Thanks Steven Spielberg

Tintin should be one of the best movie in the recent times. No one could have captured the essence of the Herge's Tintin novels better than Spielberg, be it the motion capture technology or the 3D usage, the movie was a treat to all the Tintin fans. The movie will definitely initiate the non Tintin-ians into reading the Tintin comics, may be they could not exactly connect with the movie the first time, but after reading the comics if they watch this movie again it should be an exhilarating experience. The backbone of all Tintin comics is Haddock and the Thompson Detectives and this movie captures these characters as envisioned by Herge, the dry humour and quirky comic retorts from Haddock are a stand out. To see this comic on the big screen was really a treat and was really wonderful. All the characters in the movie were motion captured, while snowy alone was still a CGI creation and the reactions captured from Snowy were also brilliant. The only gripe should be, not able to see the regular Snowy's thoughts/dreams/opinions that are also an attraction point on the comics, I know it is not practical to show bubble thoughts on the movie screen, but still that will continue to remain 'a must want' from me. This should be one of the few movies after Hugo which has done justice to the term '3D'. A must watch definitely.

Daily Routine beckons!

The last two weeks had been so brutal on my regular routine that I have totally lost touch with reality. All my regular activities were put on hold and a parallel routine emerged out of nowhere, this new schedule dictated my routine to the extent that after the two weeks, it is as if I am awake after a really long deep sleep. Seriously, in the last two weeks, I couldn't look beyond my work into my browser to take a break and today when I look into my RSS news feed,  it is as if I am from an alien planet. So many things have happened and it would take me a week to stay up to date, but on a deeper retrospection I sincerely feel that I have become addicted to my daily news feed. Initially I thought it was just a aberration on the part of my mind since it was not doing its routine, but after the 3rd or 4th day I realized my addiction was deep rooted. Anyways, since I did not have an option I survived the two weeks and the coming weeks are not going to alter anything.

So after a revelation, am I going to do anything about this? Nah! Just find the easiest way to get back to old routine and stay put.

Cricket Classics - Australia Vs West Indies 1999

This should be one of the best tests played between Windies and Aussies. A video below is a gist of the second innings. The reaction from Walsh when he plays the first ball says it all.



A more dedicated video on Lara's innings, its is a 40min video and pure Lara innings.



One has to remember that Lara had just lost an entire test series to S.Africans and had totally hit rock bottom before the Australian Series. In this series he again proved why he is a genius and why he is the prodigal son of the West Indian soil. The final moments of the test were so interesting that even today you would bite your finger nails before the last ball.

India down under

Another three more weeks before the Boxing day test starts in MCG. It is all exciting when the cricket behemoths battle against one another in a four test series with the third test scheduled at WACA. The squad for the Indian squad was announced last week with no major surprises, Bhajji was again not in the contention as Ashwin and Ojha are proving to be handful and it will really be a test of technique and temperament when they bowl against the best batsmen. In Australian conditions, except for the Sydney test, I think India will go with 3 pacers and 1 spinner and who will don the role of the single spinner will be an interesting proposition. Kohli and Rohit Sharma will again fight for the vacant middle order spot and it will be another closely fought competition to grab a berth in the test starting eleven. There is also speculation as to whether Zaheer will be fit before the tour and if he is not going to make it, it will be a really young bowling team that will face the likes of Clarke, Hussey and Ponting.

This should be a really interesting series after India's disappointing performance in England. So all eyes will be watching the Indian performance down under and hopefully we get to see the Ishanth Vs Ponting magic again! Lets hope at least this time around, India come back home with the 'Border-Gavaskar' trophy.

Politics Vs Growth

The FDI fiasco is getting murkier day by day and there doesn't seem to be an end except for Govt. to roll back their policy. This has stalled the parliament for the last 7 days and nothing concrete has been achieved either by the ruling political party or the opposition. This entire battle seems to be a game between the political parties to show their might and in this noise, the consumer's interest, in my opinion, has been pushed to the back burner. In a developing economy like India, policies of this magnitude must be discussed and everything in the policy needs to be worked out in cohesion to ensure the policy brings out the best for the country.

In the recent times, BJP seems to make an issue out of anything the government brings out in the form of reform. I sincerely believe a party like BJP should shed this image and try to work with the government when it is trying to hash out a policy that might serve well for the Indian economy on the longer run, thats the progressive way forward and also it will actually make BJP look pro-reform which is actually one of the points put forward in their election manifestos. Yes, this reform will have few negative impact on the society, but which policy of this magnitude doesn't ? As representatives of the electorate, these parties have a responsibility to provide the best for the people, ideally, they should help the government come up with the best case situation where there will be minimal impact to the people and also serve well for the economy. It might work in an ideal world, but no democracy is ideal so at least the BJP can back the government on crucial policies like these.

Even though there has been widespread agitation and protest across India, it all looks to be politically motivated than being sincere. There have also been reports where the trade bodies themselves have welcomed such a move which would help them with the money inflow and spur the demand. Anyways, from the look of things, this reform will be suspended for the time being till the Government can win over its allies. The wait continues!

Hugo

Hugo is yet another masterpiece from one of the greatest directors Martin Scorsese. This time around, he has created a movie which will be loved by all ages alike. In the recent times, the term '3D' has always been a promotional gig for the movies, but Scorsese has really made '3D' mean something. All through the movie, it is always like watching the happenings over the shoulders of the actors. The camera angles and usage were excellent and the movie's opening scene is a proof of that. Beyond the technical marvels, to pitch a movie based on Georges Melies and still not make it look like a documentary is an act of genius.   The later half of the movie is almost a snapshot of Georges's life after world war I, but still the screenplay was interesting and intriguing that you don't realize the tangent on the story line. The music from Hans Zimmer accentuates the movie's overall experiance and Ben Kingsley's acting stood out. Every support act in the movie has been carved to perfection and Zimmer's OST breathes life into the sequences involving no dialogues. If you ask me, it is a 'not-to-be-missed' movie and definitely needs to be experienced in the bigger screen.

SOS Tugga!

Note: This was an post i wrote in 2005 after Australia's epic loss against the English in 2005 Ashes. In my opinion this post still makes sense today.

Every Indian cricket fan knows what Kolkota ’01 means! History created, Epic rewritten. Laxman belted Aussies giving Indians the first taste of success in that unforgettable series, nor can we ignore Harbhajan’s magical off spins or Dravid’s stand with laxman. But digging further into the match one heroic act got lost amidst all these success stories. Towards the end of day one on this test Aussies were still struggling to break Harbhajan’s spin maze, reeling at 291 for the loss of eight wickets. There was one man waging a lone battle with number 29 reading against his name in the score books. Known as ‘Tugga’ to his team mates. Stephen Rodger Waugh was stranded at one end with Gillespie to support. The critics and the cricket so called experts predicted Aussies final score to 310. But this man showed his real character exemplifying temperament and experience at the Eden Gardens. He scored a century with a tail ender to support him and resurrected his pride temporarily by guiding Aussies to a respectable 445.

Four years later, Aussies struggling to retain their(?) Ashes at Old Trafford. Aussies are celebrating a draw. Something unheard of for a cricket fan irrespective of the continent he ails from. Batting disaster! Not a century being scored by the Aussie batsman except for their captain in the final innings. Aussie temperament and character is being tested out there in the middle by the English bowlers. The need for a batsman who can stay in the crease and attack at the same time is immediate requirement. The very mention of such a batsman kind reminds us of SR Waugh. A batsman who built the Australian team with his success. Ruthless aggression was the only term known to the Aussies under his captaincy. They conquered everything in this world under him. He intimidated the opposition by his nonchalant demeanor. The man they miss most currently is their former captain.

One another good example Waugh’s temperament is his double century at Sabina Park with his twin brother facing the likes of Walsh and Ambrose. On a wicket like WACA the twins showed laudable temperament and character.

It s high time the Aussies realize the need of the hour. There is no more Tugga to stick around while the other blokes play their aggressive cricket. A lot more maturity is to be shown on the field. A more responsible innings is expected from at least one of them. Ricky Ponting’s 156 in Old Trafford is one such example. But a lot more is required from each one of the batsman in the coming two tests to retain ashes. The English team is not similar to the one faced in 2001 or 1997. They are a lot more matured and talented set of bowlers who can snatch the game from the opposition in one session. The Aussies are made to work for each and every run of theirs. A more meticulous and intelligent batting is expected from them.

Aussies were compared to the highly raw West Indian team under Clive Lloyd. They miss their favorite leader. They clearly lack the inspiration. They are a shadow of their former giant image.

Sherlock Holmes - movie

Finally watched the movie Sherlock Holmes after two years. The movie was something I wanted to watch for a very long time and couldn't do it till last weekend. I have always been a big fan of Doyle's Holmes series from my college days, thanks to my friend Koi. The movie was really impressive, one for its plot and second, the portrayal of 1890s London was really awesome and excellent, it did really transport the viewer to that era. The aura around Moriarty was maintained till the end and was a nice build up towards the upcoming sequel. The sequence involving Holmes, Watson and Watson's fiancee was well executed and of course a tribute Doyle's writing to involve wit in every possible situation.

There were certain situations in the movie, which in my opinion were not Doyle like and more cinematic, like Holmes trying to be more comical for no reason. Nowhere in the novels/short stories is Holmes ever made to look silly, he has always been a man of reason behind every action of his. I also missed the exchanges between Holmes and Watson where Holmes would make Watson do the deduction and then confront him with the missing facts, these situations were really something everyone looks forward to in the short stories. Also, the prominence given to Irene Adler as Holmes's love interest is also something I didn't like, as it is not loyal to the story line and also the character of Holmes. But these were minor quirks considering the fact that watching Sherlock Holmes on the big screen was exciting enough to ignore these fallacies.

Another major boost the movie was in the form of background score from Hans Zimmer. The usage of violin in those scores really underlines the fact how much a violin can convey the sombre mood more than any other instrument, but again I am just a ignorant music listening novice. The music was really an integral part in making the movie an excellent watch and once again proves what a great composer we have in the form of Hans Zimmer.

FDI in retail sector

After partially opening up the retail sector to FDI (upto 49% ownership along with an Indian firm as a joint venture) few years back amidst heavy opposition, India is now looking to let the retailers to start their independent investments (upto 51% ownership under their name) on Indian soil. This is a huge move considering Walmart and Tesco have been waiting on the sidelines for a really long time. To an average consumer like me, what will this translate to?

1. A huge increase in the investment on the retail sector and all the mom - pop store will go out of business very soon.
2. A very refined and efficient supply chain will be put into place. All these companies will help the Indian retailers learn more about supply chain management on a larger scale. Indian dont have a single stop store at the national level that we can boast about, so this will lead to a big players like Bharati, Reliance compete or do a joint venture with these retail behemoths (we already have Bharati - Walmart ventures operating in India under Bharati's storefront)
3. The farmers who will directly supply to these giants will stand to gain, considering the fact all the middle men will run out of business. This could potentially also reduce the price on the products, but only marginally. This also opens up a new problem, all these farmers without proper representation will also get exploited and end up without a choice.
4. Consumers will also stand to gain, with wide selection  and single shop points. They will also be spoilt for choice. 
5. All these big players will want big real estate to set shop which are currently available only in the outskirts of any city. This will drive the real estate price of those areas northwards and there by making a dream of owning a house still a dream for the middle class.
6. Increased job opportunities for the unemployed youth.

It is all quite exciting and interesting, at the same time, it has also made me skeptical to the point that, we never know what is in store until we really experience. There is an interesting article about Walmart's foray into the Chinese market which more or less mirrors what you can expect from these retail giants in India. But it needs to be taken with a pinch of salt as China is light years ahead in industrialization and agro progress, not without problems though. If we are to believe the rumors, it is an interesting development on the retail front in India, this could potentially change the face of Indian Retail, which only time can answer.

Bravo!

The second test between India and West Indies went down the scripted path and everything was as predicted. The only aberration was West Indies's second innings, no one gave Windies a chance on the third day when they followed on, but they did show some character in the second innings at the top order. Out of all this, Darren Bravo's innings stood out! He couldn't be any more Lara like, he was so Lara like, be it playing a cover drive or straight drive or cut shot, every stroke of his was modelled after Lara's style of batting. Beyond the similarities, Darren Bravo showed his gut and instincts, he proved that he is ready to grind his innings out when the situation demanded. He didn't restrict himself, he played his natural game and he countered spin effectively using his feet. After a really long time, there is some genuine hope in the West Indies team in the form of Darren Bravo, it really makes the game interesting to watch. A great talent being put to test is always an amazing contest to follow and Bravo has just started. He has got to go a long way to prove he is not just a Lara's batting look alike, but also that he is new saviour 'Lara' the West Indies team desperately needs.

Just watch the way he is holding his bat and helmet, if you cut the face out, any one would say it is Lara! Now see the picture of the Master himself.

Crazy day eh?

The second day of the first test between Australia and SA was absolute mayhem.

1. 23 wickets were lost on a single day
2. Aussies were 21/9 at one stage, only to stagger back to 47
3. Proteas were bundled for 96 in their first innings
4. 9 DRS reviews requested

The entire day was so surreal and the television channels were spared the work of having a specific highlights package for the day. Bowlers had a field day and did I mention two catches dropped in the Aussie innings. For once, bowlers dominated the entire day and showcased why test cricket is still interesting and can never be matched by any other form of cricket.

In this chaos, two specifics of cricket stood out, Clarke's batting for his 151 in his first innings and Dale Steyn's bowling during the entire test match. Clarke's innings should be bracketed along with one of the finest knocks played in test cricket under adverse conditions, it was a pleasure to seem him bat with ease when the accomplished and best batsmen around him found it tough to even survive. It so reminded me of the vintage 'tugga' innings we usually see when the chips are down, the only difference was the elegance involved with clarke's batting which was usually missing in Tugga or Border's batting. On the other end it was Dale Steyn spitting venom with the cricket ball, the contest between Steyn and Clarke was excellent and was a pure exhibition of test cricket. Without arguments, Dale Steyn should be the best pace bowler amongst the current crop of fast bowlers, the control, speed and swing was great and he surely makes bowling an enjoyable watch. If a test cricket between Aussies and Proteas can end within 2.5 days, imagine how the second test is going to be fought, it is going to be hard cricket with both teams capable of making fighting comebacks.

Is Rahul ready?

I came across an interesting article which ran through the grooming of Rahul Gandhi to become the next leader in the congress. Though short, it did have some deep insights on how the situation around the young Gandhi is. With Sonia ready to pass the mantle, is Rahul really ready to take over the leadership of the biggest political party in India? In my opinion, the time is ripe for Rahul Gandhi to take this role and showcase his abilities to the public. Any major issue threatening the government, in the recent times, Rahul Gandhi has always been part of the core committee that looks into resolving the issue and if I were to believe the media articles, I don't think he did have a great say in the way the solution was arrived amongst the bigwigs like Pranab, Azad, PC etc. But as always, we can never conclude from the bits and pieces we hear as news from the media. There has never been any concrete evidence on how Rahul Gandhi would approach a situation and to the Indian public, he has always been a mystery.

The upcoming UP battle in 2012 could be a barometer for what Congress can achieve under Rahul Gandhi. His thoughts and his works with the farmers in UP were impressive and if that were to be taken as a trailer of things to come under his leadership, in my opinion, he would infuse a different perspective into leading a nation. From my observations, he seems to be a very honest and humble leader, but most times he portrays himself to be a reluctant leader than a eager one. His responses on controversial issues and questions seems forced and rhetoric, it doesn't provide any insight into his methods to handle hot topics.

Of all the time he has spent so far in his public life, a concern remains on why he doesn't take any cabinet ministry and show what he is made of. The public, though very eager to see a young leader at the top are at the same time wary of what Rahul is capable of, no where in his position as the most powerful politician in India has Rahul taken leadership of a specific ministry and improve its image amongst the public. If you ask me, this was an opportunity lost for Gandhi, he could have scored brownie points with the Indian public had he proved his worth and come 2014, the election results would have been a no brainer.

The eternal question still remains, is Rahul Gandhi ready to take up where his father had left? Will he be the new India's leader?  I think only time can answer that, but at the same time, I am eager to see how Congress embraces itself into the next generation of leaders. I somehow feel, Priyanka, though in the sidelines will have a great role to play in the coming years, be it guiding her brother or taking up the leadership baton from her mother.

Hobo at the theatre

Over the weekend, I spent the saturday night watching a movie at the theatre. While waiting with my friend to grab a pepsi for the movie screening, a homeless guy standing in the queue caught my eye. I was surprised to find him inside the theatre and when he was at the counter, he placed all his dimes and nickels and wanted a pop. The person at the counter was a teen and the conversation that happened was totally interesting.

Hobo: Hey wassup, I want a soda pop
Teen: Sir, would you want a combo?
Hobo: Combo?
Teen: Do you want nachos or popcorn to go with your soda
Hobo: Sorry, i am poor, I just want my drink. I didn come here to watch movies, just give me my soda and i will be off
Teen: Sir, do you have a scene card?
Hobo: Scene card?
Teen: The theatre offers a card and you can gain points every time you watch a movie or buy snacks here
Hobo: Are you kidding me? Are you seriously asking me whether i have a scene card? Son, I am homeless guy trying to buy a drink with the dimes and nickels I have. You are asking me whether I have a card to use?
Teen: Sorry sir
Hobo: Stop calling me a Fucking Sir, just give me my drink and I will be off

I was surprised on why the teen couldn't make out that this guy is just in here for his drink and not to watch movies. He looked totally ragged and dirty, hadn't shaved in days and was written "poor" all over his face. I sympathized with the hobo and walked towards the screen to catch my movie on time, but my inner thought went "the standard questions and protocols can sometimes be really a pain in the ass".

Mindless Comedies

Paul was a movie with strong inputs from the creative Seth Rogen and I wanted to watch that for a very long time. After Superbad I made sure I keep track of the of movies from this guy and though I was disappointed with Green Hornet, Paul wasn't bad. It is one of those geek comedies and I think the Paul characterization was totally awesome. This is movie is one amongst many where there isn't a necessity to really apply your mind to understand it and at the same time, it was not one of those cheesy Ben Stiller type comedy where you can predict what the next gag is all about. Somehow this movie stood out on the comic gags on nerds and was really time well spent. One another movie was the latest Harold and Kumar movie, this cannot be compared to Seth Rogen's intelligent comic timing, but will still fall under the mindless comedy movies which can just make us laugh for 1.5hrs without any kind of mental effort from our side.

3 Battles

With the Windies playing their first test in Delhi, an interesting contest looms over this test series.

Battle 1:
Everytime we see Darren Bravo, we are always reminded of the great Lara and it will be really critical to see how he fares in the spinning conditions. He is not going to face any great spinner in the form of Kumble or Harbhajan, but to still survive the sub continent conditions will be a test of character and it will lay the foundation for his continued presence in the international arena.


Battle 2:
Another battle is the "who is the next Indian spinner?" in the team, this is the first time since 2000 India is playing a test series without Kumble or Harbhajan and it will be interesting to see who will raise up to take up the mantle, will Ashwin or Ojha take up that role and guide India through the next decade?


Battle 3:
The last battle will be the battle of veterans against the West Indian bowlers in the form of Fidel Edwards and Bishoo. None of these guys played against these bowlers when India toured Windies few months back. So it will be awesome to watch VVS, Sachin handle these bowlers.

One sore point of the entire series will be Chris Gayle. Had everything been set right between him and the board, the cricket fan in India would have been privileged to watch him bat in this test series.

As I write this, India has already managed to make a dull test really interesting by conceding 95runs lead in the first innings. Should be a closely fought test match with a definite result.

India's come back

India defeated the English 5-0 in the ODIs and it was sort of giving England the taste of their own medicine but only not fully. Our defeat to England was total and complete, we did not even win a single game in the English soil and the worst of all, we went there as Test Nation #1 and WC 2011 champions.  Our victory back in India is a comeback of sorts, but to call it a revenge is not appropriate or not correct. If we have to really get back at England, it should be in the test arena, ideally it should be at their home, but i don't think there is going to be another tour of England in two years, so it should be a home test series. We should pummel them like how defeated Aussies back in 2001 at Kolkata and Chennai. We should leave them doubting themselves and shatter their confidence to the extent they should think twice before casting doubt on our test position again. The defeat in England really hurt the Indian fan who was at cloud nine after the WC victory, to hit rock bottom from that height was really painful and to make it worse it was the English's self proclaimed geniuses like Boycott, Nasser, Artherton etc who cast doubt on India's ascension in world cricket. I think, the Indian team has got a lot to prove in their tour of Australia, I sincerely believe we can pick ourselves up and prove to the cricketing world that our #1 position in test cricket was not a fluke.

'Buddy, I am underweight'

Back in 2006, we were a group of 10-15 living in an apartment complex in Seattle and 'hitting the gym' suddenly became a fad. I don't remember when it started or how it started, but there was a brief period when everyone thought, being fit and healthy is really important. So we identified a gym and as as every gym would want you to do, the gym instructor took us through the tour and it ended with a visit to the men's locker room. 3-4 guys freaked out, rather should I say 'had a culture shock' when they saw people walking with their ding-dongs out and they immediately dropped their gym plan. I don't blame them, a culture that is so paranoid and prejudiced about two men holding hands or even worse two men dining alone in an restaurant but it is still considered normal to walk around with your John jr on full display in a men's locker room? I think, it is like Superman's kryptonite Vs Earth concept, no rules/conditions apply inside the locker rooms, eh? Anyways, after the tour, the regular "desi" torment of negotiating a monthly fee and getting gym membership under a "family plan" happened, as fate's script should have it, we had another 6-7guys drop out at this stage. This is one other thing I don't understand, having done all the research and pep talk for days, when the gym sales guy drops the monthly rate, few guys find gym an 'expensive hobby' but expressed under the veil 'I don't need to Gym, I am already fit' reason. I think the moment the rate was mentioned their mental calculators went $40*50 = Rs.2000, no way is it acceptable to spent Rs.100 an hour each day for 20 days. I call them calculators and without these calculators around you, who would you pick/irritate to spend time or entertain yourself (don't judge me!)? So these are essential characters in the life's humour section.

After all this we had only 2-3 guys making it to the gym and as any initial gym fever would have the BMI calculation was always part of the discussion. As the calculators would always say 'You just need to eat healthy to stay healthy, hitting a gym is a scam the corporates have managed to pull over the innocent civilians'. In spite of all this chaos there was one guy who never showed interest in Gym and his reason, he claimed he was underweight. We always had our doubts as whether he was really underweight and for God's sakes, he had a paunch. So we cornered him one evening and asked him to prove his statement and here is the sequence of events

1. He opened the BMI index calculation page from the internet
2. He entered his age, weight and height
3. He hit the calculate button and it came back with 17 as the BMI which is very much underweight
4. We were stunned and when we went through his height and weight, he had entered his height as 6 feet and 2 inches
5. This guy was hardly 5 feet and 8 inches and we confronted him with this fact, he vehemently defended his height saying he was way over 6 feet.

So the fun began, to state something stupid amongst a bachelor group is considered crime, but trying to support your statement even after knowing it is wrong is like wishing death sentence on yourself. Well, who cares, we had absolute and total fun at the expense of our "underweight" friend/roomie.

Testing Team Anna

The entire last week, reports of divide and split within the Team Anna group was reported across various media outlets. First it was Arvind Kejriwal's IT returns issue, then Kiran Bedi's travel expense and the list goes on, any team that takes on a political outfit will have to put up with these kind of attacks. Whether the accusations are true or not, i think the resolve of Team Anna is being totally put to test here. Hazare as an individual has always been the Gandhian face of the team, but much is not known about the team in the background. Hopefully it is not as bad as its accusations, but still I think this is what a team will have to encounter when they enter the public life opposing a political party. I think the real intentions and colours of the Team Anna will be made known to the public and I hope the team in question takes the right step next time by not opposing a specific political party but work towards issues faced by the public. 

Indian Grand Prix

After two years in waiting the Indian Grand prix finally happened over the weekend. It was an amazing spectacle to watch an event like this happen back at home. The race did not have any great surprises or twists and was almost bordering on boredom like the last 3-4 races, but the excitement that it was happening in India remained throughout the race. Getting F1 to India had been on the talks for more than 4-5 years now and finally to see the auto majors burn rubber on Indian asphalt was really awesome. India had already spoiled its name in its preparations for the CWG 2010 and this event was being watched closely by the international community, I think this time, we conducted the event without any major gripes.

Having said all this, F1 has always been one of the most costliest sport to conduct and take part.  The race was entirely organized by the Corporate India and is a major success, but there is flip side to this. There are few questions which remains to be answered, how does this help the nation apart from proving India's capability to conduct big events? How does this help India economically? I know this event will provide investment opportunities but is it really worth the amount spent (initial estimates ping the construction cost of the track alone to Rs1700 Crores)? Many skeptics believe this amount could have been better utilized and also the land on which this entire track was build is prime farm land. Ofcourse the farmers were compensated appropriately, but who is going to support them at a long run? I am not taking sides here, I feel elated to see F1 happen in India but at the same time, I am not sure if it will help our economy or our country in anyway apart from putting India in the F1 map. But there is one particular trend that is alarming, the parity between the rich and poor seems to grow and this doesn't seem to change course at any time in the near future.

Siri commercial - Conan

I think everyone watched the Siri commercial, but I think Conan's version is tad better than the original one.



I think i liked the closing comment "We know what you are gonna use it for"

Duh ...

It was a horrible weekend extending over to tuesday from last week.  Our project was scheduled for major UAT release over the weekend and as luck would have it, the application had a sudden inflow of critical and high defects. I don't know why this happens, may be Murphy's law phenomenon but this still continues to amaze me. You really don't see this coming and at one point you are really confident that your application is all fine and ready for the final mile push, but then out of the blue, a big northward trend in the defect numbers.  This trend prevails over a week and really saps the energy out of you. I am exhausted mentally, physically, psychologically, chemically etc etc hopefully this ends soon. 

I would say, Profound!

My friend's blogger site has got an interesting quote which though simple, is profound, in my opinion. I am not a big fan of quotes, most of the quotes i read on the net are either filled with decorative adjectives or hypocritical in their own way. But Sriram's quote is both straight and simple.

All problems can be solved by tea and masala vada - Sriram Kannan

Really impressive and practical if you ask me, if I were in a position trying to find a solution, the eternal question remains, who will provide me the tea and vada, Solai/Koi/Sriram/Vishwa ???

P:S: The question is dedicated to everyone I owe a simple tea @SKT.

"Ted Talks" - Lennart Green

An interesting demonstration from Lennart Green, more than the tricks, I think it is Green's presentation and his wit which was awesome.

Hyundai challenges Maruti with Eon

Hyundai unveiled its new entrant EON pitting it directly against the likes of Altos and Ritzs, with EON Hyundai enters the sub 3lakh segment market previously dominated entirely by Maruti. This segment has always been Maruti's fort and no new entrant could match Maruti's after sales. GM tried this with its Chevy Beat, but people still wanted a strong after sales - service, if anyone could match Maruti's service, it could only be Hyundai, they have been in India for long now and they have seen success through their Santro, i10 and i20 models.  The design on EON looks fluid and contemporary, it carries the 814cc engine with 6 variants. I think Maruti will be forced to rethink its existing Alto design which has been unchanged since its introduction, infact it borrowed heavily from the M800, with Hyundai snapping at its heels, I think it will be good competition to watch out.

Australia in South Africa

Cricket did take a back seat for me in the last few months on the areas of interest, I wasn't following cricinfo as I usually used to, I stopped reading news items on cricket. There was too much cricket, infact a cricket overdose if you ask me and in my opinion a T20 game can never substitute a single interesting session in test cricket. But as with any sport, the earning potential of a format will always dominate a genuine interesting format in the game. Anyways, as England come back to India for a game of ODIs, the southern hemisphere's titans are battling out again in South Africa. In terms of competition and interest I think the Australians competing against South Africa in Africa will be an interesting clash to watch out for, the Aussies are coming out of a series victory in Sri Lanka but the Proteas are playing cricket after a long break from the world cup. A new look Proteas under a new captain take on the Aussies for a 3 ODI and 2 Test series, it will be a really hard fought series and a tough encounter. What really disappoints me is the length of this series, when a marquee series like these happen, I think they should at least carry 5 Tests on the schedule. More than the India England ODI competition this is the series to watch out for. 

BSY sent to Jail

Finally the law caught up with BSY and he has been arrested for the land scam which has been ravaging Karnataka for the last 1 year. Well BSY chose to evade arrest and surrendered himself to the Court, may be trying to score brownie points with the voters even when everything is stacked up against him. When he comes out, which all politicians on a scam arrest eventually do, he would use this as a campaign point to get votes, after all surrendering in political dictionary will equal to sacrifices than arrests which means unlawful activity. BJP can start breathing easy now as the Karnataka land scam had been a huge pain point in their campaign against corruption targeting the ruling Congress government.

But the problems for BJP don't end here, they have to face the wrath of BSY supporters and somehow find a way to pacify them and gain the lost ground and support. They have already lost significant public confidence and it will not help them when they face the elections for the centre in a couple of years from now. Also, they will have to position a strong candidate to counter the BSY supporter backlash within the party and to hold power in the state. This arrest is a shot in the arm for Advani's yatra which is evidently against corruption and he can always say BJP takes corruption seriously and will prosecute anyone even if he is the chief minister of a state. As with any political party, they will try to show a united face in public and most probably BJP will still claim BSY is innocent and that he continues to enjoy the confidence of the party's top brass.

With any arrest of a top politician will follow a stint in the hospital with the politician complaining chest pains and this script didn't change a bit when BSY was arrested. I wonder if this drama script is an unwritten oath taken by anyone who enters public life and staunchly followed within the circles of politics. Cant they at least change the script with the changing times? It is getting too boring and the media  should have already got a template for these kind of news items, they just replace the name of the politician when the news breaks.

Virumandi BGM from Illiyaraja

Virumandi BGM is something i have been trying to download for a very long time. I do have that in bits and pieces, but it was a not a complete compilation. The music in the video below is an exemplary composition from Illiyaraja, the usage of Violin to convey the emotion of sadness within a minute is really  an act of a genius.

Hazare the politician Vs Hazare the Activist

There is a recent news item about Anna Hazare and his decision to campaign against the Congress party at Hisar in the by-poll elections, not stopping there, continuing the same in the State elections if the govt doesn't pass the Jan Lokpal bill during the Assembly's Winter session. This is an interesting development considering the fact that so far we have seen Anna Hazare as an activist against policies/amendments, but suddenly to target a single party or a coalition for not passing a resolution or a bill in the parliament doesn't make sense. The question arises as to what would Hazare do if the NDA ruled states don't support the bill, will he be travelling to those states to campaign against them as well? Somehow this doesn't sit well with me, in my opinion I think Hazare has made his point through his fast and protests and it is time to sit back and let the government do its work.

Lets just see how this will be viewed or how this situation will be manipulated by politicians. BJP & Co will portray or showcase this as a support to their ideals and party in the coming elections in both state and central. This will again be a fight between BJP and Congress and the entire Hazare movement will be lost in this melee, all because of an innocent remark/action. You don't get a second chance in politics and in today's India, media plays a major role in determining the winner. Hazare has so far steered cleared from any party affiliation or support and it is an wonderful achievement in democratic India where nothing can garner support and attention without political clout. He has achieved this through his Gandhian ways and every political party is seeing him a potent force which could erode their vote base, but with this comment, I think he is squandering this advantage. I suppose, his intentions were to challenge the government once again, but i don't think this is the medium or the right time. I think he had the government with its back against the wall and was ready for the final strike, but this is not the path or direction. By this comment, he is just losing credibility amongst his supporters, he garnered so much public support only due to the fact that he was a no party affiliated Gandhian and in India, if you campaign against a single party, you are part of the opposition party or thats how the media will paint and will make the public take sides again.

I think Anna's close lieutenants and media manager realize this fast and try to stop the "Hindutva" colour that will be poured over this entire news item. Arvind Kejriwal's interview with Karan Thapar did not convince me much, I think we need to wait and watch on how this drama unfolds.

Drive - The movie

The initial premise and story line somehow convinced this to be an action movie with lot of car chases and adrenalin action sequences. Damn! I should have read the movie plot in Wikipedia before i ventured into watching this movie on a saturday evening, at least i should i have realized, it is a movie staring Ryan Gosling and not Jason Statham. After 30mins into the movie, I am like, when will you guys drive the car again (after the first scene)? Why are all the actors staring at one another trying to convey the same meaning repeatedly, if i am not wrong, it all reminded me of K Balachander who was obsessed with showing people's faces with expression in closeup and sometimes over the mirror. I still don't understand why he had to torture the viewers with that, if he was so sure the audience would miss the point, you could have subtitled it, that way you could have spared people like me. I think my friend rightly tweeted about Ryan Goosling being no Jason Statham and not showing any expression what so ever doesn't come to everyone. Anyways, I didn't find the movie as interesting as it is claimed in IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes, I don't know what the fuss is all about.

The only saving grace in the movie was the background score, it was the retro with no techno in it and throughout the movie gave the 70s feel. Also the screenplay was interesting with slow narration, but I don't think it suited a most portions in the movie, in my opinion, a totally "old wine-new bottle"story like this warrants more action sequences than an art movie style "looking at one another" crap. I think any heist gone wrong kind of movie will always remind the viewers about No country for old men and you can never escape the comparisons, but again, this movie is no where near to the towering creation of Coen Brothers. I still don't understand the "At the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, Drive was praised and even received a standing ovation",  what was so interesting that I missed in this movie?

The Statistician in me - 4

When I blogged about Rahul's ODI retirement, I was not convinced just to say good bye to a stellar cricketing career through a single para, so this is a deep dive into his ODI career statistics. Rahul Dravid's ODI career has always intrigued me. He was never destined to be the greatest ODI player or even a "match winner" of sorts when he made is debut back in 1996, he was too technically correct to survive in the ODI variety. But Dravid defied all odds to become one of the best finishers the ODI format has ever seen when he was doomed to oblivion by the cricket pundits on his debut, but he survived through sheer hard work and dedication.

A glimpse of his ODI career in numbers

Span	Mat	Runs	HS	Bat Av	100	Ct
1996-2011	344	10889	153	39.16	12	196

The first look doesn't say much, but just looking at the number of runs scored and the average at which these runs scored, something doesn't match. To understand these numbers better, we have to split Dravid's career into three distinct phases

Phase 1: The initial three years were a big struggle, he was trying to establish himself in this form of cricket and his batting style did not suit quick scoring. He was in and out of the team, he was never a regular feature in the Indian team.

Span	Mat	Runs	HS	Bat Av	100
1996-1998	65	1709	107	31.64	1

This is quite evident from the fact that he just scored 1500 runs at 31 a piece. This was a time when he was not sure of his role in team nor himself in this arena.

Phase 2: This should be the best phase of his career where he made a major career choice of keeping wickets for the team. He choose to keep, to accommodate one more batsmen in the team and this turned out to be the most important decision that extended his career and in fact a catalyst that made him an Indian captain. The credit will always remain with Ganguly, but for him I don't think India would have seen the "match finisher" in Dravid, almost equal to the likes of Hussey and Beaven.

Span	Mat	Runs	HS	Bat Av	100
1999-2005	210	7134	153	42.97	10

The numbers speak for themselves here. One has to remember Dravid played No 5 or No 6 in the batting order when the team line up was star studded with Ganguly, Tendulkar, Sehwag, Yuvi etc. To have scored so much runs batting so low on the order is an achievement on its own.

Phase 3: After his peak during the 2003 WC and aftermath, he was destined to become the next Indian captain and like Tendulkar his captaincy is not something many people will write about. I don't know if it was the added responsibility or start of a decline in his batting form, I think after 2005, Dravid was not the same batsman he was before 2005. He still managed to keep himself afloat in the team till the disastrous 2007 WC after which he was dropped.

Span	Mat	Runs	HS	Bat Av	100
2006-2011	69	2046	105	35.27	1

These numbers are similar to the first three years of his career. He was not as productive as he wished to be and also he was chosen in the team as a genuine batsmen.

On the whole, he was one of the finest ambassadors of Indian cricket and also a strong proponent of playing the "batting" game the right way, never seen an ugly heave or an across the line hit, his batting has always been on the "V".

RIP Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs will always be remembered as the Dynamic maverick who built and rebuilt Apple over the course of four decades. He was a visionary, a maker of things, a doer who intimately understood the excitement of a new product

RIP Steve Jobs

Siri - A new revolution in smart phones?

The Apple event yesterday morning had mixed reactions on the web, over an year and half delay and all they had come up with was an iPhone 4S with a better antenna, camera and a processor. There was an interesting article on the net which actually described how Apple manages media and public's expectations by controlled leaking of information in advance to ensure the hype doesn't over inflate and end up as a dud. May be this time the expectations were way too high and even this media management didn't help.

Anyways, amongst the plethora of already knowns in the event, the personal voice assistant 'Siri' blew me away. If the initial 'hands on' from Engadget is to be believed I believe this is something amazing and something that is both efficient and working. Just to imagine that an AI based application can eliminate the necessity to actually look into my mobile to do my basic job, it is something awesome. It is like one of those moments from 'Minority Report' or 'AI' or HAL from '2001: A Space Odyssey' where the first time you see the movie, you really wonder if this is possible and also want to see that happen during your life time just for the heck of seeing it happen. This is not the first voice recognition software, there has been so many attempts to capture the public's imagination, but to apply this to a mobile to feign an assistant will be a lazy ass's wet dream. May be 'Siri' is not as great as it is touted to be, may be I am exaggerating it a wee bit more than it really is, but I still think, this is entirely a new direction from the staple smart phones we are seeing nowadays. I think in the coming days there is going to be a huge spike in this mobile personal assistant concept and I am eager to see this take the baton from the touch screen to lead us for the next 5-6 years. 

Super Size me!

This should be one of the best documentaries I had seen in the recent past, also this was an academy award nominee. The premise of the documentary is something we all imagine about after reading the side effects of junk foods and fast foods, but to live that to see the effects is really a brave effort.

It is really an eye opener to how much these corporate behemoths are sponsoring the demise of healthy living. Next time when we stop at a fast food joint, I think we would think twice before taking a meal.

Myths about Afghanistan

Came across an interesting article about Afghanistan in the world wide web. It is so amazing on  how we are so dependent on the media to provide us with all the information and how we frame opinions and ideas based on that. It is a good read --> 10 myths about Afghanistan | World news | The Guardian:

iOS Vs Android? -- Tablet wars

From the reports far and wide, looks like iOS through iPad is winning hands down in the tablet wars. It is now more than 2 years since the first iPad and there is still not a single worthy tablet to give iOS a stiff competition in the tablet landscape. Though Android seems to be the staple OS in all these tablets, none of these match the user experience focussed iPad, not a single company could dent Apple's march into the living room, not Samsung, not RIM nor HP. There have been tablets from startups like Fusion Grid but can they survive in this intense competition? I think the fight is so intense that they have to really provide a totally out of the world-magic feature to capture the public's imagination. Well, with so many existing 'also-runs' in this race, it is being speculated Amazon is coming up with a low end Kindle tablet and this is touted to give iPad a run for its money.

An interesting observation, there are only two major OSs in the market and one continues to dominate the user's imagination while the other OS (Android), so easily customizable and open, is still not gaining market traction. Is this a marketing gimmick that Apple is able to promote their products better and able to convince the users that it is a far better choice than any other tablet? Even the tech pundits laud the iPad when reviewing any other tablet and Apple's tablet seem to be the benchmark for any new tablet that is into the market. Should we say a company which does its own hardware and software fare better in understanding the user preferences than disparate segments in the industry assembling components to present the user with a gadget?

Charlie sheen is Roasting others!!!!!

I missed the 'The Roast of Charlie Sheen' on monday and today, I got to watch it on the comedy central's website. WOW! WOW! WOW! this should be one of the best stand-up performance I have seen in the recent times and I am really happy Comedy central had the entire uncut version. I couldn't embed the video here so had no other choice other than paste the link.

http://watch.thecomedynetwork.ca/roasts-/roast-of-charlie-sheen/roast-of-charlie-sheen---uncut/

I should say William Shatner and Charlie Sheen were the best amongst everyone else. Sheen's comments on Seth should be the best (can't still stop laughing at the comment "Who is that artificial Tanned dick head?"). As Koi had mentioned in his tweets everyone took it as a sport and Sheen was awesome or should i say it was Shenius? (well according to Seth it is because of his Shenis! ;-))

Roadmap to Delhi?

Narendra Modi, the BJP poster boy, completed his 3 day fast occupying the national attention the entire weekend. Congress couldn't do much other than sit and watch this event unravel, but if you ask me, they shouldn't be unduly worried. Most of their attacks on Modi has backfired and has only increased his popularity more than anything, so they made the customary noise about Modi being communal, started a fast at a venue near Modi's fast, aligning with the opposition political dharma, but otherwise they kept quiet. So whats this stunt all about? Modi harbouring PM ambitions should be the worst kept secret in BJP, but still is this the starting point to Modi being projected as a national politician? I think so, this entire event was scripted to perfection which was very evident in the way the fast ended, a lemon juice sip from the hands of each of the community representatives. So Modi has officially thrown his hat into the PM ring.

Modi's persona as a representative of Gujarat has never been a question. His administrative skills are quite evident from the progress his state has made, it is indeed a vibrant Gujarat, how else can a state with no history in the automotive industry can now pose a challenge to Pune and Chennai. Gujarat is the most progressive state setting examples to the other states in terms of GDP and revenue and it of course ranks #1 amongst all other states in India. His vision and ability has helped Gujarat in number of ways, but the question as to how he will perform at the national level still remains. It is to be noted, so far, Modi has not voiced his opinion in any of the issues of national importance, he is still not out of the 'yet another politician' mould when it comes to issues outside Gujarat. So the nation has not seen him or assessed him at the national level, in fact, he is still considered to be a RSS side kick or a Hindutva politician. So if my guess is correct, the transformation from a local hindutva to the national secular leader will be an interesting transition and how BJP handles this entire exercise should be even more interesting. With so much infighting and no clear winner to lead them, this should be an tedious task under the assumption Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj are not going to be happy when they hear they will have to play second fiddle to Modi. Even if Modi were to emerge successful in convincing his fellow leaders, it is to be seen how well he handles the national role, it is always easy to dictate terms at your own backyard, once you are in the street, it is any one's game. One more critical point to consider is the acceptance of Modi as a leader amongst the NDA coalition partners and how BJP can convince them, there are already rumours that Nitish Kumar is the preferred PM candidate amongst the NDA partners. To early to speculate but an interesting battle whatsoever.

With BJP starting their road map to Delhi, I think Congress has a trump card in the form of Rahul Gandhi. This 2014 elections should be an interesting battle, not between BJP and Congress, but between the second rung young leaders in both the party coalitions. 

Defeat

The tour of England couldn't have ended any better, another defeat in yet another match. We have been totally deflated and battered in every form of cricket, not to mention the #1 tag we had to justify all along the tour. In a way, I think this is a good jolt back to reality after the WC 2011 victory, we were carrying ourselves like we were totally invincible but actually I don't think we really deserved the #1 tag and we were all along vulnerable to a good cricket team. For Indian cricket, this is a good sign of things to come, this will actually make the selectors and players think about the future and where do they see the Indian cricket team and themselves, respectively, in the coming years. I think the approach should be more towards grooming youngsters like Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Pujara to take the core responsibility which all along has been carried by likes of Sachin, Lax and Dravid.

I think it is time to make some tough decisions regarding the seniors in the team, we cannot indefinitely make talent wait in the sidelines without proper match practice or experience at the international level and then, when the seniors decide to leave at their own time, thrust them into the test arena. I am not trying to stir the already murky pot here, but I think our performance in England desires a lot to be improved at least at our bench strength tier.

We shouldn't stop here, as it will be sending the lambs for slaughter, I think we should start the discontinued practice of making our youngsters play county cricket like the old times. Playing Ranji and IPL is getting all the desired revenue a player wants, but I think a serious decision at the Board level to send in all the prospective players or promising players to get trained in the English conditions will prepare them for all situations. We don't want another instance where PK and Ishanth had to take one full innings to get acclimatized to the conditions before hitting their stride. This will help the bowlers and batsmen get a glimpse of conditions beyond the sub continent not to mention the improved confidence when they come across a bowler friendly surface next time.

What has been a strength this long for the Indian team has been left to rot in the recent times, I am talking about the quality of spinners we are seeing. We don't have the next big prospect beyond Harbhajan Singh and it is really hurting us when we play in foreign conditions. They are not big wicket takers when we play outside the Sub Continent, but we don't need great spinners, all we need is a quality spinner who can stem the flow of runs from one end. Any non-sub continent batsmen will definitely not feel comfortable playing spin even if it was me or you bowling lollypops from a short run up under the spinner tag.

As the postmortem of this series starts to flow in the coming weeks, I am eager to see the lessons learnt and the prospective direction of the Indian cricket. Nothing can change overnight, but still I think this is the right time to make critical decisions if we want to rule the cricket world on the field. The sad portion on this entire series was making my analogy remain true till the end.

Dravid's last ODI

If there is one cricketer who could play cricketing strokes according to the book even when the situation warrants an ugly heave over the cow corner, it could be none other than Rahul Dravid. To play straight bat even in the slog overs is something not everyone can do, not just playing strokes as prescribed in the books, he also scored runs playing it the right way. Though he has not been a regular in the blue pajamas in the recent times, he has always been an amazing player in the one day arena as well. His calm and composed presence in the middle has saved many ODIs for India. He will be thoroughly missed for his slow and steady accumulation of runs and also for the calming influence he brings to the game through his presence. Hopefully the ODI tomorrow is a perfect farwell for him. One Day cricket will definitely miss Rahul Dravid!

Are our thoughts on Steroids?

Arbitrary discussions over lunch with friends, the recent Djokovic Vs Fedex semi final match found its spot amongst the millions of other topics. The match was an amazing 5 setter evoking memories from the Wimbledon Bjorn Borg Vs John McEnroe match, though not as riveting as that one, this was equally interesting and the showman himself saved two match points to take the game away from Federer. The arguments slowly closed in on the style of play as to why 'Serve-Volley' players are now an extinct species and all the top players are now baseline players with more time spent on tweaking the angles on their return. As always, there was a discussion speculating what Sampras or Boris Becker would do when they play against Nadal or Federer or  Djokovic? But after a friendly exchange of fire, what stunned the entire table was a quick, short remark from one of my friends, he nonchalantly said "Every player on the court, be it any sports, are on steroids. What else can explain the power and length of the games today". For a moment I was shocked and I couldn't even contemplate the magnitude of the accusation, this was a very general statement I really felt offended as a sports fan in general. Tennis for instance has evolved over time and current state can be attributed to the light weighted bats, better shoes, power on the racquet, amazing physical training these folks undergo and just dismissing them  in a single statement is ridiculous. I am of the opinion, sports in general may have some blips in the form of steroids and performance enhancing drugs, but to generalize the entire player community for playing better to steroids is not acceptable. It is the adaptability to situation and coming up with innovative measures to counter the other person's strength, which has always been the way to the top and we have seen that happen with Federer and Nadal where they countered serve-volley routine with a strong baseline play with longer rallies. This can also be observed in Murray and Roddick's game (serve-volley again), where they have actually changed their style to increase their probability of winning.

I think this more to do with people's perception after the Armstrong and Agassi episode. I seriously believe it is  pure determination, skill and will power more than anything else that can make a winner out of any form of competition. The recent Nadal Vs Djokovic is a sample to that line of thought.

Contagion - A Confusion

Watched the movie "Contagion" on IMAX over the weekend after positive reviews in the print and online media. Well, to be frank, I did not understand the movie beyond the basic premise of world's reaction (the world here is The USA, as always with Hollywood movies) to a deadly virus outbreak and a visual lecture on how the CDC(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), WHO and the pharma companies react to such a situation. This could have well been an awesome 2 hour documentary had the director removed all the star cast and put in more scientific explanations as to why few things are done the way they are visualized, but the director wanted to make it a mainstream cinema and what do we have? A confusing potpourri with no definite genre and a screenplay devoid of proper story. The film has 3 parallel story lines, all linked through a common thread, the deadly virus, with no convincing plot. There are no protagonists in the movie which is a saving grace, we don't want a mad scientist shunned by the intellectual community being the world savior by the end, so credit to the director for not employing a proven blockbuster theory into his movie. The key knots that untangle the mystery in overcoming this deadly virus was not explained, literally, there was no serious explanation on how the scientist comes up with a vaccine. The scientist tested the vaccine on herself, met an infected patient to check the vaccine and "TADA" next scene every top official was talking about distributing the vaccine to the common public. Another confusion was in the form of Matt Damon, this guy is said to be immune to this deadly virus and will/can never get infected. Great. Reason? There is no explanation to that and you cannot just say his immune system is better than the rest of the population and end that premise. Throughout the movie no other person is shown immune to this virus and Matt Damon is not even described as a one in a million case! So much for being immune to a killer disease. Another confusing characterization in the movie is in the form of Jude Law, I think I will have to wait for another week before Wikipedia can update the entire plot line along with character sketch for this particular player in the story.

Being confused after a movie like Inception or The Matrix is acceptable as there is more to the basic plot that needs to be understood to appreciate the movie better. This movie is a different case altogether, I had to basically struggle hard to even understand the basic plot and its ending, forget appreciating the nuances or subtle hidden messages.

I am lucky

Due to some convoluted process in my company's pay system, I was paid 6k (Rupees, ofcourse!) extra during the month of July. The company didnt realize this until Aug end and by the time they woke up to appreciate their mistake, the Aug salary was also paid out. Now I get an email from my Finance department asking me to hot wire them the excess amount paid immediately and the mail had no other information supporting the claim. At first, I thought I will have to know the reason behind this and mailed them back asking why am I being asked to pay the company back(Surprised I would say)! They responded within hours, mind you, within hours saying there was some mistake in my leave processing and a leave which ran into LOP was earlier thought to be an EL(earned leave) along with a huge screen snapshot explaining the issue to me. They also mentioned that waiting till Sep end was not an option and this needs to be done immediately. Ideally I could have played along with the system and hot wired that amount, but I decided to play coy with them, I ignored that email for more than 2 days and yesterday my manager calls me up saying the Finance team is behind him asking him to make me pay that amount(WOW! What a strategy?), now here I realized  they are really desperate to retrieve the money back and someone's ass is on fire. So for the first time in my life, I have made an entire system nervous about what is going to happen  and believe me I am pretty excited about this. Don't get me wrong here, how often do we get a chance to make an entire system look forward to a reply or response from us when the same system otherwise takes 5 days and infinite remainders to get a query answered from us. Anyways, the battle is not over yet and I am prepared!

I think this should be one of those fantasies we all have but never happens, making the system wait for you to respond, for a mistake they have committed. Though this doesn't rank high in the list but it is still on the list. What would qualify to be a perfect Software engineer's wet dream?

• Getting the code deployed directly from your IDE into production env (too geeky)
• Making the manager work late hours while you leave early (happens some times, so not really a topper), how about engineers status checking the managers? (not convincing)

I am not able to come up with the ultimate scenario, somehow my imagination is dry(wet dream - dry imagination he he he). As always pour in your thoughts and lets see if some one can come up with the perfect S/W engineer's dream come true use case.

Sauron : Ring :: India : Win

A win that was so easy for India in the recent times suddenly seems evasive! A potential win in a cricket match can now be raised from category:'Necessity' to category:'Desperation'. What was touted to be the best contest in the recent times ended being a damp squib, with India failing to register a single win against English side in any form of cricket. But wait, I hear a passionate Indian fan within myself screaming "there are three more ODIs to account for" but who am I kidding, even if we were to win those remaining ODIs, the pride we lost on the field can never be compensated by this token victory. It took me a 'tour de LOTR' to appreciate the similarities between the army of Mordor and the Indian team. 

• Both the captains are desperate to achieve the single coveted title
• Sauron lost Nazgul and King of Angmar early in the battle; Zaheer limped out after 3 overs and Sachin is already out of the ODI series.
• Saruman who was supposed to be helping Sauron win the battle proved useless with his army, I think he did more damage than help. Sehwag who was supposed to reinforce our ailing batting ended up scoring 41 runs in 4 innings with no particular effect.
• The Orcs who captured the Ring and Frodo were stupid enough to let it slip from their hands. We had Dravid guide us throughout the series while Ishanth, Praveen bowled well in patches, but still not enough to win a test for us.

I think I have let my obsession with LOTR get better of me, but still Sauron never had to come back and explain to his army on why he lost the ring but I think, a lot will be expected from Dhoni now. Of all these. a single question remains, 

"Is Duncan Fletcher the Gollum with his own agenda or a Gandalf guiding the fellowship to victory?"

In both the cases, I dont see victory for India!

P:S: All non LOTR fans please excuse


P:P:S: On a side note, I would have been more pleased with the novel ending had Sauron really got his ring after all the resources and power he had employed! Too bad. My ode to Sauron will be a seperate post on its own.

Rise of the planet of the Apes - A short review

I stayed loyal to my previous post about being an epitome of laziness during weekends. There was a minor aberration though, in the form of watching a movie on Monday and this happened as i was bored of being lazy and it was a long weekend. Anyways, dragged my friend along to watch the only decent movie on the screens 'Rise of the Planet of Apes' and after 2 hrs I was NOT disappointed. It was one of those bizarre science fiction idea that gets made into a movie with major portions done in CGI. I was initially under the impression that this movie was a prequel to the existing 'Planet of Apes' series, but on the contrary, this movie was intended to be a foundation for an entirely new film series.

The movie is very fresh in its idea and was not preachy like most other movies with tragic science undertones, it simply delved on the point that 'power + cognitive' abilities are the real keys to remain at the top of the food chain. The relationship between James Franco and Caesar the chimp has been portrayed well, but I still felt only a master-pet relationship exhibited there even though the director has tried hard to paint a father-son relation. The chimp's experiences at the primate sanctuary have also been well thought out and its rise from an ordinary house pet to a leader of group is too filmy, if you ask me. It did remind me of all those regional movies where the hero becomes a millionaire from zero in a 4-5min song, the only thing lacking in this movie was the background song sequence! There were lot of logical holes as with any other science fiction movies, for instance only 50 chimps were exposed to this new virus, but towards the end of the movie, there were more than 100 chimps that show thinking capacity and they follow the leader's command through . There was also a sequence where the scientists do not know that the chimp they are experimenting on is actually carrying a baby, I was like, WHAAAAAT ....? You guys didn know this all along????? and believe me, this was the pivotal point from which the story takes off. But on the whole this movie has a good screenplay and didn't make the 2 hrs long and boring.

The entire movie got me into thinking, we humans have become so complacent over our position in this earth that we have become dormant and lost all our animal instincts of survival over the generations of procreation and adaptation. We take it for granted that we will continue to rule the world, but if by some nature's freak accident if we are toppled as the rulers, I think we wont even survive a week in this world. Jurassic Park was a perfect example, it doesnt even need to be a cognitive mammal, a giant carnivore would do. Fantasy eh?