKET nor would guaranty quality players. But what it guaranties is the sheer quantity that would guaranty dollars in quick time and that is what drives cricket and for that matter even the SWIMMING POOL.

CROSS POST cric-times

Mera Gaon Seh Mera Desh

2009-06-04T22:29:00.004-05:00

After the high profile IPL the focus now shifts from Rainbow Nation to the Nation when it always Rains, yes ENGLAND and with attention shifting to international cricket, it would a nice change to see players don their national colors. Playing for your franchise is one thing and playing for your NATIONAL team is totally different affair. The talks about value of a player, runs / dollar or wickets / dollars won’t dominate every time a player performs. Rather than having a faked City Vs City rivalry we now will have the real Country Vs Country rivalry. Matches like IND Vs PAK or AUS Vs NZ would bring back the tension and hype that existed on the field.

The IPL in rainbow nation with the local drummers and bugles’ along with the bollywood music played in the background created a carnival environment. Cloud and gloomy weather conditions in England compounded with “decent” crowds, who would either clap hands or sip bear, hopefully won’t take away the festival atmosphere that T20 brings along with itself. Bigger capacity grounds would increase crowd count.

There neither would be DLF maximums or CITI moments of success nor would the commentators thank the sponsors every 10 mins. Neither would Lalit Modi been shown talking on the phone every 15 mins. With no strategic timeouts, we would miss the glamour that was attached with Miss Bollywood South Africa and also the HEAT (Health Educate And Teach) convention which funded a lot of local student in SA. Players will miss definitely the hugging and kissing from their team owners.

Two things the players would carry from IPL; MONEY and INJURY. Money was all talked about throughout the IPL; injuries would now be talked about. No sooner would a player miss a game due to injury; an anti-IPL of statement of cricket overkill would be made. Already talks about Flintoff, Zaheer and Sehwag‘s fitness is being talked.

One thing that T20 lacked was and that IPL has provided is statistics or numbers; with so less T20 played prior T20 WC 2007 teams entered with an uncluttered mind, played mostly with instincts. Now with so many games and different scenarios and many unexpected results in IPL even the minnows would fancy their chances. 60 required in 4 overs, batting team would still fancy it, because they now have the right statistics to back them up. A sense of belief would seep in. And the memories of Rohit scoring the required 26 in the last over against Mortaza will give nightmares to every fielding captain when they arrive at a similar situation.

As they say attaining the top spot is easy maintaining that is tough, INDIA now face the burden of defending the World Cup title probably first time since 1983; this is something new to this INDIAN team. And in the recently concluded IPL we saw how Royals failed to live upto the expectation of defending the title. Hope the INDIAN team would be unfazed by the hype and would live by its expectation. Also like how Bangalore and Deccan bounced back one wouldn't mind Dutch or even England clinching the cup.

Let the focus shift on Mere Desh Ki Dharti from my Mera Gaon ki Chori.

Captains and their Theories

2009-05-25T04:08:00.002-05:00

It’s Monday morning and as I tuned into cricinfo I realize that IPL 2.0 actually over, boy it would take me some time now to get out of this IPL hangover. Let me just cool off myself by taking a look how captains have fared in this IPL. Not long before the second edition of IPL started Buchannan proposed his unsuccessful multiple captain theory of having different captains for each game; but it ended up being a Ganguly ousting theory. Let’s spend some time on looking at IPL 2.0 from a captaincy perspective.

Cricket is a team game and Jumbo has shown what inspirational captaincy can do to a dull n dying team. A lot has talked about Warne’s captaincy much so because of the glamor he adds. One just can’t stop admiring Gentleman Kumble and his captaincy skills, took RCB from ashes where KP had left and almost struck gold but for drunken batting from their middle order. Kumble’s captaincy doesn’t have the glamor and poise that Warne possess, but it is simple and straight thinking coupled with bold decisions. He has shown what it means by taking the attack to opposition and leading from the front. His tactical move to bowl himself the first over against Gilly was truly sensational. As the saying “It’s all in the mind” and Kumble played with Gilly’s mind; this one among a few decisions that was a hallmark of his captaincy.

Dhoni can actually outplay QuickSort in finding a pivot player in a team and divide the team into young and old; this time blaming young players for their inability to throw the ball from the deep. He can always find a scapegoat but never would take a responsibility for the teams defeat. If Kumble had a depleted team Dhoni a bunch of match winners much like Ponting of Australia, all he had do was put them in order. But Dhoni’s ego coupled with poor team selection cost Super Kings the semis. Only Dhoni can answer why Raina didn’t bat at number three when he has been the best in that spot for the whole tournament, that why Ntini didn’t get a single game when CSK weakest link had been their bowling. And the idea of stuffing team with all-rounder looks too cliched when things don’t work out. Bad news is that he is going to screw up T20 WC because of his ego.

Attack is the best form of defense and this is what Gilly’s used to inspire his team; especially against Delhi in the semis. He tore Nannes apart by scoring 21 run in the first over and within 6 over the match was over atleast psychologically. And being the second highest scorer helped the cause. A year of no cricket had really charged up Gilly this time around, his team selection especially the phoren babas was a balanced one, 2 batsmen, all-rounder and a bowler. His selection of a genuine quick bowler (Edwards / Harris) to compliment RP’s swing saw spot on. With Gibbs, Symonds and Rohit fielding allowed him to use even his part-timers along with Ojha and Rohit to attack the batsman.

Peter Roebuck theory of T20 having no auto-pilots was definitely true this IPL as the Pilots were definitely in control.

Road to T20 World Cup Looks Bleak

2009-05-19T00:34:00.001-05:00

I wouldn't brag like Sanjay Jha for the tournament being too competitive, neither would I complain of IPL being a family Entertainer and Test match killer nor would I complain of people getting richer. My only concern as an INDIAN cricket fan would be the abysmal performance of the members of INDIAN T20 quad. One expected Sehwag or Gauti or Yuvraj or Rohit to be in top 10 run scorers, baring Raina others have lost their plot. Hatrick Hero Yuvraj has picked up ball after his father had handed him a Cricket Bat snatching those skating shoes. Dhoni is busy with his Netagiri giving big statements, theories and fundas, he all set for 2014 Elections.

Raina has been in the form of his life, invariably scoring at a strike rate in excess of 150 and consistently, ideal for a number three; can carry on the good work done by the opening pair. But the biggest problem has been Viru n Gauti’s form which is abysmal this IPL. They haven’t had a decent run yet, with both batting like Kal Ho Na Ho (as if there is no tomorrow) making Raina’s role doubly important. With fragile Yuvraj and Dhoni to follow a lot of onus rests on the shoulders of Rohit to give a good finishing touch; who has been a Bevan in the making. In the last couple of games he has shown that he is as good a finisher as anyone else. Yusuf Pathan was a sensation last IPL, he looks out of touch this season with a couple of match winnings knocks here and there hasn’t done justice to his talent and might fight for a spot with his half brother Irfan. Though has been hit for a lot of runs, he has bowled some crucial overs this IPL; Especially the one against Chargers. He continues to be a riddle for the captain.

Bowling looks equally bleak, T20 specialist Harbhajan is neither finding his line nor his length. He has been the worst spinner of this IPL so far. Zaheer didn’t look comfortable even before shoulder injury this IPL, and without Zaheer's prior experience in T20 WC makes RP’s job a touch tougher. RP Singh who currently holds the Purple cap (for the highest wickets) is a find of this IPL, rediscovering his swing and bounce. Our Little John Ishant is a mixed bag so far, being the front line bowler for KKR he has been hit all over he park. Praveen Kumar looked totally lost this IPL not sure where to pitch the ball gets driven of fullers ones and pulled of the shorter ones. Neither has pace nor has a bouncer in his armor and his angry young man attitude doesn’t help either. English weather might come to his rescue.

With Yuvraj, Rohit and Raina having a decent IPL with the ball, it gives Dhoni lot of options when the main bowlers get hammered. Inform Ojha might consider himself unlucky if he doesn’t get play a single game, which is highly likely unless Bhajji fares horribly. He flights the ball, gives it a tweak and has a good temperament. Jadeja a good bad, decent bowl and a great fielder could be a floater filling in if one of the all rounders fails or gets injured.

Munaf and Balaji who have actually bowled well after the squad announcement should feel unlucky to miss the flight and exotic England summer.

Tight Thrilers Leave Some Nailless Some Hairless

2009-05-15T02:42:00.000-05:00

The complaint of IPL being a lengthy tournament is getting erased with each of these nail biting and hair plucking matches. After 45 games we just have one of the fantastic four, Delhi Dare Devils heading the table with 16 points. If things go as expected Chennai Super Kings stand in with close second. Third and Fourth spot is still up for grabs, Deccan, Royals, Mumbai, Kings and Challengers are in the hunt. Mumbai’s chances look bleak after today’s hair plucking loss and Challengers chances look good after sneaking a low scoring nail biting thriller.

Captain Kumble has shown the world what it means leading from the front; he literally bowled the first over of the match. Chennai looked puzzled like Abhimanyu of Mahabharata failing to come out of chakra view ha once Hayden departed. Take away Hayden’s 60 from a total of 129, Chennai’s score looks as bad as a sari clad bikini model.

[image source http://iplt20.com/]

Me, My Readers and The World must have been fed up with Bangalore’s opening combination and my ramblings on it, so let’s leave it alone. Dravid was caught between hitting the ball and tapping it, ended up placing it to point. 30 for 3 and you have the two most unreliable batsmen at the crease; this time both had a point to prove. Murli continues to show that he is still a Fattu, who can only bowl between 8th and 16th over. Merwe’s match fees should be docked off for not grounding his bat; that’s basics mait. In the end madness prevails as both the batsmen watch the ball sail towards third man boundary despite a dive from the fielder without bothering to run. Umpire waves his hand in the end to save the blemishes as Bangalore win this tight nail biter.

The saying “The captain is as good a team” is being proven wrong again and again by Warne, as he continues to get best out of his mediocre troop. Who would have thought that Munaf would bowl the last over and pull off a sensational victory for the Royals? Royals have a different hero with the bat every day, today it was Quiney and Jadeja taking them to a defendable 145. Mumbai seem to have followed Bangalore’s failed strategy of trying different openers every time. Sanath and Sachin found themselves battling against the guile of Warne; who eventually out played both of them. Few nasty blows from Nayar saw Mumbai in striking distance and that back away DLF maximum towards covers was simply sensational.

At this point it was a contest between Mumbai Gods Vs Rajasthan Gods as prayers from Shilpa Shetty and Nita Ambani grew deeper and deeper. Bouncer followed with a leg stump Yorker saw the end of Dhaval, direct hit from Pathan sent Nanda back to the where he belonged. A dive and good throw at the stumps from Warne sealed the deal for Royals, which left Mumbai Indians plucking their hair in despair.

In the end faces of silent Nita Ambani and Jumping Shilpa Shetty told the entire story.

Spring Break

2009-05-07T09:55:00.001-05:00

For the first time in six months one felt the warmth of Sun rays beating through the clear blue skies, temperature rising to 70 degrees, orange - yellow leaves beginning to add color to the pale and placid life, it felt like the beginning of spring. Indeed it was the last working day before the spring break, the Friday where no grad student worried about his assignments, as they had just finished their midterm exam. Everyone planed for their 9 day vacation called spring break.

Amit wasn’t sure whether he had something called a spring break as he was a Research Assistant; research according to him was searching something which his advisor had hidden somewhere . It was his second spring break; he knew how his previous spring break was foiled by his advisor in the name of research. He was happy as he had a good result - a line graph; something tangible to show, which his advisor expected all the time. At 11 am he reached his advisor’s office, who always believed in impromptu meetings; would send out an email the previous night, he always kept Amit on his toes.

“Can I come in Dr Y?” Amit knocked the door. “Come in” out came a voice. “How is everything going? Do you have any result to show?” was his usual silence breaker. Amit was all charged up, for the first time he had results which he thought were beyond his advisor's expectations; powered his laptop on and presented the demo and the graph. This was the first time his advisor liked his demo and was satisfied with it. With a funny smile came the reply “Good job, I give you two day vacation, START WORKING ON YOUR THESIS FROM MONDAY”.

These are the exact words every research grad student wishes to hear. It translates to “Ja Jeele Apni Zindagi” (read as ‘end of torture period get ready to graduate’). Spring graduation sounded realistic, he was as thrilled as an early released prisoner for his good deeds; but wasn’t sure what his good deeds were!

“Find three people for your thesis committee” his advisor broke the silence again. Amit knew that these three angels play a significant role in converting a grad student status to a graduate status, he had his X, Y, and Z pen down; one of them being his advisor. “I said find three more people, I cannot be part of the committee”, “why because I no longer work at this University!” “I submitted my resignation last month”; “Didn’t I tell you?” those words out of Dr Y were enough to give someone heart attack.

Amit felt like Vijay of “Don”, in the scene where Vijay realizes that the only person who knew about his true identity was dead and only the red diary could prove his innocence. Amit had a red thumb drive. He had heard of thesis being changed at the last minute, but changing advisor was ridiculous.

“Ladkiya Pyar Toh Apni Marzi Seh Karleti Hai, Magar Shaadi Apne Ma Baap Ki Marzi Sey Karti hai” of the movie Kabhi Kabhi lingered in his mind.
“Amit can you tell me something about the research you have done so far?” asked Dr X, his future advisor next day during his meeting. Those words had the power to recreate Khuda Gawah’s scene where Badshah Khan’s imprisonment is extended indefinitely for no fault of his. The thought of defending his Thesis without his advisor was enough to forget about the so called spring break.

Uncertain Winners and a Certain Loser

2009-05-05T20:55:00.000-05:00

As the saying goes the only thing that is certain is uncertainty, which has been the nature of this tournament. As the tournament is moving forwards surprises like Royals defeating Kings by a huge margin, Challengers beating Mumbai Indians by 9 wickets are following us. With winter setting in it has affected the fielding (even though there is no correlation) and more matches played in the smaller grounds of northern part of the country bigger targets are being chased with ease, though credit has to be given to the batsman. One of the reasons being the top order of each team that is firing; be it Smith n Ojha for Royals or Kallis n Uthappa for Challengers, Gauti and Warner for Delhi. There is nothing like picking top order wickets to stop the flow of runs, but the opposing teams haven’t done that consistently.
[image source: Cricinfo]

No team is clear favorite’ even though CSK have looked THE team, but they rely heavily on top order i.e. Hayden and Raina, much like the last years Delhi and we all know what happened to them. And all their victories have come batting first. Delhi has a good balance good top order solid middle order and a decent bowling attack; they need Sehwag to click if they want to look formidable. Royals are peaking at the right time, Smith played his best innings so far and Warne is getting best out of his brigand, arrival of inform Watson would be a huge bonus.

Kings again depend heavily Yuvraj to fire, bowling is a mixed bag, Piyush n Abdulla are their stars, Sreesanth inclusion could be dicey. Challengers look a different team after KP’s departure their opening is the surprise each time. Kumble had found two unsung heroes in Dillon n Merwe. Mumbai boasts to have the best bowling attack along with most brutal opening pair; neither of them is winning them matches as expected. They are heavily dependent on Sachin to anchor the innings as it falls apart towards the end. With Sun beating down Chargers need to recharge their solar batteries before it drains out. With openers failing the middle order looks too bleak, without Edwards bowling looks weak.

Only thing that is certain is that SRK isn’t going to come back as Kolkata Kite Riders have found ways lose games. Lack of good match winners in the first place, (sorry if Gayle n McCullum were match winners then WI n NZ wouldn’t be where there are today) compounded with bad breath among the team, they haven’t found winning ways. It looks as if they have a point to prove, that good coach do need good players to perform. The only positives being the humorous FakeIPLPlayer’s blogs; which has bought much interest among the print media. Blame it on Buchanan’s multiple captain theory which was rather a Ganguly sacking strategy or Gayle n McCullum compound debacle or Ishant n co’s inability to take wickets upfront or even on the drop catches KKR don’t look like a team.

As they say there is no I in a team, but there too many I’s in KKR.

Challengers spoil Yuvraj's Party at Kingsmead

2009-05-01T21:48:00.000-05:00

Heard about Déjà vu? The experience of witnessing a new situation previously encountered; in today's double header Kings XI found themselves in exact same scenario as KKRs found themselves earlier in the day. Both the teams chasing a score of 149 and 146 fell short of 9 and 8 were undone by Malinga’s and Kumble’s penultimate over respectively. Both the overs yielded just 4 runs and wicket, when 23 and 17 were needed of the last two overs. Both the defeats had a common denominator; leaving too much for little people towards the end. Both the teams could take a leaf out of Dilshan’s batting; in exact similar situation Delhi chasing 149 needed 17 of 2 overs. Penultimate over was bowled by over animated Edwards; but was thrashed for 17 in just 4 balls. All the three scores look similar but Punjab’s match was far more exciting and entertaining as it actually went down to the wire.

The day didn't start well for the new skipper Kumble as yet another opening pair fails to get past the first over, Ryder edged it to Jayawardene. Bishnoi pulled every ball he faced and got some handy runs before yielding to Abdulla, soon Goswami decided let me GO swami. Uthappa and Kallis played well until they decided “Its Durban let’s make it Yuvraj's day”. Uthappa mishit one to Katich, Kallis undone by the skidder which crashed into off, Boucher made sure he was part of history, first hatrick of IPL 2.0. Then came Roelof Merwe with his 'looking London hitting Tokyo shots'. Everything is perfect about his technique high elbow, good foot work, body moving in the direction of the shot just that ball travels orthogonally. Swing towards mid on and ball goes to third man, swing towards square leg and ball going towards long off. Can’t call it ugly but scored crucial 35 and took the score to 145 Abdulla’s did pick up 4 for 36, Pathan managed 2 for 19. Kohli's needs to watch "Anger Management" movie, to cool him down. He is always angry with either his bat or shoes, keeps hitting it to the ground.

Three front line spinners and Yuvraj decides to open the innings; fair call!!!, he briskly moved to 50 of just 33 balls with some of his elegant pulls. He then decides to take Kumble to midwicket finds Kallis on the way, 70 for 1 at halfway stage. Call it either the spin of Merwe or the curse of tactical breaks Kings lose Goel, Australian sexy cricketer of the year Simon Katich soon followed him. The two Sinhalese managed to have a decent partnership but the run rate was hitting the roof. 51 required of 30 you got to back the batting team to win from here, Jayawardene yet again proved that he is King when bowling is mediocre. Merve’s bad over left Kings chasing 17 from 12 balls, exactly the same equation Delhi faced a day earlier. Kumble did exactly what Edwards didn’t do other night, kept his cool and got through the defenses of Sangakkara. 4 runs and a wicket of the 19 over, can’t ask for anything better. It was a brave move to bowl PK after he had been hit for 14 of his previous over. Even after been hit for boundary picked up Pathan and Chawla and sealed an important win for RCB.

Not many people pick up a hatrick, score 50 in 34 balls, get a match of the match award and all in the losing cause, Yuvraj found himself in that position. Probably the Déjà vu theory is either overrated or there aren’t too many Dilshan’s to win you a match out of thin air.

D for Dilshan D for Daring D for Delhi DareDevils

2009-04-30T17:23:00.000-05:00

D for Dilshan D for Daring D for Delhi DareDevils, well that has been the mantra for DareDevils this season. Even without Mcgrath, Maharoof, Asif contributing with the ball, Sehwag and Gambhir batting firepower like the last IPL Delhi look a complete team. The fact that Mcgrath is warming the bench shows how good their bowling attack is. Dilshan, M & M and Karthik have been a gem with the bat, stealing victories from the jaws of defeat twice in a row now. The way Dilshan punched in the air after pulling Edwards for a boundary showed the intensity with which he played his cricket; he possessed a true Dilli arrogance much like Gambhir possesses. Edwards could have put in his effort in bowling in the right areas rather than fighting with umpire or staring and using adjectives with the batsman. All it did was charge Dilshan.

It’s nice to see 3 left arm seamers bowl in a team after a long time; Nannes reduced the Chargers to 19/2 picking both Gibbs and Gilly. Bikhalia and Rohit played some good cricketing shots and kept the momentum going. Mishra and Vettori bowled in tandom pegging back Deccan to 53/4 in the 10th over. Then came Devon Smith man with a mission, “mission to swat every ball to the leg side” and he did it successfully. All he played was the midwicket slog and yet scored 48 in 28 balls; he tore Mishra and Vettori apart. Vettori never came back for his fourth over. Sangwan and Nehra came back well and picked Smith, Suman and Venugopal. Nannes bowled a brilliant 18 over just one run without a single Yorker, couple of runouts and what looked like a 160 odd at one stage ended up being 148.

Delhi got their best start of the season 30; soon they were 49/3 in the 8th over. Dilshan and Karthik yet again played the ODI kind of innings, knocking around for singles and getting the odd boundaries. We saw tidy 4 over spells from Ojha and Shoaib. 17 runs off Venugopal proved be the over which brought DD back into the hunt. With 17 needed of 12 balls it took only 4 legal deliveries for Dilshan to get those runs and also get his 3rd 50 against Edwards who was their best bowler. All Edwards did was shout, kick the turf and put his hands on in head and appreciate Dilshan’s efforts. He is the same Dilshan with a round hat who has won n number of matches for Sri Lanka in similar fashion. He now has 3 consecutive 50s at a good strike rate all in the wining cause making him a true match winner or the crisis man. Even though Nannes was awarded MOM Dilshan was not far behind.

cross-post ipl-buzz

Nailless after the Nail bitters at Kingmead

2009-04-29T22:54:00.000-05:00

Even though Mumbai Indians lost the match by 3 runs & RCB won it with a ball to spare it wouldn’t be wrong to say that cricket was a winner today, one tasted a unique flavor of T20; low scoring thrillers. The beauty of T20 is its ability produce nail bitters, IPL 2.0 is no different, and a nail bitter is more intense if it’s a low scoring one. In the end some tidy bowling and some shoddy batting saw Kings XI win by 3 runs. Lack of good bowlers and some shoddy performance by KKR saw RCB snatch victory from the hands of defeat.

119 was what Kings XI managed on a tired surface of Kingsmead which had already produced a low scoring chase in the afternoon. Mumbai Indians have the strongest bowling attack in this IPL 4 ODI specialist or rather T20 specialist. Malinga is a revelation this season, all he does is fires in toe crushing Yorker; batsman try to survive rather than score. At any instant it’s either ball or the bat of Yuvraj bat that moves; this time ball moved. Sangakkara anchored the innings to a respectable 119 even after some good death bowling from Malinga; the Yorker to Chawla was a treat to watch, right on the money. He now heads the purple cap for the most wickets in the series with an avg of 5 and econ of 4; that’s some numbers.

Chasing 120 on a slow pitch is quite tricky, and gets tougher when you lose Sanath of the first ball; he really is having a torrid time this IPL. Sachin followed him the next over to yet another Debutant; one needs a count on number of times Sachin has fallen to a Debutant. Abdulla’s toe crushing Yorker to Dhawan reduced MI to 12 for 3. Bravo got sucked into Powar’s flight and scooped into the deep. Duminy n Nayar did try to steady the sinking ship before Pathan punctured by rattling Nayar’s leg stump. Chawla’s penultimate was the key, the ploy of leg spinner against legside favored Bhajji worked out quite well in the end. And one can never take away the accurate and canning last over by Abdulla. Duminy finally fell to Abdulla’s variations slow bouncer caught at deep midwicket. Finally MI fell short by 3 runs after some good out fielding by Powar.

Earlier in the day KP’s RCB stole a nail bitter with a ball to spare. It was a historical day in T20 as 15 of 20 overs were bowled by 4 spinners and staring with spin at both the ends, reminding us the spin quartet of the 70s’. IPL 2.0 so far ironically has belonged to the spinners; Royals, Kings XI & now Challengers have started off with spinners. McCullum’s unforgettable nightmare continues as he fell for a golden duck to KP. Kumble is getting better with each game, KKR’s reached a defendable 139.

For the first time in IPL RCB have an opening stand of 69, Goswami’s run a ball 43 was vital, KP’s and Kohli’s wicket made sure that we have a nail bitter. Some hammering from Boucher made sure that SRK wouldn’t book his return ticket; and has wowed not to return until KKR starts winning, which means he won’t return. Ishant’s spell of 2 for 15 was the only silver lining. Late bashing from Boucher saw RCB win with a ball to spare.

The MUMBAI INDIAN chewed the Calcutta Mithi Pan

2009-04-28T00:36:00.000-05:00

They say a number is worth thousand pictures and a picture is worth thousand words. Sachin’s 68 of 45 balls neither does it give you the right picture nor do I have the right words to describe it. Even though he scored at a strike rate of 150 there wasn’t a single rash slog nor were there any mistimed shots looping in the outfield. It was like watching highlights of 2003 WC, the six against Ishant reminded us the one against Caddick. It felt like a 16 year old trying to woo his female classmates in the crowd. Gavaskar sahib would have been a very happy man seeing those high elbow and straight bat shots.

At the end of the day Mumbai’s 187/6 doesn’t reflect how well Sanath and Sachin played; if Sachin took the initiative to start with, Sanath played second fiddle. Once Sachin cooled down Sanath began to explode. At 111/0 in 11 overs there wasn’t scope for even damage control from the KKRs. It looked like Mccullum’s team had given it up, just going through the motions. As a bowler one could feel like a candle burning from both the ends. If Sanath bludgeoned over the infield, Sachin caressed through, both complimented each other very well. As a bowler you had to pick between getting caressed by Sachin or clubbed by Sanath.

When batsman start getting used to the pace and bounce of the wickets, generally one needs to take the pace off. Mendis, Gayle and Hodge did that but the ball travelled even further into the boundary, couple of them even saw the Port Elizabeth city. One has to just feel for KKR’s bowlers, there wasn’t much difference in the bad balls and good balls bowled; everything reached the fence, only probably difference was the speed at which they reached. Shukla ji bowled with a lot of heart picked up both the wickets of Sanath and Sachin. Bhajji did pinch on KKR wounds, rest of MI made us realize that there was something called pitch and conditions which affected the scoring.

Chasing 188 against the likes of Malinga, Zaheer, Bravo and Bhajji is a tough task and a touch tougher when Malinga starts with a Yorker. Gayle and McCullam’s opening seems overrated; Hodge and Ganguly did try to accelerate but got sucked up by Nayar’s variations. With lack of batting power the KKRs stumbled to a cliched score of 95 all down in 15 overs. Had SRK invested in same low cost players rather than a 600K Mortaza who hasn’t featured yet, it would have done KKR some good. The future for KKR this season as last season looks dark as their jersey.

One can confidently say that the MUMBAI INDIAN chewed the Calcutta Mithi Pan.

(Dare)ing Dilshan take DareDevils home

2009-04-26T13:12:00.001-05:00

Last time Delhi’s biggest problem was the inability of the middle order to step up when the top order failed, but this time things have changed for good. Dilshan has been a revelation this season; he is one of the better finisher in the modern era due to his ability to hit the boundaries at will. He has shown that he has in him the temperament to pace the innings. Coming in at the 2nd over he used his experience to nudge around initially building partnerships with AB, and finally some good hitting along with M&M (Mithun Manhas) he made sure DareDevils achieve the desired target without any hiccups.

I might sound like a broken record but RCB’s biggest problem is their opening pair, it doesn’t last more than an over. We now have 5 ducks in 5 games from a combination of openers, Ryder twice, Kumar, Kallis n Uthappa ones. Basically RCB’s no 3 is trying building an innings, while their counterparts are trying to keep up the good work done by their openers. And the biggest problem is that neither Pietersen nor Jennings have a solution to that. Like the famous bollywood movie doctor’s dialogue “Inhe Dawa Ki Dua Ki Jaaroorat Hai” is quite apt for the Challengers.

Today for a change our Dum Slog Millionaire did score some runs along with Taylor. RCBs were 73 at the half way stage, it was a good score considering the bad start they had. Blame it on the tactical break or good bowling, Mishra got Taylor. It came at a bad time for RCBs as they had just lost KP before the break. How many times has this happened that a team doing well till the 10th over suddenly loses a wicket right after the break? These strategy breaks are becoming the talk of the town. The batting teams quickly need to come up with a strategy to counter these strategy breaks. Good hits from Boucher n Kohli took Challengers to a respectable 149. Once again IPL 2.0 has shown that spinners do have a role here and a big one, Mishra’s 1/19 from 4 was instrumental in keeping the pressure.

Chasing at 7.5 an over for DareDevil’s even against depleted RCB wasn't all that easy, especially after losing Sehwag early. Double strike from Pankaj and good tidy bowling by Kumble restricts DD to 64 in 10 overs. As did other slow left armers KP Appana did flight the ball that dipped, turned and knocked AB’s leg stump. “Mandir ka ghanta” Kallis did prove costly again this time; he has been the new Agarkar -- the run daata. 51 runs in 30 balls seems daunting but as Bopara did it other day Dilshan did make it look ridiculously easy. Bowling towards the end has also been Challengers problems, yorkers n slower ones were missing and the length deliveries were deposited on the stands. Clean hitting by Dilshan and M&M (Mithun Manhas) saw Daredevils home with 4 balls to spare.

With Dravid out for couple of games and KP leaving RCBs need some Divine touch if they plan to stay in the hunt.

SINGH is KING at KINGsmead

2009-04-24T17:21:00.001-05:00

Ravi Singh Bopara showed that even in this age of T20 - fatafat cricket; slow and steady could still win the race. He showed that it’s not just veterans who can play the old fashioned innings in chasing big targets in T20. Nudging around, playing at run a ball and accelerated towards end, it was a good combination attack with defense. The credit of chasing 170 with 3 down in with an over to spare should go to Bopara.

There is some connection with RCB and good starts rather lack of it; they don’t seem to go hand in hand. Kallis and Ryder were off to a decent start even after the early loss of Uthappa for a golden duck. Both played some high quality risk less fabulous cricketing shots. Some classic cover drives and some powerful pulls. When things looked pretty good RCB were pegged back by Abdulla’s double strike. KP is going to give Mallya uncle a heart attack if continues this way; every flop of his is going to hurt Mallya by 100k USD.

Yet again Dravid had to come to save the wrecked ship at 48/3. Just because they call him the wall, it doesn’t mean that Dravid has to rebuild the innings every time. Taylor along with Kallis did stitch the innings together towards the end. 4 wickets from Abdulla and 3 for Pathan curtailed the innings to respectable 168. Efforts of Puyush gets unnoticed in these kinds of games, he is the bowler to be watched out.

168 is a decent target to chase especially with a short boundary on one side, plus one can’t forget Yuvraj and Durban connection, Yup the full Monte 6 6s of Broad. Kings were off to a good start 50/0 of 6 overs. A brilliant runout brought Sangakara in. Runs kept flowing from Bopara’s bat regularly slowly and steadily, he wasn’t unfazed by asking run rate which always kept creeping. Dravid didn’t help the RCBs by dropping a sitter, which was crucial at that stage, finally Sangakara yielded to Kumble who was by far most the best bowler. 5 overs to go 60 to get with 8 wickets in hand match evenly balanced. When Yuvraj starts playing his shots bowling or pitch doesn’t matter. With Styen not playing RCB didn’t any a good bowler, forget about death bowling.

I guess it wouldn’t have matted the way Bopara n UV smacked around. After reaching his 50 Bopara revealed the wild side of calm face, it began to rain sixes in Durban. KP could nothing but watch the Kings XI sail over with an over to spare. Win meant that the SINGHs were off the mark.

Bopara showed that SINGH is still the KING

Royals Ryde the Super K(Night)

2009-04-23T23:33:00.001-05:00

It took 20 overs and one super over for the royals to register their first win in IPL 2.0. The two most uninspiring teams pulled out one of the most exciting matches of the IPL so far. Frankly after the high scoring Chennai Delhi game I wasn’t all excited about the clash of minnows, but the Royals pulled out a tie out of thin air and then Pathan blasted 16 from 4 balls in the super over. Last time around Gayle had blasted 25 in the super over against Vetori’s NZ. Super over is far more exciting than the bowl out in case of a tie in T20, as its far more challenging n exciting.

Spinners have always played a big role in T20’s; Mendis was no different, picked up key wickets of Smith and & well set Pathan. Scoring 42 of 21 balls Pathan gave Royals much needed momentum. Agarkar is one of the few bowlers who would never completes his quota of 10 overs in ODIs; the trend is following even in T20. Late fireworks from Raut took Royals to a defendable 150.

150 was a good total to defend on a Newlands ground, but no ground or total is big when Gayle starts swinging, he makes it look ridiculously easy. Runs looks easy from a set batsman’s bat, pitch and conditions only start to matter when you lose him. Dada marshaled the innings up until the penultimate over, after which drama started. 7 required from 6 only I team that could have lost it was RR, but the match ended in a tie, thanks to wonderful last over by the tornado Kamran Khan. Owe it to the team spirit or captain spirit, Royals have the knack of pulling out victories out of thin air. One has to feel for Ganguly who almost took KKR to victory.

It takes great courage & guts to hand over the super over to a rookie, but that's Shane Warne, he gets the best out of the ordinary. 15 runs was good target of 6 balls. KKR missed the trick by using Mendis, probably a fast bowler would have been a better choice against Pathan. Now KKR have lost 2 out of 2 in the presence of Gayle, I just wonder their fate after Gayle's departure. Buchanan has to quickly convert his theory into practice, right now they neither look Knights nor the Ryders.

Royals Ryde the Super K(Night)

Alcohol Yeilds to Print Media

2009-04-22T22:58:00.001-05:00

Sunshine at Capetown was good enough to recharge the Deccan Chargers, owe it to the change of colors or change of venue, they look a team determined to prove a point. After a day of rain hitting the pitch at Durban, it was Gilly belting the ball to all parts of the Sahara Park, Newlands. Anything pitched short was cut past point & the fuller ones were bludgeoned over the bowlers head. He showed that he is still one of the better strikers of the cricket ball. They say the best way to bowl at Gilly is to give him a single & put him of strike, RCB failed in doing so & had to pay the price. With Kumble bowling & Uthappa behind the stumps one witnessed some of the kannada words like KAL MURI (Leg-break), SUTTU TANE (he is going to swing), BARATTE (going to come), HAKI (put), ONDE (only one).

It took a brilliant catch from Kohli to finally dismiss Gilly, by then most of the damage was done. Rohit began to rub salt on RCBs wounds; his hunger for runs in this format of the game is increasing day by day. The way he belted Kumble for 3 towering sixes showed that he has come a long way, he definitely can give Raina a run for his money in the ODI squad. With some late fireworks Chargers reached tournaments highest score. PK needs to learn to bowl in batsman friendly conditions, otherwise he would end up being an English bowler grumbling all the time.

The first ball Edwards bowled was an in swinging yorker rattling Ryder’s ofstump; in contrast RCB bowled just one in the entire innings. RP just relishes conditions in South Africa. Kallis's bowling has been like a mandir ka ghanti; Jyo bhi aata hai baja ke jyata hai. KP is proving that he indeed is the Dum Slog Millionaire, as the English crowed once claimed & he has made no plans of erasing that. “Rahul Dravid walks out to save the follow-on.” was a nice comment on cricinfo, which explained pace at which RCBs were going. As said earlier Dravid is the only one who looks in good nick, he showed that T20 can also be played with conventional shots. He rightly earned the orange cap for leading the run score in the competition. With some charismatic shots from Kohli RCB ended 24 shots of the target. Well the only positives from this game would be posting 160 in 20 overs, which I guess is their highest score.

In this contest United Beverages Yielded to Deccan Chronicle.

CSK win the Cauvery River battle at Port Elizabeth.

2009-04-21T17:50:00.000-05:00

After a weekend of ball dominating bat, cricket returned to normality as bat dominated the ball. Cricket is a batsman's game & is always exciting to watch batsman score 6s and 4s. Runs from Hayden's bat is always nice, even the one without a makers name. IPL so far has shown that when set batsman starts playing their shots pitch conditions don't really matter.

Hayden showed that he didn't lose any fire power after his retirement; he was at his bullying best. The walk-down-the-track to blast the quicks, the muscular sweeps against the spinners & daft touches behind the wicket were pretty amazing. Parthiv and Raina did their part to keep the momentum going. Dhoni is losing his fire power like a bottle of opened soda; he is just upping his numbers. Freddie did show a glimpse of his million dollar paycheck. Good bowling towards the end just pegged back CSK to 180 which looked like 250 at one stage.

Scoring at 9 an over isn’t RCB’s forte, not even with the revamped & rejuvenated team. Like an old wine in different bottle, old problems of collapses persist even under the new captain. Royal Challengers have problems up front, they are under a myth that they need an opener for each bottle. Settled opening pair is a key to success of any team, sooner they realize that lesser the embarrassment they would have to face.

By the time Murali came into bowl the match was already slipping away from the RCBs. Virat Kohli has been given enough opportunities, he is nothing more than an arrogant little spoilt brat. Kumble did show that he is still the best bowler in RCB. When Dravid arrived at the scene, there wasn't any foundation laid on which he could have built his wall. RCB collapsed for a paltry 87, perhaps it was an ad for AEROPOSTALE.

CSK have convincingly won the Cauvery River battle at Port Elizabeth.

Veterans Day Out

2009-04-19T14:19:00.001-05:00

In the era where so much emphasis is on young blood, veterans Tendulkar n Dravid showed that "its not age but mileage that matters" even in today's arena. Clinical Sachin showed that why he is called the master blaster. Rahul picked up from where he had left from last year, he was the only person scoring runs and scoring fast for the RCBs. Kumble & Warne showed that spinner are like wine, get better with age. If Warne showed that age has never come in the way of his drift, dip & spin; Kumble show that accuracy still is his middle name.

The day-1 of IPL 2.0 saw surprises, both losing team were finalist of the first edition. This indicates that equations have changed. The tournament is played in a different country, hence different testing conditions. Because the bowl does a bit raw players who were successful in India may find it difficult to get adjusted to new conditions. Lack of technique & temperament might cause ones downfall.

Twenty2O is tricky format; 20 overs might looks too small to begin with; if you go bang bang n lose 2-3 wickets quickly then it just look herculean task to achieve the desired target. It might even trigger a chain reaction for fall of wickets. So one does need a player to anchor the innings at a good pace. This is where likes of sachin,rahul kallis,hayden would come into play. So the ideal old fashioned strategy would work here, keep wickets in hand and throw at the kitchen sink towards the end.

Just a back my theory up we have already had 2 collapses in RR & KKR with in the first weekend. So Veterans keep those gutsy innings coming; slow and steady will win the race in this IPL 2.0.

IPL 2.0 an In Depth Analysis --- Oh really!!!

2009-04-14T13:39:00.000-05:00

The I PL 2.0 kick starts on 18th April in the “Diamond country” South Africa. As the wickets in SA would offer pace & bounce, it would be a contest between bat and ball eliminating the slam bang cricket. As a batsman you would need decent technique to negotiate the seam movement,& as a bowler you have a chance to exploit the weaknesses of the batsman. It would be an acid test for our domestic flat track bullies. Also since 24 of 59 matches are played in Durban of which 12 would be 4:30 pm starters, so there might be possibility of “win the toss win the game” kind of scenario if the “tide factor” of Durban comes into play; i.e. ball swings prodigiously under lights in Durban due to tide effect.

Rajasthan Royals owe all its success to Tanvir’s opening spells and Watson’s all round performance backed up with captaincy skills of Warne 2.0, with now their services unavailable Warne would have to come up with a Warne 3.0 in rebuilding the empire. Smith & Yusuf Pathan would hold the key again; Munaf has improved in last couple of months, watch out for the Tornado Kamran Khan.

Chennai Super Kings might emerge as the IPL king this time. Hayden’s fulltime service; Raina’s ability to pace innings, Albi Morkel’s hard hitting skills, Dhoni’s netagiri, Goni’s ability to hit the deck hard, Ntini's home adv, Murli’s guile could be fatal. Flintof's presence would be felt. Hope fully baccha patel & jogger Balaji won’t screw up this time around.

Kings XI Punjab’s marched into the semis thanks to Marsh and Hopes, now with their availability looking bleak coupled with absence of Brett Lee and Sreesanth onus would be on UV and Desi bowlers to step up. One can only feel for a team whose strike bowler would be Irfan Pathan. No wonder UV is already complaining.

Delhi Daredevil’s success story was no rocket science; won all the matches when the top 3 fired. And this time around Gauti is far more consistent & Warner would be an ideal replacement for Dhawan, Owais Shah and Collingwood would be handy. Addition of Delhi lad Nehra would bolster their pace attack along with McGrath and Maharoof. De Villier’s home experience will be useful. Absence of Shoab Malik would be a blessing in disguise, Karthick has left some unanswered questions.

Mumbai Indians probably have the best opening pair in Jayasuriya n Tendulkar; either of them can win the match single handedly. We all know about Bravo’s contributions with bat n ball. Hopefully Duminy’s 950k would be justified, Zaheer, Bhajji, Malinga, Dhaval &Co hopefully would fill the void in Pollock’s absence.

Bangalore Royal Challengers this time won't be Royally Challenged; first they got to wipe off the test team tag under their captain KP. It would be nice to see how KP would gel with Chanderpaul around especially after their verbal spat. Ryder and Taylor would give them a bit of fire power; Kallis needs to get out of his test match mood.

Kolkata Knight Riders will have ride on Mccullum n Gale. They will miss the services of Aktar,Gul,Hafeez,Ponting,DJ Hussey who played a crucial role last time. Not sure how much Mortaza can find his way. Buchanan would eventually find 4 decent players through his 4 captain theory. Poojara would be the player to watch out.

Deccan Chargers need to recharge their batteries as they look like a overpriced minnow team. They will need Gibbs,Gilly,Rohit,RP to fire each and every time if they want to stay in the competition.

Last time when I did a In Depth Analysis I got a comment as Oh really!!! in RED. Hopefully this time it wouldn't turn that way.

Open Letter to Saurav Ganguly

2008-10-15T12:34:00.000-05:00

Date 10/15/2008,
IP 75.4.152.23

Dear Saurav Ganguly

I was kind of surprised when you announced your retirement from Test cricket, from a person known for his never give up attitude, voluntary retirement came as surprise to most of us. Even though some believe it is a deal the with the selection board. But hey, you thereby join the group of elite cricketers who have announced their retirement before the series began or before they were dropped.

Your career started badly after you rejected to offer water as a 12th man in 1992, then debut century at lords, followed by a 136 at Trent Bridge put you in the league of elite cricketers. Your ability to hit spinner especially slow left armers out of the ground made you a remarkable player of spin. Coupled with elegant off drives and Prince of Calcutta got tagged. You never took quick singles but made it up with elegant boundaries. You always played second fiddle to Aila or Jam therefore never got the recognition that you deserved. There were various innings where you played well but the 144 at Brisbane was truly a remarkable innings I must confess.

Cricket is a game of numbers and you lacked the right ones. You never scored big hundreds to make any impact in Test cricket. Close to 7000 runs, 15 hundreds at an average of 41 from 110 Test so far make you an average Test cricketer, and a flawed technique to play the short ball, which was always exploited by the fast bowlers, added to your woes. "Ganguly greeted with a bouncer" became synonymous with you. I felt bad when mediocre bowlers tried to exploit that as well. Later on you did come up with an ugly pull or swivel shot to counter that. You never had that elegance but had what it required staying at the crease, determination and willingness to prove people wrong.

Though you were a safe catcher, being a bad out fielder and the ability to escort the ball to the boundary never made you bowler’s favorite, trust me I have been there. These things got highlighted when the right numbers didn’t come when required. This was also one of the reasons why Yuvraj always felt he had a shot at your spot. But you did well to keep him at bay; or rather he kept himself away. You were a good bowler when you started but never really took it seriously.

You are India’s most successful Test captain, taking over captaincy from Aila in February 2000 you made this new Indian team, you brought these killer instincts to this team. On why the ‘huddle’ was invented during the World Cup. You brought a hard edge to the team, most famously by standing up to cricket's playground bullies Nasser Hussain and Steve Waugh. Jam and Jumbo are reaping what you sowed. Your Captaincy record 49 Tests from 2000 until 2005, winning 43 percent, although take away the victories over Bangladesh and Zimbabwe and this success fall to 30 percent which is far better than the next captain, in your era we saw more wins than draws.

Now you just need 39 runs to complete 7,000 runs in Test cricket, but the onus and media focus is on Aila who has taken up a 5 Test plan to break Lara’s record. Hope Mohali ground proves good for both of you.

Don't feel sad about leaving the so called "fab four" team, Jam and Aila will soon follow, I have their send off letters written as well. Once again thank you for serving the INDIAN cricket for 12 long years and entertaining us. Indian cricket owes a lot to you Dada.

Your Fan
Manish

Legend: Aila - Sachin Tendulakar
Jam - Rahul Dravid

Cricket Vs Olympics

2008-08-21T10:59:00.000-05:00

Sports Minister M S Gill asks P Gopichand, ‘Who are you?’. Apparently this made a big headline couple of days ago. I would empathize with Mr Gill, as I would have asked the same question hadn't I had the habit of google'ng people’s name. FYI P Gopichand is 2001 All England Badminton Champion only after Prakash Padukone (yes now famous father of Deepika Padukone). He is also the National Badminton Coach, to Saina Nehwal.

Abhinav Bindra, Sushil Kumar and Vijender Kumar have made INDIA proud no doubt, probably would have gone unnoticed, but for their medals. Forget about recognizing them in public how many of us would remember them a month later. How many of us know the rules about shooting or boxing or weight lifting? Sorry to say but unfortunately they are born in the wrong era or wrong country. I only remember Karnam malleswari(weightlifting) and Rajyavardhan Rathore(shooting) during Olympics and hope some day some how, an athletes would do a PT Usha or Mikha Singh act.

Now that's a lot of alien names in country where cricket is religion and sachin is GOD. We have grown on watching kapil, gavaskar, sachin and now dhoni entertaining us to the core. Discussion about cricket and cricketer's name falls in our comfort zone. We would rather talk about dravid's back foot than leander’s back hand. We can talk hours write articles about them for pages about their records, statistics, and their life. We always want to attain kapil's passion, gavaskar's concentration, sachin's application and dhoni's daredevil attitude don’t we? We would criticize ganguly for his fielding never would we appreciate an athlete for his efforts. We would struggle to name 11 all time great non cricketers’s but would pen down the 11 for the next ODI.

Why would ambani, mallya or srk invest in IPL franchise? Why would a Subash Goel create ICL against BCCI? why not other sports? In the current age where ever thing is business, cricket sells and business men are no philanthropists. Cricket generates revenue and hence gets the prime importance be it on TV or Paper.As they say “paisa bolta hai”.
Media also has a lot of effect on our thinking process, they have elated and highlighted cricket to such an extent that it has been inculcated in our blood. In a country where cricket sells, cricketers are projected as macho men; heroines would pose with yuvi or dhoni rather than with paes or gopichand. Even though the later have achieved a lot more than the former.

As Bishen Singh Bedi wrote "We are a confused nation when it comes to sports". I truly agree with him.

Just to conclude read this article.
Can India host olympics ?

PATRIOTISM Or Just Missing INDIA

2008-08-15T11:26:00.000-05:00

Shande of www.naanushande.com fame brought up a nice post on Independence Status Messages about how status messages varied from person to person living in and out of INDIA.

When I was young, the only day I thought about "PATRIOTISM" or the feeling of being an INDIAN was on 15 Aug. Listening to "Hai Mere Watan Ke Logo" by Lata Mangeshkar or "Mere Desh ki Dharti". Watching the parade on TV, the hoisting of tricolor, eating chocolates and sweets and ofcourse idly vada for breakfast etc. I thought patriotism was only sacrificing once's life for the country as the jawans do. This was how we were taught in school isn't it?

In 6th sem File Structure class, lecturer mentioned about author Raghuram Krishan, using INDIAN names in his examples and mentioned about he being PATRIOTIC. I never got it.In WC2003 Sachin in his Man Of Match award interview said, "INDIA has never lost to PAKISTAN in WC". My friend said 'look at his patriotism’; I had a question mark on my face.The way my friend Yashas patriotically talk about how good Indian Army was, or how good INDIAN scientists were always puzzled me.

All these things made sense to me when I came to US for my Master's. I began to follow more and more about INDIAN news, movies, and Kannada movies to be precise. All the bomb blasts and road accidents touched my heart. Any news involving an INDIAN name in global market like L Mittal, I Nooyi, S Jha etc would make me feel great and privileged. Finding an INDIAN in top official names in my company always made me feel good.

Now can some one tell me if this is PATRIOTISM or just DESIGIRI as some would claim?

Probably you express things a lot more when you away from you home conditions,

Only a James Anderson can appreciate when the ball swings and gets an outside edge in the flat sub continent pitches.

My stint with Alcohol

2008-07-29T14:48:00.000-05:00

All my student life I never had friends who boozed, don't know whether it was a good thing or I was missing a lot of stuffs. So my knowledge of alcohol was all from millions of movies that I watched. Its a rare thing that hailing from Bengaluru the pub city, or the beer city, to have not tasted alcohol all my life. It wasn't my choice, it actually never happened. Still remember the statement my co-worker had made "U from Bangalore & U don't drink, some religious problems". I had no answers when some asked why I didn't drink, nor was it a religious concern , as it was never "part of deal" my caste. I always give a simple answer I don't know. But among friends at work I was called the good guy because I didn't drink, also would be the legal driver when every one else were drunk. So was kind of enjoying the good guy status.

When it comes to alcohol, I realized that I do have 2 voices in my head which give me 2 totally orthogonal views. One says

"never come close to alcohol dude, drink orange juice instead " other says

"give it a try, be a man; its not a sin if you drink, you only live once blah blah...".

Some how I kept listening to the former until one fine day "be a man" thing actually struck me. For the first time I sipped red wine, it was bitter, reminded me of the Iron flavored acid rain that I had tasted in Bhadravati (Iron and Steel city).One sip and already some many thoughts lingering in my mind, I looked at the wine glass, the color looked so nice and serene, expected it be a lot sweeter, logically speaking there are no takers for bad food, but it was different in this case. I still wonder how Whiskey or Brandy might taste, if wine was considered to be mild.

While I was struggling for the next 1 hr to finish this thing, my friend came gave me a cheer "way to go Manish, be a man", it was now more a ego question than any thing else, finally I finished my first glass of wine. After dinner I have classic coke, and dam it tasted so good, it was like an anti dote for the wine. Then I realized why alcohol is called acquired taste, you need to drink a number of times to like it. On six to seven occasions,on different locations I drank both white and red wine struggled each time. Tried wine with coke, wine with salt, wine with sugar, wine with orange juice. None of them tasted better than apple cedar or cranberry juice, or even coke. To acquire the taste of alcohol one needs to drink it more often, which actually makes you a drinker. Its like the rail road paradox.

My take is better to be safe y not drinking rather than be sorry after drinking. Post your view on alcohol.

My CRICKET in Sub Continent n Over Seas

2008-04-06T20:24:00.000-05:00

When I was a kid I thought that I was a great cricket fan because I used to play till the street lights turned on, that I used to watch and support it even during exams. And that I used to remember the scores better than the poems, and that I played cricket during the gap that we had b/w our exams.

When I moved to Bangalore for my BE @ SMYS hostel I realized that I am one among cricket enthusiast who lived on cricket. I still remember how we all glued to the screen to watch laxman's 281, INDIA's historic win at Kolkata completely forgetting our Exams. We even had postponed the evening prayers and dinner during the day and night games. I still can't forget the quadrangle where we played indoor "pitch catch cricket" under flood lights after our evening games. Can't forget Mar 23rd, WC 2003 finals where we had painted Saffron White n Green on our face and body, which was washed right after the 1st innings. And the buckets and plates which were used as our drum beats. I can’t forget the response one of our guyz had given the maternity hospital nurses when complained. "Aunty don't worry sachin nantha magu huttute" --translated as "aunty don't worry your son would be like sachin". That is how we were crazy abt cricket.

After BE I thought that cricket would gradually fade away as people would mature become more responsible and do more sophisticated things than playing cricket. But life had different plans for me, when I moved to IISc for my job as R & D assistant, my cricketing career blossomed. I played more cricket than I worked, played serious cricket every day.

When finally when I was US bound I remember sudhir s sadly telling me that my cricketing career was over, it haunted me during the flight. On reaching River Pointe Apt, Indy I saw bunch of guyz playing cricket in tennis court. My joy grew no bounds as I never had dreamt of playing cricket again. There I met Saurab, who remembered the name of cricket tournament, date, venue and how batsman got out, "chalta-firtha cricinfo" and Mandar who was doing a double Phd Science and Cricket, who used to give LBW decisions even before the umpires did. I still remember watching 2005 ashes with him at 4 am and mandar’s comments “sala tera naseeb dekh US aate hi ashes dekh raha hai”.

At Indy we played at 4 degree C, wearing gloves, cap and sweatshirts, still remember mandar words, "chal sirf ek degree hai khel tee hai". And during snow fall we played indoor cricket at apt 131 successfully breaking 2 lamps. After playing final match together we all departed to different directions literally. Now in bay area after playing for cricbay I have come to conclusion that cricket is a lot bigger than I thought, there are more cricket enthusiast than me. Player in mid 30's (no offenses here) are more active and involved than me.

So far cricket has followed me like my shadow, hope it follows me a long way, just like the saying It's not the age it's the mileage that counts. Hope my mileage increases with life.

AGE OLD INDIAN CRICKET

2008-03-20T13:26:00.000-05:00

The last time when I heard about this senior junior saga was when I just moved to bangalore for my BE at PESIT. Friends and Relatives had told me a lot of senior-junior tussle and ragging stuffs, and I was really scared about that. But fortunately for us it never existed in PESIT. It was ragging free campus where, if I can remember seniors were scared for junior. Much like in the current INDIAN team. :) I never spoke any senior for the first 6 months rather other way round. But I had enough ragging in SMYS hostel which I can't forget. Nor any one in our batch can. Lets come back to main topic--Getting Old

There is a saying "Never ask Man's Salary and Women's Age", just to add that never ask Cricketer's age, which apparently has struck the INDIAN cricket, ask Dravid and Ganguly. So called "Veteran" is now a malign term, which one wants to get attached. Just before the disaster WC 07, there were talks about who will fit into "seniors" shoes, who will replace them. But post-Tic20 (T20) WC things have changed dramatically. Bunch of teenagers are giving seniors a "run for their money" literally. Apart from Bhisma Pitamah (chubby faced sachin) every one is under scanner. Kumble had been rested more than he played for 4 years since 03 WC and he finally gave up after 07 WC.

If this saga continues then we would have 30 as the new 40, on his 30th birthday cricketer would miss a heart beat, would start counting his days in INDIAN cricket. Then he would start hiding his age, like how women do. In any field having experience is very important, but the problem with exp is age factor. There is a +ve correlation with exp and age. No sooner he gains exp he would lose out the age factor. The records factor in terms of matches played or runs scored would be out of question.

Well may be doors for ICL or IPL would open, player would play for INDIA get exp and then move to IPL if they are young or ICL if they are too old.

Well done Mr M S Dhoni, well done you are taking INDIA to the right level, and b/w what's u r age 26 years 258 days or shall I call it 27. Hmmm getting close to 30 ha. Sorry

Staying alive

2008-03-13T15:02:00.000-05:00

Back in Indy where we 4 shared 2 bed room apt, shared groceries, cooked for 4, once in 4 days, followed a cooking roaster. We also followed the a strict schedule or time table as so what time food should be ready for dinner. Delay in cooking dinner or error in the food that is prepared, would make the night of other 3 miserable. Cooking for 4 was almost like cooking in a dharamshala. I treated it like a prayog shala, a tesing lab, testing out your new recipes. And since every one would be hungry eventually would gallop what ever is cooked.

Since you literally cook once a week one never really felt the pain of cooking, I actually enjoyed it throughly. Actually I don't remember cooking any thing apart from the trade mark sambar, which was a major hit. Just changed the vegetables every time. The best part was extending it to 5 persons in case was the easiest. Person's mood could be easily determined in the food that he has cooked is cooked.

Staying/cooking alone in CA for 7 months I have learn't and followed certain rules and certain theories. Hope any of them makes sense.

[1] You are the client and you are the server. You set the functional requirements and you do the Quality Assurance.
[2] Polymorphism is the key, cook meal that exists in different forms. Ideally dal is a dish which goes with either rice or chapati or dosa, or bread.
[3] Always remember 5 lunch meals rule, thats your minimum target. This the min number dibbas that is required to complete a week.
[4] Have fortitude(fore thought) when you cook, it's not how well it tastes, but how many meals it serves. Whats the point of cooking for 30 min and you realize that is lasted for only one meal. What a waste of man power and resources.
[5] No matter how long it takes to cook, it takes same time to digest and assimilate.
[6] Food stays only 3 mins in mouth but 3 hrs in stomach. Satisfying your stomach's requirement is the key. Mouth is just like a browser, a point of entry, major compilation is done back in the stomach.

If all these make no sense and feels too stupid and seems as an epitome of laziness then ---
Remember --- when you come from office exhausted and hungry and very fact that you don't need to cook becoz the stored food is ready to eat, that moment says it all.

Staying Alone rephrased as Staying Alive.
Remember Bee Gees songs
And we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha,
Stayin' alive.

Belt Deja Vu

2008-03-11T23:17:00.000-05:00

Studying in PESIT school (college) we were one of the few privileged young bunch of Pre-Software Engineers who apart from carrying Id cards had to wear a belt around the neck along with the Id card, much like the software eng wore. The Irony of this was that the belt had more importance than the Id card itself, as the gate keeper wouldn't allow you in without the Belt.

Imagine getting up early at 6:45 get ready, have break fast, catch the bus, constantly sniff for bus numbered 43c or 43 d (these buses went upto the college campuses rest left us with 1 km of walk). As soon as u r see it, devise strategies as to which at which 'bus stop' would be the best for getting into the dream bus. (43c or 43d). Once you get onto these buses you are assured to reach the campus before deadline 8:15. Once you come close to college you realize that you have forgotten to bring the Id card and belt. Now devise strategies for getting into the college.

The best strategies that we had was separating ID and Belt. One person wears the belt around his neck and tucks the other part in the breast pocket. Other person the owner of the card would carry card and directly approach the gate keeper saying that his belt was damaged and he need to get a new one. Some times seeing the honestly the gate keeper would leave us in.

Years passed and until recently there was an order in our office that all employees had to wear belt and Id around their neck. But fortunately and sensibly the ID card has more preference than the stupid belt. And if you forget you belt, you could get a temporary one for the day. The real reason for the belt was to differentiate b/w Permanent , Contractors and Visitors who have Purple ,Yellow and Red Color belts respectively.

The receptionist and I had a big laugh when I told her about the belt incident in school.

My Obsession with Analogy

2008-02-26T15:59:00.000-06:00

Continuing the "My Obsession series"--
People who have read my blogs have told that I am good when it comes to analogies, one of my friend went a step further & told that " Manish+Analogy=Manology", I felt extremely honored. Till date I knew that I had good sense of Humor, now I have good sense of Analogy. Lets see how it goes.

Entering I-101 highway during peek hrs is like middle order batsman enters at 60 / 3 in 21th over. With Murli and Jayasurya bowling with close in fielder.Things move very slowly, playing the ball in the gaps is difficult, you find fielders every time, i.e bumper to bumper traffic, tough to find space to over take. Overs and time pass quickly runs hard to come.i.e time and gas (fuel) pass quickly miles hard to cover.

You can soon sense batsman or i.e car drivers talking risks in order to get that extra yard, some times moving left,some times moving right, they start changing gears frequently. Both need to chill out either take a drinks break for or switch on the music. Both trying their best to reach their destination quickly and safely, with frustration being the common denominator. When the bowling or i.e traffic eases both of them would step on the gas pedal. Runs and Miles pass by easily n quickly,both drive their way to the destination.

Finally Both say Home Sweet Home

My Obsession with Cricket

2008-01-24T20:40:00.000-06:00

Back in High school I was becoming a cricket addict, and was taking it far more seriously than I should have. It had started affecting my studies, my thought process and life as well. I used to play Twenty20 (20 mins) wall cricket throwing the ball onto the wall and then play on the rebound. I had batting / bowling options of left and right, I even had running commentary. That was how much I was obsessed with CRICKET.

Taking a step further, I had visualized my SSLC (10th std) like an ODI, first 2 months of my tuitions (crash course as it was called) was the 15 over field restriction. I had to make most out of the reading in short time. It would give me good foundations for the middle over (when school starts). Also last 2 months before the exams were like slog overs. A lot depends on the how much you make out of it. Having good start and good middle overs makes a lot of difference towards the end. In the end good finish is what matters.

As years passed on my obsession with cricket has increased 2 fold now. I always believed that current INDIAN team depicts the hidden characters in us. Just take a look.

Just like our INDIAN team we all have starting problems (OPENERs), once some thing is triggered we all function well. There is always a sachin in us; hungry for records and yet deny it. Flamboyance and happy go lucky nature is always in us as in sehwag. Just like laxman and gambhir need to prove their talent every single day, we too fall in this situation sometimes. We all have that arrogance n elegance yuvraj possesses and talk more work less dhoni in us comes out sometimes. We all perform well in the nets, like ganguly. Some times we do exhibit the sreeshant in us, donno where / when exactly to show aggression. We do exhibit dual nature in life like dravid's batting in test and ODI. Finally we all need to bring out the gentlemen n statesmen kumble in us. Know what is important in life and stay focussed.

Let me know if u don't agree with any of these .

Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar

2008-01-08T14:45:00.000-06:00

In movies Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar & Mukaddar ka Sikandar are one & the same, lets see how it happens in this Zalim real word. Yes you guessed it right Sydney Test. After lot of twists n turns both in the match and after the here is what I have come up with. who was the Jeeta Wohi Sikandar" & ka Sikandar --- Lets see.

People will remember this Aamir Khan starer "Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar" where hero wins the bike (bicycle) race against all the odds, and emerges out as a true bollywood hero. Kumble almost did a Aamir act, but probably Sydney test was the real life version with real life ending. One of the main reasons why INDIA fail to win test matches is this mentality "I have already played in first innings, why should i play again ? How many times should I save the test myself? etc etc".

In the end of the day Aussies emerged as the Sikander. -- Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar--

Of course the focus from Umpiring Errors (which cost INDIA the match) was shifted to Monkey business. May be in aussie land remembering your ancestor is considered racial. ICC made the decision based on hearing the 2 orthogonal stories from the teams. Aussies did what exactly a successful director does to his audience,(c**t**a bana) i.e conveniences the audiences his story. Eventually ICC like an audience nodded his head n accepted what was told. Aussies were the Mukaddar ka Sikandar --

Just as a counter argument INDIAN's did file a case against Brad Hogg for using b****d word & thereby trying win the Lost battle (Haari Hui Hi Baazi). Along with that BCCI threatened to pull of the series thereby showing who the real "Sikandar" is when Mukaddar is $$.

Finally Kumble does the Munna Bhai's Gandhigiri act stating "Cricket is larger than Individuals" & decides to withdraw charges against Brad Hogg. By doing this Kumble might have increased his Gentlemen count, thereby ended up being the real Mukaddar ka Sikandar.

शायद हार के जितने वाले को बाजीगर कहते है ---
Shayad haar ke jitne wale ko baazigar kehte hai..........Baazigar ------

Top 10 flop movies that i liked

2008-01-01T23:19:00.000-06:00

As the year 2007 is now in History I thought of looking back at it especially from Bollywood point of view.B/w 1200x1024 is my new Year resolution. Let me know if you ahve figured it.

The real inspiration for me to write was IBN live and Rajeev Masand's show of 10 worst and best movies of the year. Though not paid for it I do go through the same torture a movie reviewer go through. Just like "Download and Keep" n "Download and Delete" protocols applied to emails I apply this to movies. Owing to space and time constrains I am listing out 10 flop movies of the year and their plot and what I liked in them. After reading this I don't want the readers to come to any conclusion about my mental psyche (as Aamir Sohail describes). All these are flop movies, would be surprised if any one has seen them. I saw them after the reading the reviews.

Movie Positives
Aggar-- Different Plot,Udita looks good, can't act

Chhodon Naa Yaar --Believable Plot, Jimmy's acting
Dil Dosti Etc -- Nice college politics, Shreyas Talpade's acting is good

Dus Kahaniyan -- 4 of the 10 stories were just too good, nice climaxes.
Fool N Final -- Paresh Rawal, good dialogues

Life Mein Kabhie Kabhiee -- Different flavours of happiness Power,Paisa,Fame,Love,Popularity, displayed.
Manorama Six Feet -- Under Different Plot, Vinay Pathak is too good.
Mera Pehla Pehla Pyar -- Sweet Love story, Quite believable story
No Smoking -- Best torture movie I have ever seen. Hope this is applied to smokers.
Naqaab -- Good Music,nice plot of making a REAL movie. reality movie.

What do think about these movie Shall I keep them or delete them. By the way I haven’t spent a cent on them.

Sade Teen Sec

2007-12-12T02:11:00.001-06:00

After the previous skid incident (click the link if u have not read it) and couple of good advises from my well wishers & advisers I began driving carefully and more importantly started following all the traffic rule in the rules book. I began to slow down on yellow signal (my friend told me that Yellow means slow down, I thought it was speed up & pass before it turns red) . Now I come to stand still at the stop signal, look at all three mirrors before making turns etc etc. The rule book also said that on "FREE ways" one needs to maintain 3 sec distance from the car ahead of you. I being extra cautious keep 3.5 sec gap. If you keep 4 sec or more gap then some else would sneak into the gap. So you go to be optimal.

Just like dual nature of light wave and particle I-101 FREE way exhibits "particle" nature in off peak hrs and "wave" nature in peek hrs. You actually move like a wave during 8 - 9 am. Some times you wonder whether it's a moving parking lot or what.

One fine day I started at 9 am just to beat the traffic, slowed on the ramp, and merged onto the FREE way. It felt so good driving on 101 after 9 am, experiencing the "particle" nature, constantly hitting 70 miles, keeping 3.5 sec gap. After 9 am car pool lane rule no longer exist, I moved to it, driving on smooth car pool lanes in Camry makes it a touch smoother.

There was this Accord car traveling ahead which stopped suddenly, yea I mean sudden stop for some reason (I remembered similar situation with my friend) . I was at 70 mph applied sudden breaks, 3.5 sec gap rule worked wonders for me as I ended 6 feet away from the car. Bang the car make to stand still, I had cricket bat, cereals bars, soda cans etc in my trunk which hit each other and there was a bang sound. Seat belts made sure that I didn't crash onto the glass.

Just before I recovered from this mentally, I heard another bang sound. And this time I moved towards the steering almost my head hitting the glass. Just came out to see an accord car bumped onto my car. Apparently he hadn't kept 3 sec gap and on top of it was phoning. Out he came sorry with his hands folded "I am from Japan I am sorry I am sorry". He was a 5 ft guy looked like a 10 std guy. I saw his front bumper in really bad shape. Just saw my rear bumper, little bit of scratch and bit of silver paint stuck on it. Still wondering was it a miracle or some thing (Yea I am still wondering). Fortunately nothing serious had happened, after settling matter with him (you know what I mean) I resumed listening to song from the movie Lakshya wowing that I will never drive on 101 again.

Haan yehi rasta hai tera, tune ab jaana hai

    Haan yehi sapna hai tera, tune pehchaana hai

Mushkil koyi, aajaaye toh, parbat koyi, takraaye toh

 Kya dooriyaan kya faasle, manzil lage aake gale

Lakshya toh har haal mein paana hai
This song made me feel better.
Ever since before breaking I look once in the rear mirrors and pray god that
the person behind me keeps 3 sec gap.

Skid Skad Skud

2007-12-11T23:28:00.000-06:00

My friend PK mentioned about 3 inevitable things in life -- Tax, Traffic and Death. After volunteering for the first two, I twice came close to volunteering the third.

There is a saying in kannada "mutti noda beda, Illa nekki nodtini". Which translates to Wise men listen to what people say, but wiser people experience it. Pass me a comment if u didn't get it.

Finally it began to rain in bay area when it was snowing in most part of North US. As usual I started my car towards office, I remembered reading in the DMV book that roads would slippery after the first rain, but when I began driving it seemed fine. I told myself these American's are always too over cautious unnecessarily. When the signal turned Red to Green I accelerated along with a Benz, and a Porsche car. Both over took me cutting my way into the ramp towards the "freeway". I followed them into the ramp making a right turn at good pace.

No sooner I entered the ramp I saw a pile of cars, backed up all the way from highway. Benz and the Porsche were standing ahead of me. Since the inner side of the ramp had cement plastering, when I applied breaks to avoid bumping into Porsche, wheels lost grip on the road and skid skad skud. Yea u read it right "skid skad skud" car turned right and another right.

When finally the car stopped it found myself in the car U turned "actual U" standing on the mud on the side. Just peeped over to my left saw a rift of 10 feet below. Those 3 - 4 secs my mind was blocked, heart was beating at may be 150 or 200. I fews secs didn't know what to do. Then finally put myself on the ramp making another U turn and drove towards the office.

While driving I remembered my friend giving me positive comment "maga ninu U turn sakkatagi togontiya " (man you take good U turns). To which I had replied "In life U turn is the easiest man and I always love it". Well this was the best U turn of my life.

to be continued.....

Thank God Its Black Friday ---

2007-11-23T15:54:00.000-06:00

The term "Black Friday" originally was named because of the heavy traffic on that day. Its a day when most of the shops open at 5 am (thrusday all the shops are closed) and people (Desis, Chinki, Caucasians, Afro etc), all ages from 5 to 75 stand rather sleep(with sleeping bags) in the queue from 7 pm previous night (yea 10 hrs ahead 0f opening time). The reason is that stores would have some item sold at half price with limited quantity 10 or 20. Its all the supply Demand bull. It's on this day people have no time for sorry n please n appreciate. You might be wondering whats so special of this TG day shopping, well U can' get a (Wireless Mouse, Blue Tooth head set, Creative Noise Canceling head set, 2 Gb SD card all for Free of Cost yea I mean 0$ after filling the laborious PIA rebates) on other days. The best part is that if you miss out or fill in the wrong info on rebate forms then the shopkeepers would say thanks for giving .

Well this was how we (Saurab,Sunder,Vinit n Myself ) started our thanks giving shopping last year. 11 pm to 2 am repairing vinit's car (fixing his head light), Half went to Best Buy n Half went to Circuit City and remaining to CompUSA (Sholay's Asrani stlye) . It was relatively warm that day - 2 C (yea when it was -13 C some days back), and standing the queue for 3 hrs was not that easy. (Yea just remembered previous thanks giving it was -17 C).

5 am was when our dreams turned tangible, door opened and bang 500 people jumped into the shop. Got the flier and quickly headed towards the items. Just like "Maine Pyar Kiya"s dialog -- "No sorry No thank you " was our policy. Because if u utter sorry then next sec you would feel sorry for missing an item. Just put your head down and grab the items. At times grabbed items from some one else hand. Darwin would be proud that his theory "Survival of Fittest works here". In next 1 hr we were filling our shopping carts and headed towards what was called Moksha -- yea billing. Another 30 and we were out, feeling on top of the world. I felt one step above that because-- the billing guy had forgotten to bill one of my items. woooppeee.

Finally at 11 am when we were done with phase 2 and 3 of shopping we headed towards the bed. My roomie had just woken up, told Good Morning and slept. Next 1 week all we were doing was filling rebates and rebates. The real PIA. (Pain In Ass)

This Thanks Giving Shopping was rather non existential, no motivation and as no company to shop. Yea forgot I was in office and blogging this blog.

Picture Abhi Baaki Hai doston............

2007-11-10T11:25:00.000-06:00

What's common between Deepika Padukone, Richard Illingworth(Eng), Nilesh Kulkarni(IND)--- they all have one of the greatest Debut any one can ever dream off. Yup Wicket on the first ball.

I have not seen a better actor (female) who having a better debut than namma (our) Mount Caramel Deepika, n boy she is one of those actors(female) who looks fabulousness and acts great is an understatement.

OK OK - OK is OK ..... let me come back to the movie-- U guessed it OOOM SHANTI OOM. This Deepaavali I wanted to do some thing really memorable, what better can it be watching OSO n blogging about it. So at 5 pm got the tickets(Online), and was on I-101 "freeway" at 5:15 in the carpool lane along with my colleague. They say "Agar dil sey chaho to Khuda bhi milajata hai, freeway to use bahut maamuli hai". They say Friday 5 - 7 pm never travel on I-101, i just took the challenge. For the next 1 hr I was traveling, driving aka breaking and reached Century theaters at 6:35 (yup only 1 hr for 22 miles). To be frank its one of the worst theaters that I have ever visited, dirty seats, bad seating arrangements, horrible sounds, blore's Urvashi theater was 10 times better.

The movie through out was like a photo slide shows, there was no smooth transition between scenes, but each slides were good. The movie lacked richness n intensity n class, the sets looked very cheap, Deepika appeared top heroine only from SRK point of view. Even the filmfare scene looked like a 2nd degree set and felt like people were actually acting. It looked like "Diwali's Ram Leela", but full points to execution of the scene. Gosh getting over 30 actors all well dressed on one stage is amazing. Akshay Kumar's cameo was the best.

The movie was more like a Buffet lunch in bay area, the best thing you can get for 10 bucks, n items packaged into one component. Individually you wouldn't have liked each item, but the end of day it would fill your mind n stomach. The one thing that movie lacked is intensity what Chak De INDIA had & it would be SRK top performance till date. OSO was more quantity rather that quality, but in today's zaalim world we prefer quantity over quality. You would have a Buffet over single custom menu meal-- Don't you think so?

I just loved the ending for the movie rather that showing "THE END " or some fundu shayeri, all the people associated with OSO both onscreen n offscreen did a final ramp. The technicians must have felt on top of the world. The best part of our theater was the at 10:12 the next show guyz started to pour in before people of our shows had left. At one point we had like 2 batch of people, felt so much like INDIA, the crowd, yelling, shouting we couldn't go out they couldn't come in.

All I felt was "Picture Abhi Baaki Hai doston............"........

Quit INDIA wih MOMENTUM part 1

2007-11-05T14:11:00.001-06:00

Its not a spelling mistake -- its momentum ; mass * velocity.

The memories of 8 th Aug 2005, the day I left INDIA to pursue my master's in U S is still fresh in my mind. I had a 3 am AI 127 flight to Chicago via Mumbai Frankfurt, reached airport at 11 pm. My parents sister and my 2 uncles plus family had come to see me off. Before which I had "aathi " , "pooja" and teeka as well. I felt as if I leaving for KARGIL. After the initial rooha dhoona (my sister especially) went in and checked in my luggage(s). I just had 3 - 32 kilos suitcases, & a 15 kilo carry bag with me (80 kilos).

By then I had met this guy lets call him Dr Sanjeev, who had 3 - 32 kilos suitcase + 15 kilo carry bag + 5 kg leather jacket + 3 big medical books trying to find some one to carry his extra luggages. I was successful in avoiding him. Cleared the security n went into the lounge. At 2 am came in the announcement AI 127 is delayed by 2 hrs. For the next 2 hrs we 5 students had a good time chatting and eating. Finally 5 am we boarded the flight. These was this guy with long beard n cap (got the picture :)) who scared me a lot.

Sitting in my first international flight trying to stay calm n compose, beside me was this interesting fellow student. She had some weird n scary n irritating questions to me. We exchanged names. She began
She: "You know this is my first international flight" ,
me : so is mine
"First time I am leaving my parents you know",
me : so am I
She: "What if our luggages get lost ",
me: may be baggage claim.
" Did u read about the rains in Mumbai rains ?",
me :Ya hope the flight doesn't skid. -- she got a bit scared.
Are we going via london or germany.
me : Frankfurt didn't you see the itinerary,
That bearded guy was sitting adjacent to me. She was irritating, he was scaring me.
Finally the flight took off, she got so scared that see stopped speaking for next hr. I was relieved.

We then boarded at Mumbai, my first impression was "Airport or Railway station". It reminded me of CST (VT) station. Due to mumbai rains, the flight was delayed by 2 more hrs. I told that female "MATCH DELAYED DUE TO WET OUT FIELD". Seriously she had no clue what I spoke. We were then given a complementary breakfast at airport which we call called Passage to U S food. Good thing about AI is that food deterioration is gradual. Its like tunnel worse worser worsest (hahhaha).

Finally the flight took from Mumbai at 10 am with MOMENTUM i.e. mass * velocity. So it was a true QUIT INDIA with MOMENTUM.

to be continued ...

Profession Caste

2007-11-02T15:33:00.000-05:00

Caste system in Hinduism is based on what hi/her ancestor were working as.
If they were Pujari's then they would end up being Brahman. If they were warrior then they would be kshatrias, if they were land lords then they would be Gowdas .. so and so forth.

But with the advent of technology moreover software boom catching up, time would arise when we could have castes based on Profession, rather software profession. Then we would have only castes based on software technologies. Like J2ee,Dot Net, Databases, Networks, System Engineering, QA etc.We would have Traditionalist (traditional programming like C, Cobol) and Modernist (Object Programming c++,java etc), with each opposing others. With two main religions Open Source Platform(OSP) and Microsoft Platform(MSP), each opposing other. With people in one religion hating other & all marriages should happen in same religion.

Then we would have festivals like Database day, Network day, System day, QA day, and one particular day java day would be celebrated by both the Open source and Microsoft religions as java works on both the platforms.

When it would come to marriage parents would oppose saying "Woh hamari technology ke nahi hai ", "Woh loog Open Source ke loog hai, proprietary naam ka cheez hi nahi hai ". "Product nahi Khareed te, sirf servcie khareed te hai". If a Microsoft Platform guys wants to marry a Open Source Platform guy then he would have to give up his religion and take up OSP, and he would be forced to take a oath saying that he would henceforth use only open source tools and will contribute to the society.

On a date boy would ask the girl, do u know struts, AJAX, how much do u know about Liferay. Girl would respond I am comfortable with app server and MS Sql server, liferay is good.
Then final verdict would be I think we both have some common things and some differences, we can make a good pair. (FYI these are all the tools that I use at E*TRADE for my project).

Imagine this happens then life would be so hilarious n fun. Hope U have enjoyed. Sorry I went too technical.

100* n.o.

2007-10-28T18:03:00.000-05:00

Its 100 days since I left the holy city of Indianapolis, IN , worked for 100 days at E*TRADE and completed 100 days of stay in heaven on earth or so called the bay area. A lot has happened in these 100 days, some good, some bad things, missed many things, relished every moment.

Exactly 1 year 11 months at Indy was the best part of my life so far & I miss every moment of it. I miss Indy, its serenity, Canal Square Apts and junkta there, the indoor cricket at 131, chatting and eating at 443, kritika's songs, lavanya's chettinad chicken, the swimming pool, the lounge of canal square. Miss the night walk on canal, or the steak n shake late night desert or the 12 am birthday party cakes. Mandar's Tabla, Prashant's computer game, saurab's rebate tips , sundar's shud hindi (swayam and meej), damru's advice. Badly miss the law school cricket, finding trouble gathering 5 people to play cricket, mandar's comments--" arree shot laga hai re " , sundar's nakhre "mamu kaam hai", saurab's "Gajab hoo gaya ", sanjeev's hot chilli avalaki. Omkar's ALu matti. Gokul's pav bhaji,

Badly miss the U C coffee machine where sri, me and saurab would go to have French vanilla. The Gym of canal sq where I started my weight loss prg. Miss the 112 lab where we used to spend hrs chatting and eating subways or saurab and me playing bowling practice in 112 during winter. Also miss Pavatra Ji's houle and potte hindi, Ashwin's Aaaja Aaaja scenes, Sai's Mysore Bonda. I miss pradeep's wide/no ball appeals. Can forget the nights before the exams where we used to night out n try to study.

Also the mass ALGO assignments, copying it from the grader n giving it back to her. What I badly miss is the grocery shopping at Meijer n Patel brother's bringing new items each time, carrying the grocery all the way to apt from the car, if luck drop the grocery to 443. 5 am Purdue trips in snow. I miss a lot more things which can't be put in this blog.

When I remember these things it makes my eyes moist, Hope i can get my student life back, my INDY life , Golden life indeed.

Pati Patni aur Woh

2007-10-22T13:59:00.000-05:00

This post is not about KANK, or Infidelity or Extra Martial affairs, but my notion of the current OS's Windows Linux and Mac. Off late I have been blogging (or bogging) too much about cricket (rather INDIAN cricket). So its time for some DESIGIRI, A bit of comparisons and bit of humor, and I expect it to be taken in the right spirit. Readers should not have any vulgarities in mind. At any point if you feel offended you may close your browser.

It has been a long time since I was introduced to LINUX in 4th sem BE, and my search for Optimal or THE OS has not ended, and the IDEAL OS doesn't exist in my perspective. Windows is definitely not the best OS but you can’t live without it. Linux is quite promising but you can’t survive only with it.

I came up with a silly n stupid comparison just bring out humor. Windows is like one's wife friendly, highly respectable in the family and society. Nobody will have problems interacting with it, quite homely and friendly. On the other hand Linux is like u r GF, whole society and family will have objection to it, and not many people will have GF, just like they don’t have Linux. But some people will have both the OS; I don’t know what that means.

Just like ones wife nags मे मैके चली जाऊगी (I will go to my father's house back) Windows always nags you with "Do you want to send the error to you Microsoft?", "Do you want to restart?" and similar bugging questions. Linux never really does that, probably its open source and nobody owns it.

Windows (one's wife) mostly comes in single distribution & you are always bound to it. Where as Linux (one's GF) comes in different varieties and different distribution, always replaceable with different & better versions of your choice or even remove & throw it out. You can customize it the way you want.

Windows needs an anti-virus, meaning you need to protect it from external world, just like the way you protect your wife. But LINUX doesn't need one, U never need to protect your GF.

Well Mac (OS X) comes close to integrating the best of the two, it has good UI and great stability but its tooo expensive. I haven't found any sort of comparison for Mac in real word, if you find one do drop a comment. By the way comments are free of cost.

If this post did bring a smile on your face then my blogging was worth, else I would have to try harder.

Practical Joke or Poor Joke

2007-10-19T22:47:00.000-05:00

Laughter is the best medicine-- everyone knows this but how many of follow it. Well we all know exercise is good for health, how many of us follow it???
So PJ are the best ways to bring out laughter, if it comes out well it would be a Practical Joke or else would end up being a poor joke. In either case it would bring a smile atleast which is good for health. So I decided to scratch some of the PJ's that I have cracked. Its upto you to decide what kind of PJ you would call it.

Once ex-my roommate (vinit) had cooked chicken and daal (for veg guyz). After seeing it I told my other roommates that vinit had cooked Daal for every one. Vinit got furious that I didn't mention about his chicken. I said "ghar ki murgi daal bara-bar !!!!! " We all had a good laugh after that.

At one point in our house we had 6 - 7 types of pickles & it would be spread all over the table. Once I got so frustrated about it and told my roomie इतने सारे आचार का आचार डालेगा क्या, we all had a big laugh.

Another incident was when Mandar(old roomie) and myself were separately watching t2o wc matches, when suddenly he called me and said "that he was getting some c++ error in winamp", I replied back I am not getting the error may be because I am a Software Eng.

Other incident was in office when one of my colleague told that our Eye insurance covers only for the lenses and not for the frame. I replied back then get a frame less glasses instead. From his reaction I realized that he didn't enjoy it much.

More coming up some time later. Now its its your turn to turn in some PJ's.

Blog Action Day -- परीसर

2007-10-15T00:05:00.000-05:00

Today 15th Oct is Blog action day, its a days where all the blogger in world would blog about "Environment". So its day where you can get different perspectives of the same thing. Some serious, some hilarious, some very painful issues, based on the type of blogger.

Whenever I think of Environment all I remember is tiring boring Environment Pollution essays that we had in our school days, in Eng, Kannada, Hindi, Sanskrit. We had this knack of writing the same contents in different languages. We would write about causes for these water air noise pollutions, effects and finally remedy. For a person from Bhadravati, Karnataka, where we had Iron, Steel , Paper, Cement, Sugar factories pollution was part and parcel of life. All these factories would pollute air & water so much that I never really new what pure air was. When I collected rain water in bucket it would have iron deposits at the bottom. When we approached bhadravati just sensing the fowl smell in air would tell us we have approached bhadravati.

Its seemed that air and water pollution had no effect on me. When I moved to blore I realized what sound pollution. And smoke from vehicles had a different kind of air pollution, no smell this time. Thanks to million trees in blore, or else the pollution would have reached zenith by now.

We all know the causes, effect and even the solution for these pollutions. There is no point just million people blogging about it, and just talking about it. Unless we take some simple steps all the efforts of this so called blog action day would in vain. We all would have read this "Keep the you surrounding clean". How many of us actually throw the waste paper, banana leaf, in the dustbin. Lets think the last time when we actually found a close by dustbin to dump the wastes. How many of us throw or dump garbage behind our houses(applicable mostly in INDIA).

There is nothing wrong if we clean our own mess, don't think what people think about it. Just do it. Lets set the tone. People here in U S are so conscious about the environment, I remember an elderly gentleman cleaning the table on which he had eaten saying, "I have messed its my duty to clean it". Dog owners carry plastic bags to clean the dogs shit. Its a bit different in US, the govt and people here take more care in protecting the environment. This is one thing U S has taught me and I am proud of it.

Lets make our environment a better place, lets enjoy our rights and enjoy our duties, not merely performing it.

5 / 5 for a movie called T20 World Cup Final

2007-09-24T16:56:00.000-05:00

As they call it Fact is stranger than Fiction, T20 W C Final was no more than a Fiction -- a super hit movie in the making. It was one like the Truman’s Show or reality show as we call it.

Sept 24 Monday 12 GMT a low budget movie without stars "Sachin Rahul Saurav" called “T20 W C Final “released. The movie had huge promotion n publicity as it was INDIA vs. PAK. Directed by the umpires. scripted by “the rules of game”, well narrated by some good commentary team (without sivaramkrishnan and ranjit fernando ) comprising of 13 (11 + 2 ) character performing at a time on what is called cricket ground. The movie *ing Sreesanth, Yuvraj, Bhajji,Afridi, as the lead roles (crowd pullers). These really are characters "नमूना" as they call so because they are attention seekers. The best part is hero and villain is chosen after the movie ends.

Movie had all the ingredients of a hit movie great script, great characters, item numbers i.e. dancers and even SRK (with 6 packs abs) as Special Appearance.

INDIA vs. PAKISTAN is always nail biting, exciting & pressure matches as we have just over half a billion people watching it as David Lloyd commented. Its a movie with lot of viewers. It’s said that in a final both the teams are at par, it’s only the team holds their never wins. It just Pakistan didn't held its nerve. It was ages since we had a seen a fighting final, generally it would be AUS thrashing the opposition. But this one was amazing because as it was decided in the 3rd ball of last over. It had best twists n turns much more than any Bollywood (if it has) or Hollywood movie had the best climax that wasn’t even scripted and couldn't be fixed by human. Only the almighty could have done this.

I am proud of watching this movie right from 5 am EST all the way till 9 EST, as another IND PAK W C final would be like Amir Khan movie once in blue moon. For both reaching final again, it means either defeating AUS ( SA and N Z will lose by themselves, they don't believe in finals) might happen in next century.

Started with Dhoni winning toss and rightly electing to bat, it’s the same old Wanderer’s Stadium where J Srinath played his last ODI and INDIA got thrashed, yea WC 2003 Final AUS 359. And S A chased 443 (50) creating history. Small boundaries 60 - meters and fairly flat pitch makes it a batting paradise. But it turned out to be a different pitch bit slow. INDIA started a final without 3 pillars S R S & on top shewag injured. Openers went off to a decent start, you could see pressure in the batsman’s face and their shots played. Quickly two down, and UV the start performer, great batsman, more importantly great entertainer comes. Amidst of all these action “Gambhir” was performing like a junior artist who gets paid hourly and not sure whether he would be picked for next movie. Yuvraj already had 2 Oscar nominee performances and got a Porsche 911 for his Full Monty. 6 sixes in 6 balls, (not sure whether some one had told him about the prize before). So it wasn't fair on his part to perform today. He ended skying the ball to Gul. Dhoni the next performer walks in.

Gul starts with beamer bouncer yorker and eliminates Dhoni. INDIA deep in trouble 4 down, left with Gambhir and Rohit in middle. The duo play decent cricketing shots and got a commanding total, well shot of the expectation. sharma Ji acted well like a new actor establishing himself, just like Shreyas Talpade. And score reached 157. This is first time INDIA have played well in a FINAL. Generally they mess it up, I reckon succumb to pressure or fear of not performing. PERFORMANCE is like a cycle you don't perform well because of the fear of not performing well.

R P bowled as he as done before and removed Md Hafeez, Momentum towards INDIA. Sreesanth made sure that movie cruises well, twists and turns happening, keeping the crowd interested, giving 21 in over and maiden the next. Sri Sri Sri Agarkar's absence wasn't felt Momentum pak. R P removed Akmal, suddenly Momentum towards INDIA.It was INDIA on top for a while and all of a sudden it was PAK top, shifting gears so fast. Much like the fights in old movies, first hero hits and then villain hits back both taking bit of pause and giving a stare. Hope you got the picture.

I Pathan picks up Yunis and afridi plays like a artist who hasn't be paid for a while and throws his wicket. Later 104 / 7 and momentum clearly towards INDIA. Dhoni already preparing the victory speech. Was about to leave thinking its the end of the movie. But first of the multiple climax starts, bhajji gets smacked for 3 sixes. Equation changes quickly momentum pak next over 2 more sixes from Tanvir. Star performer Sreesanth comes to rescue & picks Tanvir, & RP picks Gul, 9 down INDIA gain momentum.

Last over 13 required and jogi Ji comes to bowl, thinks of showing his acting skills, bowls a wide, & next full toss goes for a 6. Match & Momentum PAKISTAN. Malik now memorizing the victory speech. Sharma Ji bowls a short pitch to which Misbah tries to scoop it over fine leg. But due to lack of pace it just carries to Sreesanth who takes a clean catch to complete this movie.

Now its upto you to decide whose the hero and whose the villain.

Even Rajiv Masand (IBNLIVE critic) would have given a 5 / 5 to this movie and would have been INDIA's pick to Oscar instead of Ekalavya.

Second the biggest loser not really.

2007-09-22T11:04:00.000-05:00

I am known to be punctual (not boasting it though) who doesn’t believe in stretchable time much. People who know me will agree with that and I make a point to not lose it.

On Wed 19th Sept we (NCA) had our flight to Atlanta from SFO at 8 am. So we decided to met at OFFICE at 6 am and then car pool to SFO airport. So I got up at 5 am (don’t remember last time when I woke up so early) and started by 5:30 as I decided not take the freeway (highway) which I was advised. My route to office 12.4 mile starts with a 25, 35, 45, 50, 35, 25, 20, and 30 as the respective speed limits on different roads. Ofcourse with 35 traffic signal on the way taking it 35 – 40 min. It is difficult to reduce speed quickly and yet not being hit by person behind you.

I was on 50 speed limit when I my friend called me about my status, told him 15 more mins at max. I had to speed up to reach in 15 min and at the same time the speed limit reached 35. Since it was quite dark, and not many on the road I decided to over speed and reach office, I had to maintain my punctual image. There was a Honda Accord guy who has similar plans. I was trying to match with him, it was camry behind accord all ways. It was NASSCAR or F1 race both going 45 – 50 on a 35 speed limit street, bumpy and curly roads reminded me Blore. At each signal owing to Accord’s instant pickup he would overtake me. I felt bad at each time, but was happy with smoothness of Camry (poor man’s Mercedes Benz).

Suddenly I saw a lot of flashing lights from behind, was still in sleepy mood, it took me a min to realize cops behind. Duck was the first word that occurred, then all 1,800 Gods order of remembrance, Allah and Jesus as well. “sankat mey Venkatraman“ was aptly applicable. As per the subhashitani “sam prapte sanhite kale nahi nahi rakshati dunkrai karne” good that java c++. Eclipse, JPS, AJAX, portlet didn’t popup from my mouth.

Getting a speeding ticket in less than 3 months of license meant nothing but increase in insurance premium plus couple of 100 $ loss and all the hassle. Just to compound that I still have INDIANA license even after 2 months of CA stay. All these leading to BIG trouble may be missing the flight to start with. I had remember Saurabh, Mandar,Vinit, and Pradeep all getting tickets. I thought its my turn now.

COP approached closer, light and sound right behind me. Suddenly my phone starts ringing and I answered C U in 10 mins. Taking on phone and driving in CA also leads to ticket, realized that soon, heart beating loud, 100 mph and sweating in AC. Just signal right and was about to pulled over to a safe street.

COP over took me and caught the Accord guy ahead of me.

Who says SECOND is the biggest loser.

Off the mark and Twently20 Cricket

2007-09-17T21:15:00.000-05:00

Whenever we take a fresh guard i.e. start something we all start with "ॐ गणेशाय नामः ".

Back in INDIA we all hope that the festivals would be on weekdays preferably Fridays or Mondays so that we can make full use of so called long weekends. Things change a bit when we are in US; we hope that all the festivals are in weekends so that we can celebrate by going to temple or meeting friends.

My stint with tennis ball league started well on Ganesh's Birthday. I was called up for the match at 8 am which actually started by 9 (IST zindabad) a 20 over match, we put the opposition into bat. I always remember Sriram's dialog, "Manish 2 is less than 4". From that day I made a point to stand in close as my miss field would not cost more (2 < 4). But to my miss fortune captain placed me at the most important position on cricket here deep midwicket (as opposed to point in international cricket). So every time the bowler bowls short or down the leg side (which is quiet common as we come from Land of Prasad n Agarkar , we believe in bowling one side of the wicket and its leg side) my heart would beat faster. On one occasion the ball went high in the air and I shouted mine and ran towards the ball, kept my eyes focused on the ball and held on to one my best catches (some would claim "The only catch"). With the momentum taking me forward and dew not helping me either, I slipped and rolled on the ground but made sure that the ball was firmly held. We were given a total of 85 to chase in 20 overs. With the twenty20 fever catching up and the amount of runs they score making a mockery of run rates, it seemed like a simple task. But its not that easy here in tennis ball league , softball grounds would have mud and sand with in the 30 yards and huge grass covering in the rest of the field. Its like playing in overcast condition, with a seaming pitch, lots of cracks, and having a wet, soggy out field. If you manage to negotiate the movement and hit hard the light ball would not travel much and once it hits the ground it does not more forward. So its all about ones and twos and a rare boundary. So much in contrast with Twenty20. In the 15Th over I came to bat, my very first ball was short outside offstump, rocked back and played my favorite shot (Pradeep would claim " The only shot ") placed it past point for a single. Off the mark I was and looked towards heavens and thanked Lord Ganesh. Now I know what is getting off the mark is. I played a bit of pull , drives and nudges, and we had to accelerate our run rate, for some reason I remembered the slog sweep played by Steve Waugh. I was clean bowled playing across the line. Probably due to the slowness of the pitch or my wrong or no foot work. Finally we ended up losing the match by 9 runs.

In contrast; In twenty20 its the same 20 overs but you see radically different style of batting. With big hitting and frequent boundaries make a mockery of run rate. Harsh Bhogle had commented "redefine boundary". So what and why did twenty20 come to picture. In a ODI we enjoy only the first and last 10 overs. So why not make an event out if it, 3 matches a day, 3 hrs, 3 times more money without doing any thing.

Generally in ODI off the 10 over a bowler bowls he would have produced around 20 good balls. So its matter of producing those 24 bowls in a match nonstop. Its a testing time for bowlers and batsman as they have to give their best shot every time without respite. If you see the statistics its the good bowlers and good batsman that are more successful. So twenty20 is good in the interest of the game, just that is fast. People (bowlers) might claim that its too harsh of bowler (free hit rule) , almost flat tracks, fast outfields etc. But let me tell you cricket is a batsman's game,(ज़लीम दुनीया. ) nobody comes to see bowler bowl, they all enjoy batting and huge hitting. Tell me how many of us enjoy a low scoring match? or how many like a bowler rattling the top order? How many of switch off the T V when we see a score like 50/5 or 90/7 ? We start yelling at the batsman, not appreciating the bowlers!!

To succeed in twenty20 cricket one also need sound technique. Sloggers would be successful ones in a while, but its the technically sound batsman and quality bowlers who are willing to adjust survive and succeed . Its the same cricket but you don't respect some balls which you would have in ODI. Twenty20 is like driving on a highway, lot of fun, less time spent, more enjoyment. Good value for money, compounded with lot of risk (reaction time is less at high speeds) its all about comfort level. Sachin Saurav, Rahul didn't find it comfortable, neither am I finding it on freeways.

To drive in a freeways you need to be perfect in local roads, and by traveling in highways it wont affect your local road drive. Its all about willingness to adapt. So either you adapt and drive on highway or grumble and be rigid and drive like me on local roads.

What an analogy !!!!! what do u think?

Iss Raat Ki Subah नही -- इस रातकी सुबह नही

2007-09-10T22:21:00.000-05:00

This post is not about the movie (Iss Raat Ki Subah नही )but an incident that will be remember for the next One Hundred Years. 15 th Jan 2007, the day I left INDIA after one month of vacation.

My फ्लिघ्त (British Airways) was at 6 am IST from Bangalore to Chicago via London. Reached Chicago at 6:30 Pm CST passing the security and immigration, picking my baggage I ran towards American Airline counter as it was my connecting flight to Indy. To my bad luck the flight got postponed from 7:30 to 8:15. I realized that I had to inform Pradeep about the flight delay. (He was supposed to pick me up from the airport, provided I get him a pack of Mysore Pak). I searched my pockets and carry bag to realize that I had no cell phone with me, it was packed with all the electronic item. Luckily I had some quarters (25 cent coins) in my bag and headed towards the phone booth. But alas didn't remember the phone numbers. Since I alway has cell phone with me, I never had to remember any numbers. (I felt like Ali Baba's brother who had forgotten the key word sesame). I remembered Sundar's phone number, and then got Pradeep's number. Told him that I might arrive Indy at 10:15 pm EST. [He was like are the Mysore Pak there ??].

Spent the next 30 min roaming in the airport and wondering when I would sleep peacefully on the bed. Suddenly my attention turned towards the TV showing the weather new there. Alert "Heavy snow storm in Chicago and Midwest". No sooner realized that my flight had been delayed by 30 more mins. So again called up Pradeep and he told that it was snowing in Indy as well. Then I just peeped through the airport window to see nothing but snow all around the airport. I had forgotten that it was Mid Jan and I was in countries most windy & snowy city. Another update flight delayed by 45 mins, would depart at 10:00 CST. Did not bother to call Pradeep this time.

By Gods grace 9:45 the boarding began, and at 9:55 all passengers were seated. I was so tired by then that I just slept in the flight even before the flight took off. 10:30 I suddenly woke up and heard the air hostess announcing that since there was heavy snow and storm, they were waiting for weather to get better. I fell asleep again.

Roughly 2 hrs later I suddenly got up as people were shouting & taking over the phone. Just peeped out of the window, the scene looked familiar, and more over Indy Airport was not that huge and there were too many lights around. Got kind of scared a bit, was hungry also by now as well as the last food intake was like 6 hrs ago. Weird thought going through my mind. Then heard the golden sweets words "WE REGRET TO ANNOUNCE THAT THE FLIGHT HAS BEEN CANCELED DUE TO BAD WEATHER " sorry for the inconvenience!!!. It took me 2 mins to realize that the flight had not taken off. We all came back to terminal.

There was a huge queue for rescheduling the flight. I got a 2:40 flight, was so happy that I would fly soon, then saw PM there (2:40 Pm next day afternoon). And since the cancellation was due to weather there would be no refund as well. But they would provide hotel at a discounted rate of $70. I thought rather than staying in Hotel its worth while travel to Indy by greyhound (Sundar's Idea!!!!). But could not make it as it would be too late and importantly it would be too dangerous. I began to feel hungry and felt I hadn't eaten for days. When stomach is empty brain doesn't function well.

Then I met a couple with a 2 yr old kid, Incidentally they flew with me from Bangalore. Then we decided to rent a car and drive back to Indy and the husband said he would drive the car. We came out of the airport to headed towards the rental shuttle, came the gusting wind at -20 C making me realize what winter was. It was 20C when I had left B,lore. Lucky for due to my shabby packing I had accidentally packed small winter jacket (enough to keep me alive) in my cabin bag. At 3 am we got the rental car and our journey to Indy (180 mile) began. I asked how comfortable was he driving in U S after driving in INDIA for a month. He said lets see while we drive. He had better sense of humor than me

2 hr later 5 am CST after we crossed Gary, IN we found a McDonald's ( it was 6 am in EST we had changed timezones) which had early morning breakfasts. We just gobbled couple of burgers, I felt like getting a second life. Driving was tuff as it was snowing heavily, reached home at 8:30 am. Ran towards to my bed and slept as if I had never slept before.

Got up at 1 pm and realized that my Two Checkin baggage were missing and my cell phone was in that as well. After contacting the baggage claim and giving the confirmation number got my 1st bag (which had Pradeep's Mysore Pak) the next day & after 2 days got the 2nd bag(which had my cell phone). From that day I make sure my cell phone is my pocket no matter where I go.

वाकई इस रातकी सुबह नही

Cricketing the Labour Day Week End

2007-09-05T23:12:00.000-05:00

Long weekend (its either a Thursday - Friday or Monday holiday along with Sat and Sun) in U S are like Diwali and Dussera in INDIA, they are like festivals that people remember them more than they remember birthday. And the two mosts events associated with these are Sales and Travel. People plan a months in advance for these long weekends. As a long week approaches typical discussion topic would be what’s plans for long week end

I generally don't like traveling much (Believe me I haven't been to San Francisco yet which is 40 Miles from my place). I generally do shopping on these Week Ends. So I decided to at stay home and lazy around.

I wonder why people bring Lunch on Fridays; they are all off by 3 pm anyways and start talking about the week end from Noon. Well when it’s a Long week end it starts from 2pm. I generally have deadly Fridays, I always get some work around 4 pm which takes like couple of hrs.

It was 5 pm Friday evening as serene as a grave yard in my office. I was typically on headphone & doing some programming stuffs, suddenly I overheard the divine term "CRICKET" in my office for the first time in 8 week. I couldn't resist myself and actually ran towards it. Two Desi's were discussing about it and I unceremoniously interrupted them and asked whether there any cricket club around. To my fortune I was talking to the Vice Captain of the team SyndicateCC playing for cricbay league (www.cricbay.com hard tennis ball game). On his guidance I registered to the team and by 8 Pm captain gave me a call for a practice match before the winter season begins. It was more satisfying than getting a call for the National Squad.

On saturday 8 pm (7:30 was the scheduled time IST applies even in U S) 5 player assembled at the Cupertino Middle School ground (Baseball ground), It was SyndicateCC 's home ground as they call it. Typically cricket is played in Baseball grounds with the muddy area serving the Pitch and 30 yard circle. The nice part of these grounds is that they are not similar in structure or shape. Some have long Leg sides and some have no offsides, some have shorter straight boundaries, some have huge grass overing and some have mud every where. So home advantage is always there so much like the International grounds. So you got to adjust your game very quickly.

I introduced myself to the team and was told that I was the youngest member in the team. (They expected me to agile and nimble footed). Typically 3 stumps at one end were pitched and before I took 22 foot steps, out came the measuring tape (after all professional cricket). It was more net practice for the next 90 mins. No sooner I realized that it’s a different ball game when playing in muddy surfaces, ball skids, bounces, cuts, spins a lot more than you expect. Having played in flat batting beauties (Law School Ground and Library/Physics grounds) adjusting to this conditions was a bit tuff initially. Realized why INDIA fails miserably overseas. For the first time in my life I enjoyed bowling more that batting. Got used to what is called rough outside off /leg stump, realized what footwork is all about, and the importance of taking singles. Because we have long boundaries, wind factor and thick out field.

Another team who wanted to play a friendly match with us came in. Typical introduction Mahesh Oracle, Rajesh Deloitte, blab blah, and again I was the youngest player. Match started and typical gully cricket rules, non-strike/keeper will be the umpires. There was lot of heated debates on wides and over the shoulder's no balls. Typically claims "It’s on borderline not a wide" by the bowler. "You stepped out so no no-ball". On couple of occasions it reminded me Pradeep's famous arguments "Its wok Its wok Its not wide" when was in bowling team. Even though these people are in mid 30's and are all s/w professionals they all have josh or spirit of a teenager. My captain in pursuit of quick single run himself out, later he said "Manish our mind is in 20's but body's in 30's. And when the bowler over steps (no ball) the captain comes to rescue, "We did not give it when you were bowling! so no overstep no-balls". I wondered why he used measuring tape in the first place.

Finally I was asked to bowl that last over with 17 required, golden memories of Munaf, Agarkar, haunted me; by God's grace it we won by 14 runs. There came the suggestion from the captain "Manish try bowling some yorkers in the next match. No sooner the match ended they began to get calls from their Home Ministers they all were jealous that I was single.

For the next 3 days I was nursing my body pains sleeping and taking painkillers, seemed like I had inherited all the injuries player suffer, shoulder, ankle , heel, back, hamstring, calf , thigh, groin etc. Now I have a reason to exercise and stay fit, "Keep my position in the team"

This was my best long week so far enjoyed it my way.

First Meeting with the Manager

2007-08-30T21:55:00.001-05:00

After the 2 weeks of class room training we had to schedule and meeting (it was called interview with Manager). This is how it goes. Friday 4 Pm.
Me and Manager and Mr X:
Manager: Hi :This is Manish from Purdue.
Me :Hi
Mr X :Hi
Manager: Here is the FRD got from the BRD, Its required to develop a portlet having AJAX capability for searching and sorting using RICO's LiveGrid. It would be Struts portlet, rather than JSP as it has MVC will be running a Tomcat instance.
Manager: We will not have hibernate facility for this. It will be hosted on my lxdm14545 box. So configure your port with the help of Mr X and may be from Monday you can start coding. Once you have tested it in DIT we will do a SIT bild and after UAT the business will test it and push it to PRD.

I remembered pk's post about Jargoneese, it was quite similar but didn't see the point why he was trying to confuse me. I was busy writing the key words so that I could do a Google search later on. It seemed like I had entered the wrong meeting room, but the room and people were familiar. I was all confused seeing stars all around.
Manger : RTFM more details. Read The Fine Manual (I was thinking of some thing else de missed something) and smiled. Realized later on why he smiled. I didn't want to show my ignorance so just nodded my head. My 6 years of study in Computers left me with only Java and Linux as my weapon. Felt like I was in a wrong company. Was I in coma when these technologies were developed? How did they hire me in the first place!!!!!

Now the brilliance of a Desi Mr X saves me, exactly read my face the judged that I understood nothing. So went to the cubicle to decode what was told by my manager and also to link my key words. Mr X: See Struts in a Nut Shell is a framework, Alfresco is a CMS ....JSP gets compiled to a servelet blah blah blah...

Later I Googled out the terms and wrote the definitions n after couple of hours I figured out "Port is a Linux box", Portlet is a small component that appears on a website, FRD is Functional Requirement Document. Business is the one who requested this feature. Struts-Liferay is where you write the logic using JSP and JavaScript (web programming languages).

Its true as they say "GOOGLE is YOUR FRIEND" ask him before you ask any one else.
At end of the day I got the bigger picture "Pull the data from Database n display it on Web and push it back to the database", its just more complicated, sophisticated 6th sem website project.

Now 4 Weeks have passed and I was talking to Mr X that the project is ready as per the FRD and business is ready to test it, If OK it will be pushed to PRD. My Manager overheard the discussion and had a smile on his face seeing me use the Jargons. Well

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication -- Leonardo da Vinci
Not true with S/W I guess

My friend Saurab always says working in s/w company is like Cricket Captain managing his team, knowing where to place the field and whom to bowl.
Just an addition to it , its exactly like SRK managing the women hockey in Chak De INDIA.

Aug 24th The day to remember

2007-08-25T20:57:00.000-05:00

Aug 24th 1972, was day when first ODI Century was scored by D L Amiss exactly 35 years later Sachin missed his ton. It’s a day Sachin (rather his fans) would like to forget, Dravid and INDIA will remember,its the 2nd ODI INDIA Vs ENG, Bristol. Highlights of the day: INDIA amassed 329 and as expected won it, but by 9 runs thanks to Munaf, just gave 20 instead of 30. Sachin missed his century by 1 run (courtesy poor umpiring) and Dravid scored 92 (63 balls), Chawla beautifully bowled (KP and Collingwood). Well we have had last over histories (Chetan Sharma (Gold Medal sixer), Sri Sri Sri Agarkar (Silver Medal four), Nehra(missed Gold) and Munaf (missed both).

Harsha Bhogle once in his commentary had mentioned about "Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory"; it’s so true with this INDIAN team. These games are like one of those street fights where a "star player" intentionally takes the beating for a period of time and pretends to be down and under until the betting ratio increases and finally when instructions come in he over powers the opponent. I don't see any difference the way INDIA plays when they defend huge scores. May be just to increase the TRP rating (who knows) or keep the crowd on their toes, after all its entertainment business. I followed first 10 overs of ENG chase where Sri Sri Sri Agarkar was doing his job as per script giving runs (run daata).

Couple of hrs later 30 ball 60 runs required and 7 wickets down situation and Sri Sri Sri comes to bowl, ideal situation for him to display his talent. On a given day he can play for either team, such is his talent, he tried his best. Last over 30 runs required and munaf just gave 20. Probably Dravid knows his bowlers’ well that explains his 63 ball 92 knock.

It’s tough to believe it’s the same Dravid who scored 12 (96 ball) in the 3rd Test.

I sometimes believe that Dravid has schizophrenia, or split personality as it’s commonly called. More “filmy” its Vikram's Anniyan(tamil) or Aparachitidu (telgu) or Devgan's Deewangee. Thats my perspective (which only brings humor), in CRICKET world its called class or playing according to the condition. But the 12 (96) innings was a PITA (Pain In The Ass) innings. I was like adding salt (rather chili powder) on ENG's newly wounds. My friend Mandar mentioned that police rather than using 3rd degree on prisoners (to confess or extract some information) they should repeatedly show the Dravid's PITA innings.

But I liked Dravid's focus (series win imp 1-0 or 2-0 doesn't really matter) simple and effective strategy. More time the INDIANS play, less time the ENG will get to play, which would lead to a draw and thats what INDIA needed to seal the series. "Na bache ga time Na Phisle ga match" is apt I guess. Because he knows the INDIAN team like back of hand {rather back of his left shoulder, donno why he keeps looking there}. Because INDIAN batsman think that 2nd innings is not their's. [check out their 1st , 2nd innings average if you don't believe me], How many times INDIA have chased 150 and lost 5 or 6 wickets[check out the 2nd test match], or even some times failed to chase bigger scores[ Madras test match cachin 136 and saqlain 5 wickets]. That justifies Dravid's decision of not offering follow on and his PITA innings.

Well a good captain is one who knows the talent in his team and never underestimates them.

Chak De Week End

2007-08-20T21:45:00.000-05:00

I have always confronted with a Typical question every Friday "whats up for the weekend ?", and my obvious answer would be "nothing, lazying around at home". Well thats what I have been doing for past 5 weekends now. Actually realized what weekend is when I started to work. Typically or traditionally have lunch with my roomy at one of many INDIAN restaurants and end the weekend with a big sleep. My friend in INDIA Sandeep had suggested me to watch to "Chak De INDIA" in theater.

Got a call from a friend of mine to watch CDI, at Naz theater Fremont. I was eager to see Fremont (Punjab of Bay area) more than SRK. Reached around 8:30, met couple of IUPUI seniors who for a change happened to be kannadigas. Its rare occasion when kannadigas meet in U S. The movie started at 9 am, houseful as expected (SRK movie), Movie opening was good, actually bored of seeing SRK as soccer player, for a change was a Hockey Player. Typical opening, hero misses the goal at the crucial moment, he actually beckhamed and crowd getting angry and all "bull" of match fixing thing. Hard to digest fixing in Hockey!!!!!, the incident was modeled on cricket I bet. And then labeling SRK " Gaddar " was all crap, -- give me a break, may be WC and Dhoni's home incident effect.

The best scene of the movie -- SRK is being interviewed for "Coach of Womens Hockey Team", and even before committee decides SRK says "To may Nokri Pakki samjhu , aur koye to hai nahi aap ke pass". Wish I had the same thing in my E*TRADE interviews. (Exactly opposite to Graham Ford incident). The best dialogue of the movie -- "mujhe states ke naam sunte nahi, sir INDIA suniye deta hai".

One Hr into the movie, Hindi movie and no kids that can't be. We had some amazing background music from the kids, may be they heard the team spirit stuff from SRK. No sooner followed the impatient crowd, "aree bache ko chup karao ", "we did not pay for this" "why don't you bring a nanny" etc. Now they began to show some unity and integrity, shouting more than the kids. And the child's mother obviously embarrassed had to go out with the child. Now parents had to concentrate more on their kids than the movie.

I enjoyed all the three Movie, children's crying sound and parents yelling, felt so much like INDIA. Close to 3 hr SRK movie with just one song (must be a record) got over, I came out of the theater in a good mood after a long time. For the first time I was associating myself with a game other than cricket, nice for a change. Reached home at 1 am.

Next day I decided to test my car on the highway, so set out to Great Mall, Milpitas. Used to only 45 - 50 MPH, 60, 65 seemed to be fast & uncontrollable, well its 100 kph. Realized how smooth and responsive my Camry was. With Gods grace and google map reached Mall. A Typical mall with tons of people, felt like "Kumbh ka mela". After a bit of shopping I decided to find my CAR. Hmm finding my Camry in Mall parking lot in bay area seemed to be a NP hard problem. It seemed like Fractals the car patterns, occurring again and again. Scorching sun added to my agony. Out of the no where came a gentleman, I am hari from AP.

Donno why I replied Manish, INDIA (Chak de effect i guess), suddenly I corrected from Bangalore.

WHAT IFFFFF...

2007-08-07T21:45:00.000-05:00

"Mazzak mazzak me 4 posts hogaya ". Its always easy to bowl with a new ball and your strike blower on song. The real challenge is when ball stops swinging batsman start to get settled. Thats true with every aspect of life in Kannada we call it "Aramabhika Shoora". When it doesn't swing they bowlers start shinning the ball, ball some cutters, slower ones. Captain starts shuffling his field etc. You can see restlessness in the field.

We all think and follow the normal way, the traditional swing. In cricket When it doesn't swing we try the other way, the reverse swing. Lets think the other way "what if it has happened other way" or Yuh Hoota To Kaisa Hoota (naseerudin shah's directorial flop). And it would sound really funny and makes us feel good when we think about these matters. This though has came to Saurabh's (my M S friend) my mind sometime so thought of sharing it.

"Just imagine" as said in KMG.

For example what if we didn't have Himalayas protecting INDIA or INDIA had the same latitude of that of USA, then probably INDIA would end up having a weather similar to that of USA. Northern part would have the snow and 0 F (-16 C to -20 C) winter, with Srinagar submerged in snow like North Dakota. Haryana would be Wisconsin, Punjab would be Minnesota and Chandigarh would be Minneapolis(health care Industry). Allahabad with its triveni sangam (Lake Michigan) would be Chicago (windy city) IIT, Chicago would be Allahabad University.(may be similar in Desi counts). Varanasi would be West Lafayette and Banaras University would be the Great PURDUE ahah.

General Motor's HQ (Detroit) would be represented by Patna and Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Bihar University, Muzzafarpur, Bihar as U Mich (would have made lalu-rabri proud). Moving east Assam and Nagaland would be the Massachusetts and New Hampshire, with snow over one feet all the time. Guwahati being the BOSTON home of MIT, BU,
U Mass (now IIT guwahati will deserves some respect). Kolkata being Washington DC, bit of snow and cold, having good transportation system (metro and tram). Bihar and Jharkand would be the typical midwest, boaring and filled with obese & laid backfolks (quite a bit of similarity). Bhuvaneshwar and Vizag would be the beautiful North and South Carolina, hilly and scenic beauty (again contrast). Hyderabad (famous for Charminar) would be St Louis famous for its arch, a bit of +ve correlation. Agra would be the UTAH mountains with skiing and snow boarding (hope this was true). Coming to central INDIA, Indore would be the beautiful Colarado spings. Goa would be Los Angeles beaches and party all the time. Raipur would be Kansas City bit of cold and hot, both cities being unnoticed. Amritsar and Phagwara would be Seattle and Bellevue the M S HQ would make some Punjabi's happy.

Mumbai would be the San Francisco and Pune (IT and whether wise) would be San Jose, & bay area between them, and I-101 freeway would be pune-bombay expressway. Mountain view being khandala, (then Ghulam song would be "ati kya mountain view") and Sunnyvale (suryanagar as we call it) would be Lonavala (famous for chikki). Temperate climate (55 to 75 F), not much of rain and almost no humidity (now thats a contrast!!!!), people from all over the INDIA would want to reside here (quite true in both cases). IIT Powai would be Stanford and VJTI (number 1 BE college in Mumbai) would be UC Berkley. Now that would make some mumbaikars reading this smile.
Tulzapur (home of Goddess Tuza bhavani ) near Sollapur would be Las Vegas.

Cuddalore(Tsunami hit city) would be New Orleans(Hurricane hit city) Thiruvananthapuram being Miami, Florida famous for beach and tourist place, hot all the time (Mallu's would be happy I guess). Madurai (menakshi temple) temple city would be Orlando famous Walt Disney World (want a contrast), Chennai would be west palm beach[ [what a contrast!!!] and Pondicherry as Ft Lauderdale the exotic cities. Bangalore would be Dallas-Richardson (both have IT and good weather). But DFW airpot is awesome, hope bangalore international airpot would be the same soon, all depends on HD Deve gowda and Sons. PESIT (my BE college) would be UTDallas. And IISc would be the NASA at Houston(Sorry had to fit on IISc some where went too far south). Lakshadweep would be Hawaii islands and Pakistan(previously part of INDIA) would be Alaska the 50 th state of US, (what a contrast!!!!!!!)

In winter people would say we going to Chennai to get some heat, definitely people of Bangalore will not agree with me. They are forced to go to Chennai for VISA.
Hope this simile blog would charge our geography, if I missed out any places please do comment it in pair and I will fix it.

Also do comment which do you think is the most contrasting thing.

New Ball swing FUNDA -- 2 perspectives

2007-08-05T02:00:00.000-05:00

As in Test Cricket they say "As a batsman you got play new ball carefully negotiating the swing" I have been negotiating the first 3 weeks at E*TRADE with ease and confidence without any hiccups and edges.

In the name of training we had each team bombarding technical jargons and abbreviations at us for the first 2 weeks. Starting with Precise Questioning and Answering(P Q & A ), where we are taught how to ask precise question. They asked us to frame one question from each of the 7 categories on every single statement. The good part is that when you ask so many precise questions about one sentence you understand it so well that you have less questions later :) . Its an indirect way of looking at a sentence from all 360 degrees. It really makes sense using these PQA 's in our real life, as our communication eases and each person know what he wants and whats he is expected off. We are asked to frame questions individually, in groups, and in mixed groups. When one does the same task individually and in group he/she realizes what team work is all about. Its a real pain believe. What you think is right some one will object it.

When we were going through these sessions, certain hilarious moments of how Mandar (my X roomie) and I were answering precisely to people came into my mind (People of Canal Square will know that pain that we caused :) ). These sessions had so much impact on me that, when I met the HR she asked me "do u have a SSN ? ", for which I said "yea"!!!!!! Soon realized that she was expecting my ssn no, I tactfully said "effect of PQ sessions". Later on in the week we had "TECH" training, where directors of each team would come in and bombard with abbreviations which they expected us to know!!!!!!! The only precise questions that each of us had were "Where does this fit into E*TRADE architecture ?", each framing in their own ways. Because if we didn't ask questions when all are expecting, it would give a dent feeling. So each one of us were busy preparing questions. And I am famous for asking questions .

Next we had some hands on experiences where we "build and run " (past tense) some code. The best part of E*TRADE is that they use LINUX (RHEL 3), this saves a lot of money. I was really excited to work in LINUX as I hate the "MicroSoft" env. The strange and sad part was that, out of the 13 NCA's only 3 of us knew LINUX and I was a pro and other 2 were supposed to be Network Admin ( so they had to know LINUX ). At last my stint with LINUX in Masters turned fruitful. In the training sessions I realized that good engineers need not be good teachers. The was one person who was reading the slides. I had enough of slide reading in M S and B E. There was one NCA who would sleep and snore, but when he gets up would ask a question to show that he is awake (nice strategy!!!).

The most hilarious part of E*TRADE is that the cubicles have good IP address type numbering system. Say 5.1.438 is my cubicle. ( 5 for Menlo Park (city) , 1 for first floor (ground floor of INDIA) and 438 my cubicle address). The weird part is 438 and 437 might not be adjacent. It took me 30 min to search my managers desk 5.2.105 from 5.2,104 . So each person has his own way of identification, some use printer room or some use rest room as their reference point. And we have DNS in the name of receptionist who would give the layout of when asked. Other day I was chatting with a co-worker regarding some issue. He asked my cubicle reference point I said 1 floor coffee machine. He later messaged me saying that he was waiting there for like 20 min. I soon realized that he had recently come from INDIA and was still in ground floor first floor concept. For the first time Emergency assistance number has now changed to 9-911 from 911 !!!!!!!!

The other side of new ball, --the bowler's perspective, after certain overs the bowl doesn't swing, similarly after second week bowl didn't swing for me either. Had meeting and appointment with various managers, got the project requirement, did lot of reading, had to install and configure hell lot of stuffs, all expecting me to be productive now.

Well when it doesn't swing try cutter and slower ones. Or introduce spin (the load takers). Which means time for some hard work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :(:(:(:(:(.

Yet another Camry Hits the road

2007-08-03T00:03:00.000-05:00

Well another aspect of DESIGIRI is buying a Honda and Toyota cars, I am a Desi so I began my dream car hunt right from day one. I checked out cars.com and craigslist.org ( be careful while typing it ) for accords and civics. Found a decent one posted by individual sellers who sell it much cheaper than dealers. There is a saying every dollar you save comes with a dollar worth of pain. The biggest problem is contacting the owner and asking for VIN, its like SSN. It would have complete jataka of the car right from day one. Looking for Honda and Toyota cars all u expect is a desi or a chinki seller. I had a hard time as I had only chinki sellers. The communication goes like this "Hello I am interested in buying u r car, can I get the VIN of the car ?". After a brief pause the reply was the paraphrase of what I said, "So you are calling to get the VIN ?". Donno y chinkis always paraphrase before they answer. After checking its carfax I got an appointment for the test drive. I had rented car for the week end. I didn't have much success neither I liked the car nor the price in all the occasions. One the way back along with my friend Yogesh we gave a visit to the Toyota of Steven Creek, fortunately he had some Honda as well. Here I liked the cars but not the prices. We desis always want good things at low price [:)].

The dealer start talking, looking at me realizing that I am a desi ,obviously a software Eng "Which company do u work sir ? ", " I said I work for E*TRADE ", he replies in a tone that would make you feel in satva asman (seventh heaven), "E*TRADE ha big money sir, why do you what to buy a used Honda, go for brand new one , it must me peanuts for your salary" or else U can go for BMW or AUDI. I can get you a good deal on that as well. As if I earn a million a year!!!!!!!!. Finally a found a 2001 Accord Lx with 54 k at 13 grand. And we Desis never fall shot of bargaining and dealers know that. We started "You know I am just out of college and have huge student loans, just came to cali and blah blah ". We started to make the atmosphere bit gloomy by tell out dard and dukhi kahanis.

He started with 13k we said 11k, as kbb (kelly blue book)of the car is around 10.5 and we liked the car so I didn't mind paying a bit more for it. He said 11.5 would be his final price of the car. I desperately wanted that car for 11k, so I told him will contact my brother and discuss about it. Basically we wanted to buy some time before we made the final decision. He was sharp "Can u call u r brother now ?", i was sharper " he lives in NY and they are 3 hrs ahead of us, so I don't to disturb at this point". It was 8 pm by then on Sunday and obviously we didn't expect any one after that, and people wont come on Mondays, so thought that car would remain there. I drove back peacefully thinking of bargaining for 11.2 or 11.3 and make a deal. I had the most peaceful sleep that night. Next day morning I was so excited and thrilled, called up the bank for loan which was pre-approved. At 2:30 pm I got a call
essa :"Hello Manish how ru ? this is essa from Toyota ", I was so excited .""

essa : I have a bad news for you, the car got sold right after you left, some Indian liked the car and bought it for 11.3k, U know its bay area good deals don't last long!!!"
Probably some other desi would have used a better strategy and purchased it. I was literally into tears, It was the saddest moment of my life. "Delays are dangerous" its true. I called up my friend he could not believe it nor could I for the next 3 days. Every time I saw an accord, my heart missed a beat (even now some times). Then I remembered the munna bhai song, "Agle din aiswarya ayi one"(hospital scene).

Next Saturday I rented a car took a look at Palo Alto Toyota, He had couple of civic and accord which I didn't like. Suddenly a Teal blue color bright glittering 2000 Year Camry caught my eyes, with only 43k mileage (odometer) it was love at first sight. Went for a test drive along with the agent, It drove smooth, good handling, not the kind of pickups accords have though, but decent one. Saw the car fax single owner, but the price was the big barrier 12k, It was 9:15 on Saturday and this had come to deals 2 days ago, and was not posted in any of the ads yet. I told him I will come back tomorrow as I needed to consult my friends. Saw the kbb and rechecked carfax, decided that I would start from 10 k and would endup atmost 10.5 and finish the deal.

Went at 11 am on Sunday , test drove again, AC was good, it had a CD player AM/FM and more imp cassette player. Again the same old bargain shit took place and deal was over with 10.6 K plus 3 months of warranty on the car. The complete set of formalities was over by 2 pm, and on Wed Aug 1 ,after getting insurance from All State drove my Camry back home.

"I am a proud owner of Toyota Camry LE, even though its termed a desi car" after all I am DESI !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First day in OFFICE

2007-07-30T21:36:00.000-05:00

Well the day arrived 16 th July my start day of my first job. After a long time ( since early morning PURDUE interview Visits ) I got up at 6 am , left home by 7. Reached the office reception and introduced myself as an NCA ( New College Associate ), came the reply " please take your seat Tech Trainer will meet all the NCA's at 8:30, you are early by 30 min". On my way to the sofa met 4 desis in formal dress with tie and couple of chinkis in full arm shirts and leather shoes and 3 more female NCA's all dressed in formal staring at me wearing a round neck wrangler shirt, trendy painter blue jeans and sandals. Missed a heart beat for a sec, for the first time I looked under dressed or wrongly dressed. Not a nice way to start your first Job . To my agony saw a couple of senior staff dressed as well. 8:30 Tech Trainer dressed in suit boot guided us to the training room. All the time I was guilty of myself in jeans & T shirt, but not any one objecting it.

Tech Trainer introduced himself and asked every one to introduce themselves and what each had a view about company. PURDUE has great respect in my office, so I had my head high as I was from IUPUI under "Purdue School of Science". As the introduction began there were couple of PURDUE students. So when I said I am from Purdue, Master of Science the trainer said you guys must be knowing each other? you would have get time here.

See the way we use Purdue is like how "Yudhistra of Mahabharata used Ashwothama Mritaha". Not actually from Purdue but we dont say that we are from IUPUI. We get the degree from PURDUE though.

So I was caught in a Jinx, didn't want to spell out the bean on the first day in front all NCA's and managers. Used my sixth sense (a thread of Desigiri) both the Purdue folks were Undergrads!!!!

I said "Not really you know how big PURDUE is and there are over 40K grads & undergrads and really difficult to know most of them". One of the PURDUE folk was a desi, he probably understood what I was hiding off . Fortunately for me he kept his mouth shut. Not used getting up early and eating cereals at 6:30 am, I began feeling hungry the session started. Luckily for me the trainer said "lets meet after 10 min when the projector would be fixed, I was the first person to get up and ran towards coffee machine.

Then we were asked to switch on the computer, me being a mozilla freek /quickly installed it. It had been long time now that I hadn't checked my mail (8 hrs). So typed gmail.com , quickly I received a access violation message got really scared. Coincidently the instructor began to explain security features of my company & there were no personal emails and messengers. My heart missed a beat, no messenger got to be kidding. Then he told me "If incidentally someone does that he get a violation message", he showed what the message looked like. Guy beside me whispered "man u r really fast" sarcastically, instructor realized what was going on. I gave a fundoo ans "Know the rules of the game before you play" he was astonished. Imagine the scene in a room where every one wore formal nobody spoke a word, me in fundoo jeans giving dialogs. But the best thing was ORKUT was not blocked, since its "not personal". I have been rigorously using ORKUT before its blocked.

During the training he had a slide that my company has relaxed culture and that there was no restriction on type of clothing, I felt like I passed the test of Day. I thanked my friend had told me that companies in bay area have relaxed culture. At last I felt home.

Then we dispersed for lunch provided by the company, met a lot of Managers Directors and HR. Suddenly from behind some called me "Manish how are you ? you have lost weight and grown long hair. Did u see your cubicle 5-1-438". He was one whom I had spoken about Linux and Ubuntu during my interview. Found out that he was a Principle, Software Eng of the team I was part of. Later of I began speaking couple of other folks whom I met during the lunch at interview. One (PURDUE alumni) of whom said "Its really glad that you accepted this offer". I was like I had no other option so!!!!!! Sometimes talking too much to too many people helps. :). One of my fellow NCA came up to me & asked how did that guy know your name and cubicle ??? I said man PURDUE connection. Thats when I felt 2 years of hardwork and snow shit worked out. Later on I found out that E*TRADE has a heavy PURDUE connection.

Now I regularly( forcibly) meet, chat and discuss with PURDUE alumni. I am one now!.

Bottom line "In a yes/ no question reason for y/n is not asked".

29 th state of INDIA

2007-07-27T22:28:00.000-05:00

I thought a good place to start my blog would be the place where most of the software companies started "the bay area", (I call it the 29th state of INDIA) which is between San Francisco (SFO) & San Jose(SJ). Cost of living increasing from San Jose to San Francisco, so most people(including me ) stay close to SJ and travel towards SFO.

Desis concentrating mostly around SJ area, where you see only Honda n Toyota in comparison to Merc, BMW, Lexus, Ferrari, Porsche etc in SFO area. The weather here varies between 55 F to 75 F (when it varies from -4 F to 100 F in some places), thats a real bonus in US, idea temperature for Desis to expand their empire. For the first time here in US I could hear children cry and yell in shopping malls ( donno why only Desi children cry ). You can see parents and senior citizens walking and shopping with small bag on their shoulder, or going for morning walk in parks. You can see the Desi attitude while they drive and shop here. Let alone the customers ,the sales person in bank, security guards in office, taxi drivers are all Desis. Its good in one way that our feel good factor increases and things go smooth and easy.

Well in Corporate offices its fun you find only Tandoori chicken (Desis) and Chili chickens (Chinkies). And wide variety of Desis, from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and Gujarat to Assam. And each trying to speak in their own accent, its fun thought listening to it. And here and there you will here the whar ( where ) har ( hair ) , simbly ( simply ) also you hear apadiya, enna solla, cheppu, kai zhala etc in their typical accent, all these make you feel at home. But one thing I must accept that INDIANS clean your doubts in the nicest and most simple way.

Plate meal at "saravana bhavan" and Dosa n Filter coffee "madras coffee " will make you feel heaven on earth making you feel home away from home.

Well come to my Blog

2007-07-26T21:25:00.000-05:00

Well its been 2 years in US and had quite a bit of hilarious moments so far, so thought of spitting out through this blog.