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.