Sujith

A New Dawn

2008-03-05T00:22:00.012+08:00

CB series in Australia: There is only ONE Champion
Let the celebrations begin
Sachin: Class is permanent
Sachin:Finally scored a ODI ton in Australia

Rohit Sharma: The future of Indian Cricket is safe

Praveen Kumar: The Meerut lad who came good in the finals

Bhajji: The man who rode many a storm

Dhoni: The calm influence

Chotta Mumbai

2008-03-03T10:51:00.003+08:00

I saw this movie this weekend and had a good time. It has been a while since I saw a Mohanlal movie and this one was certainly entertaining. Manianpilla Raju has produced this film and has played a small role in it as well. But credit must go to him for experimenting a new style of movie making in Malayalam. The film looks technically brilliant for a mallu movie standard.

The characterisations have been near perfect with Mohanlal essaying a chotta don kind of a role to perfection and his sidies played by Indrajith, Sidique and the comedian dude(don't know his name) and the youngster (again don't know his name) played a near perfect act. Sai kumar as Mohanlal's father has excelled and Rajan P Dev as the fultoo drunkard is again a decent role. Bhavana as the brave rickshaw driver is also classy and so does Kalabhavan Mani in the villain role.

Comedy is the main theme that carries as an otherwise thin story line which has been executed by Anwar Rasheed. It is definitely worth a watch.

Something for Mumbai

2007-12-02T21:58:00.000+08:00

Everytime I see the well oiled public transport system in countries like Malaysia, Thailand & Singaporem, I always dreamt of when an Indian city would take cue from these cities and do a complete revamp of their infrastructure. The closest one came to is in Delhi. Very soon the Delhi metro would have a track length of 245 kms touching upon most of Delhi & its suburbs

Mumbai locals carry 6 million passengers daily. So what? Ya so what. There is one station in Japan which handles 3 million people on a single day!!!! Well that is something. As long as we create a system that can handle multiple entry/exits points, a good feeder system to and from the station, anything is possible. This particular station in Japan has some 260 odd exit points and is in 3 different levels and is able to do it on a day to day basis.

Well I did not dog for this data, but Hindustan Times did. They are doing a
special feature on Mumbai covering all the developments that are projected to happen in Mumbai in the next 5-10 years. It is some innovative journalism and its an awareness creation for every Mumbaikar and anyone who wants to read about Mumbai.

There are some really classy projects happening right from the Locals, the new metro being planned, the great Bandra-Worli Sealink, the new airconditioned taxis. Trust me if you like Mumbai and want to see it being the next big thing, read it, you will like it.

All I can do is hope that atleast 30% of what is discussed will happen in our lifetime.

for Freekicker

2007-11-18T02:31:00.000+08:00

Appam in Indonesia

2007-11-18T01:55:00.000+08:00

If there is one dish that I would have thought was unique to Kerala, it would have been our Appam. But guess what, there is our own appam in Indonesia. They also call it Appam :)

And it is served as a snack. You get some 10 appams for something like 1 ringgit. It is quite small and is very sweet. They are available in white as well as green colour. I have to tell you that it is quite tasty, but nothing like our Appam & Egg curry :)

Ratatouille - A class apart

2007-09-14T17:51:00.000+08:00

Saw the movie...felt really nice and so watched it again in KL. I saw the movie the first time in Siam Paragon the biggest mall in Bangkok. And the multiplex was really big and the screen the biggest I have been to. So where all have I been to watch a movie? Well I can safely say that this must be the biggest screen in India/Malaysia/Singapore and Thailand. It was an amazinfg experience.Not many people would want to make a rat the hero of their movie even if it is an animation. But here the rat, its characterisation, the principles like he wont steal but make his food etc add a lot of credence to the entire plot. Similarly "anyone can cook" takes a whole new twist when a rat is believed to be making the best of french cuisine. I loved the movie.

Now talking about the mall, well it has couple of car showrooms on the 4th or 5th floor. Lamborghini, Ferrari etc to name a few.

I just wanted to write something so...

Sky Bar

2007-08-03T18:03:00.000+08:00

33rd floor on Traders Hotel is Sky Bar...It overlooks the Petronas

Remembering "Mumbai on July 26th 2005"

2007-07-26T19:20:00.000+08:00

Suvarnabhumi in all its splendour

2007-07-21T14:08:00.000+08:00

Everytime I went to Bangkok, I wanted to take a pic of the aiport to put it up in my blog. These pics are just of the top floor with the departure deck and is about one-fourth of the whole airport I guess.

Big, huge, large etc are not the right words...There are check in counters named upto "T", with some 20 counters each.
I dont know why I notice some silly things like all the plasma TVs are LG! so they have cut a good deal I should say.

I just hope the new airports in Bangalore and other cities are atleast half as big as this one.

Transformers Promo

2007-07-01T14:18:00.000+08:00

This is the scene right outside one of the largest multiplex in Malaysia
Pretty good stuff. DiGi, the mobile service provider is one of the key promo-partners for the movie in Malaysia. I love the DiGi ads (I am using their service too) and so wont be surprised if they are behind this one too.

Wish you all the best Girishwar

2007-06-28T10:10:00.000+08:00

Girishwar is getting married to Priya in Nagercoil today. So this piece is dedicated to him :)

He is one of the most lovable guys from 2001 batch RECT. I have never seen him get angry. So the story goes like this. After getting deported to US he spent time in Viginia Tech. They threw him out with a Masters (atleast thats what he claims :) ) and he is building some drain in MD (where is that). Dei when you were in Nagercoil, u never used to write it as NC or NG, pinne enna...

So our man meets this very pretty lady called Priya. I dont know the story yet, but it should be interesting, will get it out from him soon.

He made sure he will be associated with all mallu activities so was seen in the Farewell to our seniors in 2000. There he is popping out his head between Ashif and Sleeba.
When jiby's sister got married he accompanied us to the beautiful Rubber maram city of Kottayam. We took some nice pics around the area. There he is with Sidin's protective arm around him.

Well I dont remember the origin of this trip. But it was Ashi, Vikash, me and of course Girish who went to Kumarakom in Vikash's Grandpa's old Maruti (it is one of the oldest Maruti car launched in India, but still going strong). There he is posing in front of a Kallu Shop.

He tried to make Nagercoil famous by attaching it to Trivandrum :) He even posed with TVM group during our farewell. Well I think taking the bus from TVM to Trichy and sharing some unforgettable moments with us do make him rightly a FUM. Smiling Girish between Chamar and Vimal.

Love you dude. Dunno when I will catch up with you. I dont know where MD is, so you will have to come to some known place in India like Nagercoil or Trivandrum to meet me.

All the best and wish you a happy married life.

Bangkok in Pics

2007-06-23T01:22:00.000+08:00

Elephant Towers
View from Elephant Towers

Suki Food in all its grandeur

Lord Ganesha in Bangkok

The sticker on the car says " I love Farang" Farang ~ Firang

Jam Bar in Soi 45 (I think)...Live band, Thai Songs

Bangkok Preview

2007-06-17T18:03:00.000+08:00

Got lots fo stories to tell about Bangkok, including one about the concrete jungle that they are building there...All that later.

Beautiful morning!

2007-06-17T17:28:00.000+08:00

Well the latest ads from Mcdonalds sum up what I feel too - Good Breakfast Great Morning!!!
I am a morning person and these are some of the sights you miss if you are not awake early in the morning. These are also sights you will not miss if going to the airport in the morning.

The beautiful Howrah bridge was witness to a Jam

2007-06-11T15:53:00.000+08:00

Makes a nice pic !

Actorlympics

2007-06-10T11:14:00.000+08:00

If you guys have watched "Whose line is it anyway?" then you will know what improvisational comedy is all about. The Actorlympics at Actors Studio in Bangsar Shopping centre is the
Malaysian take, of that American show.

I was there last night and I have to admit that I had a hilarious time. It was the first time I was watching something like this, a live performance of impromptu comedy. The guys and gals were just awesome. The cast includes Afdlin Shauki, Douglas Lim, Ida Nerina, Reza Zainal Abidin, Nell Ng, Na'a Murad & Joanna Bessey. Stand out performances were from Afdlin and Douglas Lim. They had the audience in splits.

Its 2-2.5 hours of pure fun and a good way to get over a tiring weekend. I will definetely try to catch it the next time these guys perform that is for sure.

Tintin in Hanoi

2007-05-26T12:28:00.000+08:00

I was in Hanoi this week and it was one busy busy week. We landed a day after the general elections were over so the roads still had the red banners etc. Whoever thought Vietnam is a democracy can change their opinion, it is a complete communist dominated country!

There are too many motorbikes here in this country. Percentage wise I think this city would beat any Indian city on the number of two-wheelers. Traffic is worse than India and the streets are narrow streets with vehicles parked all over the place.

A typical shop with everything displayed outside the shop into the road

The Vietnamese coffee and tea are very famous and people keep drinking them all the time. Their special coffee is their version of our filter coffee.

This is Cha Ca (Shaaa Ka). Its one of the best South East Asian dish I have ever had. Its fish fry with herbs that you can fry right on your table. It is to be taken with Rice noodles. And I can tell you it tastes like heaven. Yumm...
There is only one restaurant in Hanoi which serves this and foreigners find their way to this restaurant which is located somewhere inside a maze of streets and lanes stuffed with shops and two-wheelers.

It was a bit more peaceful near the place where we stayed.

Oh ya people drive on the right side of the road here. The city has couple of water-bodies inside it. Hoan Kiem lake is bang in the middle of the city and there are nice jogging tracks around it. The west lake is another lake which is a bit away from the city centre.

French architecture from its colonial past is something which you cannot miss in this city. They still have a good relationship with France. This is a arch which welcomes everyone to the "International city of Hanoi".

If you are wondering why "Tintin", its like this. I met this guy in the street who accosted me for selling novels. He first asked me if I want books, next question was "Do you want Marijuana". Thats when I looked at him more carefully and he resembled one of the chinese characters I have seen in Tintin comics, wearing a long t-shirt and shorts. The rest is left to your imagination.

Freekicker - For the football fan

2007-05-17T17:58:00.000+08:00

I have started a new blog on Football called

Freekicker

It is for those people who would like to read more about football, about the European leagues and some of the other footballing news that I follow, namely the Asian and South American! But the non-European news would be considerable less.

And also this is a warning to all the non-Arsenal fans as my blog will be a very pro-Arsenal blog. Please excuse me for that.

And for a change I am using Wordpress and I like it already.

so till then bye

Merdeka Square outing

2007-05-15T17:33:00.000+08:00

I was forced to go along with a friend of mine to see the Malaysian History Museum in Merdeka Square. Merdeka Square is the most historical part of KL city.

There is this flag pole which is 95 metres tall and is one of the tallest flagpoles in the world!!! Some people here told me it "is" the tallest flagpole in the world, but I am not very sure about it.
There are some beautiful buildings built by the British that make this place look really old and good.

The highlight of the afternoon was the visit to the Musuem. To be fair to the Malaysians they have a short history compared to say countries like China or India. But I dont think they are managing it properly. The musuem is small but it is shabby in organisation. There were hardly any people on a Saturday!!!

The tiled roof on the left is the Royal Selangor club. These pics are taken from inside the museum and from my 6300!

Best & Worst of EPL 2006-07 - 2

2007-05-14T18:26:00.000+08:00

Henrik Larsson – Man U

This was one of the smartest transfers that Ferguson got in the mid season. Man U was going short on striking force and he got the brilliant Swede to play for Man U for 3 months and he did score goals and kept the momentum going for Man U. Fergie would have loved him to stay longer till the end of season but the cameo that Larsson played for Man U was another smart move for Man U.

The Flops

Shevchenko - Chelsea

If there was one signing which made news at the beginning of the year, then this was the one. This is the story of how a hugely successful player in Europe can go down in form in the EPL. His loss in form was not helped by loss in confidence and also loss in solidarity from the dressing room. And it also did not help when your strike partner goes on to score goals by the dozens in the same year. His pound per goal ratio must have been the worst if there was a statistic like that.

Baptista - Arsenal

This was a deal which was not by design but in exchange for Reyes going to Real. If ever there was a flop this year after Shevchenko in Chelsea, then this has to be it. He tried hard to score, to beat defenders, but either shot it wide or got dis-possessed. He is better off in Spain or wherever he wants to go. As an Arsenal fan, i dont think he has the quality to be Gunner. Having said that, he was the architect of that 6-2 drubbing we gave to Liverpool at Anfield.

And just before I leave, thought I would share with you this piece of info. All the stats that are thrown up on TV during the football match, like the total distance run by each player, total completed passes by each player etc etc, this is done by a company called

OptaSportsData

They do for Sky, ESPN and the rest

Best & Worst of the EPL 2006-07 - 1

2007-05-09T15:18:00.000+08:00

This year was probably one of the closest race in the EPL title. There was no team to give Chelsea a challenge in the last two seasons and they won with a few games to spare in the last two years. But this year Man U were determined to stamp their authority and they gave Chelsea a fight for all the roubles that were converted to pounds in Stamford Bridge. It was a race every weekend and Man U deserved to win for keeping their nose in front for most of the weekends.

This was also a season of injuries for the top 3 of the 4 clubs. I will leave Liverpool out of this as they did not have any major injury worries. Man U, Chelsea and Arsenal had injuries throughout the season and I should say that the team which coped with this best was Man U. And Man U also deserve to win for the attractive football they played and the sheer number of goals(83 with 2 games left) they scored this season. Before this year only thrice has any team scored 85 + goals in a season - Arsenal twice and Man U once. Talking of goals another interesting stat is that Liverpool is so strong at home that they have conceded only 5 at Anfield in 18 games. The next best is 10 by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

# Best Signings of the Year

1. Berbatov - Tottenham
Well he has been a class apart for the Spurs. He looks very laidback but holds the ball for Keane or Defoe to make the run so that he can give that killing pass. And it has not just been this feeding that he has done all season, he has been the score sheet as well on 22 occasions this year and is their top-scorer. Man U is interested in him for the next year but the Bulgarian doesnt seem to be going anywhere.

2. Dirk Kuyt - Liverpool
Again a classy forward who will do all the hardwork from mid-field to set up the goals. He has himself found the net 13 times this year and is the second top scorer for Liverpool after Crouch. He has been the preferred partner to both Crouch and Bellamy and is as genuine a Dutchman as Bergkamp.

3. Carlos Tevez - West Ham Utd
When this news was announced at the start of the Premiership season, it was the signing of the year along with Mascherano to West Ham. But Alan Pardew hardly played these players in the way that suited them the most. But towards the end of the season, come what may in Old Trafford this weekend, Tevez has been a class act in the last few weekends for getting West Ham this close to survival in the Premiership. His free kicks like the one below have been classic and so has his aggresion. If West Ham stay up this year, they owe a lot to Tevez.

Eye On Malaysia

2007-05-07T18:53:00.000+08:00

Penang again...

2007-04-21T11:53:00.000+08:00

Well I have not yet been to those sexy beaches they show in the Malaysia Tourism ad...but Penang is definetely beautiful...Thistime I also went to Kedah and it reminded me of Kerala, paddy fields and Coconut trees!!!

The misty mornings in Penang. This time I stayed in the mainland instead of the island.

The Penang bridge as seen from my room...the 6th longest in the world!

The island in all its mystery...beyond the sea, its a different world...

The bridge in the nite...well my camera is not good enough to capture it

Penang is famous for its Indian cuisine. The Penang Nasi Kandar is very famous all over Malaysia...but this is the chinese part of the city where I had some nice chinese food too. This part of the city has the older British buildings!

Then we took the ferry from the island to the mainland. These ferries (like the one shown below) take the vehicles along with the people in it.

It was very windy...
The Penang island skyline...

The bridge in all its glory...

Arsenal Man U

2007-04-20T19:19:00.000+08:00

I was in Singapore for a day recently. And I was reading the "New Paper" in Singapore when I came to know that the Arsenal Club is officially getting inaugurated that weekend. So I stayed over and attended the function....It was not all that good an opening as we lost that weekend match to Liverpool

The Football Crazy show people were there and it was a lot of shouting in that pub !!!
This section was the most noisy of the group. They had distributed the various anthems for the fans to chant throughout the match. Well as you might have guessed the chnating became lower as the match progressed but since it was the inaugural nite it was quite noisy.

They had two big screens and lots of tiger beer!

And in completely different trip to Indonesia visited the Man U cafe in Bandung. This is the 2nd MU cafe in Indon. In this region the biggest football craze is in this country, no doubt about that.

All the famous number 7's of Man U...

They are planning a 3rd MU Cafe in Indonesia. This one was inaugurated by Bryan Robson. So he had signed on some Man U tees...I got one for myself for 40 ringgits...will frame it!

I was there - 8th April 2007, 3 PM

2007-04-09T18:09:00.000+08:00

This was probably one of the most exciting events I have ever watched live!!!

A brief Colombo visit

2007-03-13T18:33:00.000+08:00

I flew back by Sri Lankan airlines and they had a one night stopover at Colombo. I was put up in a beach resort. A resort which was affected by the Tsunami!

The flight takes 45 minutes from Trivandrum. The city reminds you of Kerala, the same scenery but I think maybe a bit more beautiful than Kerala.

The beaches are not as crowded as the beaches in India. No I am not even going near the Juhu beach (that number there would be higher than the population of many a small city in some other country), but say something like Shanghumughom beach (TVM city beach).

Caught some guys playing cricket. This country is very cricket crazy, that is for sure.

Here is the guy trying to whack the ball to the sea!

I took a walk outside and was quite impressed by the narrow roads with the wide footpaths. It was raining and hence the wet roads. But when I look at it, its like any other small road in Kerala but the footpath is an addendum!

Devi Temple Festival

2007-03-10T11:16:00.000+08:00

One of my neighbours in Trivandrum is a Devi Temple. My visit this time coincided with their festival and I had 3 full days of continous music, ranging from religious songs to melodious mallu songs to racy tamil songs.

See those loudspeakers, well they are right opposite my house.

There was a pandal on our house terrace where food was served for some 400 people in the locality. The temple trustees were sponsoring it and we agreed to give our premise for the cooking and serving of food. So we had a nice free-meal all the three days.

And then this huge black guy came on the last day for the festivities. There is he standing in front of my house.

This is the best part of the festival. You can check out the video

here

Then similar to the famous Attukal pongala, we had a local pongala

Check out the Cricket Blog for the WC

2007-03-07T18:58:00.000+08:00

Some of you who read this might be interested to read the World Cup Cricket blog, up and running from today. Its a joint effort with some friends of mine.

We will be trying to capture the WC in all its glory and try to give you some very different perspective especially with respect to our fav team - Team India as BCCI would like to call it

So may the best team win.

Matheran - Beautiful place

2007-02-28T23:24:00.000+08:00

Matheran is a nice small hill resort on the Western Ghats, about 100 odd kms from the city of Mumbai. If you are going from Mumbai, you have to take a train and travel in the Central Line and then get off at a station called Neral and then take a taxi from there till Matheran. This taxi ride is something you will remember for a long time for the bumpiness of the ride. From the point the taxi drops you, you have to eithe walk/trek the 3-4 kms upto the Matheran village or take a Horse ride or hand cart till the village.

My Journey started from Thane station. The station I used to catch a local every morning to Currey Road. On a daily basis the total number of people coming and going from each of the Mumbai Local station must be the largest in India.

So finally got to take a pic inside the train!

Coming back to Matheran, this place doesnt allow any vehicles inside so all you find on the roads are people and horses and hand carts. The roads are dusty in the sense that there will be a layer of red soil on your shoes after your nice walk outside.

But who cares. There is no noise as such to screw you wonderful holiday. All you hear are the voices of people, animals and birds...how nice.

This is a typical street scene in the morning in Matheran!

Thats my horse "Bobby". He is 8 yrs and quite senior in this trade. He listens to Santhosh, the trainer standing on the left. His horse "Stallion" is 3 yrs and is one of the studs in Matheran according to him.
The best thing about Matheran is that this small place has some 40 points for tourists to visit and most of them are natural points. There is no man-made fencing etc to spoil the natural scenic beauty of the place.
The pic below is the echo point and is one of the more crowded places in Matheran.

This is not the sunset point, but I caught a wonderful sunset here. Most of the visitors to this place are Gujjus and so 90% of the restaurants are vegeterian. But I have to tell you that I enjoyed the veggie dishes for the 2 days I was there.
Its quite a lethargic outpost near Mumbai and ya forgot to mention that plastic is also banned in this tiny hamlet. In the hotel I was staying they had a small disco and I made most of it, dancing with kids :)...ok I also lost in TT to a 12 yr old kid. Now you know how good I am at TT!

A long break

2007-02-22T00:31:00.000+08:00

Well I have been quite busy lately and lots of stuff to write about...
Next one is surely gonna be one about Matheran..awesome place near Mumbai
And some updates from Trivandrum where I am right now...nothing seems to change in this state
I should be able to get back to blogosphere very soon

~Sujith

There is still hope for the country, for its journalism!

2007-01-26T18:17:00.000+08:00

187 Stories

A salute to a newspaper that reflects on a nation. They continued this crusade when the rest of the media were carrying the stupid bollywood stories to juicy gossip.

These are just 187 stories that unfolded in Mumbai every day. But there was a string of lives attached to them, their family and friends. I might not know them but each and every one of us who has taken those locals at any part of our lived would have felt the shivers that day when it happened.

Sometimes responsible journalism can get good some good deeds done by the society, like this did. This is the difference between showing skimpy clothes and making more money and showing abject poverty in the nude and touching human lives. This is where a newspaper becomes a line of thought, the conscience of the nation...

Arsenal had a ball at Anfield

2007-01-12T20:49:00.000+08:00

In prime form, no oter team in the world entertain with their one-touch passes as Arsenal!!!
Arsenal's second string demolished Liverpool...

Happy New Year

2007-01-05T18:06:00.000+08:00

My New Year eve was spent in this place called Danga Bay, in Johor extreme south of Malaysia. I was with my brother, cousin, his wife and their friends.

My guess is that half of Johor must have been there that nite. The roads in and around that area was jammed. There were 1-2 live bands performing, a couple of stage shows happening, music being blasted out of huge speakers etc etc.

One of the main attaraction was a ship which was docked near the artificial beach. There was food and drinks for whoever wanted to celebrate NY on the waters!!!

Then there were fun rides for kids. I like this particular ride, whatever they call it. Kids love it and its good fun.

We won a prize in one of the stalls! Proud owners posing with the prize!

As usual everything glorious in Malaysia ends in fireworks!

So Happy New year!

A long pending Football post

2006-12-11T12:58:00.000+08:00

And what better time to write this, than when Arsenal go back to Emirates after a hard-fought 1-1 draw against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Mourinho's multi-million team could just manage to draw against a team which had Henry, Toure and Gallas missing. I do agree that Arsenal was lucky to get away with a draw but this is like a value-for-money team full of budding young talents beating a stinking rich team of over-achievers...I like it.

I am sure Arsenal dont have the firepower to win the Premiership this time, but they will give their fans a lot to cheer about by the end of the season. The match even before it started had been a controversial point for ex-gunner (C)Ashley Cole, who left the club to win more titles and have a better bank balance. I t would suit him fine if Chelsea dont win anything this year. Then I would like to know what he would like to say on that.

So with specially printed notes(I mean these English fans will go to that next level when it comes to patronising or booing their players) the fans made their point. Notes from Bank of Russia (to mock at Abrahmovich) and signed by Peter Kenyon (the CEO of Chelsea) were thrown and waved all over the field. He is a wonderful left-back but I think yesterday his under-study Clichy played better!

In the match against Tottenham, the man or should I say boy who stood out was the fabulous Fabregas. He is a class apart when it comes to passing skills, vision to see the openings and tackling. Only thing he has to improve is his shot taking. If he has a deadly long ranger to his repertoire, then he will become the finished product that Viera once was. Cashley Cole it seems has written in his book on the role of Fab to take over from Viera as "Passing the gloves of a heavy-weight to a feather-weight". I mean nobody can match the physical presence of 6 foot and more Viera but Fab proved in last years Champion's league match that he was more skillful than Viera by stealing the ball from the master and setting up the goal.

Going into this match with the back four who were aged 21,21,23 and 19 Arsenal took a big risk. But in the end it paid off. Djourou maybe in-experinced but what he will learn from this 90 mins will make him more experienced by couple of years. Toure was a towering presence not letting anything slip between him and Gallas is a strong man who will not go down under challenge. Ebouoe has his own problems of getting into altercations too easily and Clichy is a pacy left-back who commits to tackles and sometimes seems to be off guard. But they stoood the test of the great Chelsea-attack.

The goal came from the unlikeliest of the sources, Flamini. As usual Arsenal was upto over-passing around the box patiently making every fan sit at the edge of the seat. The problem with Arsenal is that there might be 10 shooting opportunities but they will only take 1 or 2!And when Flamini did, it sure was against the run of play but Arsenal deserved it for persisting so far. One look at the time and I realised that they had scored a bit early for comfort. But anyways this point at Stamford Bridge was not expected in the first place :)

But the man who stood out was Gilberto Silva. The Brazilian played the role just in front of the back four but was defending behind the error-prone Senderos often and came up with many a save. He was there defending, threading the ball to mid-field and giving his piece-of-mind to Ebouoe, who was getting into a lot of tiffs with Lampard.

So Arsenal look good to finish 3rd this season and if they do then its a good enough start for this young team. Champion's League is anybody's game from now onwards.

Indian Middle class' Hypocrisy

2006-11-30T16:07:00.000+08:00

There are couple of Newspaper editors who do an awesome job everyday. I follow Shekhar Gupta of IE on Saturday and Vir Sanghvi of HT every Sunday. I dont even know the name of the editor of India's largest circulated Newspaper, so you can forget about the editorials. Should be as crappy!

Ok so VS wrote a very though provoking article on the Delhi demolition of illegal structures. It is an awesome read and he touches on the hypocrisy of the middle-class in India. Its a good read I am just copy pasting that part...

You would think that an urban middle class that spent so long complaining about the decline of our cities would vociferously oppose any deviation from the rules and would fight against the offenders to preserve the character of their hometowns.
On the contrary. As long as we can add illegal balconies to our houses, run offices in our basements and let out our garages to small manufacturers, we don’t really give a damn.
The complaints are made in the abstract. The offenders are people we don’t know. As long as we can bend the rules by paying off some official, we are content to hammer one more nail into the coffin of urban India.
There is no better illustration of our selfishness than in our attitude to illegal encroachments by those at the margins of our society: the slum-dwellers.
I am something of a fundamentalist (extremist, even) when it comes to urban planning. Nevertheless, I am deeply saddened by the spectacle of shanties being bulldozed out of existence; of poor people clutching their few pathetic belongings and surveying the wreckage of their homes.
But, as much as all this upsets me, I recognise that the alternative is even worse. We cannot hope to retain any sense of urban planning if people are allowed to construct illegal slum colonies wherever they want. Finally, an encroachment is an encroachment and must be treated as such. It is up to us to be humane in removing the encroachment or in resettling those displaced. But no city in the world can afford to permit the spread of slum encroachment all over its environs.
Most middle class people share my view; they hate slums, they consider them eyesores, they are worried about the security implications (even though they will cheerfully employ domestic help from those very slums) and they treat them as examples of the venality of the political class: the slums survive because they contain voters.
But why is it wrong for poor people to construct illegal structures and perfectly okay for middle class people to do exactly the same thing?
What is the difference between an illegal slum and an illegal sari showroom? Aesthetics, perhaps (though, judging by many sari showrooms these days, I am not even sure of that). But otherwise the arguments are much the same: both are encroachments, both place unacceptable strain on the infrastructure and both destroy any sense of urban planning.
And yet, such is our middle class hypocrisy that the very people who complain about slums and demand that the homes of the poor be destroyed are content to make crores out of shops and offices that are just as illegal and illegitimate.
Logic suggests that if there is any sympathy to be directed at encroachers, it should go to the poor slum-dwellers. Instead, nearly all of it goes to the traders, the shopkeepers, the businessmen and the fat cats. And that’s because they are middle class — like us. The marginalised people whose homes we want destroyed, on the other hand, are almost sub-human and worthy of no consideration at all.

Its quite true and his thoughts ring a bell when you look at it. When we built our house, we made sure that we left so many feet on either side of the house to take care of the corporation norms. There were roads on two sides of my house, which meant that we had to leave an extra feet on those two sides. I am sure a lot of law-abiding citizens do that. And it pains when you see a shop jutting out on the road or a balcony protruding out into the road. And when the Govt authorities come to demolish it, the sympathy is always with the affected. I mean if you knew you were doing something illegal and wrong, you should pay for it.

Bangkok Diary

2006-11-19T12:34:00.000+08:00

Welcome to Bangkok - the concrete jungle. Last time I was here, I didnt get enough time to move around. I didnt get anytime in this trip also, but still made the most of it.

This is the view from Nonthaburi, a small suburb on the other side of Chao Phraya river, which is now part of Bangkok. Here is an interesting trivia of the name Bangkok. Though we foreigners use the name Bangkok, the actual name of the city is Krung Thep. Bangkok is just a part of the big city. The the city's full ceremonial name is "Krung Thep Maha Nakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udom Ratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Phiman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanu Kamprasit", which translates to "The city of angels, the great city, the eternal jewel city, the impregnable city of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukam"

Infact the full name of the city is the longest place name in the world. I do not know how the connection of God Indra etc come into the picture with respect to Thailand. In the new airport there is a huge replica of the Hindu mythical story of Samudra Manthan, the gods and the asuras churning the ocean using the snake!!!How the hell did the Thais come to know of this story and why is it so important for them to keep it bang in the middle of the new Suvarnabhoomi airport. Beats me.

The once place which I could go was th water-ways inside the city. I could catch a glimpse of them in my numerous taxi-rides, but couldnt take it. A James bond movie, I think the "Man with Golden Gun" has a nice boat chase etc in it.

And another surprise is that there is no local car company in Thailand. So all the cars are foreign. I think its pretty sad for a country like Thailand. They have the technology, the manpower and other resources, wonder why they still dont have a local car!!!

Well talking of the good infrastructure this country has built we should look at the long term vision there rulers had though you can say that, even after doing so much there is so much of traffic jams inside the city. But to think that they completed those expressways running above the city that connects most of Bangkok in and around 1995 and they have a double network of overhead transit system of trains - The MRTS and BTS.

The picture below is the new station they are constructing on the Nonthaburi line. Once this line complete, they will have farther more connectivity and hopefully the traffic constraints should reduce. The trains are much better and bigger than the LRT in KL. There is only one issue I have with the stations, they dont have any toilets! Ya so they must have saved a lot of money on that. I had to rush to the nearest mall to relieve myself:(

This picture below is taken from the Wikipedia, awesome picture this is of Bangkok and the skytrain!

The new airport is not connected to the train system but the way work is progressing in Bangkok, maybe by middle of next year that will be operational too. But unlike the old airport where you have to bargain with the taxi drivers outside the station to get into the city, here the pre-paid system is very tourist friendly. Last time I had to wait for close to 2 hours for my visa on arrival. I had to wait in a queue, fill a form, submit it along with my passport and photo and wait for my turn to be called. This time it took less than 5 mins and all you have to give is the passport and photo, no more lousy forms etc. Pretty efficient I should say.

The airport is still not completely finished in the sense that you can still see some painting jobs to be done etc. The number of shops inside the new airport must be double or triple of what you have in KLIA but I think they should have made it more spacious as the passages are a bit narrow. I have a complaint though. In the old airport there was a Nike showroom, form where I picked up my Argentine and Brazil jerseys. This time I walked the nearly 3 km long passageways leading to all the gates, trying to locate the sports shop. It seems there are no more shops/sports shops selling any football jerseys. Too less!

Talking of the coup and its after-effects, the city seems to be quite normal. There are posters of the king hanging from a lot of buildings. It is the year of the King's 60th Bday and hence this show of wishes. I remember seeing a program on TV in which they showed what all good the Thai monarchy has done to the people of Thailand. So the vote for the best monarchy in the workd should go to the Thai King and family. Much better than the ones in this country. I havent seen anything good coming from the words or deeds of the sultans of this country.

Thaksin the ousted PM seems sold some 49% stakes in Shin Corp a telecom company to temasek Holdings, which was illegal and to top it, it seems our man amended the laws just prior to the sale and saved on taxes for a sale of close to $ 1.8 Bn in stakes!!! And this is what basically led to the coup happening as the whole country was witness to this drama being unfolded.

But the other side is that it seems Thaksin for all his evil deeds also had a good side. He was the one who planned the new airport to rival the local challenges from KL and Singapore. UNfortunately he could not even attend the inauguration of this airport. He introduced a scheme where any Thai citizen could go to any government hospital for treatment of any ailment (from fever to cancer) for 30 Baht (which is equivalent to Rs.30). How I wish they do something similar for the numerous health centres in rural India atleast.

And talking about food, well South East Asia is not a place for the vegeterians. If you want to enjoy all sorts of meats this is the place. I didnt go to the place where they have grasshoppers, that would have been too much for me. This is a local roadside place selling nice fish and meat for the people who want a quick bite.

I didnt try it though, but the green curry chicken is my favourite with a-dish-i-forgot-the-name of, which is basically chicken which is roasted inside coconut leaf (I think). Thats heavenly!

I landed in one of the designer planes of Air Asia. The Man U one!

Genting & some movies

2006-11-05T13:12:00.000+08:00

Went to Genting HIghlandswith couple of my friends recently. This place is at a higher altitude compared to KL and is a easy getaway for KLites from the heat. The avg temp is around 15-20 deg and there are intermittent showers to cool it further. I never thought I had the nerves to do some of the rides they had for offer. I was freaked out before my small and harmless roller coaster ride itself. It all dates back to a consumer expo in Trivandrum, when I sat in a ride called "Torra Torra". Well to make it worse I was sitting on the edge, which means that I was supportig the entire body-weight of the person sitting next to me!!! As soon as the ride got over I just walked to the side and puked:( Since then, I stay away from Giant-wheels, roller-coaster etc etc

This story dates back to some 11 years. So when we were in Genting, I thought I should try out some of the rides as I had stopped doing such childhood scares (throwing up when going up an altitude, throwing up when the flight was taking off) some time back :) So here I was rejuvenated and in French company and had to keep apna desh ka naam ooncha and all...I did some amazing roller-coasters and somethign called Space shot (pic below), which is some 15 storeys high and drops down, like bungee-jumping, but the difference is that you would be sitting. The whole process is less than 1 minute, but gives you the kick. I still didnt do the rotating/revolving kind of rides:)

Then we did the casino, I lost some 30 ringgits and my friend lost 300! It gets addictive I should say, but it was mu first visit to a casino and now I know how the owners of Genting, are one of the richest people in Malaysia. There are thousands of gamblers in this part of the world. Genting is one of the companies which has bid for the Sentosa Casino in Singapore.

Saw Munnabhai some time back. I think its a very funny way of looking at changing the country but not as realistically possible as RDB though. It is a tough task to make a successful sequel and they have done it. Also saw Omkara, another good Hindi movie. There are some good directors in Hindi for a change. Now can the KJ's and gang retire from the indutry. Also a parting shot on Don, didnt like it as much as the original. I would watch AB version anyday over the SRK one. And SRK can never do justice to what AB did in "Khaike Paan Banaras waala..." Impossible...

Indonesian Diary

2006-11-02T20:09:00.000+08:00

It’s been close to a month since I blogged. I have been travelling around quite a bit, though that is no excuse, as it is part and parcel of a Sales job. The most fascinating job of sales and the most difficult part is sitting across the table and trying to convince your customer to buy your product. So there is a sympathetic corner for every sales guy I come across.

My job took me to the Republic of Indonesia. This is one country which is in the news for all the wrong reasons – Floods, earth-quakes, mud volcano and forest fires…With the fourth largest population the roads, buses, malls etc are crowded like India. As with every crowd, rules are broken on the roads, as with every poor country, corruption is rampant in every walk of life. But the new president is undoing or trying to change the scenario and is fighting corruption as much as he can. The ouster of Suharto and emerging of this new government made for some fascinating reading.

This part of the world has another similar fascination – high rises! They are all over the place. They are making the tallest/lightest twin storey apartment complex, which is supposedly one of the 50 best apartments in the world! I went for an expo and tell you what some of the best home furnishings can be sourced from this region. They do amazing work with wood, fabrics and fibres. Amazing stuff, highly recommended for home furnishing products.

The craziest thing to watch out for in Indonesia is the bus lane. They have this running on the middle of the road and at some parts they are at a raised platform, like the footpath, but at the wrong side. So you have bus-stops at the middle of the road which are connected by overhead walkways and the doors for this buses are on the right side!!! This idea has been borrowed from Bolivia/Colombia (one of these South American countries).

I took a nice train ride to a place called Bandung, which is supposedly the textile centre in Indonesia and I came to know this when I was leavingL Most of the popular brands that you wear in some parts of the world gets made here.

If you are a non-vegeterian, this is the country for you and the food is very similar in terms of your chicken curry, fish curry etc. They add turmeric and other spices in abundance and so the taste is also quite similar. In the restaurants, they keep all their dishes on your table and you can pick and choose whatever you want to eat. Once you are done, they will come and clear and charge you according to what you ate (touched). Eating with hand is not a crime. Talking about food, I had a really nice dinner at MU Café, yes Manchester United Café. I went in at 7PM and they showed me the way out as due to the Ramadan period, all the tables were booked. So went in at 9.30 and peacefully enjoyed the ambience. Got some stuff for some of the ManU-fan friends of mine.

Football Trivia for Indonesia – They have a football magazine called 4-4-2!

Haziness in the air

2006-10-05T19:09:00.000+08:00

This is how clear the sky was couple of days back...

And this is how it is now...

Hazy days here in Malaysia

2006-10-05T13:29:00.000+08:00

From "The Star"
NOT SO PICTURE PERFECT: If you cannot snap a photograph of Kuala Lumpur's skyline because of the haze then maybe the next best thing to do is take one from a picture. That was exactly what this tourist did when he went up the KL Tower on Wednesday. The API reading for Kuala Lumpur was 87 (moderate) but not for 10 other areas with readings hovering in the unhealthy category. --STARpic by KAMAL SELLEHUDDIN

A Cricket Match in Malaysia

2006-09-20T16:50:00.000+08:00

Last time I saw a cricket match it was in the “Eden Gardens” and trust me that is an experience. What a stadium and the how many people can it hold together in its stands. The noise level inside that cauldron would be heard to be believed. So that being my only experience with watching a live cricket match, I was hoping that atleast the result would be reversed. Last time, the Aussies defeated us in that day-nighter in Calcutta.

Kinrara Oval is in the outskirts of Puchong, a distant second cousin when it comes to the other stadiums (read football). I am sure even the baddy courts in Malaysia would be more popular than this cricket stadium. As you near the stadium, you feel as if you are in some Indian city, all you can see are Indains, be it Expat Indians or Malaysian Indians or the real Indians who have come from India just for this match/series. As you stand in the queue about to enter the stadium, you understand what people are talking. Ok even if I don’t understand Gulti, I feel very warm and friendly. From outside itself you can make out how big the stadium is. The view from outside is as good as the view I got in Eden Gardens after paying Rs.1200 that night. Here after paying 122 ringgits it was a much closer view.

It was practically as big as any college ground in India. You were in the same level as the playing field. A good view of the proceedings and the boundary fielder was very close to the gallery. There were some 7-8 rows of temporary uncovered seating. The capacity would not be more than 2000. The fans were quite vociferous. There was the sardarji with his dholak doing the rounds 2-3 times in the 50 over period. Everytime he passed us we got down to dance with the crowd. There was the usual procession of flags and the frequent shouting of “Jeetega bhai jeetega” and “ganapathi bappa moriya”!!!

Sreesanth came to give drinks to Bhajji. I tried my max to shout in Mallu to him…no chance, he was very reluctant to say or wave at us. Pathan was very shy, you can make out from the way he waves at the crowd. Bhajji did an occasional bhangda for the crowd.

There was beer and coke available. Tiger beer was selling at a premium but consumption was in litres. I have to tell you, the Aussies drink beer like water. The queue was pretty long and slow, consumed lots of overs.

They were pinned down by the security when they got caught
And when it rained, crowds got back to their cars and emptied the seats...

And then when the match was declared as a draw, it was a relief but it left an incomplete feeling...Whatever, good for India!!!

Johor jingle

2006-09-09T17:55:00.000+08:00

Was in this southern most city of Malaysia for 3 days. It is like a bridge away from Singapore and there are lost of people who work in these 2 cities who keep shuttling about daily for work.

Danga Bay is like a nice resort kind of place they are building around the water front. This house for eg is made from wood, a typical Johorian way of construction.

There is a restaurant that looks like a ship. Didnt get to go in though.

The view is pretty good but the water is very dirty.

In Malaysia it can rain anytime. And in johor it seems it inevitably rains every afternoon. Despite knowing this, these school kids get drenched...Gals on cycle!

Even the boys like going home wet ...

It was Thiruonam day and I wanted to eat something mallu, atleast something southie...So I found out that the best south Indian restaurant in the city is "Restoran Amma"...so there I was, had a nice lunch...yumm

Last but not the least, my taxi driver for 3 days, Zarina is the oldest tom-boyish woman I have ever seen. She is a one hell of a Bollywood buff, you wont believe it...She knows who is seeing who, who is the daughter of which actor and wife of which film star etc etc. When she came to know that I have hindi mp3s on my laptop, we had to switch off the radio and listen to some songs...well guess which was her fav movie - Kuch kuch hota ha!!! And thats her son, Andy, 3rd child and she is only 27!!!

Merdeka Day Celebrations in KL and some Highway snaps

2006-09-06T01:48:00.000+08:00

RECT...Full Senti

2006-08-30T19:49:00.000+08:00

I got this Beautiful Video from Kutty. He told me it is a timepass video done by the 2006 batch. Little did I know that the 18 minutes of that video struck many a senti chord in my/ our life in REC Trichy, bringing back memories of 4 years, infact the best part of your life, if you look at it! We thought that we wasted the end of our teenage there in the dry lands of Trichy…but now I think it was one of the best 4 years of education and more than that learning. Learning to share rooms for the first time with guys who came from thousands of miles away from a distant state and a different language, learning to share food with strangers, learning to share your feelings of India’s cricket team, learning to Xerox the toppers notes and study for the end terms, learning to borrow cycle to go to the gate to take a sutta and tea, learning to be with your friend through good grades and bad, learning to help your friend in campus placements, learning to support your hostel in inter-hostel cricket matches, learning to be there for your department, even if it was just getting those damn tapes for RECFEST…there has not been a single individual glory in RECT if you ask me, everything has been a collective glory. I am proud of it.

This blog entry has come at a very strange time. The beginning of this week I came to know that a friend of mine passed away. Dibyajeeban Mohanty was a very lovable guy in my class, a proud Prod guy. He was never the loud character like many of us, but a very silent person, who worked really hard and was enjoying a very successful career when death came uninvited. I am sure there are thousands of people including friends and family who miss him from their daily life. The void left over by a human being is always difficult to fill. Our prayers go out to his grieving family.

Then comes the Batch of 2006, for producing a wonderful piece of musical as a REM piece for themselves. It has never been done before in REC Trichy and I think such endeavours should be appreciated and acknowledged for the future batches to outlive. There are a number of people behind the scene, who are mentioned in the titles. A special thanks for them and a even bigger Thank you for the hundreds of them, who played their part silently or otherwise in making this batch. Hats off to the Class of 2006!!!

How can I not mention my batch here… Any college you take, Engineering or any other stream, MBA or any other stream, you will find that, the current batch always think that their batch was the best batch. Likewise, I think the batch of 2001, was the best in our times. There were many issues, many problems but ultimately the batch was together and now when I see the way the guys connect, even after meeting after a long time, it brings out those memories of sharing sutta, tea and what not. I had some 10 odd pics of our batch on my laptop and thought I should put it online and pass on some of the memories. I have some hundred odd pics at home. So this piece is dedicated to my batch the Batch of 2001. Please note that the pictures might be revolving around Production and Lapis hostel.

Everyone goes through the grind in the first year, in Agate hostel, the secure first year hostel. The deputy-warden (called Dy-wa) was a pain the wrong place and I don’t think anyone would have forgotten the call for “We want Justice” in the late hours. The policy of the college to mix the people from different states in each room was a clever way of getting people to know each other rather than stick to their own groups. I know what most of present batch is upto, but I wonder what some of the guys, whom I lost touch with are doing. Like Pradeep, my first year roomie, who was a very strong person, both physically and mentally. We discovered his bowling skills in the 3^rd year and he was one hell of a bowler to face. He had a Suzuki Samurai which always had 2 people clinging on to it as it zoomed past the guys walking towards the classes.

Talking about cricket, our Prod team won the prestigious Lapis Cup in our final year. Matter with his slow run-up and fast bowling got us many a wicket. Basu was a strong batsman and used his height to the maximum. Amal was the exciting batsman to watch and a cunning bowler when it came to taking wickets. Sumit was our Captain and sensible cricketer who knew a lot of both batting and bowling. I was the opening batsman for the team, but my weakness was the slowball, which got me out many a time L. But the star of the team was this young guy in the picture (sitting in white shirt, I forgot his name L), he was the star batsman and super-star fielder, his batting stance was as perfect as Sachin’s, evenly balanced on both legs, he played for Tamil Nadu under 16, so that justifies everything.

Ragging is a story which can run into miles if each of us started writing about the adventures we had. I personally feel that that is a good thing to happen in the first year as it brings down to the ground some of us who thought we have been there done that by reaching here. Some of the relationships we have with our seniors even now justify the relationship which started of on a sour note and then moved to sweet and sour (alcohol). I think some of our seniors were just too good and I am sure every state seniors have done a lot for their state juniors helping them when they needed it, be it in terms of funda, campus placements, notes, books, music, money, daaru. A senior of ours with whom we didn’t even speak much for the entire 4 years, gave his junior a bottle of Whisky to have with his friends (us). I mean at that time getting a full bottle was like an oasis in the deserts of REC. This is a small group of the Production class. We tried to be funny and kind of different from the rest of the class. This was taken in the annual Symposium called Prodigy when we were in 2^nd year. We were forced to wear ties and attend it.

The pride of RECT for a long time was Octagon or Octa as it was popularly known. Thos were the days when there were no individual comps in rooms and everyone had to go to the computer centre (Octa) for browsing their @rect.ernet.in mails. The internet labs were always full and it helped to have a lot of friends, you could just do a quick check of your net mail ids that way. The apping for MS took away a lot of time of the junta who wanted to go to the US of A to study further on their preferred area of expertise.

Me and K had a very scary adventure inside this building one nite at 2 AM. The octa is open 24 hours, but it is applicanle only to the guys as the gals have to back in their hostel by 10PM/9PM (I am not sure). This place always a has a pride in our heart as it was one of the more modern looking buildings inside campus. This pic was taken in a rare occasion of a camera being smuggled into Octa! Please note the clean shaven Paddy in the picture, very different from his Thevar magan meesha now! The guy in the middle, with soda specs, well he has changed a lot now and I cucnt believe it when I heard his story the first time. The cheerful fellow on the left with his eyes closed, is a very lovable junior called Ashwath.

The send off part in the video is a very straight one with very less emotions, maybe the emotional content has come down a lot over the years. If I remember right I was sobbing away to glory that nite in the station and when we returned to the college after seeing off people, it was as if there was huge void in the hostel. As is the case every state students there are some particular trains which take you back to your home state. This was one of the senti shots taken at Trichy station!

Those last 2-3 days are spent in the station seeing-off lots of people...You might not know that person, might not have spoken to him in the last 4 years, but who cares, there is just enough sentiments to say good bye. Some of them are going to US for their MS, some are going to other cities in India to work, god knows, when all of us will meet up. But somehow, I have kind of met up with a lot of my close friends even after all this travel and working.

I cannot end this blog without talking about the culturals/extra curricular activities in RECT. There were a host of inter-department, inter-hostel events to keep you busy throughout the year, this is in between the inter-college festivals across the region.

This was probably the last inter-hostels where we did a dance jig. Avinash second from left was the hero of the whole dance drama..."phata poster nikala hero"...Also had some interesting characters for the first time on stage, dancing, like Saurabh (third from left)...I remeber dancing for the song, "Vaseekara" and kind of forgetting my steps in the middle of the song, on stage...it was embarrassing to say the least, but who cares, final year senti, you can get away with anything :)

The last few weeks were spent in fillin gup the REM mags, filling up each others space with whatever you remember of the other guy in the last 4 years. There were special sessions to complete this because as you reach the 4th year, people kind of give up on their enthu and kind of get lazy to do anything and everything.

The last thing I will talk about is the RECFEST, the inter-department competitions. This is no story of an underdog beating the odds and coming first overall above the highly popular department sof ECE/Comp Sci/Mechanical, but a story of how a group of individuals in our department decided to give it a fight and not be called a also-ran in the fest.

We competed, competed hard enough, we were nowhere close to the top 3 but we had a lot of fun and we were undisputedly the best team when it came to the movie-spoofs. This is a competition where we have to spoof a movie and enact a funny skit on stage. In second year our seniors gave the 2nd years the responsibility to make this skit. Little did we realise that we were going to do something spectacular from then on.

This was a show where you had to make a fool out of yourself in front of your batchmates, your seniors, your juniors and maybe some staff if they come to the show. Also we had a guy called Vicky, who created those really funny scenes and then made those scenes come alive with his very funny compering, followed by the musical bit provided by the mature Vikash, we had a super hit in the second year. We did Robin Hood in the first year, then Mummy and then Zorro.

We had in our midst the lanky Kaushik, who was always on fast forward mode when it came to talking as well as acting, Deva and Chandu as the side kicks of the villain, Prem would be the villain in most of the skits other than providing solid support in the cast and make up, madhur the beautiful damsel in distress, Subhash a junior of ours, acted as the occasional arrow, spear etc. Paddy just did his normal behaviour on stage which was funny enough to be called over-acting.
We had a good time enacting the show and I hope the crowd had a good time laughing I think. We did win the first prizes in the 3rd and 4th year. Life is no longer funny anymore.
Though once in a while, we talk about college life and what all stupid things we did once upon a time. that once upon a time will never come again as the best times of your life is made of people, real people, who were with you in that place living with you, playing with you, peeing with you in the neigbouring pod, watching Sachin score those 2 successive centuries in Sharjah against the Aussies, watching Zidane pump in those 2 goals against Brazil. Now if I go back, I am sure none of the places would be the same again, especially without those 430 odd people!

KANK - KJ give me my 11 ringgits back

2006-08-27T12:48:00.000+08:00

Well I would not have gone to see such a long and boring movie on my own. Blame it on fellow blogger friend who cant sleep in peace, unless she sees AB on screen.

So there I was with the over-excited AB fan and David. Thanks to the English (and Malay) subtitles, I didnt have to explain to David. He was amused by the whole package. Funny movie was his comment. And the lyrical dialogues were kind of too much...Only highlight was the songs (Where's the party tonite...) They were good...And AB is definetely a refreshing change to the fast-becoming-boring SRK.

How many times would KJ have those Hero-Heroine walking away scenes where, when the guy turns around, the gal is not looking at him and vice versa...Give me a break. KJ please stop making such stupid high-budget-over hyped movies, so that people abroad can see better movies (Omkara) which dont get such publicity and hence never get released in other countries.

Some funnies

2006-08-18T17:26:00.000+08:00

Melaka & the restaurant on the road!

2006-08-14T18:45:00.000+08:00

Business took me to the state of Melaka, the historical capital of Malaysia. No sight-seeing only window sighting from my colleague's car!

On the way there is a nice restaurant over road. There are only two such constructions in Malaysia and one is in Melaka.

Please dont mind the Mentos reflection

Had a nice lunch in KFC there...yumm

Big B in Pakistan

2006-08-09T20:00:00.000+08:00

Saw this picture in Hindustan Times. Since Pakistan's Independence day is on 14th August, I think this message/ad has got something to do with that.

I have made it a ritual to go through 3 newspapers every day - The IE, HT and DNA. Well no specific reason for DNA, but just that it sometimes carries nice stories about Mumbai. There is still no local Bangy english newspaper which is as good. Deccan Herald will take a lot of time to graduate for that. That is another reason why Bangy is not yet as comsopolitan as Mumbai.

Also on the list is Business Standard and ET. And to add to the glamour, CNN-IBN & Times Now. So that kind of covers the entire Indian news for me.

For international currently I rely on BBC alone. Unless any friend of mine sends me a Reuters/CNN link!!!

Indian Culture with a dash of Karan Johar

2006-08-07T19:21:00.000+08:00

Sun nite I was invited to watch an Arangetum of a colleague's family friend's daughter. It was a bharatnatyam performance and I thought it would be a good idea to spend a Sun nite. If it got boring, I can always walk out and see something on TV. Got David (my french friend) also to come along. Thought it would be a good idea to make him watch something different. He was shocked in the morning when I explained to him about cricket and the 6 hours long ODI. After seeing his reaction I decided not to mention abt the test match!

I have to confess that I had never seen an arangetum before in my life, atleast fully. Have heard of marathon arangetums happening during temple festivals and all. If ever any classical dance comes on TV, I just change channels...So that was my past experience with classical dance of any sort. So there I was in the PJ civic centre, one among the thousands of Tamil family and friends of the gal, some surd/chinese and malay friends of the family. There was a small nicey printed booklet explaining the occasion. A page for the chief guest (he was the husband of teh guru), one for the guru (she was heading a dance academy which had many branches in Malaysia and Singapore), one for the gal's family (major hifi family, mountaineers and stuff) and their achievements, one about the gal (she it seems was a topper and also did gymnastics and mountaineering herself and wanted to Finance and Accounting in Australia)...There were some pages dedicated to pictures of the gal while she was growing up and how dance influenced her life etc etc. And finally there were those half page ads (I remember how tough it was to sell such space in a symposium magazine or college magazine, back there in RECT) by uncles and aunties of the gal.

Ok enough about the occasion. There was short break for snacks and after that there was a thanks giving session by the brother (who flew down from Australia for the occasion), by the parents and the guru and a 10 minute talk on the dance academy. I asked my colleague if it wasnt a bit too much?Thats when I came to know that this is not a normal feature and in this case the family had the money to do this kind of a show and they did that. Like the way the Yash Chopras and the Karan Johars of bollywood paint the movies with happiness and songs!!!

But tell you what, I was surprised that I sat through that whole 2 hours without getting bored. Thats when I realised that if I was invited to something like this in India, then I wouldnt have even gone for the show. But thats not the case now. I started liking anything even remotely connected to India. There are no bad movies anymore. All songs in all languages are good!

There is a disco here which plays only Tamil songs and one where you can hear only Punjabi/Bhangra songs!!! I can bet that there is nothing like that in Chennai or Chandigarh!!!

Was there yesterday

2006-08-03T14:54:00.000+08:00

An year since...

2006-07-27T20:48:00.000+08:00

Last year around July last week, I think on a Thursday afternoon as rains thrashed down the window pane in my Mumbai office, I realised that we are in for something special. The local mumbaites warned us that this is severe and "this station will be down", "this line would be stopped", "this road would have sinked"! Well I thought ok, so what, maybe I will be late by a few hours, once teh watre recedes, we can all get back home. but at about 4 PM, when the outside looked like it was 7 PM and I saw winds and rains move cars, I called up couple of my friends in other cities and got into exciting talk...

That night I stayed in office with some 100 odd colleagues of mine... We left office around 4 PM next day and two o my friends were with me and it was one hell of an adventure getting back to Thane from Lower Parel. People who know Mumbai will realise the distance and the pain. The sights we saw of abadoned cars, of brotherhood, of pain, of loss to property, of hopes, of a spirit which we call Mumbai, will live with me...That city rocks!!! The sight of housewives and grannies, standing on the road and serving water, tea and snacks to people who were walking for kilometres and not charging a penny, I think no city in India can boast of this. I love Mumbai for this.

We had a lot of fun. We are 5 of us, me, 2 of my roomies, a friend of mine and a colleague of mine. He stayed in Kalyan and therail lines were beyond repair and he was stranded at my place. TV channels conked off in the 2nd day and so began an adventure of non-stop movie watching. Today 2 of them are still working in Mumbai, another one is in Pune, one guy is having a ball in Birmingham and me sitting and typing here in KL.

I would not want to see anything like that again. But some stories will be exchanged over some whisky and vodka in the future. God Bless Mumbai.

Sikkim - A Paradise

2006-07-26T18:26:00.000+08:00

I have not been to Kashmir and I think when it comes to natural beauty and tourist-friendliness, there is nothing like

Sikkim

.

We did this trip when we were in our 2nd yr MBA. 4 of us, 3 days and a lot of fun. Well I have to admit that, in the entire trip we were not at all sober!!! So one of my sober friends had the pictures with him and after I think 2 years he has found time to scan and send us. I thought my next post shud be about that trip. Thanks Haldea for the pics. I am sure Dixit, Kamath & Haldea wont forget this trip that easily as well.

Never thought we could do so much in 3 days, took trains and jeeps to travel. Stayed in Gangtok for a day and then Pelling for 2 days. We met some local kids, visited a monastery, had chiang (the local drink that hits you 1 hour after consumption) from a local wooden shop (coz all i cud see was wood, wherever I look), had momos in plenty, went to the most happening and maybe only pub in Gangtok, met up with our XLRI friends there, went to a place called Pelling, one of the most beautiful place I have ever been (maybe switzerland is better), saw waterfalls and beautiful snow covered mountains, visited tsango lake (which freezes in winter), had the most delicious roti and daal and anda burji in the hotel in Pelling (cooked by the manager-cook-room boy).

This small town has a population of I think some 4000. And it looked more or less deserted when we were roaming around the small town. And the best thing about

Sikkim

is that, nobody harasses you unlike other Indian tourist locations. Here you can do your own thing...

Some really innocent looking faces!!!

Yes we had a rocking time!!!

Dennis Bergkamp - An Arsenal Hero

2006-07-21T18:14:00.000+08:00

The Most Beautiful place in Malaysia - Penang

2006-07-20T17:27:00.000+08:00

Penang is a very beautiful island state in the north of Malaysia. Its got the mountains/hills, sea on all sides and a bridge which connects them to the rest of the world. I have been to just 2-3 states in Malaysia, but this one tops the list for its beauty.

Ok this picture was not taken by me, but gives you a glimpse of the 13.5 km bridge which is the seventh longest in the world. I mean you sit and sit and wonder when it will get over...awesome bridge I would say.
I did the trip couple of times across the bridge for some meetings. One thing which is not good is the public transport. Taxis dont go by meter and you have to bargain. I was charged on a daily basis. But people are more friendly than KL is my verdict.

There are a lot of Indians as in the mainland and I even saw a Malayalle Association of Penang.

Penang food is a speciality and the Indian food I had here was quite different from the Indian food I get in KL.

Some parts of the city has a nice pavement around the sea which is good for a nice evening walk. People here are a bit more laidback than the rest of Malaysia.

A set of row houses in Penang - view from my room!

The new kits

2006-07-16T12:44:00.000+08:00

As the new season is about to start, most of the teams are having a new look.

Check out ManU.

Next in line is Marquez sporting the new Home jersey for Barca. Well they will be playing in a shade of Orange rather than the flourescent green this season when they are away.

And they walk into the new Emirates stadium in their new jersey, led by Henry, young and soon to be unveiled Walcott, Safe hands- Lehmann and no-he-is-not-going-anywhere-Fabregas

India has to decide

2006-07-15T12:08:00.000+08:00

Option 1: Do an Israel, get into Pak and POK and destroy all the Terrorist camps.

Option 2: Give Kashmir to whoever wants it and live peacefully. Why get innocent people killed for reasons they dont know.

Ok you can say that then every state will have terrorists and groups provoking terror to cede off. I mean I dont have a solution to that, but I thnk thats quite an exaggerated argument!

Now the Ugly Game

2006-07-12T19:19:00.000+08:00

There is nothing in this world that cannot get corrupt. Football is no exception. A week before the FIFA World Cup, BBC had a programme on the corruption prevailing in FIFA, masterminded by some of the top guys in the organisation.

The BBC man who was behind this was a reporter who goes by the name Andrew jennings. He is the man who is feared by most of the top bosses in FIFA. They dont let him enter any of the FIFA offices in the world. He has been banned fro attending the FIFA press conferences anywhere in the world. He is one fearless guy who has the guts to ask Sepp Blatter some really gutsy questions on his face.

Some of the allegations are very powerful against Sepp Blatter, the earlier president Joao Havalange, some of the top guys there in FIFA, ILS a company which got the marketing rights for the WC from 1986 till 2010 without any competitive bids.

There are some very interesting facts like One of the World Cup's biggest sponsors is the sports kit manufacturer Adidas, and it was a member of the family who then owned the company who set up ISL in 1982.

He is Jack Warner, the man who controls the CONCACAF, which has some 35 countries as members and who voted en masse for Sepp Blatter. He abused Andrew in fromnt of the camera and was blamed for selling the WC tickets through his own travel agency in the Carribean.

It would be a good idea to check this out

Zidane and the Cup

2006-07-11T19:28:00.000+08:00

The last shot this man had on the field was with his head, a head-butt! He got 2 goals with his head last time he played in the WC finals and this time he got a red card.

He should have controlled his temper the way he controlled the ball in this WC. Anyway, I dont think that incident will take anything away from his achievements because nobody knows what happened on the field that day.

Sri Hartamas Restoran Spicy

2006-07-08T20:03:00.000+08:00

Well this is where I have been watching some of the matches, including the semifinals. This place gets really crowded for the 11PM match and decently crowded for the 3Am match.

It takes us about half an hour to get out of the jam on these roads as every restaurant on this road is showing the match on a big screen.

The teams line up for the 2nd semifinals

The team

And the man...

Les Blues all the way

2006-07-07T12:22:00.000+08:00

The 2nd semi final was not as absorbing as the first, but with the limited opportunity that France had, they scored one. Henry going down on a genuine but minor challenge and Zizou converting the penalty.

The French defence look as solid as the Italians and I think Thuram at this age is playing his heart out. He was extraordinary. Portugal was running down the flanks and Ronaldo for all the dribbling talent and speed he has has been showing his dark side with some dives and unwanted appeals for fouls. He doesnt need that atleast at this point of time when his popularity is at such a low. The problem with Portuguese football is that this might have been their best ever shot at the WC. The old war horse Figo, brilliant Deco and Fast and Furious Ronaldo might never play together again and there are no new talents coming out of that country other than Ronaldo.

I was watching with David who was going gaga over how the last time France won the Euro, they played Portugal in the semis and they won by a solitary goal, scored by Zizou with a penalty!!! And they went on to play Italy in the finals...well the story sounds very familiar. David was telling me that how the whole team was represented by black players and the French public watching the match in the stadium were all white, as only they could afford the tickets. What a contradiction of sorts.

Finishing off with a line from the commentator when he was analysing the team line ups..."In the French team you have Ribery and Malouda providing the width...and Zidane in the middle...well he will be providing the genius!!!"

It was good while it lasted

2006-07-05T17:06:00.000+08:00

The Germans call this stadium in Dortmund "the living room". This is a stadium where they have never lost before...So when they were taking on Italy here, there was a lot of optimism in the German camp.

You cannot win a match/cup just with luck as Brazil and England found out a little late in the tournament. You need a coach who is very positive and they had Klinsmann, their prolific striker of 90s. I think this whole turnaround for this team is because of this man here. How can you keep your golden shoe winner of last world cup in the sideline. He rubbed on the attacking instincts to the team. It was a pleasure to watch him applaud every attacking move of the Germans and he threw emotions in plenty as well.

Well a coach cant win matches. Hiddink will confirm on this. You also need a team which believes in itself. Ballack provided the captaincy and the pivot for all attacks from the right through Schneider and through Lahm from the left and through Sweinsteiger from everywhere. ANd when Swein was tired you had Borowski comein in and settinp up a nice goal for Klose against the Argentinians. This is a team which will be a favourite to win the next Euro.

So all of these drove this nation crazy. There you see two very important players, Lehmann and Ballack.

And I feel sorry for Klinsmann who would have been the most upset. He came without any background in coaching a team and did a wonderful job at that. Good job done!

The Semis

2006-07-04T16:02:00.000+08:00

The way the matches have progressed have proved beyond doubt that you cannot just scrape throught with patchy performances...read Brazil and England. At least the ones in the semis are the best performing or the most improving sides seen in this World Cup. Though Spain and Argentina also played well, they ended up in the wrong side of the draw.

Semi 1: Italy vs Germany

Italy has got the best defence in this world cup. They are disciplined, dont give anything away and work very well as a team. All these guys have been playing the same league and there is something similar in their thought process I guess.
Germany on the other hand have a bubbly team. They are one team who has so far played 60-70% of their game in their opposition's half. Constantly attacking, this team can score from close range through Klose and Podolski and from long range from Ballack (though he has not scored one yet), Sweinsteiger and Schneider.

Verdict:Italy. Yes I think the Italians will hold good against the Germans. Going by the trend in this World Cup, it will not be a surprise.

Semi 2: France vs Portugal

With Deco and Costinha back and Ronaldo firing on all cylinders, the Portuguese look like favourites. More so because the French victory over Brazil was an inspired one, one that happened when they were down and had nothing to lose except pride. Wonder if Portugal would be able to inspire the French. I would like to see Zizou sign off in style. He has been the best of his generation and he needs one more star performance. Figo also has promised more than he can deliver so far in his career and will also be looking at a star turn.

Verdict:France.Well, surprise again. I want France to win more than anything else.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man

2006-07-02T13:11:00.000+08:00

Just to add, I think couple of days back in two seperate media briefings, the English coach Eriksson and the Brazil coach Parreira stressed on how important it is to win matches and not play the "beautiful game" They asked who will remember a Ghana or a Spain (or an Argentina - I am adding this as at that point of time Argentina was not eliminated). Those teams have crashed out and we are still in this game.

How wrong can they be. It is important to win matches I agree, but not by playing boring football. I think people will remember the Ghanians and the Ivorians and the Argentinians from this world cup rather than the Brazilians and the English. We still remember and consider the Brazil team of 82 as their best ever squad. They didnt win the cup but won a lot of hearts. The total football by the Dutch in 74, they played some wonderful soccer but didnt win the cup. It is not the cup that matters, but those 90 minutes of magic that every football lover wants to see.

So Mr.Eriksson and Pareira, you are very wrong!

The Man who could have been

2006-07-01T12:33:00.000+08:00

But was substituted!!!

Argentina lost this match tactically. But Germany has played well so far and I just hope Brazil thrashes them in the finals!!!

Talk about Football

2006-06-30T20:16:00.000+08:00

Talk about Football coverage and it would be tough to beat the Malaysians. Astro, the pay channel network here is showing all the matches live and to beat everythign else has come up with this nice interactive mode.

For eg; in the picture below when there are like 2 matches live, I can pick and choose which one to watch. The highlights of the current match and the previous day keep happening and you can choose what to watch. The fixtures, stats and the latest news on the teams and tournament are available at the press of a button.

And when there is only one match live, the functionalities get better and better. Like there are 2 cameras on an individual player from each team (in this case it was the Brazil-Ghana match and the camera was on Ronaldinho and I think Asamaoh/Appaiah). so at any moment you feel like seeing their individual movement/skill it is possible.

There is a Tactical camera which gives you a top view of the whole stadium. you can actually see how the 4-4-2 combination moves in the actual match. very intersting sometimes.

And the highlights of that particular match keeps running. So if you lost out on a goal, you can quickly catch it in the highlights and watch the rest of the match. Pretty good I say.

The Quarters

2006-06-29T18:08:00.000+08:00

As the World Cup nears its last 10 matches, there are some mouth-watering encounters in the offing...

Germany vs Argentina - Repeat of 90 WC finals

They are by far the best 2 teams in this edition of the World Cup and this match is the first final of this World Cup. Both the teams have good attacking skills and play to their strengths. I would like to see how Germany will play when they go a goal behind. That scenario is yet to be seen so far so it should bring some really interesting tactics from the experienced Pekerman and energetic Klinsmann. What Argentina have that Germany doesnt are their reserves. Look at Messi (who might start) & Tevez...
Verdict: Toughest one but I will go with Argentina 3:2 or 2:1

Italy vs Ukraine - Easy for Italy

Though I felt bad for Australia as it was not a penalty, the way Australia played for around 40 minutes without even haing good shots on goal, I thought Italy deserved to win. And what a penalty it was...You cannot place it better. It seems Italy is the side in which the substitutes have scored the maximum goals for any country in the WC. Proven yet again by Totti who came in as a sub. I think the Italians who have seen enough and more of Shevchenko will be able to decipher him easily.
Verdict: Easy one for Italy 2:0

England vs Portugal - Scary repeat for the English

Before I say anything about the teams, here is a funny bit from the Guardian
"Now that Portugal have done the World Cup a favour by removing the tournament's most cynical team, many neutrals will be hoping that they can repeat the trick by eliminating a group of players who, alone among the seeded nations, appear to have brought nothing to the party except their wives and girlfriends."

Ok on the match, I think England will again pull in a goal or two and get away with this one. Without Deco, many yellow carded players (incldg Figo) and injured Ronaldo, I dont think this team is good enough to win against England.
Verdict: England should wrap this one 1:0

Brazil vs France - Repeat of 98 WC finals

An improved French team against a slowly improving but lucky Brazil. Well Zidane, Ribery, Viera and gang might find it a little difficult in this match to score the goals. We might not see Zidane and Ronaldo in a World Cup again. Zidane's goal was much much better than any that Ronaldo put in. I think an ageing side like France, however good they are might struggle against the Brazilians.

Verdict: Brazil will win 2:0

Group G & H

2006-06-26T13:55:00.000+08:00

Group G

Switzerland - A starless team who play within their limitations have been able to notch up couple of impressive victories on their way to the second round. I expected a draw in the last match with Korea, but they came out trumps.

France - Well a team whose average age is 30 years and 8 months can only do so much. It was left to Viera to come up with a champion performance to put them through to the next round. This team needs a serious revamp and it will surely happen after this world cup.

Group H

Spain - Whatever people say about their performance, I am not all that convinced. I thought Ukraine has performed so inconsistently that they were on a low on the day they lost against Spain. I was surprised that they could keep a player of Fabregas' calibre out of the team. Anyways good going so far for the perennial under-achievers...

Ukraine - They have played the most inconsistent football seen so far. Beaten black and blue by Spain and then giving an absolutely stunning performance against the Saudis. I wonder if they would be able to do well in the next rounds. This is where I feel pity for teams like Czechs and Ivory Coast

Spain vs France verdict France
I think France has been motivated by the Viera performance and we might see an upset here

Switzerland vs Ukraine verdict Swiss
Swiss shud put more than a goal through this Ukraine team

Group E & F

2006-06-23T19:03:00.000+08:00

Brazil - Not yet convinced that this is the team that can win this World cup. They will need to improve further and better their finishing and passing to proceed to the next stage. Ronaldinho has not been the given the room by his opposition to display his ball passing skills. Ronaldo is yet to achieve his 2002 form and loses possession quite easily these days. Kaka and the hard working Ze Roberto seesm to be the only ones worth mentioning in this team.

Australia - I thought they would have that fire burning in them to do well and they did just that. Ok so it would be again tata- bye bye for them in the next round. I thought the Cahill strike to equalise the team did the trick for them in this tournament. They were impressive against the Brazilians as well.

Italy - I have not watched a single match of theirs so far in this tournament but you get the idea from the scoreline, how well they have played. Unlike the teams of the past they have not just been defending well, but also attacking and scoring goals.

Ghana - The last African hope. But the absence of Essien and Appiah will be felt in the next round. But they played really well and Essien proved why he is one of the best in the business. There are very few players who can actually cover defence, midfield and go forward for the entire 90 mins like he does. He is one in a million. If it was not for the Chelsea money, he should have been playing for Arsenal!!!

Brazil vs Ghana verdict Brazil
Without Essien and Appiah, this team might not be able to take on the Brazilians, else it would have been really tight.

Italy vs Australia verdict Italy
Well I think Australia has come as far as they can.

Group C & D

2006-06-22T17:38:00.000+08:00

Argentina - One of the favourites to go atleast till the finals. They had a very tight match against Netherlands and I thought Tevez played his heart out. Though the score line was 0-0, I dont think the match was a boring one. Messi & Tevez both have speed & skill to maneouvre around any defence.

Netherlands - They played their best match last nite, denying the Argentinians a goal. Robben their man in form was rested and they lacked those penetrative runs through the left flank. Anyways making it from this group was a tough job and so they have accomplished mission impossible 1, now lets see if they can do an MI-2!

Portugal - They are playing well, combining as a team consisting of the Figos and the Christiano Ronaldos. Their last match against Mexico, without Ronaldo and Pauleta, was a bit of a challenge for them considering the fact that the Mexicans wuuld be going for a all-out win.

Mexico - They were the strongest team from Central America. The way they strated off with a win over Iran, I thought they might give a fight to Portugal. But they will go in as the second best team from this group. Tough game ahead

Argentina vs Mexico verdict Argentina
No doubts on this. The score line should be 3-1 or 2-1 in favour of the Argentinians

Netherlands vs Portugal
This should be a very interesting match and I will give the benefit of doubt to Netherlands

Group A & B

2006-06-21T13:15:00.000+08:00

Germany - Played like a team that wants to keep the momentum going. The way Sweinsteiger and Lahm played throughout the first round summarises the attacking instincts of this team. They are peaking at the right time and Ballack is on the rise and he will surely start getting into his groove by the next match.

Ecuador - This team was written off even before it started its campaign as one which can play only in the high altitudes at home. But they have played their hearts out and with 5 of their regulars being rested/injured and hence rested, lost to Germany. Delgado and Valencia stand out and I have a feeling that they will progress further.

England - Owen injured. Rooney out of injury. Crouch...well I dont like him at all. So will have to see if Lampard, Gerrard, Cole and Beckham can provide all the thrust from mid-field to Rooney to pump in the goals. Somehow they seem to have lost the plot somewhere in between. Remember that in the match against Trinidad&Tobago if it was not for a highly acrobatic Terru goal-line save, the story could have been different.

Sweden - Another mighty team that had to bite the dust. Ibrahmovic has been completely out of form and Larsson had to take the bulk of the load. They maintained their unbeaten streak against England with a last minute goal.

Germany vs Sweden verdict Germany
I would like to see this side go further...well who wouldnt. They are playing some wonderful football

England vs Ecuador verdict Ecuador
I think Ecuador has the ammunition for this English side

Finally the Beautiful Game!!!

2006-06-17T14:39:00.000+08:00

Arrived a week after the World Cup started. And it took Argentina to claim its place as the most serious contender for not just winning the world cup, but winning it in style. The way they passed around the ball was amazing and the commentator said, "they are playing the way Brazil should have played". The beautiful game in display for everyone to see.

Serbia, a team which qualified over Spain in its European group and conceded only one goal in the qualifier had to pick up the ball six times from inside the net. The way they defended with ten men after conceding a goal against Holland was pure quality. But when Argentina put six past them, it was not the difference between Serbia and Argentina that came out, but the difference between Argentina and Holland.
There was Tevez, who plays for Corinthians in Brazil. It is very difficult for a Argentinian player to play in the Brazilian league and be voted as the best player for this year. He has been there and done that. Vicky used to tell me to watch out for this guy. I saw him first in the Argentina-England friendly which England won 3-2. His performance in that match was just too good. He showed his skills again in the match yesterday when he kept the ball in control, while tackling some 3 defenders.
And then the super kid who has grown up to be a complete player and maybe the next Maradona of Argentina!!! When he won the Best player in the World Youth Championship which Argentina won, he made news. Picked up by Barcelona and figuring in their starting line up whenever he was fit was another achievement for this young guy. He came in as a substitute, set up a goal for Crespo and finally hit one himself. Well this team has shown that it has got class, now it has to show consistency. Riquelme, the man of lazy elegance and one of the best back-heels in the world, had a quiet game.
And there was the man himself, shouting and jumping up and down everytime Argentina hit a goal or Messi came in!!! Well this team is surely a favourite to reach the final now.

One last word about Ivory Coast. They lacked the experience of playing in the big cup, else their performance was one which would have got them through to the next round, if they were in any other group. They are the best African team on display. Last nite was the best nite in this World Cup. I wanted to put in a post after the end of the first round, but last nite's performance asks for a post!!!
Argentina - Superlative Performance!

Review of the First Round

2006-06-15T17:10:00.000+08:00

This is based on the first match in the first round of the World Cup. Names might get spelt wrongly, kindly adjust...

Group A
Germany is the shining star in this group. Never knew that they could come up with so much of creativity. Lahm and Sweinsteiger are the stars to look out for. Even if they concede couple of goals they will outscore the other team. Should make for an interesting second round match. Well Poland seemed like they had never played a South American nation before. Well the Ecuadorians were far more physical and muscular in their approach than the Brazilians and Argentinians. Looks like Ecuador should coolly make it to the next round with the Germans

Group B
This was the shocker group. England played as badly as they can. Half of Malaysia, maybe more, support this country and the feelings have been hurt of this nation after the first match. I wonder how the British might be taking this. They need a Rooney to come and give them that spark, else it might be an exit too soon and that too could come at the hands of Germany. I expect Sweden to make it to the next round as well. But Trinidad and Tobago made themselves proud by taking a point from the Sweden match.

Group C
The group of death. Argentina played wonderfully well against a hard working Ivory Coast. Riquelme is one laid back guy but when it comes to setting up play he is just too good. I dont like Robben, he is too selfish. I agree that he played superbly in that match, but bugger did not pass to anyone and tried to score himself. He does the same thing with Chelsea as well. Serbia should have played better, to think that they qualified over Spain in their group. Anyway looks like the favourites Argentina and Nederland will make it, though I would want Ivory Coast to make it to the next round.

Group D
I dont like any of the teams in this pool.Portugal did not impress that much. The good thing about this world cup is that none of the first time qualifiers and supposedly weaker teams were pushed around. They gave a very brave display, either holding the stronger team to a goalless draw or not conceding more than one goal. I like the way the African teams play, little physical in their approach but very effective. They dont get fouled that easily, will manage to get up and win the ball again.

Group E
This is going to be a World Cup where two previously boring teams have suddenly started playing attarctive football. One was Germany and the other one being Italy. They are in with a good chance to make some progress in this World Cup. Czechs have played really well with the Arsenal star Rosicky, playing extra-ordinarily well. I think these teams will be able to give the Brazilians a run for their money and glory.

Group F
Brazil everyone's favourite played boring football except for the Kaka goal, which was a class act. But you can never under-estimate a Brazil team. The fact is I would like a South Americn team or an African team (not this year, but maybe in the future) to win the World Cup, as they need it badly. In these countries, they need a cup like this to uplift an otherwise doomed economy and spirit. this would mean a lot to Brazil/Argentina/Ivory Coast much more than it would to Engalnd/Germany. Last word on Australia. Japan thought they had the match in their pocket, until Cahill also came up with that moment of brilliance. Thats the best thing about football. After scoring one goal you cannot sit pretty on your laurels, the other team might not just level in the dying moments, but also outscore you!

Group G
There is something about France and World Cup. They cannot play well as a team. It was Zidane's brilliance that got them the cup. Henry would have scoerd for Arsenal if he had a half-chance as the ones he got in that match, but not in the World Cup, not when he plays for France. They were lucky to escape with a draw. I am sure Korea will give the French team enough trouble. If France doesnt play well, then Korea has a chance to go through to the next round.

Group H
The Ukrainian team was a disaster. Spain was lucky to get a penalty and their luck rode well with the game. Shevchenko got me negative points in my FIFAFantasy game. He was ex[ecting passes like he would get from his AC Milan team. Unfortunately, the crosses were too wide or were in no-mans land. Wonder what they will do now. I dont know if there is any scope of improvement. Why is Fabregas not playing for Spain. I am sure he can only make the proceedings more lively.

Mumbai millls and buildings at nite

2006-06-11T16:04:00.000+08:00

This picture was taken by a friend of mine, Ashim Mohanty with his digital SLR...pretty good, isnt it!!!

Some things in football...

2006-06-10T17:12:00.000+08:00

Fan Runs Onto Pitch To Embraces Brazilian Striker Ronaldinho During Training Session In Switzerland

Well it seems the Brazilian team had to move to a bigger stadium for their practice sessions as the paying crowd numbered more than 25000...now what can one say about that!!!

FIFA World Cup Defining Moments…

2006-06-10T11:44:00.000+08:00

As the World Cup kicked off so did the soaring spirits in this country. My friend, David has got his door all decorated in support of France his home country. And it seems couple of gals, good looking ones, came over to his door to see what he had done to his door and our man had a nice time ogling at them through the peep-hole. Well, its all for France you see.

Was watching the FIFA World Cup Defining Moments on TV the other day. It was awesome stuff. And I am reproducing the last four.

4. The Beautiful Misses of Pele in the 1970 World Cup

This was a wonderful piece of video, showing how Pele missed on couple of occasions in the 1970 World Cup, proving that he was human after all. There was one particular miss in which he is running towards the goal to reach the ball before the goalie. The goalie is fast advancing and in that sma,l fraction of a second Pele just leaves the ball and the goalie is left in no man’s land. But to the astonishment of the whole world Pele’s shot misses the goal by inches. It becomes a great miss rather than a spectacular goal that could have been.

3. The Deadly save by Gordon Banks in the 1966 World Cup match against Brazil

When Pele headed the ball towards the goal, it was almost a goal until the hand came from nowhere lifting the ball above the crossbar. Not that the save mattered, because Brazil went on to win that match by one goal. But if there was a save worth seeing again and again, this is the one.

2. The All-conquering 1970’s Brazil team

Winning the World Cup in style. Carlos Alberto Pereira lifting the cup and keeping it with the Brazilian team for the rest of their life. This cup matters for the entire country like nothing else I guess. What the Cup means and does to the poorer countries in South America and Africa is much much more than what it does to the richer European countries.

1. Of course no denying the Maradona of the 1986 World Cup.

The second goal in the quarterfinal was as the commentator described a goal of undeniable brilliance.

My Predictions for the World Cup

2006-05-31T19:20:00.000+08:00

Addendum
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I think I got alittle mixed up in the grouping. So it seems Brazil and England will lock horns in the semis itself and cannot meet in the finals. So I think, it would be a Argentina vs Brazil final which Brazil will win.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The teams that will qualify from the group stages are
Group A
1. Germany - They should atleast make it to the next round, though they played badly against Japan
2. Ecuador - 3rd place in South America after Brazil and Argentina should be something
Group B
1. England - With Rooney can win this cup
2. Sweden - Got it in them to go to the enxt round
Group C
1. Argentina - Another contender for the Cup
2. Ivory Coast - Yes, the first surprise. I think they will wriggle one past Holland and make it
Group D
1. Portugal - Should not be a problem for them to top this group
2. Mexico - Angola and Iran should not create any problems to them either
Group E
1. Czech Republic - They are a good side and should compensate for their Euro semi loss
2. Italy - Has got a good attack for a change
Group F
1. Brazil - Well all Brazil teams are worthy of a World Cup and so is this team
2. Australia - I am going with my heart. I think this is a tough pool for the other 3 teams. They are all good and I think any of them can get through
Group G
1. France - Henry should hit top form this year is my bet
2. Switzerland - They are again a second round team
Group H
1. Spain - Another good team that can go a long way
2. Ukraine - May spring a surprise or two

Second Round
1. Germany - Sweden verdict: Sweden
2. England - Ecuador verdict: England
3. Argentina - Mexico verdict: Argentina
4. Portugal - Ivory Coast verdict: Portugal
5. Czech - Australia verdict: Czech
6. Brazil - Italy verdict: Brazil
7. France - Ukraine verdict: France
8. Spain - Swiss verdict: Spain

The second round promises some mouth watering duels, with the best being Germany-Sweden. The others would be France-Ukraine and a Brazil-Italy showdown.

Quarter Finals

1-3: Sweden - Argentina verdict: Argentina
2-4: England - Portugal verdict: England
5-7: Czech - France verdict: France
6-8: Brazil - Spain verdict: Brazil

Semi Finals

Argentina - England verdict:England
France - Brazil verdict:Brazil

Finals
Engalnd - Brazil verdict: Brazil

3 movies and some thoughts

2006-05-22T16:35:00.000+08:00

Yesterday I saw Swades again. I realised that it can still keep you engrossed, even if you are watching it for the nth time. There is something about a movie when touches all the sentimental chords of your mind and heart at the same time.

There are movies which are fun and entertaining and attain cult status like DCH. You can watch them again and again. It is funny, sentimental and romantic at the same time. The characters are lively on the screen and subtle in their acting. Yes you can watch it again and again. But does it have any impact on you. No. It is just a movie, entertaining for the two and a half hours of its duration.

Then came movies which will leave you with a deep impression, the one time that you see it. It incites a kind of, I dont know if I can call it false feeling of emotions. I am talking about RDB. I loved it the only time I saw it. I bought a DVD, but couldnt watch it again. Maybe I will be able to see it after many months. And it is not just me, there are many people I have spoken to who have said that they cant watch it again. It was strange because I thought I liked it when I saw it in KL. RDB had that strong sense of trying to influence the way you think. It was like a one time solution, a little revolutionary way of doing things. And though some people criticise the end, I thought that is the reason why it was special.

Then there are movies which are much beyond a movie. They are seen as movies which change perceptions, change thought processes, change opinions, make you believe that you can do things in India without getting into the messy beuraucracy and politics. The songs are messages which will stay in your mind forever. Each character represents a section of our society. Each dialogue is a lesson you should have learnt in school and every scene a depiction of the condition of our society.

And to sign off, a line from one of the songs

"Mann se Ravan jo nikale, mann mein uske Ram hai"

Stumble Upon

2006-05-20T15:49:00.000+08:00

I quite Stumbled Upon here. If you are using Mozilla, this is like one of the best add-ons you can have...So start discovering!

And the good news is all over the place...Henry stays and so watch out all you ManU / Chelsea / L'pool and Barca fans...

The media manager or whoever came along with Wenger and Henry and told the media "I think Henry has got something to say to you."

Henry: I think with my heart and my heart told me to stay. I've never played in Spain and never will. This is my last contract.

Wenger:I had two aims at the start of the week: to win the European Cup and then to make Thierry stay.I only managed one of those but, for the future of the club, that's certainly the best one.

Sometimes, I wonder how these guys come up with such hollywoodesque dialogues. It was also interesting to know that Arsenal is the only club in the world with three teenagers at the World Cup - Theo Walcott for England, Cesc Fabregas for Spain and Johan Djourou for Switzerland!!!

Almost Arsenal

2006-05-18T12:46:00.000+08:00

The Gunners and the Catalans flew down to Paris for the Champions League final. Even Bergkamp drove down. And so did my friend Prabhu all the way from electronic city to New BEL road.

This was Arsenal's biggest nite ever and what an anti-climax it was. 18 minutes into the match, Lehmann, the goalie who created many a European record on the way to the final, does a foul to avoid a goal, gets sent off. It was a fair decision as the referee blew the whistle after the foul was committed and before the goal was scored. I think it would have been fairer to allow the goal and retain Lehmann and made a match out of it. One goal down, with 11 men, Arsenal would have been better off than 1 goal up with 10 men. This is because, no team in this world can play with 10 men against a Barca 11 and expect them not to score. Sooner or later they would do that and they did, twice.

The match that was billed as a Ronaldinho vs Henry never lived up to that. Ronaldinho was cramped for space by the wonderful defence of Arsenal and Henry missed chances,which he would have scored with his eyes closed in the EPL. Ljunberg ran all over the place, Fabregas was good and even the replacement goalie Almunia was good till he let those two in.

The quality of refereeing was poor without doubt. Both sides missed chances. The two teams were my most favourite and 2nd most favourite teams.

Only positive thing that happened for Arsenal would be perhaps Henry having second thoughts on joining Barcelona now!!!

Template Change

2006-05-16T13:16:00.000+08:00

Ya saw couple of my regular blogging friends change their template and I thought, ya once in a while a little change is good for the eyes!!!

There are young designers who are making fundoo templates and helping guys like me who are sad in HTML to redesign and improve the looks of their blogs. I tampered with a couple of them and decided to keep this as it was time for me to leave office and the republishing etc etc was taking some time...so thats abt it...

Big week for Arsenal. Maybe their Biggest ever!

100th Post

2006-05-12T12:14:00.000+08:00

And I am glad I am writing for a good cause.
This is what Peter Dulvy, says about how this small adventure started...

In November 2005 I attended Robin's wedding in Kerala. Following the ceremony we all went en masse on a backwater boat trip eating south Indian delights and relaxing. Whilst gliding along the tranquil waters I spotted an idyllic towpath at the side of the river shaded by rows of coconut palms. It occurred to me that it would be really amazing to run through such a beautiful place. A few good books and number of months later I awoke on Saturday 11th March 2006 morning to a call from a friend †in Delhi who was there with me in Kerala all those months earlier. She suggested that I should consider following through on my early comments in November and actually go running in India.
So here I am on the eve of our departure for Delhi where we will be launching the run with the kind support of a Reebok, the Indian Tourism Office in London and Intrepid Travel. From Delhi we will fly to Cochin to arrive on the morning of the 30th. It's a drive north to Kazaragod and a good nights sleep. Somewhere between 4.30 - 5am (mid night UK time) myself Rahul and Dez will awake from sleep with a feeling in our bellies marking the realisation that the wildest plans can actually come fruition. It will be a golden moment for all of us to remember for the rest of our lives.
Check out Heels on Fire and their travel blog

The rise of the Red Brigade

2006-05-11T20:13:00.000+08:00

On a day when the Commies come to power, let me share some of the pics that I took in the recent past....

Friends forever

2006-05-09T12:15:00.000+08:00

This picture was taken in Kodai, where we had given the farewell to our senior batch of REC. Farewell and Freshers parties have been the pride of each batch. It is more or less like how "well" you ragged your juniors!!! So this is my batch "Mallus"Standing From Left: Sujith, Karthik, Pramod, Prem, Philip, Vimal, Arun, Sanjith, Girishwar & Ashif
Sitting from Left: Sidin, Praful, Dwipin, Vikash and Jiby

I should thank Dwipin for preserving this picture and K for passing it on...

From Bangkok to Bombay

2006-05-07T02:09:00.000+08:00

When you see countries like Thailand have infrastructure of good qaulity, it sows doubts on your mind on what exactly is our country doing after so many years of independence. They have got expressways over the city and roads and airports of high qaulity and a very proactive Tourism zing to the whole scenario. They have beaches and massages that sell well, but c'mon, no country can just excel in selling their beaches, if they cant provide good lodging and transportation and facilities to whoever lands in that copuntry. India is on its way, I just hope we are not too late.

So some snippets of this country, not in any particular order though.
So lets start with the two-wheeler taxis or the bike taxis that we see here. They are differentiated from their other 2-wheeler counterparts by the orange waist coat. They flout traffic rules and go on footpaths (like they do here in Bangalore) as seen in the picture. But I have to tell you that in this traffic-jammed city, they are the fastest mode of transport.
Bangkok, must be having the worst traffic-jams in this part of the world. The only time you avoid that is when you take the expressway, running above the city, covering the length and breadth of it, or when you take the sky train, which doesnt cover much of the city.

The inner roads inside the cities are cramped at some parts and the best thing about these roads are these nice small trees which do not cramp the footpath but gives some shade. As you would see. most of the pics have been taken whn I was travelling in the taxi as too many meetings and numerous traffic jams made me click less pictures.

This is the talles building in Bangkok. It has 90 floors and is a hotel, whose name I cant recollect now. I like the Johnnie Walker ad on it, which says "Drink, Dont Drive"!!!

The famous water ways in Bangkok. Couldnt take the ride on the boats though.
This was something which I didnt understand. The board there says "Marriage for Alien", whatever that means. I was in the taxi, esle would have gone down and enquired.
This is a classic Heineken ad. I saw couple of billboards which were really classy ones. By the time I dug out the camera from my bag, I was past that. Now anyone who comes to Bangkok, will know of Patpong street and what it is famous for. This rotating ad board has the images in the following order
1. Soi 1 which translates to Street 1 - The image is of a hand holding a Heineken pint bottle
2. Soi 2 ~ Street 2 - And the image is again of a hand holding a pint rather loosely
and the third one is this...
In Malaysia you can speak in English and be assured that the listener will understand what you are saying and vice versa. But not here. They speak in english which you will never understand and ya they don't understand what you speak.

And finally I was back in good old Mumbai!!!

Sportstar - My Personal Collection

2006-05-02T17:37:00.000+08:00

This Hindu publication is the only surviving sports magazine in India today...

My earliest memories go back to 1986-87, when I first set sight on this magazine and started understanding the pictures in this magazine. I used to collect the centre-spreads and one-page posters. Our house used to have a huge pile of sportstar mags and I somehow managed to collect it and keep in a corner. I lost out on the old 1980's Reader's Digets though.

To just add on to the collection, I decided to buy the issues of Sportstar when there was a special occasion, say like the cricket world cup or the FIFA WC or the Olympics.

My prized collection includes,
the 1983 issue, where Kapil's Devils won the Prudential cup
1986 FIFA WC starring Maradona
1987 Reliance World Cup
1990 Italia FIFA WC
1992 Benson & Hedges Cup
1994 US FIFA WC
1996 Wills Cup
1998 Zidane WC
1999 South Africa
2002 Japan Korea WC
2003 India Whitewash in finals

I do not remember which all Olympics I have got covered. And to complement this I have this huge collection of posters, right from the footballing legends to the F1 legends (I did not understand this sport then), to the cricketing greats to some exquisitive tennis stars. All these magazines are neatly bound and will adorn my bookshelves once I have a bookshelf in my new home.

I started appreciating R Mohan, Vijay Lokapally and Rohit Brijnath over the years. Mohan quit the magazine and newspaper following the cricket betting controversy and only the other two remain. Also I rememeber another magazine coming up in the 90's called Sportsworld, which was more colourful and trendy. But somehow, I stuck to Sportstar. The latest avatar of Sportstar is of the tabloid size (la Mid-day) and is 8 bucks and not 10! It has a 2-page centre-spread and looks great and is a good read. Unfortunately, the cover story is of how they expect Rooney to do what Gazza couldnt do for England - win a World Cup!!! Well that looks unlikely following his injury .

The World Cup special issues of Sportstar are from next week and I hope to collect them!!!

Gunners in finals

2006-04-26T09:29:00.000+08:00

The beautiful game...

2006-04-25T23:03:00.000+08:00

There is nothing like a good football game with lots of goals. I was watching the vintage World Cup matches in Star Sports the other day and cannot but admire the beauty of the sport. The climax of the show was the 1986 WC performance of the man they call Maradona. His goals and his skills saw Argentina win the WC.

Whatever Barca or Chelsea achive at the end of their leagues, doesnt matter when it comes to the WC. This is where many have burnt their fingers, eg. Henry has never been as impressive when playing for France as he is when playing Arsenal. He will never be forgotten by his countrymen for that and I think this year he will be in the peak of his career. Lets not talk about Pele, Cryuff, Maradona and Zidane. A lot has been written about their playing days and skills.

What does this WC promise. I think there will be two rising stars. I am going purely by their current club form and they are the most impressive youngsters.

Of course our man, Ronaldinho will be surely mentioned in the same breath as previous four WC heroes after this WC.

There was this black and white quarterfinal match, forgot which year between Brazil and England. Brazil finally win the match quite convincingly and the commentator says " Brazil go through to the semis and England back home". Such a simple sentence but hits you hard, if you are an English supporter, such is the beauty of this sport. I sometimes wish India could play as good as the Europeans and we could cheer our team in a world cup match.

Narmada Bachao Andolan: A recap

2006-04-17T17:38:00.000+08:00

Narmada Bachao Andolan has been active for around two decades now. But that has not stopped planners from increasing the height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam.
Of the 30 large dams planned on river Narmada, Sardar Sarovar is the largest. With a proposed height of 136.5 m, it's also high on discord between the planners and the Narmada Bachao Andolan.
The government claims the multi-purpose project will irrigate more than 1.8 million hectares - most of it in drought prone areas like - Kutch and Saurashtra.
But Sardar Sarovar spells doom for close to three lakh twenty thousand people, mostly tribals who'll get displaced. The state government had promised to rehabilitate these people, but it's failed to do so. And despite that, the height of the dam has been increased several times in recent years.
In February 1999, the Supreme Court gave the go ahead for the dam's height to be raised to 88 metres from the initial 80.
In October 2000 again, in a 2 to 1 majority judgement in the Supreme Court, the government was allowed to construct the dam upto 90 metres.
Then in May 2002, the Narmada Control Authority approved increasing the height of the dam by another five metres.
And a couple of years later, in March 2004, the authority allowed another raise - this time to 110metres.
Now the most recent move in March 2006, the Narmada Control Authority gave clearance for the height of the dam to be increased from 110.64 metres to 121.92.
It was after this last judgement that protestors gathered in the capital and activist Medha Patkar went on an indefinite hunger.

Role Models

2006-04-15T17:44:00.000+08:00

NBA is very popular in India. Guys stay awake to watch the game and keep track of the playoffs. I just hope that this generation also reads and understands something about the other NBA too - Narmada Bachao Andolan.

This NBA has been one of the longest non-violent movements in India. You do not have to go to Gujarat to find out or understand the reality of the situation. Now it has gained prominence in the media because Medha Patkar went on a hunger-strike. Our government as usual will have excuses to give for not rehabilitating an entire village. Otherwse how can they make their 1% in the whole deal.

Amir Khan and Rahul Bose have also supported the cause and Khan had to come in for a lot of stick for his endorsement of Coke. Lets see how he reacts to the situation. The only Sportsperson who I remember turning down an endorsement for the Colas is Pullela Gopi Chand and the only Actor in India who did something similar is Mammooty.

~Sujith

P.S. Another interesting read would be this very rare Amir interview in Tehelka

Mourning Leftovers

2006-04-14T20:15:00.000+08:00

This is my office...

An insecure city, Demi gods in South India

2006-04-14T12:25:00.000+08:00

When I left office on wednesday hearing the news of the death of Rajkumar, the first thing that came to my mind was 2001 RECT, when Veerapan had kidnapped the same person and for one week or so no companies from Bangalore came down for placement. As I got off near my house and walked towards the apartment, I realised that I was in for some hard time. All the shops and restaurants near Ramaiah college were shut down. The 2 petrol pumps in that area were closed. People were there on the roads, heading home as if some cylcone was going to hit the city.

Half an hour inside my apartment I realised that I do not have anything to eat. Just a bottle of mineral water was too little for 2 days. A friend was willing to give me Maggi. Then I thought the best thing to do is take a rickshaw and go to my friend's place in Indira Nagar. Atleast he stocks food and I would have some company for the next 2 days, if it gets that bad. So there I was in Indira Nagar after paying twaice the meter charge. Also on the way picked up a family pack of Maggi and some biscuits.

Around 1 AM in the middle of an Arsenal Portsmouth match the sports channel conked off. Some channel surfing made us realise that only the news channels are working. Blame it on the Rajkumar factor. Thank god there is braodband connections in this world.

The TV channels said all the shops closed down due to respect for Dr. Rajkumar (he is basically a third standard passout I guess). The real reason being that people were forced to close down due to the fans pressurising them to do so. There were these youngsters on the bikes, parked in the middle of the road, with Karnataka flags in hand and shouting slogans for Rajkumar. Police was not there to help these merchants open and operate shop. A good percentage of the population are working bachelors and how many of the would have stocked food, god only knows. Shivaji Nagar area, which is a muslim-dominated area in Bangalore functioned without any disturbance, these 2 days it seems.

Now why would a film star command so much respect in this state. After all he had acted in only 200 movies. Prem Nazir has acted in more than 600 movies in Malayalam and when he died, I dont think anything like this ever happened. Lets forget that for a moment as in Malayalam, unlike the Tamil, Telugu and Kannada film history the bigger movie stars do not command any respect in the political circle. Well after all they are just actors and not politicians, who can run a state. Let take some examples

NTR, was the biggest of them all in Andhra Pradesh. He was just like Rajkumar, acted as the ideal man in most of his movies and later on moved to politics and was hugely popular. He was the chief minister and did a lot of good to his people. If he dies and there is public mourning and reactions, I can understand.

MGR in Tamil Nadu, commanded equal respect and his death also led to some paranoia in TN. But he was also the chief minister and did a lot of good for the state and its people. Rajnikant is the next in line for similar treatment. Everyone knows that he has a invisible presence in Tamil Nadu politics and has played an active part in some of the elections, through his movies or through his fan clubs. Another actor who was very famous and well respected was Sivaji Ganesan.

Lets not talk about Mallu movies. They either make sensible movies or porn and are equally accepted. But people know that movies are movies and politics is politics. You maystill show the photo of MGR and win elections in TN, but you cant do that in Kerala. Couple of the film stars who came in through the theatre movements in Kerala invariable support the Communists, like Murali, who fought elections in Allepey.

Now what is Rajkumar's contribution to Kannada. 200 movies and doesnt it stop there at that. He set up one of the best studios in Karnataka, paved the entry of his sons to tha Kannada movie industry. Otherwise what good has he done to the common man, other than acting in movies in which he plays the common man. Well sometimes, people have to be kept in thier place. Rajkumar was also chosen as the most popular person in CNN -IBN poll where he won hands down over, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Narayanmurthy etc etc.

Girish Karnad summed it up nicely in one of the news channels. He said this is the pent up emotions of the average Kannadiga coming out in the streets. The Kannadigas in Bangalore have been given a second class citizen status in their city and they wanted to prove a point to the outsiders that, if they want they can hold the entire city to ransom. Well nothing more to say, other than "Thank god Rajkumar died of a heart attack and not get killed by anyone/anything".

Kuttanad in black &white

2006-04-10T18:06:00.000+08:00

A New Spirit in the Indian Team

2006-04-07T16:15:00.000+08:00

The Indian One-day team has got something about it that makes them invincible. I know we have not played in Australia/NewZealand or SA or WI for that matter. But who cares as long as we have been winning consistently chasing targets. Something which was our undoing till some time back.

Youngsters like Pathan, Dhoni and now Raina have come in and showed maturity beyond their age. Yuvraj in the pinkest of form will be the man to watch out for if his form continues till 2007. I feel sad for Kaif, who somehow seems to have lost the plot. He was at one time the next-man-for-captain, but somehow seems like the next-man-out. ODI has reached a stage where scoring at more than 100% strike rate has become the norm. Kaif will lose out to guys like Yuvraj and Raina who can bowl a bit (if wanted to), field like Jonty, run between wickets like Bevan and score runs at more than a-run-a-ball. This is where Kaif will lose out. He somehow always used to miss out on hitting fours and sixes at will.

Whatever they say about the conditions favouring India in the last 2-3 tours, I think we have the right attitude now to win in any condition.

Arsenal thru to Champions League semis for the first time

2006-04-06T15:05:00.000+08:00

Allapuzha Back Waters

2006-04-05T14:05:00.000+08:00

God's Own Country, Devil's Own People

2006-04-03T03:28:00.000+08:00

"There was no space in hell, so we came back - FUMS".

This is what was (is) written on the blue cupboard in room no 5, Agate Hostel. FUMS stands for F@#$%d Up Mallus, thats what we the 2001 batch called ourselves. Well this arrogance you can see in most of the Mallus, whichever part of the globe you find them. Be it a Mallu living in Kannanmoola or Koramangala, in New Jersey or Tripunithara New Town (if there is somethign like that). They carry this air of being the most notorious as well as the most well-heeled section of the society they live in.

It is true that there is no rural area in Kerala, every adult in this state can write and read, the most number of Skodas get sold in this state, in human development index the parameters are comparable with any developed European country etc etc. But so does the state top in suicide rate, educated unemployed people and most number of people suffering from mental illness etc etc. Somehow the positives outweigh the negatives.

I have not seen a more politically motivated state. Now being the election time, there are news floating thick and fast on the latest controversies, scandals, seat adjustments, chat show with your area candidate etc etc. My family has an inclination towards the left and though I criticise them at home, I wuld prefer the LDF to win than the UDF. At home I have heard the latest crtitcism of the incumbent Chief Minister, be it his policies or him secretly fillinh his Swiss bank accounts with Treasury money. This is an interesting case of some really non-political way fighting elections. The lady in question is a firebrand SFI activist who got injured in the police attack against students last year. She was the face of that protest.

And to top it I went and saw a political movie in the afternoon. Had gone to see another movie, saw the crowd outside and decided to see a movie in more peaceful surroundings. And I dont rememeber how many political movies I would have seen in Malayalam with some reference to the current political scenario in the state. Most of the actors have brought to life a lot of characters from the political scenario. I have see a lot of movies with the heroes being the brave Communists and the villains the British or the corrupt Congress. I wonder why there are no movies with any Congress hero!!! My favourite political movie in Mallu is still "Lal Salaam", with Mohanlal playing the character of Netturan.

I think education can be linked to awareness and that is proportional to the news-saviness of this state. I have not seen people in any other state discussing Politics and Football in tea shops, trying to watch the 6PM, 9 PM and 12 Midnite news of 2-3 different channels. I want to vote in this election and this would be the first time I would be participating in the election process of my country. I wonder why they have postal ballots only for the Military. A good percentage of the educated youngsters in this counry are not in their home-state/city and hence lose out on voting.

Lal Salaam.

Few days in Trivandrum

2006-04-02T02:37:00.000+08:00

Well, I am in Trivandrum for the last 2 days and would be here for a couple more. Lots of things happened in the last 2 days. To be brief

Mummy retired as a teacher on 31st. So there was this small tea-party thrown to some 30 odd teachers who came over to our home. We have decided to call her "Teacher" from now on so that she doesnt miss her school and students
It was also my Birthday and for a change I had some 30 odd teachers singing "happy birthday", while I cut the cake. Couple of friends came home and had the snacks for dinner
Today went to a place called Allepey/Allapuzha, better known as the Venice of the East. It has a lot of waterways and houseboats. So we hired one for the day and what a time we had. The pictures will be uploaded soon and I am sure after that each one of you would plan to spend a day/nite on the house boat.

So come back here in a day or two to see the pics

Indian Coffee House - An Old World Charm

2006-03-24T02:36:00.000+08:00

I usually get a lift to office from a colleague of mine. So I walk all the way from Commercial Street to the entrance of Brigade road and get picked up from in front of Cauvery Handicrafts at about 8:10 AM. So today I was waiting at the same place when I get a call from the colleague saying that the car has had a puncture and will take atleast half an hour to reach MG Road.

So I decided to walk down Brigade road and see if some place is open where I can do some timepass. I realised that when you take a walk on that road when nothing is open, you do notice a lot of shops, which you would have missed on a crowded friday evening. But I was surprised to see a "Kohinoor Restaurant" on Brigade road. It is so shabby that I really didnt want to taste the coffee there. And you wouldnt believe it, there is no newspaper vendor also anywhere.

So I decided to take a walk on MG road towards Kumble circle. Luckily for me, the Deccan Herald office there sells Deccan Herald on MG road. So newspaper problem solved, but where do I sit/ stand and read it. I keep walking till I see Indian Coffee House. The door was closed. And somehow I thought they opened early morning. But then, one person, just pulled open the door and went in. That is when I realised that they were allowing people in. So I too enter the hotel to find atleast 4 tables occupied with people reading newspapers and no tea/coffee served.

It was 8:15 AM. Most of the people were old and were deeply immersed in their newspapers. I take the table next to the big, wide window overlooking the MG road. After some time an old man comes and sits on the other side of my table, though there were some 4-5 tables that were unoccupied! He gave me some suspicious, I-have-not-seen-you-here-before looks. That is when I realised that maybe he was a regular customer and this is his usual table and I am the one who is encroaching. We sat on the same table without talking to each other but exchanging smiles.

That is when I started noticing the crowd coming into ICH. A chauffeur driven car stops and a couple in their thirties come in for break fast. A old red kinetic honda parks on the side and two girls in khader, with jute bags come in. The old man orders egg sandwich and I ask for tea. The walls have not been given a new coat of blue for I dont know how many years. The wooden panelling has come off at most places. I see that the footpath outside has the same mosaic pattern as the inside.

After I read India's heroic exploits in the common wealth games and the pathetic display in Mumbai, my coffee is over and I get a call from my colleague. Time to gte back to the real world. For some time I was living life in slow motion.

Grenade & Ram Mohammad Thomas

2006-03-18T14:07:00.001+08:00

The picture is of a grenade, cut into half.

The place where I am currently put up, is owned by a retd. Colonel. The other half of the grenade is with a jawan who saved all their lives by throwing back a grenade at the LTTE attackers in Sri Lanka.

It sits proudly as a table top in his office.

Reading a book called "Q & A", by Vikas Swarup. Tight read hai. The lead character is called Ram Mohammad Thomas and he has just won one billion ruppees in a TV show. The TV producers think he has cheated (more to do with their inability to pay so much right now), he thinks he got lucky because they asked him 12 questions, whose answers were known to him. How and why is what the book is all about.

Mumbai - another view

2006-03-14T21:47:00.000+08:00