Chop your breakfast on a mirror

Chicane

2005-06-22T04:25:00.000-07:00

Following up on my post on GoodSports, almost everyone has this to say about the Indy GP - "They've could've put a chicane". What the hell, changing the circuit layout a half hour before the race??? That is ridiculous. Imagine if someone has crashed in that corner and the chicane was not safe enough (it obiviously wouldn't have been if it'd been put in there in a hurry), what then?? What would Nigel Mansell, Stirling Moss, Jackie Stewart and the rest of the "experts" have to say then???

Why not a reduced speed at turn 13???? How was it not safe??? They have the nerve to say "yeh we should've made in a NON championship race and put in a chicane". A load of shit !!! Imagine working hard all weekend and then have the race turned into a non-championship one simply because Michelin couldn't get their act together.

It gets worse every minute. Dammit Renault, McLaren, Michelin and everyone else involved - stop trying to blame someone else. Why blame Ferrari, Flavio??? Was it their fault they got good tires thanks to Bridgestone's hard work?? Were they wrong in thinking the chicane would not be safe enough (they were btw never consulted on this matter according to Jean Todt) ?? I wonder what will happen at Magny Cours, Michelin's home. Maybe they'll boycott the podium because the champagne would've been deemed unsafe!!!!

Ashes !!

2005-06-22T03:29:00.000-07:00

One over may have changed the summer for England. That's what Bob Willis said when Steve Harmison snapped up Gilchrist, Ponting and Martyn in one single over. Over playing it a wee bit perhaps???

Alright they got beaten by Bangladesh with Ashraful sweeping McGrath and another bloke walking down the pitch to Gillespie and hitting it over mid-wicket for six. England put one over them. Before this Natwest series, Somerset scored 350 odd in about 46 overs and coasted to victory. So is this a team in decline? A team that is starting to lose its way?

Well if you look at past England tours, Aussies have always started slowly. During Taylor's last tour as captain, they started even worse. Hell they lost the first test and only Taylor and Slater's double hundred stand in the second innings gave it some respectability. Looks like they've started slowly this time around too. Hayden and Gilly seem to be alright at the top of the order. Ponting has look outta sorts and the bowlers just arn't gettin it right. McGrath and Gillespie have bowled well in patches but haven't been their usual self. Kasps is probably the one that will get the axe and this might well be Brett Lee's chance to get back into the test team - Not neccessarily the best thing because Kasp does well in seaming conditions. Having said that i guess the attack could use someone who bowls just that little bit faster, because if you look at the speeds, all 3 are around the same. A bit of variety might do the trick.

Though the aussies are havin a bad time of it right now, they are not too far off from putting together a good performance, just 1-2 things and that might be it. I am predicting they will hit back and hit back hard in this weekend's games.

All in all, this Ashes hopefully should be interesting and a full strength England should be able to give Australia a good fight, who knows, maybe even manage to draw a test match ;-)

Wimbledon !!

2005-06-22T00:03:00.000-07:00

Wimbledon - one of my favorite times of the years. Grass court tennis is always great fun to watch. My fav tennis tournament of the year for sure.

2 days and already some good matches. Henman coming back well from 2 sets to love down, Ivo Karlovic firing more than 50 aces but sadly loosing out, Indian newspapers havin something to write about with Mirza winning well and playing on center court today !!

To me the highlight so far has been Marat Safin. Safin and grass??? Wasn't he the guy who said last year that he is done with grass court tennis and it's just not his thing !!! His first round match again Srichapan was mostly one-sided with flashes of brilliance from the Thai !! But Marat, he played one helluva match. Seriously, it is probably the best i've seen Marat play on ANY surface - so confident and some amazing volleys and groundstrokes - running down the line forehands and all !! And this guy said that grass is not for him !!!! There's a potentially great match in the offing with Marat playing Mark Philipoussis today. I sure hope Safin keeps up that game, for if he does he can sure give Roddick and Federer a run for their money on grass. Go Marat !!! Damm i miss watching Pete play at Wimbledon !!

Flying in a blue dream

2005-05-23T11:06:00.000-07:00

Last week, had been to Joe Satriani's concert.. i read a lotta stuff about the sound not being too good and so on... well i think the concert was outta the world!!! It was incredible.. watching him play the guitar that way makes you go crazy... it was simply outta this world !!!!! Satriani certainly rules!! It was an incredible 2.5 hrs, he played most of his well known songs and a few others, and i must say it was the best concert i've ever been too !!! If this is not fast stunning guitaring, then i wonder what is !!!

Good Sports!!!

2005-05-23T11:02:00.000-07:00

Hell, it's been a while since i updated this blog ...
So a fair bit happening in the world of sport... Arsenal putting one over ManU, Kimi drivin a dominant race on the streets of Monaco.... The French Open underway .. Greg Chappell takes over as the new coach of the Indian cricket team..... Champions League finals comin up...... a fair bit yeh !!!!

so anyway, Shom got this idea to start a blog for all us sports lovers, GoodSports. But then, i ask you all, is there ever bad sports????? I don't think so!!!!

Whatta Race !!!

2005-04-25T04:31:00.000-07:00

Wow what a finish to the San Marino Grand Prix. I thought Schumi was gonna take it but in the end Alonso drove pretty well to hold him off for the last 10 laps. Schumi was way back after the first 20 laps or so but he stayed out longer he really pushed and set a series of fastest laps and was up to 3rd after the first round of stops. The overtaking move to move ahead of Button was really slick. He came out of the 2nd stop just abt 2-3 seconds behind Alonso. If he had stayed out for a lap or 2 longer or if he had overtaken Button sooner, he probably would've beaten Alonso on the pit stop but then it was not to be. It was a helluva drive, one of the best for quite a while, not taking into account his dominant lead from start-to-finish wins.

Alonso does exceed his lead in the championship, but then the pace that Schumacher was able to run is a good sign for the races to come, and Ferrari are definetly in the fight now !! They still have problems, Rubens had to retire but Renault is definetly not going to run away with it. McLaren, if they can solve their problems should be good too and if Williams can also pick up, it should be a super fight !! The next 2-3 races should tell the story and it looks really intersting indeed. Lookin fwd to it !!

F1 rule changes

2005-04-22T22:58:00.000-07:00

F1 has been going thru a whole bunch of rule changes some of which have helped by shuffling the starting order, and hence a lot more over taking. However a lot of it frankly totally sucks !!!

Take qualifying for instance, if the one lap thing wasn't bad enough, now they have this aggregate time. It's bullshit !!! Qualifying is no fun anymore. It used to fun when they had 12 laps and most of the cars would do 4 runs. It was a lotta fun, some real close battles over the years - Schumacher, Hill, Villeneuve, Coulthard, Hakkinen .... it was very exiting. And now, it's been reduced to this farce...

The recent changes kind of go against the spirit of F1. F1 was supposed to be the ulimate in open wheel racing, the pinnacle of motorsport, cutting edge technology and so on... but now look at all these changes going against the very essense of the sport - to get the maximum out of the car
1. 1 Lap qual - if that was not bad enough, that came along with stuff like no re-fueling between qualifying and the race , and no work could be done on the car. It's crazy isn't it?? I mean if a team got it all wrong in qual, by not allowing them to work on their car isn't it just like making them drive with a handicap ??

2. One tyre for qual/race - Introduced as a means to cut costs, it kind of takes away a lot. It is nonsense, takes away a lot of strategy and stuff - when teams would go for more pit stops and go light and feul and really burn out their tyres ?? How can they do that now, with this incredibly restrictive rule??

3. Aggregate Qual - A farce !! Nuff said !!

It's one thing to cut costs. It's another to go against the very spirit of the sport.

Yes there has been a lot of overtaking in F1 in the last yrs and a lot closer offer, but this is probably more because of younger drivers like Button, Alonso and people like Montoya , Rubens and Kimi who like to race aggressively.

With the move to cut engine power by introducing 2.4 litre V8's, F1 is probably heading towards self-destruction. Ferrari are the only team to have signed the Concorde Agreement beyond 2007. I wish they hadn't. With all the other teams and engine suppliers inclined towards their own series where they can have a bigger share in things wrt rules and so on, Ferrari should've sided with them. This is one instance where i am really dissapointed in them.

The ultimate in open wheel racing should remain that way and not give it just to save a few pennies (ok a few million !!). The fact is teams can agree on things to cut costs without resorting to this farce they call qualifying. As a former F1 driver once said, after listening to the V8 engine rule, that they might as well put indicators on the car next and hire grannies !!

San Marino Grand Prix

2005-04-21T23:15:00.000-07:00

Fernando Alonso is flyin high and can do no wrong, at the moment. A car other than Ferrari winning 3 in a row. A very similar start to the one Schumi had with Benetton in 1994. So the inevitable question, are Ferrari finally going to be humbled?

I think it's good for formula 1 that somebody has managed to put one over Ferrari at the start of the season, so much so in fact that Ferrari are not even in the top 5 in the constructors standings. Renault are going great guns, Toyata have been awesome as well. Williams and McLaren have had one or two problems but they are quick alright. BAR have had reliability issues as well. Ralf Schumacher has not had as good a season as Trulli and i am very surprised by that.

It's been a long (by F1 stds) break after Bahrain and the there has been a lot of testing. So Imola, Ferrari's home ground, will they be good? I think they will. Obly a team that has been winning world championships for the last 6-7 yrs is not going to sit back after the dismal start. I am predicting that they will go all out for the win. It's a long time since we've seen Schumi race that way, go all out. Usually he's been leading the pack with no one in sight. It will be awesome to see Schumi give it his all and battle hard. I think Rubens should be right on the pace too.

Wurz replaces Juan Pablo this weekend. I am personally a fan of Wurz and it's a pity he hasn't been able to find a race seat for 5 years. It would be good to see some fireworks from him. Sauber seem to be in a bad shape. They've always been there and there abouts but this yr, Villeneuve does not seem to have the pace. He's struggling a lot.

My prediction: A good hard fight between Ferrari, Renault, Williams and McLaren. Schumi to take the win, followed by Fisi (outdoing Alonso this time around) followed by Kimi.

Drunk monkeys

2005-04-21T02:52:00.000-07:00

HAHAHA.. Hilarious!! A bunch of monkeys got stoned and attacked a bunch of ppl !!!

Chelsea - Arsenal

2005-04-20T00:55:00.000-07:00

Big London derby tonight - Chelsea lead Arsenal by 11 points with 6 games to play. Arsenal without Henry, and not really playing their free flowing football. Chelsea on the other hand, have all the fire power and would be raring to go.

Having said that Arsenal's Premiership results of late have been good. Despite not playing well at times, they have been able to steal 1-0's. They reached the FA Cup finals too, beating Blackburn.

My prediction: Arsenal 2-1. Narrow the gap to 8 points. Make it an intersting last few games.

The India-Pak Series

2005-04-18T04:05:00.000-07:00

So another series lost, again, in a disgraceful manner. Utterly disgraceful !! Every aspect - the batting, bowling, fielding and the captaincy. Lets face it- Dravid is the rock for India and all that, but he's not a great captain. The problem India has is that there is no one else, apart from Ganguly, who can make half-decent decisions - Though his technique has well and truly been exposed, and ripped apart. He's got big problems with his batting. It's going to take a small miracle to sort it out. Then there's Yuvaraj Singh whose technique is equally pitiable. OK Dhoni got one big hundred, so is he gonna be a permenant ODI no 3? A loada crap !! The longer India carry on with this kinda inconsistent display, the longer they rely on tailor made square turners where even Anil Kumble, the wrist spinner who cannot turn the ball, gets the ball to turn, the longer India is just going to be a pretender. They will never make it as a world beating side.

It will be interesting to see who the coach will be. I think John Wright did a helluva job but who is gonna carry on from here?? It will be interesting indeed... My Pick- Appoint Glenn McGrath part time batting coach. He might have a pointer or two for Ganguly on how to score 50's.

A year in Provence

2005-04-17T06:56:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading Peter Mayle's "A year in Provence". A real fun and witty book account of Mayle and his wife's first year in Lubéron. He descibes the provençal way of life, their strong accent (c'est bieng :-), the mistral, his gastronomic experiments, his friends, neighbours, the builders, the paranoid Monsieur Massot who believes the Germans are the root of all problems, Faustin and his obsession with things going wrong, truffles and of course "le vin". A lot of "bon mots" thrown in as well.

Pretty tongue-in-cheek at times i think, overall a very nice light read. I'd give it 3.5 stars :-)

More traffic woes

2005-04-13T07:48:00.000-07:00

I know i've said this a million times, and each time the response is "oh it's that way, you can't do nothin about it" - the traffic is un-fucking-bearable. Today, i was driving back, and i was about a km from home, relieved that i had only 10 minutes driving to go, frantically looking at both the mirrors and what do i see -> a guy is blocking a bit of the road, selling hammocks. Selling hammocks !!!! Can you believe that??? Selling fucking hammocks amidst all this chaos, i just could not believe it. I keep asking myself, why do people drive the way they do? Everybody from the much hated rickshaw guy to the bigshot CEO in his sleek mercedes drives the same way, a great leveller isn't it??? It is a sad day indeed, when you see that no one wants to give way to an ambulance blaring it's horns, no one seems to give a damm!!! Autos drivin on the sidewalks, old people tryin to cross the road with everybody competing about whos gonna run 'em over quicker, cows deciding they wanna stick their heads up somebody's exhaust (maybe their version of snorting), two wheelers trying to prove a point - that discovery channel should forget the game at the serengeti and that this is way wilder and primitive than they can ever imagine. Darwin, what was that again about Origon of Species??

What shocks me the most is that no one gives a fuck, everyday says "thats the way it is" and continue driving the way they always do. No one gives a damm about red lights, other road user, pedestrians, nothin!!! Anybody who visits this city, what do they see first - the traffic !!! What sorta message does it send out ?? A little self discipline would go a long way in making things better. But yeh, who cares?? Right ?? It is a sad sad day indeed !!

Bayern - Chelsea

2005-04-12T08:05:00.000-07:00

Intersting game on the cards, Chelsea beating Bayern 4-2 at Stamford Bridge, should've been 4-1 really, but Michael Ballack managed to deceive the referee into giving Bayern a penalty. Bayern are dangerous at home, they beat the crap outta Arsenal earlier this year. Chelsea definetly got a battle on their hands.

My pick for this game, Bayern to win 2-1, with an early and a very late goal, but Chelsea go through on aggregate.

Gilchrist and Red Sox??

2005-04-12T08:02:00.000-07:00

Saw these links, thanks to a mail from PK. Wow who would've thought !!!

So long !!

2005-03-26T08:17:00.001-08:00

So in about 3 hrs, i will leave home for the Bush Intercontinental Airport, Houston to catch the flight back to Bangalore. I hate goin back but i ain't got no fucking choice.

It's been an awesome 6 weeks in America, i love the place and i am dying to come back here soon!! So long and goodbye !

Joe's Crab Shack

2005-03-23T22:05:00.000-08:00

Harish , yep you are right !! Joe's Crab Shack in Galveston, totally rocks!! Awesome food !!

America!!!

2005-03-17T20:45:00.000-08:00

It's been 5 weeks in the bay area, not too long really, not long at all, heck it's way too short a trip isn't it ??? Well i think i've *thoroughly* enjoyed this trip and i've had a chance to do a whole lotta, see a whole lotta places. I am gonna leave this plc with a heavy heart, am gonna miss this plc for sure. It's hard to believe that i am sayin all this, 'cause a coupla years back i couldn't say anything good about america, but yeh here i am sayin this country rocks !!! it totally muthafukin rocks !!

I got to see San Francisco a bit. It is one amazing city, steep inclines all the way, that place has some charm. Of course it also has traffic signals every 20 and half metres which totally sucks. I loved fisherman's wharf. There are so many seafood joints over there, some bands playin on the streets, there's a whole lot to do there. There were a coupla world war 2 relics - a ship called the Jeramiah O' Brien, and a submarine called The USS Pompanito, that i checked out. Seeing the engine room of the ship up and close was really cool.

I went to Alcatraz. "The rock" totally rocked !!! It was a warm sunny day, high 80's probably and there were 100's of sailboats out in the bay. It was really picturesque. The tour of The rock was great fun, spent almost half a day there. One of the passages is called Michigan Ave, and at the end of it, there is a clock,and this area used to be called "Times Square". Some of the areas are cordoned off for visitors, 'cause a lot of birds come there.

The Golden Gate bridge was awright too. I wanted to bike across the bridge but did not quite find the time for it. I checked out Lombard (Crooked) St. The slopes are so steep around that plc, that you cant even see the road in front of you at times !! wow !!

I had also been to San Francisco a coupla times on work and i got a chance to check out a few restaurants downtown.

I did a lot of driving over here. I drove south to Santa Cruz, Monterey, Caramel-by-the-sea and Big Sur. It was one amazing drive along Highway 1, right along the coast. You stop someplace, and the cliff jus drops right in front of you, a few hundred feet below, to the ocean !!! *incredibly* scenic !! incredible !! I wanted to go see the Laguna Seca at Monterey, but unfortunately all the other driving and stopping took so long that it got dark and it was too late to go to the race track.

Drove to Yosemite National Park last weekend and that was one helluva drive too. Damm it is so easy driving here, one road merges onto another, to another and so on. It is so simple, so intuitive, a pleasure !!! Ok there are excpetions, driving inside the cities is pissing off for sure !! But the freeways, the country roads ... wow !!! The drive to yosemite was also very scenic, there was snow along the way albeit dried and old snow. A lot of roads and hiking trails are closed at this time of the year. There was a glacier point trail that really sounded good, but then it opens only in May. I got to see some of the waterfalls that Yosemite is famous for, and this structure called the Half Dome. The drive back was even more scenic, CA-140 right along Merced River.. wow i cannot find words to describe it...... it was incredibly beautiful. Snow Capped Mountains on one side, and the river on the other and this winding mountain road... c'est magnifique.

I also checked out a lot of restaurants in places close to where i stay. They were ok. The plc i stay in is in a very quiet part of Belmont, a nice lake close by, and it used to be good fun to take a walk and stuff.

I did a bit of travelling outside of California too. I went to New York. 3 days in the city. It was one helluva trip awright. Did a whole lotta shit there and it was sure as hell a trip to remember. It snowed while i was there, and that being the first time that i had seen it snow, it was great fun. Here we are sitting down at this nice 'ol Italian restaurant, by the window and it starts snowin :-). The stand-up comedy was prob one of the most fun parts of the trip, it was incredibly funny !!! I nearly missed my flight back, made it jus in time - no way i was comin to ny and not see flushing meadows !! Wow, what a city !! i can't imagine any other city havin so much life, so much energy !! There is so much goin on, anywhere, anytime !! all i can say is WOW !!!

I got to see a bit of the mid-west too. Flew down to St Louis, Missouri. It was an eventful trip, was invovled in an accident (in the passenger's seat) with the car getting totally messed up. I did get to look around the plc a bit, visited some caves, saw "the arch". It really is a beautiful structure, right on the banks of the Mississipi. Man it was so different. Empty Spaces everywhere. Totally unlike the west coast !!

I tried a lot of different cuisines. I think i've eaten about 2 cows totally, steak has almost become my staple diet. All in all, i think i've had a great time here, and i definetly wanna come back to California as soon as i can. Of course it is not my decision, for if it was, i wouldn't have left this plc at all. Anyway, i still got one week longer in America, i am spending a week in Texas before goin back home. So this trip ain't quite over yet and i still go a bit of America to see. :-)

St Louis tragedy !!

2005-03-14T18:18:00.000-08:00

It's on TV all the time,"world's wildest police videos" and shows of that nature... accidents, reckless drivers and so on. I didn't think i would get to experience it first hand in the US, but last weekend (mar 4th) i did get to see this side of america too.

I had been to St Louis,Missouri to meet a couple of friends. Nice bright sunny day, and we had jus been to a tour of the Anheuser-Busch Brewery. So anyway, Sandeep (who had driven down from Indy) and I were driving and we were stopped at this signal. It turned green, we turned left and then it happened. This guy was driving down the wrong side of the road at abt 50mph and hit the side of the car, the car spun around and over the kerb, luckily a fence stopped the slide or else...... The driver abandoned the car and ran away, the cops told us it was prob stolen, which is why he did that. The driver sied door was jammed solid, no way out. I manage to squeeze out somehow outta the passenger side.

I had no injuries, but my poor friend had concussions and torn ligaments on his shoulder and neck. Pretty damm terrible. So that ruined saturday night plans. Was very depressing. I guess we were happy that it wasnt worse, 'cause the car was a mess. bloody mess. Poor Impo (sandeep) had to suffer through back spasms during the week.

So anyway next morning, he got on the flight back to his aunt's plc and then my other friend, Iceman, showed me around St Louis. Saw the arch, the mississipi and drove to Meramec caves. It was actually really good fun. Real pity about the accident though... but i guess shit happens !!

The 77-run over

2005-03-14T10:22:00.000-08:00

A must read !!! Follow this link. Quite a story !!

My NYC Trip

2005-02-24T22:01:00.000-08:00

I had heard so many ppl rave abt "the city" - that there were all the cities in the world and then there was new york. i had heard people say that it was the city that never sleeps and it was so full of energy.

so this was one city i just had to go see, and i had 2 good friends over there, PK and Harish. So i got there on saturday morning, followed pk's directions and reached brooklyn at about 8 in the morning. Only thing, that sunnafabitch wasnt there. But then, to be fair his roomy has broken her wrist and he was at the ER. It was freezing, about 25 or whatever. I have forgotten the formula to convert it to celsius so for now, i guess it's best to say 25 degrees is enough to freeze ur ass off.

So finally pk arrived at abt 8:30. We then had a bagel breakfast and then the guided tour of new york started. wall street and the nyse was first up. after that we met harish and went to central park. they had these orange poles, supposedly to make it look more colorful, frankly it sucked. anyway, walking around manhattan and seeing all those huge buildings was awesome. saw some of the other famous landmarks - empire state building, madison sq garden, ground zero and some more. so it was late afternoon by the time we finished central park.

we then went to the times square in the evening. it's the america u always see in tv isn't it? it was on helluva plc.... we saw a few bars and had dinner in a nice thai plc. we then went to "the village" to get dessert. an old friend of mine, aparna, and another friend of hers, joined us and we went to a bar to get some beers. the beers gave way to more drinks and next morning, they tell me i was speaking total thrash.

Got home by about 3am or so n got a few hrs sleep. Next day sunday, unf pk had to go work for sometime... poor guy had a release or something, anyway we had a nice sunday brunch before that. So harry and me took a ferry ride to staten island. we wanted to go to the ellis island ferry but by the time we lazy guys dragged our asses there, it was too late. staten island is so different, a lot more open, bigger houses n stuff. anyway there was not much to do there n we got back by abt 6 in the evening.

went to dinner to this italian place and we were sitting down n eating this delicious dinner when it started to snow. i've never seen it snow before, so i was very thrilled. dinner was awesome.. finishing off with wonderful cheesecake. we were freezing our asses off outside in the cold, but i was enjoying the snow :-).... then we went to the stand up comedy and it wsa probably one of the highlights of the trip. It was incredibly funny, comedy cellar rocks... will definetly put up a seperate post just abt that sometime. after that had a few beers at a bar and it was abt 4 am by that time. got back home, slept for abt 2-3 hrs and then it was monday, i had only a few hrs in the city.

walked on brooklyn bridge and the city was white all over. i mean totally white. snow every fukin where. finally in the afternoon i decided that i had to see flushing meadows.i took the subway to queens, met harish and we went to flushing. everything was closed, and we were the only 2 mad ppl who wanted to go there on such a day. but then i could not come to new york and not see flushing meadows. if it were up to pk, he would've taken me to the flushing ganesha temple but mercifully pk did not come along :-)

just abt made it to the airport in time to catch my flight back to 'frisco. thanks pk and harish, it was a helluva 3 days. i dont think i can quite capture in words just how much fun the city was.. had to listen to all sortsa new york boasting from pk and his condescending attitude towards us tourists :-), but nevertheless probably one of my best trips ever. it has a bit of everything and i cannot think of many other cities that have so much going on.

so to sum it up, after hearing all this hype abt new york, and me doubting that it could be so good, IT FUKIN ROCKED !!!! I loved new york and i am going back there many more times for sure, maybe not on this US trip, but soon, very soon !!!

New York City

2005-02-22T18:03:00.000-08:00

"The city" muthafukin rocks !!!!!
More detailed report and pics to follow !!

My first 2 days in the US of A

2005-02-13T12:43:00.000-08:00

Been in California 2 days and it's been awesome so far :-)
Got here on the 11th mid afternoon, and took a cab to Belmont where i will be staying over the next one month or so. I can see my office, the huge offices of Oracle Corporation, right from my hotel itself. It's a nice quiet place, a small lake next to it and stuff, nice weather, chill but not too cold.. looked around a place a bit on friday, but since i haven't rented a car yet, couldn't get around much.

Went to San Fransisco on Saturday. Took a train and the electric buses over there... the streets over there look like they are going straight up Mt Everest.... a 75 degree incline!! phew!!! After getting on/off the wrong bus several times, finally reached Golden Gate Bridge. The place has a super view of downtown SFO too, looks great. Not sure why the rust colored bridge is called Golden Gate, but it was good nevertheless.

After that went to Fisherman's Wharf and took one of those small ferry rides around Alactrez. Unf, the tours that take you on the island were booked out, but i plan to go back sometime. So anyway,got to see all the buildings on the rock and froze to death almost .. it got really fucking cold out in the sea.

After that, took a walk around downtown SFO, saw a street show. Got to see horse drawn carts and the horses sure looked well fed... made me think of the poor emaciated "jatka vandi" horses back home.... lol..... went to Hard Rock Cafe but it was full.. so didn't get a drink there.

Went to this place called Joe's crabs or somethin and had some beer and seafood.... and then wandered around downtown for sometime trying to figure out the bustop and finally made it back :-)....

Today, it's cloudy and raining jus a bit... super weather.. think i'll head out now and enjoy the fresh air... been here in the US only 2 days and so far am absolutely loving in.... will probably rent a car next week and do some serious driving.... wanna drive to LA, maybe to sacremento for an nba game etc etc.... going to new york next weekend, and that should be good fun!! Looking fwd to a good 5 weeks over here in the US.

Aussie Open

2005-02-05T04:14:00.000-08:00

Been a while since the Aussie open finished, but i've been busy and haven't had time to write about it.

Wow, what a super aussie open. Amazing matches.. Hewitt-Nalbandian, Safin-Federer, Roddick-Hewitt and the grand finale Safin beating Hewitt.

One set all in the finals and Hewitt up a break. It would look like the match was slipping away from Safin. The way he played starting mid-third set to the end of the match was reminiscent of Sampras at his prime. No, Safin is certainly not a serve and volleyer like Pistol Pete, but the running forwards were so much like him. He came up with amazing serves, and some stunning winners. He picked up his game, also between change-overs, and quite simple blew Hewitt away. This is exactly the way he blew away Sampras in the 2000 US Open finals. Imagine, a guy like Sampras at his peak getting thrashed in a grand slam finals in 3 sets!!!

Anyway Safin deserved it, he has been an under-achiever and it's good to see him back to his best. Go Marat!!

Finally Narain to drive in F1

2005-02-05T04:04:00.000-08:00

So finally an indian will be on the formula 1 grid. Narain Karthikeyan was recently confirmed with the Midlands F1 team, along with another rookie Tiego Monterio. It seems the Midland sporting Director, Trevor Carlin, was always a big fan of Narain since his early days.

So with Midland buying over Jordan, there should be a lot of money coming in for the team, and Toyota engines should also go a way to helping 'em. Sad to see Eddi Jordan leave the scene, 'cause in the last few years Jordan have slipped away. Their best years were probably around the turn of the millenium, with first Ralf Schumacher and Damon Hill fighting it out - cannot forget that incredible Belgain GP in 1998 when Micheal Schumacher ran into David Coulthard and finally Jordan got a double podium. Heinz Harald Frentzen drove superbly in the team and won at Monza beating Mika Hakkinen and Michael. But somehow last 3 yrs or so they've slipped and slipped bad. First Giancarlo Fisichella left and now Nick Heildfeld too, possibly for a Williams test/race seat. They've gone from being mid-table finishers to bottom rung.

On the positive side, with Narain already having test experience with Jordan and Jaguar, he will probably be the senior driver and with all the new money coming in, it is a great chance for him to prove himself. A lot of Indian sponsors will come in too- The Tatas, BPCL, JK Tyres. Only time will tell, i guess, if he will succeed. One thing is for sure.. There is gonna be a lot more of F1 in the papers now for sure :-)

Remembering Shakti

2005-01-28T00:19:00.000-08:00

This past Sunday night i had been to the "Remembering Shakti" concert at Palace grounds. Set against the backdrop of the Bangalore Palace, featuring John Mclaughlin, Zakir Hussain, Mandolin Shrinivas, Selvaganesh and Shankar Mahadevan, it was a bloody good show.

Togther, they sounded magical. The solos by U.Shrinivas(Maya) was simply mind-blowing. I've listened to him play only once before and i really liked it, but this was superb. Selvaganesh was super too on the ghatam and khanjira, and the grand finale was a Zakir Hussian solo...

There were a few solos thrown in by the trucks that kept going from one corner of palace grounds to another, a couple of trains and one plane.

All in all, a super evening.

Is it curtains for Arsenal??

2005-01-17T17:26:00.000-08:00

So Bolton put one over Arsenal this past weekend and that left the Gunners 10 behind Chelsea with 15 games left to play. Is this it as far as their title hopes are concerned???

It seems that of the big 3, Chelsea so far has been totally unfazed and they are carrying on with their job and not really worried of what the others are saying. ManU seem to be winning their games and are there and there abouts to pick up the pieces if chelsea slip up. While it is true that Arsenal are still ahead of ManU, they just do not seem to be the same free flowing team anymore. There does not seem to be any of the free flowing football that we're used to seeing, and that is what makes me believe that they have big problems going forward, in england and in europe.

And to add to it, another ill-tempered Arsenal-ManU fixture coming up on Feb 1st. With ferguson and wenger having a go at each other already, i wonder what this fixture will have in store. in fact the police have told them to tone it down !!! Whatever be the case Arsenal really have to get back their early season form when Henry, Pires, Reyes and the whole bunch were hammering in goals. Also i think it is is time Lehmann is given another chance. Yeh he made some mistakes and he just had a few bad games, but he's a better keeper that Almeida and should get the no1 place back. The midfield has been very indifferent of late and they are not able to get in the free flowing passes, they got to correct that and fast!!!

nothwithstanding anything, the gunners are my fav team and i still believe they have it in them, if they play at their best, to get a treble :-)

Jo'burg test match

2005-01-17T09:43:00.000-08:00

wow the s.a-england series is turning out to be a real close one. awesome 5th day at jo'burg. hoggard and the others, flintoff in particular bowled superb.. blew up the south african top order and looked like they would win the match with quite a bit to spare. gibbs played really well and got out rather tamely not offering the bat, to ashley giles of all bowlers. greame smith played a really good innings. went after the bowlers, and took the attack to them. it looked for a while as if they might push for an improbable victory, or atleast hold out for a draw. but not to be, hoggard got a beauty to dismiss steyn and england up 2-1.
should be a good 5th test and S.A, after a dissapointing last one year or so have finally begun fighting. should be a good finish to a good test series, not too many of those these days are they??

A Year in the Merde

2005-01-17T06:03:00.000-08:00

I just finished this book called "A year in the merde". It is written by Stephen Clarke and is based on his own experiences with and in France. It is about a guy called Paul West who goes to Paris to open a chain of english tea rooms but ends up doing pretty much everything but that.

The book is filled with sarcasm and taking digs at french people, their habits, outlooks and their obsession to go on strike... a little exagerated but then that's no surprise for a book of this sort. Filled with funny accounts of how "Pol" struggles with his french and the french struggle with their english. Lotta funny little scenes with his co-workers, doctors, the bureaucracy and dog shit !!

A lot of useful vocabulary too... (like 5à7 for instance) overall a good book that'll get you laughing... a good read.

Catch 22

2005-01-02T03:36:00.000-08:00

i recently read catch-22 and it is beyond doubt one of the funniest books that i've read. really makes you laugh out louder with every page. a really awesome satire on all the shit that happens in war and at a deeper level about human nature .. greed, power, fear, sorrow, helplessness ...

the story is built around yossarian whose only purpose is to get out of the war alive, after he watched snowden die on a mission. but he cannot go home as colonel cathcart keeps raising the number of missions. he shows utter disregard to the guys running the outfit, and even stands in line naked to receive a medal !!!

i also loved the digs heller takes at bureaucracy!! .. the best example of this is when doc daneeka is supposed to have been killed on the flight mission as his name was in the log, but even though he was alive 'cause he was never on the flight, he is presumed dead and people stop acknowledging him 'cause the log said he was on the flight and cathcart did not see him get out of there on a parachute before the crash!!! ... he uses ridiculous and improbable situations, absudities, contradictions and the likes to bring out his pt. hilarious !!!!

a gripping book and one you will put down only because your stomach hurts so much from laughing. :-) to anyone who hasn't already read it, i would definetly recommend this book!!

Steve Waugh

2005-01-02T02:56:00.000-08:00

as pakistan are battling australia at the scg currently, i wanna relive one of my favourite cricketing moments. i remember the test match at the scg 2 years back - steve waugh walked in (yet again) with australia in trouble and scored a magnificient hundred. He reached 10,000 runs in the process and finished off the day in style with a thundering cover drive to bring up the hundred. there was a lot of gamemanship before the last ball with nasser hussain taking a long time to set and reset this field, but steve hammered it through the covers and punched the air. a real great cricketing moment !!

what a player, so many important innings to help australia.. the 200 at sabina park when he taunted ambrose, 2 hundreds at old trafford in '97... the world cup semifinal match against s.a in '99 and many many more !! one of my all time favourite players and i regret that i never got to see him play... in '98 when they toured india, steve didnt play at bangalore. he was a gutsy cricketer.. never gave the oppostion an inch... master sledger ..... maybe not the classiest of batsmen, but then how many people have stood up to guys like ambrose and allan donald bowling in their prime and walked away the winner !!!

'new year

2005-01-02T00:01:00.000-08:00

another year has passed on by.... happy new yr to everyone....
the year has begun on a somewhat sad note with the destruction caused by the tsunamis. shows us once again, how utterly powerless man is, against the forces of nature.

it has raised a huge debate on whether they could've/should've been a better warning etc etc.. at the same time there are these stupid religious orgs shooting off their fucking mouth that it is an act of god !! truth is the tsunami or any other thing does not discriminate on the basis of color,creed,race,religion and so on... there are stupid,inconsequential things made up by man. perhaps someday man will realise his dumbass ways... and maybe someday we can have a religion and discrimination free world !!!

i guess the more immediate need is to help out in whatever little way we can.. i encourage all of you to do your little bit to help ... be it donating money or clothes ... be it whatever !!

Ralf Schumacher "parks like a woman"

2004-12-21T02:08:00.000-08:00

Ralf Schumacher, one of the top drivers in the world, can't park his car it seems.

Ronaldinho is the Fifa World player of the yr 2004

2004-12-20T23:42:00.000-08:00

Ronaldinho won the Fifa World Player of the year for 2004 edging out Thierry Henry and Andriy Shevchenko. Close but no cigar, again, for Henry.

Mutual Funds... Favouring the big investor?

2004-12-20T02:55:00.000-08:00

Really interesting article on the mutual fund industry in India and the prevailance of "late trading" which basically favors the big investors.
The SEC recently clampled down on the MF industry in the US and some big names like Alliance AMC payed fines of about 250 million dollars. I guess the MF industry in India is not as transparent as it should be and exposés like this do a lotta harm as far as the retail investor confidence is concerned.

Well done Sol !!

2004-12-20T01:16:00.000-08:00

Sol Campbell saved the Gunners, with a superb long range kick, to beat Portsmouth.
Arsenal played lousy, were totally tied up by the Portsmouth defence, even Henry was not his usual self - But then they came away from it with a win and still 5 behind Chelsea. Should be a fun second half of the season. Chelsea with an edge 'cause they have such depth in their team. Liverpool coming on strong, ManU also finding some form.. should be a good close season.

Go Gunners!!!

Champions League Draws

2004-12-19T07:58:00.000-08:00

Some really interesting draws in the round of 16..
1. Chelsea vs Barca - Should be awesome. If both play to their best, should be real close. I would probably back Barca if they are at their best, simply because they have more experience in Europe, but then i wouldn't really be willing to bet on it.

2. Arsenal vs Bayern - Now this is a Bayern side which is doing well in the Bundesliga, but then they had a relatively easy draw (as did Arsenal i suppose). But i am backing Arsenal for this one. I think they have the firepower to put one over Bayern. I am sure it will end up being a hyped up Kahn vs Lehmann contest, but then Arsenal, if they play well, can take it.

3. Real vs Juventus - I hope Juve get this one :-) ..

4. Liverpool vs Bayer - Liverpool have really picked up in recent times and are on song in the Premiership too. Bayer have also had a good run and i am guessing this will be a close one. Bayer probably have a slight edge.

5. ManU vs AC Milan - hmmmmm i wonder...... Much as i hate it, i think ManU will come out tops. They are another team getting close to their peak and with or without Van Nistelrooy they should be well placed.

Warney turns umpire

2004-12-18T09:00:00.000-08:00

Check out this pic of Warney and Billy Bowden reversing their roles.

How i beat Schuey

2004-12-17T01:20:00.000-08:00

Heikki Kovalainen describes how he beat Micheal Schumacher in the Race of Champions.

Brett Lee and the Baggy Greens

2004-12-16T06:44:00.000-08:00

So Brett Lee has been reduced to water boy duties these past few months. Yes, there a lot of people who say that he is over-rated, but i think that on his day he is as dangerous a fast bowler as any. I guess he would've walked into any other test side. It speaks volumes of the Australian team that Lee should wait for an injury to get back in. Kasprowicz took his chance and has been bowling superb. Gillespie has really grown as a cricketer, and he works so hard on his batting too. Perhaps Lee should take a cue from Gillespie who started off his career as a tearaway fast bowler with a long runup bowling 150kmph [I rememeber him almost taking Brian Lara's face off in the tied 2-2 series in 99] but worked on his run-up and his bowling action to strike the perfect balance.

On another note, there seem to be very few teams (atleast in cricket) that have as much pride playing for their country, as Australia. The Baggy Green Cap that they wear, is something every aussie is proud of, and is something that a team like India could use. It is indeed a pity that our over-rated indian cricketers do not have that kind of resolve. [Beating the crap out of Bangladesh does not count!]

Perhaps all this is best epitomised by Steve Waugh. For almost 20 years he wore the same baggy green cap, worn out and tattered but something that he wore with pride each time he went out on to the field, and something that he never let down, for lack of effort or resolve.

Schrodinger's Cat

2004-12-15T09:49:00.000-08:00

I was at this book store and i saw a book called "Schrodinger's Cat" by John Gribbin. I had read briefly about it in Paul Davies' "God and the New Physics" . It is an awesome concept and one of the paradoxes in quantum mechanics. Davies' book is also excellent and i would highly recommend it.

On June 7 of 1935, Erwin Schrodinger wrote to Albert Einstein to congratulate him on what is now known as the EPR paper, a famous problem in the interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. Soon thereafter, he published what was to become one of the most celebrated paradoxes in quantum theory:

A cat is placed in a box, together with a radioactive atom. If the atom decays, and the geiger counter detects an alpha particle, the hammer hits a flask of prussic acid (HCN), killing the cat. The paradox lies in the clever coupling of quantum and classical domains. Before the observer opens the box, the cat's fate is tied to the wave function of the atom, which is itself in a superposition of decayed and undecayed states. Thus, said Schrodinger, the cat must itself be in a superposition of dead and alive states before the observer opens the box, "observes" the cat, and "collapses" its wave function. In other words, before the observer opens the box and observes the cat, the cat is BOTH dead AND alive at the same time.

I found a poem on it, of all things. Check it out, super cool :-)

Madtaiddivi, Madtaiddivi

2004-12-14T03:30:00.000-08:00

Really good article on Financial Express this past sunday. Talks about how Bangalore is crumbling, and is becoming unbearable.

Arsenal vs Chelsea

2004-12-12T23:11:00.000-08:00

For once, a match between 2 top teams that did not end up in a no holds barred free-for-all contest. Really good match, ended 2-2 but i think Arsenal should've won. Henry, who had an awesome match up till then, shot over the bar from close range. Van Persie probably should've won it for them at the end but he missed too.
So Chelsea still lead arsenal by 5, but surprise surprise -> Everton is in second place.. the team everyone wrote off, at the beginning of the year. Man Utd also back in the thick of things and it should be a good close season going from here.

Azad Kashmir

2004-12-12T10:07:00.000-08:00

Look what the "offical" Azad Kashmir website has to say about "Indian Occupied Kashmir" !!

When, in 1947 the British granted independence to India, the people had already revolted against their Dogra ruler of the state. He was defeated by the Kashmir Liberation Army on 24th October 1947 and a provisional government of Azad Jammu & Kashmir (Free Kashmir) was established. Subsequently, the Indian army moved in to occupy 2/3 of the state which has been under Indian occupation since. The remainder of the state still exists as Azad Jammu & Kashmir.

Those bastards !! Some fucking propoganda huh !!!!

Champions League

2004-12-09T01:52:00.000-08:00

So Real managed to make it to the knockout stage of the Champions League. Porto beat Chelsea and we heard some more tough talking from Jose Mourinho. Barca got beaten, and Liverpool managed to pull off something big too. Only 3 teams remained unbeaten through the group stage - Juventus,Inter Milan and Arsenal.
Bayer seem to be doing well. Topped in a group with Real, Dynamo Kiev and Roma.
So with Arsenal finishing 1st and Man Utd 2nd in their respective groups, maybe they might be drawn together !!! God forbid coz at the end of those 2 matches, the whole team might be suspended :-)

The private life of Genghis Khan

2004-12-08T01:02:00.000-08:00

One of Douglas Adams' short stories.. it is just totally hilarious. :-)

The last of the horsemen disappeared into the smoke and the thudding
of their hooves receded into the grey distance.

The smoke hung on the land. It drifted across the setting sun, which
lay like an open wound across the western sky.

In the ringing silence that followed the battle, very, very few,
pitifully few cries could be heard from the bloody, mangled wreckage
on the fields.

Ghostlike figures, stunned with horror, emerged from the woods,
stumbled and then ran forward crying - women, searching for their
husbands, brothers, fathers, lovers first amongst the dying and then
amongst the dead. The flickering light by which they searched was that
of their burning village, which had that afternoon officially become
part of the Mongol Empire.

The Mongols.

From out of the wastes of central Asia they had swept, a savage force
for which the world was utterly unprepared. They swept like a wildly
wielded scythe, hacking, slashing, obliterating all that lay in their
path, and calling it conquest.

And throughout the lands that feared them now or would come to fear
them, no name inspired more terror than that of their leader, Genghis
Khan. The greatest of the Asian warlords, he stood alone, revered as a
God among warriors, marked out by the cold light of his grey green
eyes, the savage furrow of his brow, and the fact that he could beat
the shit out of any of them.

Later that night the moon rose, and by its light a small party of
horsemen carrying torches rode quietly out from the Mongol encampment
that sprawled over nearby hill. A casual observer would not have
noticed anything remarkable about the man who rode at their centre,
muffled in a heavy cloak, tense, hunched forward on his horse as if
weighed down by a heavy burden, because a casual observer would have
been dead.

The band rode a few miles through the moonlit woods, picking their way
along the paths until they came at last to a small clearing, and here
they reined their horses in and waited on their leader.

He moved his horse slowly forward and surveyed the small group of
peasant huts that stood huddled together in the centre of the clearing
trying very hard at short notice to look deserted.

Hardly any smoke at all was rising from the primitive chimney stacks.
Virtually no light appeared at the windows, and not a sound could be
heard from any of them save that of a small child saying "Shhhhh....."

For a moment a strange green fire seemed to flash from the eyes of the
Mongol leader. A heavy deadly kind of a thing that you could hardly
call a smile drew itself through his fine wispy beard. The strange
kind of smiley thing would signify (briefly) to anyone who was stupid
enough to look that there was nothing a Mongol warlord liked better
after a day hacking people to bits than a big night out.

The door flew open. A Mongol warrior surged into the hut like a savage
wind. Two children ran screaming to their mother who was cowering wide
eyed in the corner of the tiny room. A dog yelped.

The warrior hurled his torch on to the still glowing fire, and then
threw the dog on to it. That would teach it to be a dog. The last
surviving man of the family, a grey and aged grandfather stepped
bravely forward, eyes flashing. With a flash of his sword the Mongol
whipped off the old man's head which trundled across the floor and
fetched up leaning rakishly against a table leg. The old man's body
stood tensely for a moment, not knowing what to think. As it began
slowly, majestically to topple forward, Khan strode in and pushed it
brusquely aside. He surveyed the happy domestic scene and bestowed a
grim kind of smile on it. Then he walked over to a large chair and sat
in it, testing it first for comfort. When he was satisfied with it he
heaved heavy sigh and sat back in front of the fire on which the dog
was now blazing merrily.

The warrior grabbed at the terrified woman, pushed her children
roughly aside and brought her, trembling in front of the mighty Khan.

She was young and pretty, with long bedraggled black hair. Her bosom
heaved and her face was stark with fright.

Khan regarded her with a slow contemptuous look.

"Does she know," he said at length in a low, dead voice, "who I am?"

"You... you are the mighty Khan!" cried the woman.

Khan's eyes fixed themselves on hers.

"Does she know," he hissed, "what I want of her?"

"I... I'll do anything for you, O Khan," stammered the woman, "but
spare my children!"

Khan said quietly, "Then begin." His eyes dropped and he gazed
distantly into the fire.

Nervously, shaking with fear the woman stepped forward and laid a
tentative pale hand on Khan's arm.

The soldier smacked her hand away.

"Not that!" he barked.

The woman started back, aflutter. She realised she would have to do
better. Still shaking, she knelt down on the floor and started gently
to push apart the Khan's knees.

"Stop that!" roared the soldier and shoved her violently backwards.
Bewilderment began to mix with the terror in her eyes as she cowered
on the floor.

"Come on " snapped the soldier, "ask him what kind of day he's had."

"What...?" she wailed, "I don't... I don't understand what..."

The soldier seized her, span her into a half nelson, and jabbed the
point of his sword against her throat.

"I said ask him," he hissed, "what kind of day he's had!"

The woman gasped with pain and incomprehension. The sword jabbed
again. "Say it!"

"Er, what sort ...of... er, day..." she said in a hestitant, strangled
squeak, "have you...had?"

"Dear!" hissed the soldier, "say dear!"

Her eyes bulged in horror at the sword.

"What sort of day have sort of day have you, had..., dear?" she asked
querulously.

Khan looked up briefly, wearily.

"Oh, same as usual," he said, "violent."

He gazed back at the fire again.

"Right," said the soldier to the woman, "go on."

She relaxed very slightly. She seemed to have passed some kind of
test. Perhaps it would be straightforward from now on and she could at
least get it over with. She moved nervously forward and started to
caress the Khan again.

The soldier hurled her savagely across the room, kicked her and yanked
her screaming to her feet again.

"I said stop that!," he bellowed. He pulled her face close to his and
breathed a lungful of cheap wine and week old rancid goat fat fumes at
her, which failed to cheer her up because it reminded her sharply of
her late lamented husband who used to do the same thing to her every
night. She sobbed.

"Be nice to him!" the Mongol snarled and spat one of his unwanted
teeth at her, "ask him how his work's going!"

She gawped at him. The nightmare was continuing. A stinging blow
landed on her cheek.

"Just say to him," the soldier snarled again, "'How's the work going,
dear?" He shoved her forward.

"How...how's the work going... dear?" she yelped miserably.

The soldier shook her. "Put some affection into it!" he roared.

She sobbed again. "How...how's the work going... dear?" she yelped
miserably again, but this time with a kind of pathetic pout at the
end.

The mighty Khan sighed.

"Oh, not too bad I suppose," he said in a world weary tone. "We swept
through Manchuria a bit and spilt quite a lot of blood there. That was
in the morning, then this afternoon was mainly pillaging, though there
was a bit of bloodshed around half four. What sort of day have you
had?"

So saying, he pulled a couple of scroll maps from out of his furs and
started to study them abstractedly by the light of the smouldering
dog.

The Mongol warrior pulled a glowing poker out of the fire and advanced
menacingly on the woman.

"Tell him!" Go on! "

She leapt back with a shriek.

"Tell him!"

"Er, my husband and father were killed!" she said.

"Oh yes, dear?" said Khan absently, not looking up from his maps.

"Dog was burnt!"

"Oh, er, really?"

"Well, er, that's about it, really... er.."

The soldier advanced on her with the poker again.

"Oh, and I was tortured a bit!" shrieked the woman.

Khan looked up at her. "What?" he said, vaguely, "sorry dear, I was
just reading this..."

"Right," said the soldier, "nag him!"

"What?"

"Just say, 'Look Genghis, put that thing away while I'm talking to
you. Here I am, spend all day slaving over a hot...'"

"He'll kill me!"

"Bleeding kill you if you don't."

"I can't stand it!" cried the woman and collapsed on the floor. She
flung herself on the great Khan's feet. "Don't torment me," she
wailed, "if you mean to rape me, then rape me, but don't..."

The great Khan surged to his feet and glowered down at her. "No," he
muttered savagely, "you'd only laugh - you're just like all the
others."

He stormed out of the hut and rode off into the night in such a rage
that almost forgot to burn down the village before he left.

Francesay

2004-11-29T02:49:00.000-08:00

Hey ppl, check out http://francesay.blogspot.com. :-)

Rise like the phoenix.....

2004-11-08T03:16:00.000-08:00

Aussies, the world champions, could not chase 107. Now as usual and as expected, the indian media is making it to out be like the phoenix rising from the ashes.

To put things into perspective, it was a great effort to defend a target as low as 107 .. really was, and all credit to them but "phoenix rising from the ashes???". That is ridiculous.

Aussies have also been bad at low totals. Ironically Damien Martyn was invovled in one such chase 11 years ago against the then unstoppable windies. They had a chance to take the Frank Worrell trophy and they lost by a solitary run, though Craig McDermott claims to this day that he never touched the ball. So Damien Martyn was dropped after that series, took him 6 full years to come back.

The point is aussies have been terrible at low total chases. Against south africa and england in particular they have failed in chasing low totals. They have a history of it.

India themselves fell to the Windies chasing 120, a few years back. So low total 4th innings chases on crumbling pitches are always dicey and to say based on that, that a team is "Back" is ridiculous.

India seems to have got back into the habit of needing square turners to make a match of it. Nagpur was a perfect example to prove this. It was one of the best indian pitches in recent times and they got beaten hollow. India should make more pitches along those lines.

While Ponting is making a big issue of the Bombay pitch, the fact remains that it was a terrible one, good close cricket alright but the pitch was a disaster.

India will always be pretenders to the so called throne of Test Cricket if they are hell bent upon wanting to win with square turners. The irony is that they have bowlers who are stepping up, such as Irfan Pathan. So it's time saurav dada and his bandwagon (which includes the administrators, curators and the whole bunch of jokers) toned down the rhetoric on home advantage and showed a little more courage and vision.

Get Brain ???

2004-11-07T07:02:00.000-08:00

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York officials were red-faced on Friday after they discovered that clothing ads on city buses that appeared to promote reading suggested a love of books could be rewarded with oral sex.

The advertisements that ran on about 200 buses across the city in recent months carried posters displaying a suggestively posed woman in hot pants kneeling among a pile of books beside the snappy slogan "Read Books, Get Brain."

What unhip, unsuspecting local transportation officials did not know was that "get brain" is street slang for oral sex.

The ads -- from hip-hop clothing maker Akademiks, which intended the double-entendre -- was stripped off New York buses on Friday after transportation officials discovered the street slang meaning.

Metropolitan Transit Authority spokesman Tom Kelly condemned the "vulgar street phrases" in the racy ads he said were "demeaning women."

"To me and I believe to everyone else, while it was done by a clothing line, it would give the impression that it was also promoting reading and literacy," Kelly told Reuters.

"It's easy enough to understand how that would get by based upon someone not knowing the expression."

A spokesman for the New York-based clothing maker noted the ad campaign had run since September and "we hadn't had any complaints at all."

New York officials may not be the only ones caught out.

Akademiks also placed the ads on buses and bus shelters in Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, San Francisco and Philadelphia, the company spokesman said.

Kelly, who said he was his 60s, said that after he was tipped to the hidden meaning of the phrase on Thursday he ran a test among some young MTA workers.

"I went downstairs to the mailroom and showed some of the young guys a copy of the ad," he said. "I was watching their faces and they all start smirking.

"Apparently it's on all the music, in music that's how they refer to it," Kelly said. "I didn't know anything about it and I'm sure the people that approved the ad didn't."

Kelly said it was sad that "you can't take things at face value any longer," adding, "We'll have to learn from experience before we accept ads."

Blossoms

2004-11-07T05:42:00.000-08:00

Blossoms is a bloody good book store. Vaish, if you read this- Merci Beacoup d'y me montrer. Ce magasin, c'est vraiment magnifique. Je l'aime beaucoup. j'y veux aller encore très prochainment.
I've been there only once, last weekend and i've been dying to go back to that place. I am having withdrawal symptoms already. Seems like this is just like cocaine.. got to chop my lines daily :-)

Damm Man Utd

2004-10-26T01:46:00.000-07:00

Man Utd played lousy... and Arsenal played lousy too... both teams deserved to lose. ManU seemed too caught up trying to cripple Reyes than play football, and Rio Ferdinand should've seen red right at the beginning.

Arsenal did not have a great game in Greece either, Jens Lehmann seems to think he is a center-back prancing about all over the place. They need to tighten up their game, coz even though they score a lot of goals, they also let it a lot- much more than what Chelsea are doing.

So apparently one of the Gunners threw a bowl of soup on Sir Alex in the tunnel. A fitting finish to the game i suppose after both teams seemed more intent on beating each other up than on winning the football match.