Dear Mr. Greg Chappell - II

Hi There. I am back for more. I understand its the eve of the series with England. You see, I had written to you after the loss at Karachi. Since then, you and your boys won the one-day series against pakistan (Toss back a couple of brews from me for that thorough outplaying of Pakistan and almost pulling out a 5-0 decision). It was indeed a very good showing from Team India where we outhustled, outfought and out-everything Pakistan. Excellent.

We are investing money in getting the dish network subscription for this series as well. So, if you feel like I might be burdening you a little because we are paying quite a handsome amount for the telecast, you are right. I know we are playing in our backyard with the pitches probably helping our bowlers more than England's, and add to it all the injury woes that the Poms have been hit with, one would expect us to basically take this series very easily. I am not. Because that's why you play the games. We still have to go out there, bat, bowl and field as well as know we can and take advantage of all the situations to the best our abilities. I am sure you have drilled this into each and every player of the team that nothing can be taken for granted. If England were to be down, let's say 4-150, please, please, please go for the Jugular, rather than waiting for them to give it to us in a platter. There is one thing we have seen in this English squad that has separated them from the other English teams of the yesteryears, they never seem to quit. So, I hope you stay on top it all, at all times.

I am most happy for the team that you have been given to work with, in terms of giving the boot to jackasses that never seemed to improve (Agarkar and Zaheer -- in fact, it looked like they regressed a lot in the recent times, if that was possible) and rewarding Sreesanth and infusing the team with a lot of new blood. Probably, couple of them will not see any action at all in this series, but I am sure, the experience of rubbing shoulders with some of the living legends of Indian cricket will do them a world of good, for their future.

I am not going to ask you about the whole Ganguly issue. To me, he is just another Indian player. If he is selected to play, I will root for him, if not, that too is okay with me. I had a conversation with a friend of mine recently on this. I will send you the transcript sometime, once I figure out some html stuff.

I hope all your plans and goals for the Indian team in this series come true and India end as victors. I hope the experiences makes us a better team. I hope we get to learn more about our young'uns, from their good work and their mistakes. I wish you and the Indian team well. Now, go get 'em!!

Times, they are a-changin'

Last week, I met up with a buddy of mine at a bar. He was with a few more of his buddies. The one of interest to us, here -- let's call him "Buddy". My buddy, his buddies including Buddy were pretty drunk and I was not. I was still very aware of what was going on around me. I had just bought a pint of the Lord's Finest (Miller Lite, damn it!) and after couple of sips, placed it on the table. I noticed Buddy was trying to pull a fast one on me by making the beer switch.. Since they were pretty drunk and I didn't want to make a scene, I wanted to pull Buddy aside and tell him that I had noticed the switch and If he needed a beer that bad, He could have just asked me and I'd have got him one. There are certain things you don't take away from a guy.. Most importantly, his woman, remote control and his beer. Believe me, I have been there and done that!! And I have paid my dues!! While I was in the process of pulling Buddy aside and letting him know of what i thought, Someone stepped in between and said "Namaste". I guess its too obvious of a fact that I am an Indian.. which is alright by me.

Back in 1998, it had been only a few months since I had been in the land of milk and honey, (U.S., stupid!) I had gone to get a hair-cut. I struck up a conversation with a lady at the salon. After a while, my being from India was brought up and she was glad to meet someone from a faraway place. Her curiosity about this land afar knew no bounds and she started firing questions such as, "do you have mountains in India?", "I heard that there are elephants in India, So do you see elephants walking around town" and basically, queries of that nature. Believe me when I tell you, she was not the brightest person you'll ever meet. It looked like her knowledge of India was pretty much dictated by Indiana Jones. At one point, I was going to get up and start yelling "Kaali Maa!!!"

This brings us back to this person stepping in and saying "Namaste" to me last week. In a little over 7 years, (Oh My God!! Has it been that long since I came to Penn State? I NEED TO GET OUT!!), we have gone from "do you have snakes and elephants and mountains to Namaste, Aap kaise ho?". Is it because India is more visible in geo-politics these days starting with the nuclear tests of 1998, Kargil, and the Outsourcing issue? Or is it because the average american is trying to make an effort to recognize the fact that there is actually a world outside of United States and trying to become more worldly-wise? I guess the answer is probably a combination of two. At any rate, as Thomas Friedman of NY Times says, the world is indeed flat. If you do not recognize that, you are going to be left behind!

Make way for the Indian!

I was in the cornfield country of Indiana for the last Fourth of July weekend. My friend's fiancee is from Shelbyville, IN and I visited with her family for the weekend as I always wanted to see how anytown, USA is, how they would react to an outsider and add to it, a foreigner. State College pretty much is cosmopolitan for all the variety of people you get to see and although is a small town, is in no way a true representation of the "true middle-class mostly white" communities of US. I know Mudit might want to disagree with this. I was "instructed" before my sojourn that the people of this quaint little town is about 20 years behind the rest of the country in terms of social norms and ethics and things like that. In other words, I shouldn't be totally caught off-guard if someone's lobs a few racial epithets at me. Fortunately or unfortunately, nothing of this sort ever happened! I am deprived of one more educating experience. How I'd have reacted to it if someone called me names? Would I have called him/her names right back (take matter in my own hands), or report to authorities, or actually talk to this person and find out why they said what they said and go from there!! I want to say that i would've done the third, but i cannot guarantee that i would have done it, as i was not faced with the situation. After all, The one time someone (a few years ago) called me a "sand nigger" I wanted to throw the first thing I could find at their vehicle but by the time I did throw the stone, I pulled my arm down and therefore very comfortably missed their car. The point is I wanted to throw it. And from that day, I have been telling myself, I will not react to any racial slurs thrown my way!! Hopefully, I will have the inner strength to control my emotions when faced with the situation again.

But I digress. I met with my friend's family from in and around that area for the fourth of July party. Recently, I received a call from my friend's fiancee that her cousin (Corben-who I met during my trip to IN and lives in Martinsville, IN) would like me to answer a questionnaire for his school project which involved the student to get in touch with someone that's from outside U.S. I obliged and the questions pertained to where I am from, why I am in U.S., what are my opinions before and after coming to U.S. and life in U.S. and where I come from etc. I answered these question as honestly as I could. Anyway, I just came to know recently that Corben was the only student from the class who knew a foreigner (I am not overly surprised). So, they did a sort-of project on me. Using google earth, they located the place I am from (Chennai), downloaded pictures of my family in India from my website, wrote a brief biography, among other things, and also prepared an Indian dish (from a recipe found online) and shared with other students. They put all this up on their bulletin board or something for the other kids to see. Damn!!! I am a celebrity in Martinsville, Indiana. As expected, Batman comments - Man, The kids had an opportunity to know an Indian, it HAD to be you!! I pity the kids!!.

Big ideas in my big head

1. Sports bar in India -- Extremely curious about it. We need bars+restaurants with sports viewing as the primary source of entertainment.

2. Online talk show - Have you seen PTI on ESPN?? Similar format,only that no topic under the sun would be taboo. This is will be started in April with my buddy Deepak and with occasional guest contributors as well. We will discuss Rahul Dravid's stout defence as easily as the odds of your getting herpes from Paris Hilton! Start date has been fixed. April 29, NFL Draft.

3. FM radio programming - As a hobby when I go back to India.

Last Action Heroes

Today, there was an article in the Daily Collegian about how Chuck Norris has butted his way into students' idle, time pass conversations these days and how students quote Chuck Norris' epic dialogues from his movies and "Walker: Texas Ranger" etc.

This brought back memories of the golden days when I was still an Undergrad in IT-BHU.. My classmates especially Sanjay were so good at coming up with these funny quotes and attribute it to either Chacha Chaudhry, Mithun-Da, Phantom et al. For e.g. I am sure you have heard of "Chacha Chaudhry ka dimag computer se bhi tez hai" (Chacha Chaudhry's mind is faster than a computer"). And all those magical moments when we would go out to movie on Saturday nights and primarily a Mithun-Da flick which would be downright crappy but unbelievably hilarious for its ridiculousness and lousy humorous lines.

I remember watching "Cheetah" (obviously a Mithun-Da movie). He is a cop in it BTW. He is chasing the bad guys who are in a truck and he is, if i remember right, on foot. He cuts across a hill and intercepts them on the highway.. When the bad guys see him at a distance, waiting for them, they literally crap their pants and try to run away but he somehow gets them and beats them to pulp. All the while, in the background, there is this crescendo of "cheetah, Cheetah, Cheetah" happening.. I still get "goosebumps" just thinking about it :))

Getting back to Mr. Norris, there is a website devoted just for these ridiculous things that "could" be said by Chuck Norris and also Chuck Norris facts. Check it out. There is High Comedy and then, there is Chuck Norris. But in my view, even beyond that are Mithun, Rajnikanth with their gimmicks and stupid action dialogues. And how can I not include Steven Seagal, Jean Claude VanDamme, Arnold Schwarznagger... Someday, I'd love to publish something about these wonderful gentlemen (in my book they are all modern day heroes) and their "pile of work" that has contributed so much to our society!! I mean, you telling me, you didn't jump out of your seats when you saw Rajnikanth flip that cigarette and light it with a gunshot while it was in mid-air in the movie "Giraftaar"??? Come on...

Full court "Press"

I came across an article on slashdot yesterday that led me to the Annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index published by the Reporters sans frontieres (reporters without borders). One of the headlines was that the freedom of press has declined in the U.S. (they have fallen 22 places to #44 in the rankings). I was curious to check out how India was doing. Not good. We are #106. The rankings work like this: RSF sends out a questionnaire that covers 50 criteria to journalists in almost all the countries and based on the responses, the ranking system is generated. The lower points you get, the better is the freedom of press in that country (More like golf, huh?). You lose points for any kind of violation that directly (or indirectly) affect the journalistic freedom including murders, imprisonment, threats, harassment, censorship etc. You get bonus points if the perpetrators of aforementioned crimes get their deserved punishment(s).

I guess North Korea didn't get the memo on this one. They are accumulating points like its going out of style. So, not very surprisingly, they have finished pretty much dead last every year. I am surprised that these responses even got out of the country!!! By the same token, scandinavian countries seem to be doing extremely well in these things. We will see how this index is ranking Denmark after all this recent hoopla about Prophet Mohammed cartoons!!

The scientist in me (ahem!!) obviously wanted to see how some of the countries of interest to me in general have been doing over the last few years. I thought, in addition to India, I should take a look at China, U.S. and Pakistan in the last few years. (Don't state the obvious... YES.. I have a lot of free time on my hands).

	2002		2003		2004		2005
	Rank	Pts	Rank	Pts	Rank	Pts	Rank	Pts
India	80	26.5	128	39	120	38.5	106	27
U.S.	17	4.75	31	6	22	4	44	9.5
China	138	97	161	91.25	162	92.33	159	83
Pakistan	119	44.67	128	39	150	61.75	150	60.75

I guess we don't have look at the data to guess-timate where China will probably be. With all the outcry about Google and Yahoo agreeing to follow censorship rules of the Chinese government, maybe China will lose some points but I guess they can't get much lower than now in the rankings. North Korea has got their back on this one!!

There was an interesting side note to the 2003 index was that they had ranked not just U.S. American territory but U.S. behaviour outside its territories as well.. Remember Iraq war (or invasion depending on how you look at it, in 2003?? Is that thing still on?? "Cause with all the media outlets crying hoarse about Dick Cheney's accidental shooting of his hunting partners, I thought Iraqwas normal and nothing big is going on out there!! In fact, this guy on MSNBC (i think Joe Scarborough) even opened his show last night with a teaser, "Should Veep Cheney resign?" Whoaaa!!!). Anyway, U.S. received a rank of 135 (with 41 points) for its behaviour in Iraq. So, I guess, once they go out and basically got not much outside control over their actions, they'd give communists and dictators a run for the moeny!!

India seems to be reversing the trend. Just points-wise, they are about back to 2002 level. However, rankings-wise they have taken a hit. Looks like a lot countries are cleaning up their act while we have trying to maintain status quo. I mean, these rankings mean jack to me but however, if we could improve -it will reflect good on us, as a nation. Pakistan seemed to be doing o.k. (compared to rest of the central/middle/south east asian nations) until 2002-03 but looks like the Iraq war/invasion has thrown a monkey wrench into that one. "Powerful" people that got out Afghanistan that might have moved to Pakistan and the Daniel Pearl Incident have caused, I think, a lot of damage to Pakistan's image.

Finally, there was a sort of disclaimer on RSF's site and I quote "The index should in no way be taken as an indication of quality of the press in the countries concerned". Well done!! I thought with such big rankings, it was putting undue pressure on Fox, CNN, MSNBC and all the other junk channels in the U.S. where they give you opinions in the name of news.

War, what is it good for?

Economic boom, end of depression, a lot more jobs -- which made U.S. the #1 nation in the world after World War II. Why am I talking about this? I happened to watch "A Bridge too far" -- A WW II movie about - as Batman puts it - "one of the biggest Allied Fuck-ups" . Allies are trying to capture bridges across the main rivers in Holland to get into Germany and bring the war to an end. But due to delays, miscalculations and politicking, the whole effort goes haywire and the Allied troops had to withdraw. While I was watching the movie, the sheer amount of equipment that was required to run just one of the many, many missions of the war, totally boggled my mind. I started thinking about the production lines that needed to be going 24/7 in U.S., Britain and other countries to support the war. So, I did some research on the impact WW II had on the U.S. economy, both during and after.

The thing is, U.S. was already manufacturing war supplies in great amounts even before Pearl Harbor happened. Except for putting their men in the trenches and in the firing line, U.S. was doing almost everything a country that is involved in a war would do. President Roosevelt had a bill passed called "Lend-Lease" in 1941 which made for U.S. supplying Britain among other countries, arms and other war material. What a shrewd businessman he must have been!! He called U.S. "the arsenal of democracy". In layman terms, Arms supplier !!! Initially, this was worth around $7 billion and by 1945, it ended up at $45 billion. Obviously, U.S. did not take back all the equipment that were loaned or leased out. That would have hurt their manufacturing plants. It was argued that, "All nations fighting the Axis powers had given their all to vanquishing the enemy and that offset the lend-lease contributions". Brilliant !!

As of 1939, U.S. had 174k men in the Army, 126k in Navy, 26k in the Army Air Corps; about 20k marines, 10k in Coast Guard, 2.5k airplanes, and about 750 warships. The corresponding numbers, at the height of the war, were: 6 mil, 3.4 mil, 2.4 mil, 470k, 170k, 80k and 25k, respectively. U.S. pretty much has enjoyed the best of both worlds, The war wasn't gonna reach the mainland and they had an uninterrupted supply chain going. If this doesn't make your economy engine go million miles a minute, nothing will!!!

Factories in the United States converted from civilian to war production. (Penn State manufactured ordnance material). Women took over for men in War plants as recruitment went up. By 1943, >2 mil women were working in American war industries.

It was a stroke of genius to continue this "development" by cold war. If WW II had put U.S. as #1, Cold war helped maintain status quo. All the manufacturing capabilities were put in place and running full speed during WW II, and Cold war made them efficient and got the R&D going at an astronomical rate.

This bring me to another topic. What are all the wars that U.S. has been part of? The history channel tells me,

• Revolutionary war
• War of 1812
• Mexican-American war
• Civil War
• Spanish-American War
• WW I & II
• Korean War
• Vietnam War
• Gulf War (Desert Storm)
• Operation Enduring Freedom (Vs Terrorism)
• Operation Iraqi Freedom

This obviously does not include the technological war against U.S.S.R ('45-'89). Wow!! Imagine a 45 year effort at enhancing your research abilities and for all practical purposes, you have been handed a blank cheque for the funding. Unbelievable. The list does not include Bosnia, Panama canal, supplying first Iran and then Iraq with weapons, supporting Afghanistan to counter Russia etc.

Let's compare this impressive list with India's. Three wars with Pakistan - one of which resulted in Bangladesh (nice going homies!) - (nothing as full-fledged or technological like even O.E.F.), One with China (in self-defense). We tried to meddle with an other country's internal problems (SriLanka) and sent the IPKF and got burned quickly. That's pretty much it. Good or Bad?? I do not know. I mean, Its good that we don't usually fuck around with others but look at what U.S. has been able to do. I understand that its just not the wars that have kept the U.S. economy going but it has a huge impact, you can't deny that!!

P.S. I know this post does not reflect the amount of research I actually did. I usually got waylaid while looking up something, I'd end up reading about something else connected to this and so on.

Rewind, Erase, Record

My life needs these three buttons. Seriously. I am not kidding at all. If you were even barely following the posts here, you would agree with me 100%, if not more. If you know me well, decently well, barely or not at all, you might concur with me on this point, wouldn't you?

I am not the most gifted talker, writer or anything. In fact, i am not gifted. Period. The time it takes me to put together my thoughts on anything cogently, you could go to the moon, check out the sea of tranquility and make sure its actually pretty quiet up there, set up a colony, family and whatever it is that you wanna set up, and be back and I'd still be chasing my thoughts down so that i can put them down on a piece of paper, or a website in this case.

There have been many a time I have felt, man, if only this thing had occurred to me then, I'd have come off as the funny guy instead of being that guy who can't seem to tell a joke or finish a sentence properly. Anytime I talk to gathering of people on a relevant topic, it always looks like my thought train had just left the station!!!

My lack of these buttons -- to salvage any conversation from myself -- seems to be very glaring anytime I put myself to this seemingly impossible task of impressing a chick. Man, I tell you -- my mind starts racing million miles a minute to come up with something remotely interesting to the person sitting across from me. At this juncture, I realize that the connection between my brain and my mouth was never established. Before I could collect my "funny" thoughts, my motor mouth sets about saying anything it pleases and this conversation is O-V-E-R!!!

Sometime ago, I was out with this girl, you know, happily mowing down the plates of food. That's the best part of the date. In fact, any date. It satisfies my soul unlike anything else. And it prevents me from saying things that i WILL regret later. So anyway, everything is going along nicely until I start "talking". Me and my big mouth wouldn't stop saying things. Excess (get it?). As you can guess by now, any chance I had that night just vaporized into thin air and yet, There I was, still plugging away. Somebody from the next table or something should have just electrocuted me right there and helped save the date. Nope. Didn't happen!! Where were the buttons? I need them right now and put it in infinite loop. That's the only way I am getting lucky ever again! Anytime I am out at a restaurant or something with somebody, I should remember to order "Ahem! Could you get me the save-me-from-me buttons, please? and I'll take pepsi with it. Thank you."

I look at these people everyday that seem to be able to say what it is that they wanna say, and say it very effectively that the person they are talking to, gets it right away. They come off being hilarious as well, while doing it. Damn you and such !! May be you all are from a different planet where people actually have intelligence and stuff. But you know what? I have got company here, in high places. Ever heard of John Kerry?

Three-wheeled Nightmare

If you do not know this harmless looking vehicle, its called an autorickshaw. I dare the Micheal Schumachers and Jeff Gordons of the world to ride in one of these things..

Last night, while sitting at Zeno's enjoying the music of Kid Bismarck, Mudit and I got talking about autorickshaws in India and all the funny stories that go along with it. The dangerous rides, ever haggling auto drivers and all the good stuff. We decided we'll come up with a blog on all the experiences and call it "autorickshaw diaries". In the meantime, I thought I should do some research on this killer carrier.

To my great surprise, I found couple of blogs devoted to autorickshaws. One deals with all the great slogans that you may find on the back of an auto. (click here). The other one deals with the art work one might see. Excellent!!!!

Who doesn't have a great autorickshaw story?!? I mean, if you have spent any amount of time in the Indian sub-continent, you definitely must have been in one. Anyway, if you do have some experiences you wanna share, send it to me or put it up as comments, I'll be sure to include them in the "Autorickshaw Diaries" !!!!

On a side note, I found out that there is a Canadian band/ music ensemble called Autorickshaw.. They are into Jazz and world music type of stuff. Check them out if you can.

I am Tiger Woods

Golf - Its a really sad story. I am not talking about the Volkswagen's brand of automobile either. Why would I even talk about it when I don't even have a driver's license? I am talking of the game of golf. Winston Churchill was a wise man when he said "Golf - a great way to spoil a good walk". I have no idea why I do it but I do it when the weather is good and the sun is high and there is money in the pocket. I am no good at it, in fact, my game is atrocious. My handicap is so bad, I can easily qualify for special olympics. I had never done it till 2001. I always thought that the eagle was a bird but they told me that eagle is one under a bird. I don't get it.

It all started with a trip to Myrtle beach, SC in December of 2001 with the gang. Since it was christmas and chilly there (relative to Florida I suppose!) there wasn't much of a crowd in the town. Most of the establishments were closed and there were really great deals at the local golf courses. So, we thought what better time to give golf a shot. We decided to play couple of 9-hole rounds. When we got back, played another round of par-3 course in DC. Batman and Thomas got their own set of clubs and I guess, we kinda go hooked on to it. What a bitch golf is!!

Golf - Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden. Last time I checked, my anatomy matches a man, but not gentle by any stretch of imagination, I should have known golf isn't for me. I should have stopped.

Golf is like this chick you think you have a shot at. You are not totally out of her league that you have absolutely no shot at her.. So, even though you could be snubbed, you are ready to put up with her shit from time to time to get the chance to take her to the sack. Its nothing but a tease. During a certain round when basically nothing is working out for you on the course (which is pretty much any round I have ever played) and you are ready to give up and pack it in, out of the clear blue sky you hit this magical shot when everything about the shot feels good and you start thinking... Alright! I think I got the hang of it. Its going to get better here on and before you know it, you have tanked every hole from there on and you're on a wild goose chase.

I got membership at the Penn State Courses in 2002 which pretty much took away any happiness in my life that summer. I think there are only two sets of golfers that are happy with their game. a) The ones that are really good at it and make a living out of it and b) The beginners. Everybody else that's in between a & b are totally miserable. They think they got a good hang of the game but they are not that good that they can go into any round thinking "I am gonna shoot under par today".

My game is so bad that batman and ram had to come up with a new name to describe it. MONKEY GOLF. You see, my shots go from tree to tree. I am not proud of it but what else could I do? Every time I have been out on regular 18-hole course, I have spent so much time in the woods looking for the ball, I should be awarded my own TV show as part of Wild Discovery, Tiger in the Woods!! In fact, my abilities at finding the lost ball had gotten so good that they were asking me to find the Atlantis while I was at it.

Here is my piece of advice to those that are thinking of taking up golf: DON'T !!!

superstition my arse!!

Batman, If you think this is somehow related to your blog rule of thumb, you are absolutely dead on. You see, its nice to write about how your superstition of staying in your batcave, covered in a blanket, with just enough of your right hand exposed to articulate the remote control has helped the Steelers win a super bowl -one for the thumb - (the pun was not lost on me, btw).. I wish you had the kahunaes to predict the win. Publish it everywhere, post it on all possible message boards, be our favorite punxsutawney phil.. but no... you had to wait till the day after to proclaim it. I thought you'd be a little different than all the experts on TV that you have complained about.. but alas!!

In fact, there was an article in the daily collegian (newspaper by the penn state students) before the superbowl about the superstitious practices of some pittsburgh fans like wearing the jersey to bed the previous night, going to the same bar and sitting at the same table for every game etc.

See, I had a streak of my very own going till the big game. I, for one reason or the other, had missed the start of every game the Steelers won this season. It could be due to late night bacchanalia or a clutch problem, i was missing the beginning of the game. So, i got thinking, what I do has such an effect on a group of people, hundreds of miles away, playing a game.. does it really? Do I want such absolute power? Do I really wanna play god with fates of 106 atheletes and a whole bunch of coaches and the millions of fans... I don't think so buddy. I don't want such power trips!! So I made sure I did not miss the start of the super bowl and inspite of Pittsburgh's ineptitude on offense for the longest time, they won. (Then again, that's one more thing in this world that does not depend on what i think or what i do).

How about the number of times both you and I have maintained the same seating arrangements and such for all the India vs. _____ cricket matches? Not everytime had India won. Superstition is a good tune by Mr. Stevie Wonder and nothing else. Take it and shove it. Hereafter, I am going to make sure I change my routine, seat, sitting style and everything else while I am watching any of favorite teams play (but again, could that be called a routine? You know, if you want to be called a non-conformist, you ARE a conformist, that sort of thing!)

Take this very personally :-))

Under Pressure

It has been about a month since I have been "blogging" quite frequently. Yesterday, I didn't. It was due to a combination of actually trying to get some work done at the lab, four hours spent on "First Aid" training to become the safety officer of the cricket club and, would you believe it if I said, "writer's block? I was racking my brains on what possibly could I be writing about. My life is definitely not that interesting that I could fashionably word the happenings as a post - No Sir, Not a chance.

And by the way, Why the heck was I even feeling the need that I should publish anything at all? I do not know. I guess I was prolific in the initial weeks that I just wanted to keep the momentum going. True.. many of the posts are not exactly what you call masterpieces but hey, I never claimed them to be, in the first place now, did I? I think exerting such unwanted pressure on myself is not good. It will probably do harm to the few cells left in my brain that have escaped the weekly assault I put them through!

Talking of stupid, has any of you seen the hindi movie "Chocolate"? If yes, I am sorry. You wasted precious hours of your life on this dreck of a film that's virtually a remake of "Usual Suspects" minus the acting, directing and the excellent narration. Anup -- I know you have made numerous attempts at watching Usual suspects completely but never could for "various" reasons, Don't ever never ever see Chocolate. I think watching this pile of crap brought balance to my personal movie galaxy - I saw 15 Park Ave last week, remember?

Final thoughts on the NFL season that was

I am ecstatic Pittsburgh won the Super Bowl. Considering the fact that they were 7-5 coming into the final month of the season, they had to win out and get some help from San Diego and Kansas City -- which they got -- and go on the road and beat 3 top seeds in AFC and play a horrible game and still manage to pull out the win in the big dance. It was easily the worst, Pittsburgh's offense played in any of the 4 playoff games but All's well that ends well. I am not complaining!!

SOOOO Glad the patriots didn't make it.

Extremely happy the Eagles pretty much shot themselves in the foot.

Peyton is still very jumpy when pressured up the middle -- Glad to know.

You can take Jake Plummer out of Arizona, but you can't take the Arizona out of Jake Plummer.

Elijah Manning is a worthy Manning... Big game, fold big time.

Tommy Maddox sucks. Really really sucks. Makes Charlie Batch look like Joe Montana.

NFC has 1 good team (seattle), 2 above average (TB & CAR), 2 defensive teams (CHI & WSH) and a boat load of crap.

A lot of the NFL head coaches have no idea what the heck they are doing.

A lot of NFL General Managers have no idea what the heck they are doing.

Watch out for Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC, Tampa Bay in the NFC.

Once again, Defense (and getting hot at the right time) wins Championships!!

P.S. If you wanna read the columns on the (non)officiating in the superbowl, click here and here.

Also, what's up with the tragedy that was the national anthem? SNL did a parody on these clowns (Aaron Neville, Dr. John and The Queen of Soul herself, Aretha R-E-S-P-E-C-T Franklin) the day before the superbowl. If you haven't seen it, sorry. Will post it if i find it.

Good Times, Bad Times

Good times, Bad times
You know I had my share - Led Zeppelin.

Seriously, last night was a mixed bag for me. Steelers win their proverbial "one-for-the-thumb" super bowl and following that, India lost the first game of the one-day series to Pakistan. Weird circumstances really!! Steelers got their fair share of, at best, dubious calls from the zebras on their way to their first super bowl win in 26 years. India, after a late comeback, was done in by the duckworth-lewis rule as the game had to be called off due to fading light.

I am still totally wired from the 12 cans of beer, and large coffee and some sugary stuff I had to have to keep myself awake during the cricket match. I have already seen a whole bunch of articles online about the controversial calls and how Seattle lost the game a little more than Pittsburgh had won it. You know what Champ? Even Stevens, Tough luck Coffee city!! I guess it was Pittsburgh's time to have some calls go their way after that Indy game. Obviously, I'd like to have the game not be tarnished by blown calls, but I'd rather see the Steelers win which ever way than otherwise.

Starbucks town had more than its fair share of chances to put the Steel town away, but they let 'em hang around. Good teams don't do that. (I agree it was touchy foul to call the offensive interference -- but the fact is, it was offensive pass interference. The Wide receiver pushed off, albeit ever so slightly to gain separation but HE PUSHED OFF. So there!).

Steelers win 21-10; "The Bus" has reached the final stop; And all my years in graduate school has come to fruition by having gotten to see steelers win a Super Bowl. Move along people, there is nothing to see here!!

I ain't gonna talk too much about the cricket game here. I think I need to write another open letter to Mr. Chappell soon. It looked like the Indian "think tank" still does not have a plan in place for the Pakistani batsmen.

I'll probably call it an early day today what with the lack of any sleep and all the stimulants in me!

We are the Champions, my friend

We'll keep on fighting till the end

We are the champions

No time for losers 'cause

We are the Champions - of the world!

Heisenberg and Schizophrenia

It so happened that Batman and I picked up this movie from the local Indian Grocery store called "15 Park Avenue". We had not known about the movie, in fact, batman had some other movie in mind. However, the DVD cover said it is made by Aparna Sen (director of Mr. and Mrs. Iyer -- which I thought was a great film) and also had the same two actors in this one as well (Rahul Bose and Konkona Sensharma) - which aided in us picking this movie.

The movie revolves around the life of Mithali (Sensharma) -- who is schizophrenic and the condition is worsened when she gets sexually violated when she is on a journalistic duty - and her engagement with Joy (Bose) gets broken off -- she lives in a fantasy land where she thinks she is still married to Joy and has five kids and lives at 15 Park Ave, Calcutta (a place that doesn't exist). She is being cared by her little overbearing step-sister Anu (Shabana Azmi) who teaches Quantum Mechanics at a college in Calcutta and her mom (Waheeda Rehman). The film is geared towards Mithali finding this place (which is fictional in the "real" world's view).

The way Ms. Sen had intertwined quantum mechanics with Schizophrenia was quite impressive. In fact, there is this one scene where Anu is lecturing about the beauty of quantum mechanics and its difference from newtonian mechanics and while you hear the lecture in the background, you see Mithali going through her "delusions". Very clever.

You should watch it if you get a chance and make an opinion on your own. However, I thought the ending was well done. Joy gets back in Mithali's life (now he is happily married to another woman and has 2 kids, though) and wants to help Mithali find 15 park ave so that he wouldn't feel like he let her down again. Joy is taking Mithali to a place where she believes 15 Park Ave exists and they are followed in another vehicle by Anu and Mithali's doctor. Mithali after wandering for a bit gets a "vision" of some sort where she sees herself happily hanging out with her husband Joy and five kids -- at this point she is separated from Joy in "real" life and she has kind of wandered away -- and they cannot locate her. The screen fades out with the voices of the other three enquiring people around about "15 Park Avenue" trying to find Mithali.

What's Heisenberg got to do with this? If you haven't already made the connection, this is my take on it. The implication of Heisenberg uncertainty principle is "One cannot simultaneously find both the position and momentum of an object to arbitrary accuracy". In my view, I thought the director wanted to leave it like this, however, one can comprehend it any other way as well. I thought it kind of tries to convey the message that everybody has certain level of insanity in them. Only the ratio of sane:insane varies.

Do you have to be familiar with Quantum Mech to comprehend this film? I certainly don't think so. But, it will definitely get you thinking. For sure.

Birds of a feather...

of course, I know as you do too, flock together. When I was in middle school, I was in a Quiz competition and we were asked to complete proverbs. So, when this one was asked, I answered correct but before the quiz master finished his question. So, he didn't give us the points for it (what a prick he was! Yes! I am still bitter about it) and we did not know the other proverb he asked and we went on to finish second in the contest, missing first by a few points. Probably, the result would've been different with us getting points for the original question.

Why am I bringing this up now? I took the bus home couple of days ago. I was trying to observe my fellow passengers. The first thing I immediately noticed was that, the chinese hung out with fellow chinese, talking and having a good laugh (in chinese), the few black dudes that got on the bus with me, shook hands and expressed their love to the few more in the bus and so on so forth. Why are we so racist so inherently? I understand it is easy to make a connection with someone else that has same/similar background. Many of the friends I have here are Indians but i can confidently say that my friends/acquaintances circle includes a range of races, nationalities etc.

Back home, if you go to a college that has a broadbase of students from across the country such as an IIT, you notice that there'd be small groups of Tams hanging out by themselves, Golts having their own group and so on. Obviously this is not the standard but you see it.

Why? I have my thoughts on it. New place... new language, new culture etc. So its easy to identify yourself with somebody that is like you but once you are past the point where you have kind of acclimatized, wouldn't it be time to interact more freely across a broader spectrum of people??

What about you?

P.S. I am still ticked off about losing that quiz contest, in case you were wondering.

Paritrana

A lot of you might know the following verse from the Bhagwad Gita from watching the seemingly endless episodes of Mahabharata on DD:

paritranaya sadhunam

vinasaya ca duskritam

dharma-samsthapanarthaya

sambhavami yuge yuge

which roughly translates into English as:

To deliver the pious

and to annihilate the wrong-doers,

and to reestablish the way of truth,

I will appear, millennium after millennium

There is a group of IIT graduates that have formed a political party of sorts called "Paritrana", in India with the goal of restoring the values and traditions that defined India a long time ago and making India a force to reckon with, in times to come. This, in my view, is an effort by the fellows to make an India that is free and fair and successful. I laud their efforts and wish them the very best in their endeavors. I had an idea along the same lines but more on a local scale, you know, try to clear up the muck on a smaller town scale -- basically, sow the seeds and see what can happen out of it. I hope to do this when I graduate and go home to India.

Anyhow, you can check them out at www.paritrana.org The website is not complete and is still under development. It has brief bios of the founders of paritrana, their mission and ideology. There are also forms available for those of you that might want to join their ranks.

By the way, any of you have similar thoughts and ideas and are looking for someone to discuss it with, look me up. Drop a line. We can all make a difference. If you think all this is wishful thinking, most definitely let me know. We need to talk.

Dear Mr. Greg Chappell

I’d like to introduce myself to you as an ardent cricket fan, and die-hard supporter of Indian cricket. I am sure you saw the recently concluded test series between India and Pakistan, as I did as well, and the thorough whipping the Indian team received at the hands of Pakistan. (Don’t deny it, I have video evidence of you sitting in the Indian dressing room – it looked like you were thinking hard on something, but I am sure as heck it was not the plan of action on how to bowl to the Pakistani batsmen).

Don’t get me wrong – I am a big supporter of yours – after all, you are “coaching” the Indian team. I am sure you are analyzing the tape from the game to identify the areas we failed, and how to improve on that. It does not take a rocket scientist to point out the most glaring difference between the two teams’ bowling effort, especially in the second innings. The Pakistani bowlers bowled in the right areas majority of the times and us, bowled short and wide mostly, thereby completely negating whatever juice that was still left in the pitch. So, how often does an RP Singh or an Irfan Pathan have to bowl short and wide before somebody drills them in the head that the wickets come to those who bowl a steady line and length at the stumps especially in the sub-continent?? No, seriously, how many times?

If I remember right, even during the second test, there was this one over RP Singh bowled to Kamran Akmal where he was pulled for 3 fours in a row. All three balls were pitched short (on a dead pitch, no less) at the “express” pace he bowls at. What’s the general idea behind that? Why wouldn’t Captain Dravid or someone else slap his sorry ass and tell him to bowl full at the stumps?

We all saw what could be and couldn’t be done with the new ball during the second innings of both teams in the third test. We wasted away the new ball (in fact two of them, considering we bowled for what seemed like an eternity!), barely beating the bat a handful of times, where as, Asif, Akhtar and Razzaq made our batsmen look like they were playing on a pitch with so much grass that you’d think they were in a golf course. Guess what? Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf just put together another 150 run stand …. Oh! wait a tick, that’s a nightmare I just had. Pheeww!! Last time I checked, you still have not a clue on how to get them out. Let me tell you something. Younis scored one, EXACTLY ONE RUN, in the V between mid-on and mid-off in his 70. Pop Quiz: Now that you know, where do you tell your bowlers to bowl? Short and wide on the off. Yousuf is always a candidate for LBW no matter the condition of the ball or the pitch as he shuffles in line. So where do you bowl to him? On the pads so that we get to see what a wristy, delicate player he is. Thanks. I’d have missed out if not for the efficient planning of you and the team.

Call me crazy but with all the technology that is available at your disposal, I’d have thought India would devise and stick to a plan. Even the guys at cricinfo make avail of it. Take a look when you can. Hey, I am not trying to pile on, especially at this low point of your still young international coaching career. I must congratulate the team on a great escape act in the 2nd test that would have made Houdini proud. You always compare the team’s performances with respect to the Aussies – I am for it, you have to calibrate always against the best, but where is the planning that goes along with being/trying to be the best?? I don’t think the Aussies just walk into a game and let their talents alone win the game. They make a plan and stick to it.

I know you mentioned in the press conference after you were hired that your primary goal is 2007 World cup and you have taken decisions and steps that sort of reflect it. But for heaven’s sake, try winning some test matches as well on the way. I have a suggestion – Speed Kills. Blood youngsters that can bowl faster than 130 k. PLEASE. They could be erratic a bit, but there is nothing like getting beaten all ends up by sheer pace to put some doubts in the minds of the batsmen. You should know it of all people.

Well, I have a lot more to say but I am getting tired just thinking about it. So, I’ll send you another letter in the near future. Until then, try to win the one-day series and get some pride back. Thank you. And for the love of God, tell the bowlers to bowl straight!!