The Lion is roaring once again

England wins the T20 World Cup 2010

2010-05-17T10:54:00.002+05:30

Yes finally English Team has won the world Cup. It took 35 Years and 18 attempts to get this far. No other team has taken it thus far. Even SriLanka, (a team considered to be minnows like Bangladesh is now in 1979 WC) won their first World cup in 17 Years and just their 5th attempt. Therefore this has got to be the longest test that any national fan could have for a team. The fact that it has come on the brink of so many South Africans playing for England should not take any sheen out of the triumph. After all they did undergo the normal process to get this far.

Coming back to the tournament itself, it was the most clinical triumph seen from a a cricket team excepting Australia. No cricket team has won a world cup with so much domination except Australia in recent past. The two standout performers were Kieswetter and Petersen. Petersen being a star performer and a batting stalwart, he was expected to deliver but Kieswetter was a complete novice at least as far as international audience is concerned. To deliver in such a big tournament and in such a big stage (WC Final) speaks volumes on his abilities and promise that he holds in future for England. Another one man who needs special mention is Graham Swann, England have always been known for the pacemen or swing bowlers that you rarely get to see an attacking spinner come from English soil. It is perhaps for first time in my memory that I have seen England unearth a really talented and definitely the most promising spinner that England has ever had. In fact he is arguably the best spinner presently in International circuit on current form (with all due respects to Murali, Vettori and Harbhajan).

England lost only one match in this tournament but that too only due to Duckworth Lewis method otherwise they have been very clinical right from the start. Special mention should also be made of their final match. The way they played it so professionally and not even once letting Australia to claw their way back into the match was very refreshing to see for a neutral fan. This was exactly the need of the hour for a cricket fan to see some healthy competition developing between the rival teams and more importantly to see English team showing more interest towards shorter formats. English teams in past have always had tendency to ignore shorter versions of the game)

All the English fans should be rejoicing this victory and hoping for a similar triumph in the purer version of the game when the Ashes start later this year. I think this is a very good platform for England to defend their Ashes and to win a series in Australia after around 20 odd years. English team have all the firepower in all the departments of the game for winning Ashes series in Aussie soil and perhaps for first time in a very long time would start as favourites for the series. I sign off wishing England All the Best for Ashes.

Movie Review: 3 Idiots

2010-01-15T10:13:00.006+05:30

Well I was very lucky to get hold of a movie ticket to this movie for almost first day first show (actually it was second day). The reasons were obviously Aamir and Hirani. Both of them haven’t delivered a flop or a dud at box office for a very long time. I knew the perfectionist that Aamir and the entertainer that Hirani is, this movie is sure to be engrossing if not fulfilling. I have to say that I was more than happy with the outcome of the movie. It was natural, soft and last but not least touching.

The Movie started in all too familiar way of a search for a person. It is not uncommon in Hindi cinema to search for a person. But the difference here in was not the search component but the person they were searching was quite different from any normal person. Well the name itself was very different Ranchoddas Shaymaldas Chajaad. This guy was not either the typical Hindi romantic hero or even the typical action Hero that we come across in each and every Hindi cinema. He was sensible, charismatic, entertaining and also very joyful character. Well I have to say that Aamir fitted in perfectly into this role and it didn’t seem odd at all that a forty plus person was playing a college student.

The other characters in this movie are also equally contributing and make a difference to the overall feel of the movie. The work of Sharman Joshi and Madhavan from RDB fame was expected to be good but what caught everyone the most attention and also the real surprise component in this movie was Chatur character. He was well suited to his character and made everyone in the theater to laugh his heart out. His Balatkar scene and his atypical Hindi accent were all the more good moments of the movie. The scene where Chatur impresses the most is when he reminds Madhavan and Sharman of the oath that he took of revenge and here he is delivering a perfect kickback. It sounded too childish and laughable but to think of it that is how a normal elite student of a premium institutes pit against each other nowadays. It is childish for us but that is the dirty world out there in those premium institutes.

The theme of the movie is very much coherent with the Taarae Zameen Par and the script of the Movie also had the feel of Munnabhai part one. The difference was the delivery of the whole package by different character with different story, screenplay and direction. The Movie is sure to be loved at first shot by everyone and may be people will not mind spending some more on the repeat viewing too. It is already breaking Sholay records and looks like becoming the all time favorite of Hindi cinema. Even then this Movie had certain shortcomings which needed to be addressed like for example not everyone will be as successful as Madhavan’s character if he goes away from the prescribed path. One example could be the US where every person has the maximum freedom that one can actually wish to have and you now have US president requesting his people to concentrate on Science and Maths. Well in a country like India it becomes doubly difficult to cross the paths.

Kareena Kappor did not have much to do in this Movie and it seemed more of a small role for her and Boman Irani’s character was again like his Munnabhai part one role where he was the same strict principal albeit in a engineering school. The NASA pencil scene and Balatkar scene is something we have heard of in our emails and school jokes yet it seemed different when it was put in as a movie scene. Javed Jaffrey’s brief stint was a nice gripping moment before interval but unexpectedly he just withers away after the interval.

Music didn’t seem all that great on TV and CD players but when seen in the context of the story and script, it seemed to make the cut. “Give me some sunshine” song had a nice feelings attached to it and seemed to cut across many people’s college days. Aamir’s courage in dealing with sensitive issues like student suicides, Indian education system, youth power, crossing new bridges are positive moments of the Movie. Overall this Movie felt like a complete package of message, music, masala (pregnant scene), sentiment and some non hand fights (between Aamir and Irani).

Music Review: Blue

2009-11-15T19:29:00.004+05:30

I'm reviewing the soundtrack of the Hindi movie Blue after nearly a month of its release because unlike others I believe a musical review needs time and cannot be reviewed in an hour after listening to the songs unlike the movie which could connect to you instantly or if it doesn’t then it means you didn’t like it. Thus there is a delay in the review of this Album.

The Music director of this Album needs no introduction and movie coming from him after nearly six months gap which is long kept everyone interested. AR Rahman had a spurt of movies in a short burst namely Sakkarakatti (Tamil movie), Jaane Tu ya Jaane Na, Yuvvraaj, Ghajini, Slumdog, Delhi-6 in a span of about four months. Of late, he did not have any movies and being a fan of his, I was expecting a bit more from this. The Blue music definitely doesn’t disappoint.

The first song that I liked the most and may be the catchiest song of all is “Chiggy Wiggy”. If you listen to this number the first time, you will be instantly attracted to it than the rest of songs. The English lyrics makes a nice soothing feeling to ears and also the Hindi word coming at the mid of the song adds to its charm. Overall this song is a beautiful one but the Rahman fan always look for his melody and in “Bhoola Tujhe” we have a nice melody song. The song goes very slowly and captivates your heart as you listen to it three or four times. The USP of this song is why the review of this movie comes late as it takes time to both appreciate and enjoy this song. It also has nice visuals when watched in the theater.

The next two songs are fast paced songs in “Blue Theme” and “Fiqrana”. Both these songs are catchy numbers too and the “Blue theme” song has some amazing video to add to it. These songs are also very catchy and you feel, “Hey we are getting our value for money”. The other song “Yaar Mila tha” is actually very good too, but I do not remember seeing it in the Movie, perhaps it was edited out in the last touch.

The title song “Rehnuma” is little unique in its way as it first starts as a slow paced song and gradually picks speed that you could probably relate to this movie storyline which starts sedately to pick speed in the climax. The last song “Aaj Dil” has the AR Rahman written all over it. It’s a very neat song in its lyrics and keeps you reminding that Rahman rules as far as Indian music industry is concerned. The visuals of this song makes elderly people in your home say “we did not have this much shortage of clothes even in our freedom struggle times”.

Overall the Music of this movie is really good. It’s unique with its new techno instruments that we have not heard of before. Those who are still wavering over whether to buy this album or not, please go fast and grab a copy of this album. It’s Goddamn good!

Cricket: Five World cups in last three years

2009-11-02T12:04:00.004+05:30

Yes will you believe it, there have been five world cups in last three years and we used to think world cup comes once in four years. There have been five world cups in three years:

1) ICC Champions Trophy 2006
2) ICC Cricket World Cup 2007
3) ICC T20 World Cup 2007
4) ICC T20 World Cup 2009
5) ICC Champions Trophy 2009

ICC has become cash rich body and still it wants to milk the cash cow. Players have become fatigued and there has been same winner (Australia) on three occasions but still ICC wants to conduct T20 every 2 years, champion’s trophy every two years and world cup every four years which gives roughly 5 trophies in one rotation. If you go back little more time, there has been one world cup every year in the period 2002-2004 and 1998-2000.

In the year 1998 when Jagmohan Dalmiya (the clever business magnate) was the ICC president, he introduced this new trophy called champions trophy. The main reason given then was that even though ICC was the main governing body of the cricket game, it did not have any money in its kitty. Thus he gave birth to this idea of champions trophy every two years which would cough up so much money to make ICC self reliant in its methods and help to develop its smaller member countries.

Now when ICC is so rich, do we need to see so many global tournaments at such a fast pace. What it does in short is to take the sheen out of such tournaments and the main source of income (spectators) loses the interest in global tournaments. With the result that India was world champions only 2 years ago but still do not get the deserved attention. The reason why the tournaments of grand scale, be it Olympics, soccer world cup, European championship etc comes once in four years is to keep the general public always glued to such tournaments which in turns gives such tournaments such a huge popularity.

I think it is high time that the Champion’s trophy is scrapped and the T20 world cup gets lesser participating countries (probably six is right). This will give the spectators some open space to think and more importantly gives the winner the necessary attention. Pakistan the present T20 champions will be defending their trophy in nine months time is something totally inconceivable. This makes us to think whether making money is the ICC’s sole objective. Shouldn’t the tournament deserve the much needed respect?

Cricket: How many LOI's do we need?

2009-10-26T21:00:00.005+05:30

For those of you who have seen so much of cricket and still don’t know this term LOI, LOI stands for limited over international. It’s been about roughly three years since the first twenty twenty game was played. Since the advent of 20-20 the main question in every cricket lovers mind is whether we need two separate LOI (20-20 and 50-50) or do we need to gradually finish off 50-50. The important point here is 20-20 is still in nascent stages and is yet to fully establish itself but its attraction has been huge. It’s never been common in Indian domestic cricket to attract such huge crowds. Of course the case in point here is that there are so many foreign star in display but still people get to see almost 40% foreign players in action. If India plays say a foreign country in Indian soil it of course attracts huge crowds where we have 50% foreign representation. But the important thing to keep in mind with IPL is the winner is always an Indian team irrespective of who performs.

Anyways coming back to the central point is do we see the end of 50-50 or is it going to coexist with 20-20. Lets do some comparison between the both.

20-20:

Pros: Time, Speed of the game, boundaries, close games, evening out the teams, unpredictability

Cons: Better team need not always win, no comeback chances, too fast, one person can change the game, fielding becomes irrelevant, bowlers getting demoralized

50-50:

Pros: History, comeback chances, Better team always wins, Team game, Fielding important, bowlers get more respect.

Cons: Time, speed is too slow between 15-40 overs, predictability of the game easily, very few many nail biters, fewer boundaries.

As you can see from the list, the main pro for 20-20 game has been its speed. It’s not normal for a cricket game whether test or 50-50 to have the spectator so closely gripped to your TV screens. Yes there have been many close 50 over games but if you look at it as percentage of games played, its very low. Moreover the 50 over game gets interesting only in the last 10 overs or in its initial stages which makes it watchable for say 20% of the time then what do you do with the rest o keep the spectator interested. Spectator likes to see action and 20-20 game brings loads of it and that keeps everyone interested. Also you get lot more close games in 20-20 unlike 50-50.

50-50 has its own advantages of its very long history (including its ancient 60-60 days) but the main advantage of 50-50 over 20-20 which any cricket lover who admires its game very elaborately would be its fairness. By fairness I don’t mean the discipline here but rather the necessity that the team that played better cricket needs to win and that is more or less tru here. You could always argue that a test cricket is more correct cricket than 50-50 but that is a different debate in itself. The main argument here is that in 50-50 if you need to win a game you need to do lots of things correct whereas in 20-20 you need to do say one great innings. You could always play a commanding knock in odi but unless you bowl well you need not win. Also the bowlers get so much more respect that a batsman cannot literally close his eyes and swing its bat and still are called a hero. Well in one line “50-50 is more real cricket than 20-20”.

But we already have another format called Test cricket which will always be the cricket in its purest form and the question is do we need one “middle pure” and one “completely impure cricket”. The thing is 20-20 could never become a fixture in international calendar like 50-50. The reason for it being it’s not possible to always get a fair result. But club 20-20 games would be the most popular form of the game. Looking at the initial interest, it is possible people might show more interest in these country leagues like IPL, Champions league than say a international 50-50 games. But its interest will probably rest with club matches and may be occasional international games (World Cups). The test and 50-50 could be the fixtures in any tour calendar. What will die is probably not the 50-50 game in itself but those meaningless 50-50 tournaments we used to have in Sharjah, Malaysia, Singapore etc and also possibly the champions trophy.

Champions League: The Caribbean Flair

2009-10-26T20:57:00.005+05:30

It has been a great champion’s league and one team that has stood out in this campaign has been Trinidad & Tobago. The Caribbean flair has been at its best in this tournament. The way they have played has made people go nostalgic of their supremacy in seventies and eighties. Though twenty -twenty format doesn’t give too much ground to exhibit fast bowling action, the little bit we have seen hasn’t been that attractive and it’s more of their spin bowling that has attracted spectators to their team.

But let’s get back to their batting prowess that has kept everyone of their opposition team stunned. In the initial stages, whether it was the Deccan chargers or Somerset the thing that caught my eye in their batting was relentless hitting even when they lost continuous wickets. In the match against Somerset they were tottering at one stage due to loss of bulk wickets but they kept the run rate going and did not get bogged down at any stage. The important thing in 20-20 is not to lose momentum. Because unlike in ODI or test match where you get at least 3 to 4 comeback points for odi or even more for test matches, the 20-20 gives you none. Once you lose momentum it means the game is out of your hands. One important comparison here would be the semifinals between India and Australia in inaugural 20-20 world cup. Australia were literally cruising at one stage and just one wickets turned the tide in India’s favor and Aussies never got back into the match.

The next stage was even more interesting one when their bowling department which is their weak point was exposed to a great deal. They simply didn’t have any bowlers to restrict rampage from New South Wales openers. They were continuously hitting their way to take T&T out of finals in one innings but they were kept somewhat tight down to a reasonable total of 170. This was the perfect setting to test Windies batting flair versus Aussie bowling machines. The stage was set nicely but the main question in everyone’s mind is will the T&T batting hold its end till the target is achieved. What unfolded was something remarkable. The bloke from Trinidad called Pollard had something we hadn’t seen for long time, at least in the Common Indian Viewers context. He simply destroyed NSW bowling and did something which everyone in the world except Australia of course loves to see, the perfect Aussie demolition. We have seen umpteen batsmen in the world trying to threaten Aussie bowling but what pollard did on that special night was something totally outstanding. He not only made sure T&T won that match but he also made sure there were absolute no hiccups in achieving the target and NSW bowlers were totally stunned at the end of it. This flair just continued in the next match in this second stage against Eagles where we saw the highest score of the tournament. What T&T achieved in these two matches was very enjoyable to watch for any neutral spectator.

The next stage was semifinals and T&T was the only team out of the four teams who qualifies for the semifinal to be unbeaten. Therefore the expectations were as expected huge this time as they had gathered many more fans than their usual T&T fans. But the way they won this match against S.African champions cape cobras was again very pleasant to watch. They chased down this time an even bigger target than the NSW target but the more important point was they did it without using Pollard and Ramdin who had been their stars in other matches. This set them up for a title clash against NSW who have already had a taste of their bitter medicine.

The final was initially completely dominated by T&T bowling which seemed to have cut across the spine of the NSW batting but T&T were in for surprise as Brett Lee adopted T&T tactics of not getting bogged down by flurry of wickets and he continued to show positive intent throughout his innings. This led to a more than respectable total of 159 which they successfully defended too. What let down T&T this stage was too much of hitting and very little sensible batting. Especially Pollard’s wicket where he had just scored couple of sixes and the target was still at some distance and he needed to stay till the end. His hot at that’s stage was inexplicable. Anyways even though T&T did not win the tournament, they had won the hearts of many spectators around the world. Hope there is lot more Caribbean flair in future for us to enjoy.

Paruthiveeran: A movie of real Class

2007-04-06T00:15:00.004+05:30

I saw this movie with little high expectations thinking that its Director Ameer won't disappoint me and I should say that I got more than what I bargained for. Though the movie was very villager theme and had no real city values attached to it, I liked it. I personally did not like the rude story, rogue hero or heartless heroine. But when you consider that the amount of effort that the director has put in to each of the scene and each and every character of the movie then you cannot do anything but bow your head to this breathtaking director.

Ameer is supposed to be assitant to another great Director Bala and I personally feel he has become touch better than Bala in this movie। People talk of selva ragavan as next Mani Ratnam, I think now they should think Ameer as next Mani Ratnam. The reason is not that his direction is great but rather unique. His parallel clips (showing two different shots in same clip) show he is not afraid experimenting. Riducling fan clubs (rasigar mandram) of famous and top actors shows he is not afraid of anyone. His audacity to pick newcomers and make them act in his movie shows that he wants himself to play the hero and his story and movie to be the selling point and doesn't want to rest on hero's laurels.

Talking about the hero of the movie Karthi, he has done wonderful job. Infact Superstar Rajinikanth was surprised to hear it was his first movie and his brother Surya said that in his first movie he did no acting and this performance from his brother was impeccable. The scene where Karthi impresses the most is when he shows love for heroine. He looks so natural and his wit (nakkal) scenes with his uncle is very comical and hilarious. Heroine of the movie has proved that when given a proper character the heroines can also influence the movies. She was so good and true to her character that it seemed as if she living the character and not acting. Same goes for other actors too. The credit for that should go to the Director Ameer to bring out so much from newcomers is remarkable achievement. This is where Ameer impresses me the most and promises a lot for Tamil Cinema.

Coming back to the movie it is a must go for all village people and the city dwellers might not quite like movie and would certainly hate the climax. This means movie might be hit but will not have huge collections. It is a every critique's hit movie but am not sure how good will it be in box office. The comedy scenes are great with subtle dialogues from hero and his uncle is wonderful to watch. For first time atleast for me I saw a tamil heroine in a tamil movie having equal character as her counterpart. She was simply breathtaking with her dialogue delivery and performance. The comedian deserves a special mention for his simple yet wonderful scenes in the movie. I would love to see Ameer take a city subject with bigger moolahs and that would probably set the ball rolling for making Ameer the next Mani Ratnam.

IT IS JUST A GAME, NOT A WAR!!!!!!!!

2007-03-19T18:10:00.002+05:30

How many times and how many years and how many lives will it take to realize for our impulsive, reactive, angry, so called patriotic, intelligent, gruesome, nasty and ugly Indian and Pakistani crowd to realize its just a game and not a war. Are u guys crazy? Are u guys insane? Or are u guys plain stupid. Bob Woolmer (the Pakistani coach) died due to whatever reasons but he jus could not have beared emotional backlash that Pakistani crowds would have had in store for him. Tomorrow no foreigner would like to coach such senseless nation anymore. What is this? It is worse than anything you can imagine. You guys should learn to be bit more sensible and be bit more selfish. Yes selfish. The problem with us Indians and Pakistanis is that we are not selfish. You will never see an American fan dying for America if America loses in sports because he is selfish. You will never see Flintoff swearing an Aussie in Ashes clash because he is selfish professional. But you will see Prasad swearing at Sohail or Afridi swearing at Indians because they are not selfish.

Yes the reason is not tat we are too bad but rather we are too good. We are very emotional people. It is important to be emotional. We are unselfish people. It is important not to be selfish. We are very patriotic people. It is important to be patriotic. But the problem is we are selfish, unpatriotic, unemotional when we need to be (like in real life situations) and we are patriotic emotional and unselfish (like in this bloody game called cricket) when we do not need to be.

I have been a student of game called cricket for 16 years now. Recently I was in for a shock and deeply hurt when my so called close friend called me Pakistani!!! Then I heard of Bob Woolmer’s death and this prompted me to write this article.

Our Indian team for this World cup had so many deficiencies that it was bound to fail and not because Sachin did not score, Dravid did not stay, Ganguly had hatred for Dravid etc. Our fielding standards are so low that we just could not stand in the world arena. Moreover in not selecting Mohd Kaif, Pathan, Raina, Powar, our selection committee gave Dravid a very lame team strong on experience less on youth. It was only natural that we were going to fail in the World cup and there is no reason for us to be so disappointed.

And we have to realize that "It is just a game and not a war!!!” You guys out there got to understand this is just a game formed by clubs representing our country. Our club is BCCI. Only difference between club matches and cricket match is that u have to be Indian citizen to play for Indian club. So if tomorrow India becomes so developed and Pakistan so poor. Then India can hire players from Pakistan and make them Indian citizens and they can play for India. Yes Pakistan born Pakistani citizens can play for Indian Team. It is true and it’s a fact of life. This is a club game. They play for a club called BCCI and not country called India. The only difference is they are so called Indian citizens. So this time living in American continent, I am supporting a club called West Indies. Yes West Indies, the club called West Indies. This fortunately or unfortunately have people from Indian origins. I will support this club no matter what other guys call me, because I know am correct. Call me unpatriotic, Pakistani, Muslim terrorist, Indian traitor.

Cricket WC 2007 - Part 2

2007-03-15T02:35:00.002+05:30

As I said before am going to talk about minnows in this section and this is going to be much shorter than the other top 8.

The so called Minnows in this world cup according to their strengths and weaknesses are:
1) Bangladesh
2) Kenya
3) Zimbabwe
4) Scotland
5) Canada
6) Holland
7)Ireland
8) Bermuda

Bangladesh: I honestly think this is the best bangladesh side to have toured WC. I suppose its their third WC and I think they will be expected to be perform the best with their best team. Their best perfomance in WC was defeatin pakis in 1999 WC. I expect to them to do the same here, trounce one of the big 8's and reach super eights. Tht wud be awesome and incredible. Their main problem is with batting, their batsmen shd make more runs on the board and bowlers shd follow suit. Mashrafe Mortaza and rafique is wat bowlin wud be dependnent on and Habibul Bashar their skipper and Shariar nafees is wat battin wud depend upon.

Kenya: My fav minnows team since 1996 when they upset mighty WI. They have somethin tat none of the other minnows have. Fearless attitude. This is wat seperates kenya frm other minnows and the reason fr their so many upset wins includin impeccable WC semifinal performance in last WC. Still ICC is so god damn crappy tat they dont give them test status and even worse no odi tournaments to play for. Wat the heck is ICC doing and how will kenya improve further with this white dominated politics in ICC. Politics!!!! I hate it. I expect kenya to easily trounce england and reach super eights. Yups I expect 2 minnows bangladesh and kenya to reach super eights. Well to victor goes the spoils.
Zimbabwe: One of the weakest zimbabwean team ever to tour WC. May be weaker than even 1983 WC team. Thus I expect them to tamely exit after first round. Lots of ground work to be don and again politics is the reason, this time black dominated politics in zimbabwe. I hope they can atleast defeat Ireland.

Canada: John davidson is the name u remeber when u think of canada. His awesome battin against WI in 2003 WC. I expect them to lose all their matches but play well as they seem good outfit. Hope Anderson Cummins (former windies player) now representing canada can save them some blushes.

Scotland: Shd try to defeat Holland and learn in this WC.

Holland: A real good minnow team and played well against India in last WC and shd try to defeat scotland.
Ireland: Nothing special I know abt them. Shd try to give zimbabwe run fr their money.

Bermuda: Shd try to learn than perform.

Overall Prediction: Yups here is the overall prediction.

Super Eights:
1) Windies
2) Pakistan
3) South Africa
4) Newzealand
5) Australia
6) India
7) Kenya
8) Bangladesh

Semifinalists:
1) Windies
2) Pakistan
3) South Africa
4) Newzealand

Finalists:
1) Windies
2) Pakistan

Winners:
Windies

Let me warn u this is not astrology. Its basically a mix of my so called expert analysis(yaa I know u are better than me) and intuition ( sixth sense).

Cricket WC 2007 - Part 1

2007-03-12T20:37:00.001+05:30

In this blog, I bring to you the Cricket WC 2007 in 2 parts. First part will deal with introduction and chance for the big 8 as I like to call it. People who follow cricket know who those big 8 are. Fr others, these ar the big 8 in the cricket, viz India, Pakistan,England, Australia, Newzealand, South Africa, WestIndies and Srilanka.

This is the ninth Cricket WC in its history. So far there have been five teams that have tasted Wc success, viz WestIndies,India,Australia,Pakistan and Srilanka. England,SouthAfrica and Newzealand are yet to taste a world cup triumph. There is something in Asian teams that once they are slightly good, they win WC. Same was the case with India, Pakistan and srilanka. So tat leaves us wit only one asian team without cup success tat is bangladesh. Now I expect bangladesh to win cricket WC in the year 2019 twenty years after their ICC trophy triumph (1999) following the lankas tradition of winning the world cup(1996) after sixteen years of ICC triumph (1979). Wateva this WC is played fr first time in the land where cricket is festival time and those who admire cricket like anythin in WestIndies. Carribean brings to cricket which noone has never brought or will bring. So it will be great to see a WC there.

Now coming to the teams analysis. Lets analyze the teams one by one in the ranking which I feel is suited to them to their chance in WC according to their strengths and weakness.

1. Australia
2. South Africa
3. Newzealand
4. India
5. Pakistan
6. Srilanka
7. West Indies
8. England

Australia: Yaa they are still the worlds best whether u accept it or not. It is not because they are most talented or most disciplined. Its because they are the most complete team in the world. Though they like most teams have their weaknesses and strengths.

Strengths: Team skills is what comes first to mind when you talk of australia, if the going gets tough, australia gets tougher। Remember 99 WC, everyone said australia is finished fr this cup when they lost to pak, nzl and struggled against other teams but then inspired by steve waugh they made comeback. If it was Indian team, we wud have given up when everyone said so and never have tat steel to show the fight within and prove the distractors wrong. (Exception was 2003 Indian team). This is where aussies differ and other teams lack. Whether they are strong or not, they show they are strong and whether they are mighty or not they show they are mighty. Ponting is obvious strength in batting and rest of batting looks weak. Bowling isnt might as it used to be and fielding and team skills are their only strong point in this WC unlike previous 2 editions.

Weakness: Batting looks weak with no Martyn, Lehmann, Bevan, Steve Waugh, Mark Waugh. Hayden in not best of form. Clarke, Hussey, Hodge too new to create stability and watson too injury prone to sustain WC tornament. Hayden doesnt seem to be in his best of forms. Bowling is also weak wit abilities to allow team to chase 300 scores. Only bracken looks economical. Glenn Mcgrath looks too old and worn out to have same effect. Rest can be smashed. No warne means no spin and brad hogg isnt the best replacement. Also they had problems with keepers as gilchrist initially wanted to skip few matches and then later on decided against it which means it saved australia some blushes. There is also no experience in this side unlike previous sides like 2003 and 1999. Just no experience in middle and lower order and bowling especially. This means lots of chances fr opponents and this aussie team is most fragile since 1992 when they had first round exit.

Predictions: Very Big upset. Australia are gonna get out soon. Wont qualify fr semis. Lose badly and have lots of brickbats. Super eight exit is my prediction.

South Africa: yes they are no-1 odi side according to cricinfo but stats hide more than wat they reveal. Most of their wins have come in home soil and have struggled in subcontinent but the WC is played in carribean which resembles both their home and subcontinent. So it will depend on pitches fr them to prosper or lose.

Strengths: SA have lotsof strengths compared to australia this time around. Their bowling is quite solid as far as pace dept goes with pollock,ntini spearheading and nel, langeveldteyn, kallis supporting, they look to be a good set. Also there is telemachus to support in case of injury. Their allrounders are again strong with justin kemp, kallis and pollock making SA the best allrounder side in this WC. Batsman arent the strongest with gibbs and kallis being only 2 solid pros. Rest either lack experience or class. Prince, Devilliers are good but how good are they under pressure would be a question mark. Wicket keeper is solid in Boucher and fielding is world class.

Weakness: Their main weakness is going to be spin bowler. They have not had class spinner fr long time. I pesonally felt Nicky Boje was better option than Robin peterson that they have now. Simply there is no class and spin is somethin tat is not found even in part timers in SA. Graheme smith shd roll his arm more but tat is just not going to be enuf. Chokers tag cud come again to haunt SA. They lost in close in all their previous 4 attempts and on some other day cud have got 4 WCs by now but rather they have none. Such is the world.

Predictions: If they keep chokers tag away and hide their spin weakness they cud go all the way but its SA and its SA so my prediction is yet another sorry defeat in the semifinals where u will see smith breaking chairs.

Newzealand: This cud be the best kiwi side tat has played WC ever. I am sure kiwi can create lots of upsets here and cud go all the way this time. Their main stumbling block in past was skill. They had one or two great players but never had a set of 5 or 6 tats required fr lifting WC.

Strengths: Their main strength in bowling is Bond, Shane Bond. He is a police officer by profession but on cricket field he is a rogue killing every batsman in vicinity. He is going to be tat trump card tat cud mean a big difference fr this kiwi team. Daniel Vettori is a veteran and in vettori they have wat SA shd envy, a world class spinner. Daniel Vettori along with bond cud form wat mcgrath and warne formed fr australia in 99 WC and create upsets. In jacob oram they have a very good allrounder replacement fr chris cairns. There are also good bits and pieces players like styris, mcmillan. Their batting is their big weakness except fleming, there is no just no class in others especially with astles retirement. Keeper is damn class in Brendon mccullum. Their team skills and fielding is also world class.

Weakness: As I said before, its batting. In peter fulton, mason and vincent they have wat I term inexperience and highly fragile batting order. This cud backfire as a team which has good pace bowling team like idnia, australia or pakistan can ran through their battin in no time. Their lower middle order and lower order is good but it cud jus not enuf to compensate highly fragile batting.
Pace bowling is good with james franklin as good support fr bond and tuffey.

Predictions: I expect this kiwi team to repeat wat they are so famous fr, Semifinalists. They were semifinalists in the year 1975,1979,1992,1999. Super sixer in 2003.

India: Arguably the best talented side in this world cup. Does tat mean India is goin to win this W, ofcourse not. Infact I analyzed this idnian team in detail in my previous post so let me keep it short and crisp here. We are goin to have super eight exit.

Strengths: As I have said in my previous article, experience is our strength in batting. In sachin,sourav and dravid we have 3 world class batsman which none of the other teams in teh world have. In yuvraj,dhoni,sehwag we have 3 most talented young upcoming brigade in teh world. In robin uthapppa we have one of the most excitin prospect. In kumble and harbhajan we have the best spin bowling option in this WC. In zaheer, pathan,munaf, agarkar and sreesanth we have the best pace bowling set in this WC. in dhoni we have the best keepr batsman in the world at the moment arguably fightin with gilchrist who has gone past his prime.

Weakness: Well as I have said before fielding and team skills. In both India and pakistan its well known that there are things tat run deep down in them like jealousy, favouritism, power houses, cheating etc. With two former skippers in ganguly and sachin, dravid has to make sure tat there is no seperate groups formin in mid of WC. In favourin Dinesh karthick and sehwag over others like laxman,kaif,gambhir or dinesh mongia etc. He has sent a strong message tat he likes these players over others and believes they can deliver better. In not selectin powar he has again shown tat he will take wat he wants even if u perform super consistent. Also droppin kaif when he is in form, givin him chance when everyone is failing and then not givin him chance in sucontinent where pitches are flat. Playin him against aussies and if he perform well against them then drop him. He has shown he can be a chameleon and make media feel kaif deserved to be dropped. Dravid is very cunny and gets done things by using brain rather than words like dada who did things more openly and always used words and not brains. Also his usage of pathan is the worst ever seen, first pathan does well wit ball and then wit bat. Then dravid makes him regular 3. Its only natural his bowling will go down and now dravid uses this and says 'pathan go back play ranjis'. I suppose pathan and kaif shd get best support frm captain coz they are rare species in indian team. A allrounder and fielder. When was last time we had a good fielder let alone great. It was azharuddin,jadeja,robin singh but they were good but kaif is great, unsee ever before in asian circuit let alone indian. If SA wit all their best fielders can still have jonty as a specialist fielder, not a specialist bowler or batsman. Why cant India with all their mediocre fielders and mediocre runners have one specialist fielder in kaif. Pathetic!!! I have all the respect fr dravid fr his batting and commitment but as a skipper he has done things which is downtrodden politics.

Predicitions: If the game was played in paper India will win this WC 3 times again and again. But unfortunately its played in cricket field and we will have a shocking super eight exit after excellent start.

Pakistan: With shoaib akhthar and mohd asif missing this WC due to things tat look much bigger than juz minor injury, pakis have the work cut out. (u know they dropped him coz they don want asif and akhthar coming back afer failed dope test). Actually it cud be blessin in disguise as it wud mean they are weaker which fr normal teams its a bad sign but fr a team like india or pakistan its a good sign. It means they will be more united and cud juz spring in a surprise this WC.

Strength: Their strength is their batting. With inzy, yousuf and younis they have solid middle order. They have attackers in afridi,kamran akmal. Also they have good allrounders in odi format in afridi, akmal and shoaib malik. They do miss razzaq badly and he cud have made this team even stronger. Their lower order is quite okk thouh none of the specialist have any great talents with bat. Their pace bowling is juz decent wit umar gul,anjum,naved and yasir. There spin is led by danish and supported by shoaib and afridi which is also no great especially considerin danish lack of odi experience. Also surprisingly pakis are more united than ever under leadership of inzy and cud have good team skills.

Weakness: Their main weakness is in fielding dept with no specialist fielders they have big gap wit other teams. Their pace and spin bowlin isnt all great as well.

Predictions: I think they mite win this WC if they peak at right time coz they juz have correct ingredients but havin said tat u never know it cud juz backfire if inzy gets injured as he is bonding player and pakis cud be all splits again without him. More correct prediction cud be finalists or winners.But I think tey will reach semifinals fr sure.

SriLanka: This lankan team is good team under able leadership of jayawardene but they also have good set of weakness which cud expose them. Sanath jayasuriya cud just hope to add another cup to his tally before biddin a final goodbye.

Strengths: Sanath provides a good openin option in battin along wit sangakkara, atapattu and jayawardene. The comeback man arnold cud do somethin special in this WC. Basically they have some problems tat needs to be sorted out in battin as they lack experience and class except the top 4. Basically their lower middle order is weak and needs arnold to do well like he used to do in past. They have good allrounder in farvez maharoof and vaas is also good lower order batsman but no great class in them. In malinga they have fiepower in pace bowling and mutthiah gives the world class spinner to lanka. Their fieldin is decent and best in Asian teams as it has always been.

Weakness: Basically as I said before lower middle order, bowling isnt tat good except vass and murali.

Predictions: I think a super eight exit or may be bangladesh can send them packing first round.

West Indies: This west indies team is special and is much better than 2003 or 1999 team whcih cudnt qualify super sixes. They are good not coz they suddenly have all class players but they are playin well as a team and gelling together well as it cud be seen in the recent ICC champions trophy.

Strengths: Their strength is their batting in gayle, sarwan,chanderpaul, lara, samuels and bravo, they have amazing talent in batting. Their keeper batsman ramdin is also okk. In lower order in bradshaw, he provides good support. Taylor is a good fast bowler along wit powell. Economical bradshaw and good set of fielders.

Weakness: One day they cud be tigers, other day they cud turn croppers in batting and there bowling can be taken to places many a time.

predictions: I predict a westindies triumph in this cricket WC 2007. Windies are gonna lift this WC and windies are the team I will be routin fr in this WC. Fr everyone else hostin is a burden, fr windies it comes naturally. Lara will play his skin out. Other will just follow him. At the end of it all I see brian lara liftin this cricket WC 2007. My prediction is

England: The team tat u wud have said has no chance, has some chance because it did well against aussie in australia but was it england performing well or was it australia depletin will be known in this WC based on the both team performances. I personally feel it is aussie depletin and its end of an era fr this australian team like windies team of past.

Strengths: Their strength is the allrounder in flintoff who doesnt need to share the burden of captaincy after vaughans return and pieterson who provides tat charisma and flair which is very much unengland like except botham and flintoff. In paul collingwood they have a fighter. But except flintoff, collingwood, pieterson and andrew strauss to an extent rest of batting literally su***. With no trescothick or nick knight their openers are too weak and inexperienced and also ian bell doesnt seem tat much an odi batsman and everyone knows odi battin isnt vaughan's repertoire.

Weakness: Their bowling isnt world class wit james anderson supposedly leadin a pack of newbies. Paul nixon hasnt proved much as a keeper as well. Monty panesar is a good spin option but how good will he be in high pressure odis is again a big question mark. In simple words they just arent a complete team except 3 or 4 world class players and cud struggle.

Predictions: A simple super eight exit or may be a even harsher first round exit if kenya can spring in a surprise.

Review of Guru

2007-03-07T19:08:00.000+05:30

Mmmmm wat a heck of movie it was, once again from the guru of directors Mani Ratnam. I know its not a mega hit, just a hit or may be even lesser according to bollywood sources which are nothing but crap accordin to me. Otheriwse how else can u explain mega super duper hits for films of real sub standard quality compared to guru in KKKG, Krishh, Dhoom-2, Don etc. Please gimme a break, these movies are not even 5% of wat Guru is. And Mani is like 100 times better director than karan johar, nikhil advani, farhan akhthar put together. They have loads to learn frm Mani. Just explains the politics in bollywood industry. They just dont wanna another southie there. Already AR Rahman is the best music director, now they cant stand mani being called the best director. Wat makes it best is both are frm my state and boyyy we tamilians shd be real proud of these 2 jewels frm tamilnadu.

Coming back to movie, could mani have done better? I dont think so. Everything was perfect. Dialogues, characterization, cinematography, music, background score etc. Few songs seemed out fo place but u cant do without songs is a fact of life in bollywood or Kollywood. I havent seen a better movie in bollywood fr like long time. This movie was better than yuva fr the message and execution was more subtle. Abhishek accordin to me acted fr the second time in his career after yuva. Aishwarya didnt have much role except climax when she speaks fr abhishek. I am too small to comment on other people in teh movie. They are just god level. Whether it be music, cinematography, choreography, direction, screenplay, story etc.

Then why isnt this movie super duper hit? Well as far as my friends go, all of them loved it except may be climax or ending of the movie. Okk still this shd make huge bucks but unfortunately as shown in teh movie itself, the big players (read yash raj, yash johar etc) dont want a common man frm south to make big in bollywood. They know they will go bankrupt in 5 years time. Such is the politics in bollywood tat mani has to suffer due to it.

Now abt climax, ppl say abhishek shd have been punished. Guysss wake up wake up plzzzz. When will indians realize there are no white and no black people in the world. Everyone is gray. Only the shades of gray vary. One guy cud be darker gray, one guy cud be lighter gray but noone is white or black. Abhishek was medium gray. He wasnt dark gray by any chance. Yes he cheated the govt and made millions of money but who is to blame fr tat. The govt itself which never supports a middle class or lower class and is always obsessed with upper class people then how cud he make big. Again He cheated govt, not people. Infact people made huge money frm him thro stocks. Now when middle class start gettin money, wat shd govt do, close his industry and let everyone suffer. Coz if industry is closed then its not abhishek who loses money, its all his share holders which includes countless middle class families. Rather govt fined him like 63 lakhs crores i suppose and let him free. Amazin decision and three hurrays to abhi fr convincin the judge with his 4.5 mins speech. Again 0.5 mins profit.

Basically I loved this characterof abhishek, wat india really need is 1000's of abhishek whoc dont make profit only fr them but fr lakhs of ppl trustin him. Its amazing character. Ppl say he cheated he cheated, who doesnt. When ur mom said sleep otherwise some ghost will come and eat u, she was cheatin u, when ur boss said wait two more months u will get promotion, he was cheatin u. When politician said i will give roti kapda makaan he was cheatin voters. When Abhisheksaid he will make profit to his shareholders, he didnt cheat. He didnt smuggle heroin or ganja, he didnt kill people at his will, he didnt bribe a honest person. Infact till end he respected his godfather mithun. Awesome.

Yaa I know there is an analogy in this movieto a real character which mani is known to hide as ever. Like he did with his tamil movie iruvar. Wateva it doesnt matter.As they say in hindi song. Samajne wale samaj rahe hai, jo na samje woh anari hai. Thus I sign off with this hindi song, see u soon.

Indian Cricket Team for WC 2007

2007-02-26T20:32:00.000+05:30

Well here goes my article after a long time and its on my fav sport cricket. Well as you guys know the excitement of Cricket WC(World Cup) 2007 is surrounding everyone, I thought why not write somethin on Indian Cricket Team fr the WC.

First heres the team:

Opening Batsmen: Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Virendar Sehwag, Robin Uthappa

Middle Order: Rahul Dravid (Captain), Yuvraj Singh, Sachin Tendulkar, Virendar Sehwag, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Dinesh Karthick

All Rounders: Irfan Pathan, Virender Sehwag, Mahendra Singh Dhoni

Wicket Keepers: Dinesh Karthick, Mahendra Singh Dhoni

Fast Bowlers: Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar, Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel, Sreesanth

Spinners: Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh

Fielders: Yuvraj Singh, Ajit Agarkar, Dinesh Karthick

Now there are only fifteen players in the team. Dont get confused as I have some players who qualify for more than one position. Now I will comment on this selection one by one in the order I have written them.

Opening Batsmen:
Indian opening batsmen are Worlds best, there are no two ways about it. You wont get any better. On one hand you have the best odi batsman Sachin with 40 tons, on other hand you have ganguly who is arguably second best odi batsman in the world then sehwag on his day is the most destructive odi batsman and uthappa is what sehwag was 6 years ago. In simple words this is the best and it doesnt get bigger than this. Full marks to this for the selection team and India should be proud of this. I will rate our opening batsman 9 on 10.
Rating: 9/10

Middle Order:
The middle order isnt the worlds best but is definitely one of the more solid ones in the world. Leading the middle order would be Rahul Dravid with his impeccable stokes and his calm poise. I think dravid is the backbone of the middle order. If grapevine is to believed he is gonna bat at no-5 which I feel is perfect for him with our array of batsman. Yuvraj singh is a gifted batsman and his calm attitude could help us as well. Sachin is going to mostly bat in middle order if we go by recent matches. Sehwag in middle order could also be handy in some situations. Dhoni has won us many matches and could surely be another one to watch out for. But now the weakness, except yuvraj and to some extent I suppose Dravid none of them are good runner between wickets. In simple words pathetic. They make 3s into twos, twos into ones. As they say only indians can do it. Most of Indian spectators when we lose a close match, blame a one bad ball by a bowler or a last minute dropped catch or last minute bad decision by a skipper. But actual reason for most of our odi losses are not these. Its this running between wickets. Now if I remember little, there was one priceless player called Mohd Kaif who unfortunately doesnt seem to be in good books of Chappell and dravid plans. Can there be any better runner between wickets and for a team like India who have all these pathetic runners whom I dont want to name but they are so they are needs Kaif badly in this middle order. And this is what makes this middle order much weaker than it is stats. Thus my rating is bit low for them.
Rating: 7/10

All Rounders:
Do we have something called as allrounder? Oh we never did for like past 10 years and all we had atmost were batsman like sachin, jadeja, sehwag, ganguly, yuvraj etc trying to fill in tat 5th bowler slot. Still there are sehwag, sachin, yuvraj, ganguly to do the needful with sehwag being the best among them for his ability to bowl at death. Who can forget his impeccable bowling at death against SA at ICC Champions trophy 2002. Now there was one guy touted as next kapil Dev and still possess excellent average in both bowling and batting. Then why isnt he the next big star in the team but rather is fighting for his place. Frankly speaking chappel and dravid are hellbent on destroying his career, he was a bowler who can bat a lot better than traditional indian bowlers. He started as bowler with excellent form then played some good innings with bat then Mr Chappel and Mr Dravid say you should bat at no-3. What does pathan do, he bats lot better but his bowling takes a dip then Mr Chappel and Dravid say you were a bowler who can bat a bit and thus eventhough your batting average is ecellent your bowling su*** so get out of the team and go play ranji trophy cricket. Boyyy I call this cheating. Either you call him a batsman or a bowler or aallrounder. Basman bats at 1-6. Allrounder at 7, bowler at 8-11. If he is batting 1-6 then he is a batsman who can bowl a bit and can have real bad days.. If he bats 7 he is supposed to do both. If he bats 8-11 then he is a bowler whom you shouldnt ask if he doesnt bat. I hope chappel and dravid go back to ranji trophy and learn their lessons and then think about teaching pathan. Seriously they need it more than pathan. Actually we have good set of allrounders but our management makes it worse than it is. Thus my rating is 6 for this.
Rating:6/10

Wicket Keepers:
This could a quiz question for the WC 2007. Which is the only team in teh WC which has two specialist keepers? Answer India, Correct answer!!! and you win cash prize of 1 lakh ruppes and free ticket to India vs Srilanka match in the WC 2007. Seriously why do we need two keepers coz Mr Dravid doesnt need to keep for even one match. Being captain, cant he even do this small thing. If at all dhoni gets injured then karthick can reach carribean in 3-4 days which means losing one match which could be filled in by dravid. Thus this points to a question why do we need two keepers. Coz Mr Dravid likes Dinesh Karthick. Come on man gimme a break. If you say that you selected karthick as a middle order batsman then again kaif with his skillset is much better option than karthick. Dhonis keeping is decent and his batting extraordinary. But having two keepers mean I have to reduce the rating by one point and give it 7 instead of 8.
Rating: 7/10

Fast Bowlers:
Seriously I feel this set of fast bowlers are the best India has ever had in the world cricket in past 15 years. I have followed Indian cricket team for past fifteen years and seriously its only off late that I can proudly say that we have great fast bowlers. On one hand we have the great upcoming swing bowler Pathan then we have zaheer who with his experience is damn good. And now I want to dig a little on Indian media. The Indian media highlights zaheers WC 2003 as his performance in the finals, its another maater tht none of them bowled well tat day and only he gets highlighted. But why Mr Media do you forget he was Indias highest wicket taker in WC 2003 and he was the best in the show overall. I call it ridiculous. Jdge him by overall performance and not just one match. Also Munaf patel is good upcoming fast bowler along with sreesanth. Ajit Agarkar with his so called all rounding abilities still gets to find a place in the team though I seriously dont know when will he ever make it permanent. He has been around for nearly 10 years now and still is 2nd or 3rd fast bowler and isnt leading paceman. In indian terms this fast bowling set deserves 10/10 fr its sheer ability but as am talking relative and overall, I will give it 8/10. Not to forget we were the best set of fast bowler in last WC 2003 too. Nehra, zaheer and srinath were excellent. But I think this set is more durable with munaf and sreesanth as youngsters.
Rating: 8/10

Spinners:
Again this is one of the best set we have ever got. One with so much experience behind his name that he has done it all seen it all in Anil Kumble and another a really established spinner and the best hope for future in Harbhajan Singh. Seriously cant think of any better combination in any other team but I think we could have done with Ramesh Powar as well which would have given us more options with his batting abilities and also his form. I would have dropped a fast Bowler for it probably sreesanth who doesnt yet fit into odi scheme. But what it is what it is. So we gotta live with this two legends and I give them 7.5 coz though they are most talented in the world, they have done anything special of late.
Ratings: 7.5/10

Fielders:
Everone knows it we have the worst fielding set in the world may be along with pakistan. Then of late we had good set with people like kaif,yuvraj and raina. Now only one remains who is also not 100% fit. Other two are dropped for I dont know what. Raina is bit understandable as he is youngster and needs some time in ranji trophy but I would have had kaif in my team anyday. People say about his batting ability but what about his running between wickets, runs saved and his continuous encouragement. Please gimme a break with your selection, you couldnt seriously have told him to go back and correct your technique in ranjis. Please he has seen it all and been for more than 7 years that his strength and weakness are well known and who doesnt have weakness. Everyone has it. If you were to believe me, even sachin does. Sachin cannot score bundaries when is 85-100 even when he has 40+ tons and its a fact. With all this I would have had kaif for dinesh karthick anyday. Now with the set we have, one of the worstwe had in recent times. Why cant people remember it was kaif who instigated the collapse of eng vs ind in tht WC 2003 match and who knows if tat runout would have been affected eng could have won tht match and our whole WC 2003 could have been different. Thus with just one good fielder who is also not 100% fit, I will give it 4/10.
Rating: 4/10

Overall:
Overall our team is very good on paper and will win WC 3 times in a row but unfortunately cricket is not played on paper and is played on something called as cricket field and will require every other thing like strategy,captaincy,fielding,running between wickets, pressure, team skills etc to name a few and all this couts fr 50% and skillset counts fr 50%. With even our strong skillset even if we get 50/50. Our other abstract factors are so bad tat we mite just not do too well. My prediction for this team get to super eights and struggle to get into semis by losing very closely. Also this would have been my team which would have atleast qualified semis:

Dravid
Sachin
Ganguly
Yuvraj
Robin Uthappa
Sehwag
Kaif
dhoni
pathan
powar
kumble
harbhajan
zaheer
agarkar
munaf

two changes frm present team:
1) Kaif fr karthick
2) powar fr sreesanth

Its been a while

2007-02-25T06:33:00.000+05:30

Yaa its been about 6 months since I last blogged but I think i might be blogging more now. So just informing guys and gals if u are interested u can watch fr some interstin articles frm lomi once again.

3 Months and its been awesome blogging

2006-08-28T03:10:00.000+05:30

Though I have written loads in my blog and have enjoyed every bit of it, I have also felt down at times, when ppl u know and befriend cannot simply respect ur standpoint. Its alright to be against ur viewpoint but showing hatred to u fr ur viewpoint doesnt seem justified. I have as much as possible never tried to hurt any community or anyone in particular though same cannot be said abt others towards me in this bloggin episode of mine.

Wateva I have been happy with the response frm most of them, friends reltives etc. I dont know how much I will be able to blog with hectic fall sem startin tomm. Till then see ya.

Italy - The World Champions

2006-07-10T23:04:00.000+05:30

Yes after more than a months action, it is Italy that is crowned for the fourth time as teh world champions. It was truly a great moment for Italian football which many predicted is on downtrend after its unceremonious exit in second round of teh last world cup. But in this world cup they came with purpose and with three draws and four wins and conceding just 2 goals in the whole tournament, they more than just deserved this championship title.

My favs and my bet fr title win Argentina didnt lose any match yet were eleiminated by penalty shootout by hosts Germany. Definitely one of teh most talented sides of this world cup, Argentina surely have great chance in the next world cup. Brazil disappointed by losing in quarters versus France yet it was one off day that unforunately costs them yet another world cup.

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France definitely deserves a special mention in this world cup for their spirited comeback after all of them gave hope after their disappointing start to teh tournament but it was once again Zidane who proved that he can take the burden of france on his shoulders and take them as far as finals when a second round exit would have been what many expected from them. It was something special once again from zidane after 98 WC and he deserved his golden Ball award. Though also we shdnt forget his unwanted lose of temper in dying minutes of crucicial finals match it was somethin expecte dof zidane who by nature is very short tempered. If people blame him for the defeat in finals, people shd rember it was this very character tht was essential or teh difference between france finishing second or exiting in second round. Unfortunately for france this weakness or strength of zidane was exploied by clever strategists Italy.

Anyhow it was awesome one month of action and Italy turns winners in what was a very intersting WC. Sure next world cup would bring in more start more fanfare etc but that is long way to go, till then people can forget football as is the case with most of us especially who dont follow club matches and like watching international action rather.

Rahul Dravid - The Wall

2006-07-03T21:00:00.000+05:30

Rahul Dravid - The Wall. Yes he is truly a wall who is so difficult to dislodge and would require some real character stuff from bowlers to get him out. One of the greatest Indian batsman of all time and the present No-1 Test Batsman in India and ofcourse one of the best in the world and also the present captain of the Indian one day and Test team. This man has done it all in his career spanning exactly a decade now.

When he started people admired his technical correctness and were quick to predict a long term in Indian cricket which ofcourse was proved little later after his one day debut in his debut test against England at Lords. He along with Ganguly formed a formidable pair and probably were instrumental in ending the careers of gifted players like Sanjay Manjrekar and Vinod Kambli. Indian team those times were very strong in home but very weak in away games which was proved time and again. Under Azharuddins reign India reached new levels in Test cricket by defeating a formidable English side 3-0 at home, winnning lankans at home and away. Also not to forget their many one day triumphs during those period. But the biggest concern was their performance abroab, especially outside subcontinent. Indian couldnt defeat the debutant sides like Zimbabwe or reentry side like South Africa in their away series. They also tasted big defeats in Australia and disastrous WC 1992. Though India did well to reach semis in WC 96, much more was expected from the home side and also it was at home.

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In this backdrop and after a humiliating semifinal defeat against Sri lanka, India decided to completely revamp their side. Players like Sanjay Manjrekar, Vinod Kambli, Manoj Prabhakar were all dropped from the side. Though Azhar was retained, he had lost much of his charisma by then and for the English tour India decided to blood in two young budding cricketers Dravid and Ganguly. Though Sachin had made his stand, the Indian batting looked very weak and playing their old side they were beaten and bruised in the first test with only Sachin battling the grounds. People had become restless and were accusing fingers and in this backdrop emerged two icons of which one (Ganguy) went on to become Indias most succesful captain, one of the all time best odi batsman and the most valuable cricketer India has produced. The other Rahul Dravid our article hero is the present skipper of the Indian team and all teh attributes I have given him earlier.

Dravid started the transition and probably he made more difference to Indian test team than did sachin, Sachin was more charismatic, poster boy character whereas Dravid was more result oriented. Though you dont see so many media hailing Dravid, he has better test average tahn Sachin, better captaincy record tahn sachin, better temperament tahn sachin, has won more matches than sachin. Last but not the least his match and series winning performance in the recently concluded West Indies tour proved it once again.

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Dravids highligh in his test career has been his never say die attitude, his performance speaks volumes for his grand career. Who can forget his epic knock og 181 in Kolkata with laxma against Invisible aussie attack. Or his double hundred in series winning match against Pakistan. What about his two hundred in same test match record or his impeccable test average which I suppose is best for any Indian cricketer. Or his record of most double hundreds - 5, by an Indian. Right from his debut at Lords he has achieved things continuously and of you want me to pick one Indian cricketer for thsi great Indian Rennaissance in Test cricket in away games it would be rahul Dravid. Also he is quickest to 9000 test runs and am sure he has lots more to offer, I would put my money on dravid than sachin for most test runs in the world.

Also with exit of ganguly and sachin spending more time off field tahn on lately due to injuries, he has become the pivotal rock around which the Indian batting revolves. He has test average of 65 in away games, boy he is so gifted. Sadly no I think its hardwrk unlike Sachin for whiom things come so easily I think Dravid has put lots more efforts and deserves every bit of his achievements.

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His one day record is nothing to shy away from. though initially he was criticized for being too slow for one day games, he proved very quickly taht he can adjust very well to this format as well by hitting string of high scores in one day circuit. Who can forget that he was the highest run getter in 1999 Wc or his prolific form in NZ tour of 1999. Also his commitment to the team was proved once agains when he kept wickets for India for a period of almost three years and still maintained hisgh one day average. He is instrumental in many Indian odi wins and laso his record partnership with first sourav in 1999 WC against Sl and then with sachin against NZ were also proof for his one day exploits.

In conclusion I think Dravid has been a huge difference to an Indian away batting from looking good to great. He has done more than enough to prove his claim his as one of India's greatest batsman and ofcourse as one of the most valuable cricketer India has ever produced. I salute to this great Indian cricket legend and whom if am not wrong can play another 5 years of international cricket before retirement such is his strength and he is no way towards the end and infact is at the peak of his career. Unlike sachin and ganguly who both seem to be more towards the end of their career this chap has loads of cricket left in him and which ofcourse means India can see loads of away victories from him. Until next time this is lomi signing off.

Review of 36 China Town

2006-06-29T18:58:00.000+05:30

Watched this movie 2 weeks ago and was bit disappointed as abbas-mustan fan but happy overall to see a good hindi film. Especially seeing so many crappy movies released so tirelessly in hindi, this one was far better proposition to those. But the movie wasnt as gripping as abbas-mustans earlier works like humraaz, aitraaz or baazighar.

The story is pretty simple if u are used to watching thrillers which is also said to be copied from an american movie. A murder occurs, the murdere is identifies. As simple as that, thats how mystery movie works. Anyhow this movie was better in a sense that setup was different with casinos and Chinese influence etc but the other things remained same like a rich person is murdered for money ofcourse what else and then the mystery is unveiled.

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Shahid kapur is yet to give a hit and this one does give him a minor one but still has a long way to go to take a film on his own shoulders. Ofcourse the hero of the movie is rather Akshaye Khanna who as in his previous abbas-mustan movies gives a stellar performance. Abbas-Mustan have always dished out good movies and this one for their standards wasnt all that great but was liek a not bad performance.

Kareena kapur after her villainous role in Aitraaz was back to normal bubbly gal role which ofcourse she executed pretty well. Others like paresh rawal, johnny lever were pretty professional and went abt their task without much effort. A good performance by I suppose a debutant called Rocky in the movie. A must watch if u are fed up of those sizzly stuffs and want some substance and arent tat patriotic to watch rang de or tat yash chopra fanatic to watch Fanaa.

No-2 and No-5 rank bow out - What a day??

2006-06-23T00:55:00.000+05:30

What could be termed as the biggest upset day in the tournament, two pre match favourites in USA ranked fifth in world and czech republic ranked 2nd got eliminated in the first round of the FIFA WC. The two lower ranked teams, Ghana 48th rank and Italy 13th rank qualified. Noone in Fifa expected such a big upset considerin a huge gap in rankings tat USA and czech cud bow out so soon but tats the fate.

Seriously wat the heck are these FIFA rankings. Anyday Italy is better than US and czech and african nation are always powerhouse which is evident in this WC. Wats the meanin of these rankings i dont understand. Wateva USA and czech are ranked too high seems more sensible statement after seeing their matches tahn to say it was disappointing performances.

Anyhow such is the world, lets see for more actions in the latter matches of this WC. According to FIFA holland (3rd rank) are second favs to win the cup now and watmore Mexico third favs after these 2 big teams exits.

Sania Mirza - The Supergal.

2006-06-20T18:39:00.000+05:30

Sania Mirza the name echoes around every Indian city u go nowadays. Every lil gal in her thrid std fouth std doesnt anymore get excited to see cricket rather they see tennis. They cheer fr none other than this hyderabadi toast called sania. The excitement she has created around the country is unparalleled and never seen before in Indian women sports History. Though PT Usha did create lots of hope, it remained just tht mere hope, never translatin to victories. But this gal is diff and she sure has come to stay in the circuit.

When she started playing tennis in her young age she was as much a aspiring tennis player as u or me but the fact tat she had it in her to go all the way to grandslams and even winning few of the ATP tournament is great. What more she is the current youth icon of India, Arjuna Awardee and the role model fr so many gals in India.

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Her achievements in such a young age are enormous and she has all the time to go lot more distance. The fact wat makes her lot more diff frm wat sachin, sehwag, kapil, amritraj, leander, bhupathi or any other star has done is tat no other female sportsperson has done so much in Indian sports history and he has created a new rolemodel fr indian youth especially gls to look forward to. The fact tat she is hardly 19 makes it even more greater.

When she won the hyderabad open the support fr her tremendous and I remeber seein most of her matche sin tat tournamnet when she was simply outstanding and left most of he ropponents in disarray. I wud love to see her in action again if possible. Her forehand were so god damn strong and unlike the feeble hands of indian women tat westerners know of.

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Though there is a slight slip in her rankings, I expect her to come back with bang and probably win a grandslam which cud mark a great achievement not just fr women sport but fr the entire Indian sports History. So I end this article cheerin sania to go all the way in the upcomin wimbledon, sania Go get it!!

Who will win this Soccer WC?

2006-06-20T18:21:00.000+05:30

Heyyy its soccer season again and what more we have the world's best teams competing for ultimate glory. Brazil as usual are the favourites.

Soccer WC is special because it is combination of all continent teams and u can see nations frm every corner of the world. My personal bet would be on Argentina. I favour Argentina to win this WC. Hey I know u have other views but lets see who wins. So I predict Argentina will win this WC 2006 and get their third WC. Brazil shd travel far but I expect them to lose in the crunch.

Wateva commenting on this WC so far, its been excitin so far and the biggest early upset as in teh last WC was caused by african nation. Last time it was senegal and this time it is Ghana. I expect ghana to move to second round though u donno wat wud happen in this funny game where teams like US are ranked fifth. I seriously saw them play in 2 match es and they were slightly better than Iran. Man these rankings are crap.

Also I am very much please with african nations display as they continued their good play frm last tournament but wud like to see more of them in future than just 5 teams. European teams have been doin well as expected too. Asians team except korea have disappointed again big time. I dont understand logic behind havin 4 North and central american teams, I dont think teams like trinidad and costa rica deserve a place in WC ahead of so many good african or even european teams.

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As the Wc eneter excitin knockout rounds we will have excitin matchups and probably see the team with the best nerve than skill winnin each match. As this was evident in last WC when korea defeated both European stalwarts Spain and Italy which wasnt expected of them but such is the game that it brings out the best in u when u play in ur home turf.

I am signing off hopin to see lots more excitin matches in this WC and u also dont miss this as otherwise u will have to wait 4 years to see this action again.

Sehwag - the Most Daring

2006-06-12T19:31:00.000+05:30

Sehwag, almost a household name in every cricket loving home in India. He is the latest Big sensation to hit the cricket world and Indian cricket in particular. Ofcourse Dhoni is also there but Sehwag is more like being proven performer over a longer time. In simple words I just cant stop myself frm watchin this wonder kid slashing every bowler out of park. He has no repect fr the bowlers reputation and as he says in one of his ads, look at the ball and hit on its merit, forget abt who is bowling.

Sehwag is one of those cricketers who cud have only dreamnt of playing fr India if it was seventies or eighties when cricket was more of rich man's sports. Now with more and more rural players playin fr India, the different Indian team is in fr store. Gone are those days when Indian team meant the team with no flair except fr sachin and a set of mediocre players put together frm every corner of country to form a so called team. Now we have a team tat truly represents with players frm both city and rural side and sehwag definitely holds limelight as far as rural cricketers go.

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The thing abt sehwag as I have said in my title of post is He is the most daring. Dhoni comes a close second but sehwag harbhajan dhoni kaif yuvraj pathan are a league of their own. they are not those city type cricketers who worry abt who writes wat abt them. Also those who spend so much care in crafting their own milestones but when it comes to team, they are least bothered. Sehwag is the class of his own. I dont think any cricketr wud have guts to hit his triple century with six even when he was dismissed on 190's in the previous encounter by hittin a similar stroke. Such darin is unheard of Indian history.

Sehwags career started with everyone sayin he cud be the best one day player but as it turns out he is an average one day player but India's second best Test batsman not after sachin but after dravid., Accordin to me Sachin comes a distant fourth after dravid,sehwag and laxman. Sachin has been in horrible form of late especially in tests and sehwag has been in prolific form.

The fact I say sehwag is better batsman than sachin in tests at the moment is not just some folklore, I have stats to prove it. Sachin after 2003 WC averages 46 in tests whereas sehwag averages 56. The point is sachin has some horrible scores in the 26 tests tat he played in this period. His average is consolidated by his 241 in sydney and 248 in Dacca against bangladesh. Also he played a second fiddle 195 in multan with sehwag against pakistan. If those scores which excpet sydney innings which also was very much unsachin like are removed, his avergae will be in paltry twenties. Sachin fr sure wud admit tat this is his worst patch in tests and it must be accepted tat sehwag has capitalised a s a better batsman in this period.

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Sehwags scores in the same period are prolific. No one can forget his 309 at multan which scripted one of the finest victories fr indian team in paki soil. Also his 195 at melbourne was breathtaking. Not to forget his recent 180 in teh ongoin test against Wi. Also who can forget his match winnin 155 in chennai against aussie attack. His 164 against SA, His 173 against pak in chandigarh or his 201 against same pak in bangalore. Or his unbeliveable 254 against pak in lahore. Not to forget his debut 155 against SA. Did I just metion tat sehwag scored three double tons in this period. Also four great 150+ knocks. the thing abt sehwag is he goes on after his century which is not seen among other players.

He has been simply outstandin fr India in test and has been average in one days, overall a priceless gift fr any team with also his offspin contributin some great things. Also he is avery good death bowler in odis especially when pressure is mountin. Who will forget his contribution with ball in ICC champions trophy 2002 semifinals against SA.

But plzzz dont think him as next indian captain. he is more like tht trump card tat any team wants. He is not a skipper by nature. Which is also evident by his low average in second innings of test. As everyone knows second innings is supposed to be more pressure oriented innings. He avergaes arnd 25 in tests in second innings. So he shd remain a great player and not a skipper which I believe will destroy his career.

Adios signing off and salutes to the most daring Veeru.

353 Hits and what more can I ask for?

2006-06-06T18:49:00.000+05:30

353 hits in a day and what more can I ask for? I advertised my blog in 12, 13 groups but only buffalo univ group was so kind enud to popularize it. I am indebted to Prashant, raghuram and all others who chipped in so much fr me. Man.. I cudnt have got so many hits and popularity even with NY Times Ad.

Ppl say tht I was dickhead fr advertizing blog in group but who is complaining, I achieved my purpose. My english is so poor, who cares there were 147 unique visitors yesterday. Wow. Yahoo.com had direct 80 clicks frm their site. Boyyyy, how grateful am to these guys. Eventhough my Toefl is 293/300 and ppl in Univ at Buffalo give me grades even with my poor english, these guyz think otherwise, well who cares. Hey raghuram and prashant, keep it goin man, I cudnt have asked fr more frm u.

Also one more advice to all those UB group diehard lovers. One post of me was unwanted but u guys posted 20 odd unwanted messages, tat was the biggest joke. Also I have been in forum fr 3 years and I know its working pretty well. Either u have one admin and few mods or only one admin or no admin itself. Here in UB we have no admin itself. So it means its a free forum and anyone can post anything they want unless rebuked by admin. Then why the heck Mr X, Mr Y is so concerned abt the group. Plz mind ur own business.

Review of Pudupettai

2006-06-05T19:07:00.000+05:30

Mmmmm I saw this movie pudupettai very recently and was taken aback by the amount of sex and violence tat this movie had in store fr me. It was non stop sex and violence and violence in particular. The logic is simple now in tamil cinema unline hindi where either sex or shahrukh sells. Here in tamil cinema only sex and violence sells. Hero is gotta be a rowdy. Okkk he can be a policeman, collector, officer but he is a rowdy inside. Like vikram says in saamy movie "Naan police ille da porrikki". It seems to have settled in very well. It wasnt as if these type of movies werent there in past but nowadays I see only these types of movies in tamil. There are some really good movies frm Mani Ratnam at times but they are white dots in a black paper.

Comin back to this pudupettai movie, wat message does director wnna convey to moviegoers. Tat violence is spread in Tamilnadu. Come on selvaraghavan. U are touted as next maniratnam or wateva. But this movie of urs just proved u cant go beyond sex and violence. Though there were certain scenes where u did good job in bringing out emotions and realism, it was expected of u after ur 3 hits. In simple words u disappointed a lot of them. The scene where Dhanush kills the gang leaders bro and escapes frm 100 odd ppl defies realism. Plzzz u can do anythin in cinema but dhanush killin a person with one shot. As they say in US, u gotta be kiddin. Wateva there were no grey shades in dhanush character like selvas heroes in his previous movies. Dhanush character in this movie was dark Black, full black tat there were just no white shades in him. I mean personally I dont think a person like tat can exist. If it exists atleast he cudnt be a gang leader. My personal opinion is whteva bad be a guy, once he gets money and respect. he tries to project himself as good even if he is not good. Tats my views.

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Anyhow now comin back to recent tamil movies, wat the heck is goin on. Wher are those romantic movies, comedy movies or atleast those thrillers. Tamill cinema misses those type of directors. Someone in the calibre of Abbas Mustan who dishes out those classic thrillers now an then and makes hindi cinema different. tamil movies had those dramas as their plus point. Noone can forget the period where family movies used tod ominate tamil cinema. If u understand am referrrin, samassaram adhu minsaram. tat was heck of a movie frm Visu. But those types are very rare nowadays. Ppl just seem to be obssessed with rowdy movies in tamil.

Like I said before when a dircetor writes story wateva be the script, wateva be the role of the hero. he is rowdy fr sure. police aka rowdy. Collector aka Rowdy. may be ven student aka rowdy. Uhhhhh disgusting

Our Play Live on Google

2006-06-01T07:24:00.000+05:30

Hey guyz,
The play frm Gilli Guyz is available live on Google fr viewers. More explainations are given in the play.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3079180028511851589
This is the url and also watch out fr details to know the credits.

1000 Hits and Growing

2006-05-31T23:30:00.000+05:30

Hey,
This is to inform you that officially I have crossed 1000 hits in my website and its growing teremedously. Another happy news is tat google has added my blog in their indexing. Also the Ads tat I am advertising at the top of screen has given me One dollar in money so far fr the click there. So lots of good news I suppose and hope fr lots more frm u. Once again thanks fr all ur support and do await lots more articles frm yours truly Lomi

The Topics fr future posts

2006-05-29T22:24:00.000+05:30

Hey as a self advertisment and to keep u guys intersted, am posting topics of the posts tat I wish to write in future. This is in no necessary order and it is possible tat I will not be able to write many of them due to time constraint. Anyway these are the titles:

1) Does Islam Oppress Women?
2) A Tribute to my parents
3) Islam degrades marriage by allowing Polygamy!
4) Injustice in Indias popular MBA Forum
5) Are Brahmins Dalits of today? - asks Indian media
6) When will dalits get their rights?
7) Indian cricket team selection
8) Ganguly-Chappell Saga
9) Why Dravid eludes Indian media
10) Sachin - a poster boy frever.
11) Indian Olympic Squad - 1 medal every games
12) Paes/Bhupathi - Father of Indian Tennis
13) Indias chances in Cricket WC 2007
14) Football WC 2007
15) Islam Divorce law - The most crudest

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16) Mohd Kaif - will media ever support him?
17) Irfan Pathan - A rise from Shambles
18) Sehwag - The most Daring
19) Dhoni - The latest sensation
20) Palestine - The most rude state
21) Hockey - Is it our national sport?
22) 15% not even one National Party - What are Muslims doing?
23) kashmir - Whose state is it anyway?
24) Freedom of Speech - How far can u go?
25) Muhammad Ali - What made him accept Islam

Do write ur comments on titles and ur level of excitement in reading abt these topics. I will love knowing ur opinion.

Thanks fr all ur support

2006-05-29T22:19:00.000+05:30

Hey its been 11 days since I created this blog and I have got over 500 hits. I am happy and want ur continued support. Also dont forget to look at the comments section fr more info. Also if possible leave a comment as annonymous if u dont have blog. Leaving ur name at bottom wud help.

I want to make it clear tat all the posts are my own vies and in a free democratic country u are free to voice them. You are welcome to criticize, comment or praise my blogs. I dont mind any level or any amount of criticism as long a sits constructive and not vituperative. I have nothing against any community or ppl. I have something against some govts policies and some media bashing but I suppose am free to have them.

I wud look forward to ur continued support.

Adios.

CAT viewed as cricket game

2006-05-21T07:47:00.000+05:30

This is the article that i wrote when I was preparing fr the mother of all exams called CAT. Abt roughly Nov 2004.

Cricket : Game :: Cat : Test

Yups this is a perfect analogy. mmmm now this start a some creative post from me. plzz respond about how u like it??

First up few comparisons between cricket terms to *CAT test. they are:

Balls bowled: questions thrown at you.
Bowlers used: The various areas u are tested (QA, VA/VR, DI etc)
Type of ball: type of question (tricky, easy,medium)
Fielders : Trapping you into wrong area or lets say wrong choice in cat.
Runs : Correct answers acheived by you.
Wickets : Negative marking
Overs : The each spell of concentration (may be equivalent to single page in the cat paper)
Spinners : English section
Pacers : Maths Section
Off spinner : VA /VR
Leg spinner : RC
Right arm Fast : Pure difficult qa question
Swing Bowler : LR
Right arm medium fast : DI

The situation here is. You are chasing ofcourse. so u only bat and u don bowl. The biggest catch in this game is there is no

set target. target is decided after you play the game. The balls here are 150(i.e 150 questions). that is 25 overs. (approx 25 pages). Now this sets up the game.

Venue : Ofcourse the mecca of cricket(ur test centre ofcourse)
Time : 10:30 am to 1:00 PM
Game starts at 11:00 am (a two hour game.)

25 overs will be bowled.(i.e 150 balls or rather say questions) theres one differnce here the bowler wont wait fr the batsman. the ball just keep coming. no telling that people are moving near the sidescreen(i.e ofcourse distractions in ur test).

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Remember you play right handed always.(i.e you mark with your right hand (now how u decipher right is upto you.))
Now i will come to teh 5 bowlers in this test

1)Shoaib Akhthar ( a pure menancing fats bowler. now if u are following my post carefully. u shd have guessed akthar : QA questions)
2)Irfan Pathan (a King of swing andis ou LR questions)
3)Muralitharan (the wily fox is our VA/VR questions)
4)Shane Warne (the crafty spinner is RC questions)
5)Mcgrath (this guy is Steady and so he put his spell of DI questions on us)

Each of them can have any amount of overs. you donno the no of overs fr each or say no of balls. You don know which 2 bowlers will be combined to form one section or how many will be clubbed. This all sets fr something which is way ahead of world
challenge going to be organized by ICC next year. Now You dont represent any team. You dont have any specific wickets. You are the only batsman. There will be negative runs for every wicket you lose. Now the extent of that is unknown. Dont think easy balls means easy runs. one miscued shot and the fielders are there to catch every shot of urs.
coz here is the list of fielders in the team:

1) Ricky Ponting
2) Mohd Kaif
3) Dion Ebrahim
4) Yuvraj Singh
5) chandana

now the keeper is ofcourse Mr Gilchrist who can take any catch u think u can just edge past him fr 4 runs. (i.e ofcourse

guessing answers)

Now this is wat i make up come one guys tell me wat ya think abt it. I think is awesome. Now hows that fr creativity.

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Let me be honest here, am not too creative actually speaking but somehow came up with this idea and have crafted out this in one nite. Juz feel i have to thank rediff.com fr giving me a great platform fr trying something new. And also wanna add that am having a shot at this cricket game. (now u can say what i mean here is ofcourse test)

MS in US

2006-05-21T07:45:00.000+05:30

This is the article i wrote when i was studying in my prefinal yr of Btech and preparing fr GRE. Roughly arnd March 2004.

MS in US

So you want to do MS in US? Well then I hope that this article will be very useful to you. I actually want to bring about every procedure that has to be followed for getting into any top graduate school for doing masters in US. Well the fact that I myself haven’t been exposed to all this means that you cant just follow me as I might very well make few mistakes.

Why???? :

Well now this is the obvious question in everyone’s mind. Let me give my reasons:

Dream to pursue higher studies in the country where the latest technologies are developed or readily available. (man….how advanced are they?)

Higher standards of studies in US universities. (wonder when will I be sitting in those lecture halls)

The studies/courses are practical oriented and not just "learning by rote" studies followed in some universities in India. (if that was the case I wouldn’t be cutting classes)

Faculties in the USA are PhDs. They know their stuffs.(uhhhhh… hopefully not insulting)

To pursue higher research, USA provides the facilities for this to be possible. (One day I will find something…..)

To get the STAMP of education in USA. (hey man am a graduate from US)

To get a good high paying job.(The salary slip that I will envy)

To just get to the US by some means. (man….I wanna be there).

Where????

Ok wanna do masters in US but then there are so many schools there and which is the right one, where should I study? This is what we might be thinking now. Well at the end of this article is the NRC ranking for aerospace Engineering in 1991-1992 is given. That gives almost a rough idea of the top 32 universities in aerospace in US. Ok with this question of rankings also come another very important question which one can I afford? This is a tough one to answer but as a thumb rule we can say that public (state run) universities are cheaper than private ones. We will deal in detail about costs little later. Also climate plays an important role so after deciding the schools, it is a better idea to visit the college’s website and know in detail about other details of the college. The internet is the most powerful weapon for unlocking all the details about the college’s and of course this article was mostly framed from the information in the net.

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How????

Ok now the previous two questions were dealt with little ease but this one needs quite a lengthy answer. Well since I wouldn’t like to waste much of space wasting explaining, I rather have given the lists of things to do starting from April month of your pre-final year:

April - June (of your 3rd year):

Decide on your field(s) in which you wish to apply.

Write a draft statement of purpose/personal statement.

Visit Internet to find university links and learn more about them.

Start browsing Web sites to graduate programs and college catalogs.

Schedule the required standardized tests.

July-September:

Take standardized tests. GRE and TOEFL.

Report your scores sensibly. You will be saving $ 96.

Meet with faculty members that you know to discuss your personal statement and learn about possible programs.

Request Application Forms from graduate schools.

Start writing to faculty members of Prospective graduate schools.

Begin to develop your personal timeline for the application process.

October – November:

Based on your GRE scores determine the schools to which you plan to apply.

Finish your timeline based on each institution's deadline and financial aid deadlines.

Complete your personal statement, adjusting it to meet each application's specific needs.

Order transcripts from all post-secondary institutions (If fall term grades are expected, then check with staff in the registrar's office to see if a transcript including fall term grades can be sent in time to meet the deadlines of programs to which you are applying).

Complete application forms (First, do a draft on a photocopy of the form).

Approach your faculty members for Recommendation letters. Give your faculty all the information that they will need to write recommendations for you for each of your application schools.

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December/January:

Prepare your applications. Get your bank drafts. Report your GRE/TOEFL scores if you haven't done so earlier.

Mail applications. Even if deadlines are later, it is good to get the applications in early.

February – April:

Wait for your admissions.

Keep track of your application forms .Check your online status regularly.

If you do not get financial aid, then decide according to the situation.

If you have obtained more than one admission, try to make up your mind about which program you will join.

Reject other offers politely.

June – August:

Contact your program coordinator to get more information.

Write to your guide and learn more about his/her latest research interests.

Block your tickets early. (Shop around for a good offer!)

Shopping! Prepare to leave.

GRE/TOEFL:

These are the two exams you will have to write if you have to go to any graduate school in US. First preparing for TOEFL isn’t that tough and I will recommend you to take GRE first and take TOEFL later. The idea behind this strategy is that preparing the verbal section of GRE will itself equip to almost tackle TOEFL. The TOEFL also tests some things different from GRE like listening skills and grammar skills. Now let’s see how we deal with preparation for GRE.

Preparation for GRE:

First I will suggest few materials for preparations, they are as follows:

Barrons' Guide for the GRE - For Verbal prep only. Please buy the present edition.

CDs for computer based testing ( I would suggest Kaplan, Powerprep and Princeton Review)

Question papers, Verbal & Analytical exercises by Kaplan, Princeton, Peterson’s etc

Norman Lewis: How to build a better vocabulary & Rosenblum - These books can be used to strengthen your verbal skills.

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Now since I hope that you can work out the schedule by yourself, I am not giving much detail about how to go about your preparations. But I can tell you that at least six months of continued preparations is required for cracking the GRE. First you can start by reading a vocabulary building book like the Norman Lewis one and then slowly go about going through the word lists of Barron’s. Well it’s a hectic work going through those unheard words but then its worth that hard work. Then finally one thing which is also widely accepted in GRE is that only way to improve your scores drastically is to improve your vocabulary.

Structure of GRE:

Going through any of the books on GRE will tell you more details regarding it like the system of scoring. First I can tell you that its not a paper based test and computer adaptive test (CAT). I can tell you simply that it adapts accordingly i.e. gives you the next question depending upon how you answered the previous questions. GRE has three sections: Verbal, Quantitative and Analytical writing sections. Quantitative section is easiest of the three for us and all it requires is not to be over confident, that’s all. Verbal section is the toughest and requires all the hard work that I prescribed you earlier. Writing section is something for which you cant do much as it is inborn talent in you. The only thing you can avoid is spelling mistakes, grammatical mistakes etc Though GRE actually test you on your analyzing skills. The scores for each sections are : Verbal = 800, Quantitative = 800. Writing = 6 point scale. That doesn’t mean that writing isn’t important. All three sections scores are equally distributed. For engineering students quantitative is the most important section. Going through any of the books will give more details regarding these sections.

Conclusion:

I think that is good enough exposure for a novice at education in US. I haven’t dealt about the costs, financial aids, SOPS, recommendation letters, GRE in details etc since I suppose this being a general essay I need not be that exhaustive. Then I would like to conclude hoping that every reader of this article benefited something out of this. If anyone wants me to write another article on other particular topics of “MS in US” then it will be my pleasure to do the same.

TNPCEE saga..

2006-05-21T07:36:00.000+05:30

This article i wrote abt 1 yr ago when TNPCEE saga was really on and ppl were discussin like whether there will be TNPCEE exam at all after our great amma had done all tat usual hoolah boolah she is famous fr.

TNPCEE Saga

Mmmmm the exam fr which i broke my head and enede up getting a coveted seat in aeronautical engineering program of madras institute of tech, chennai. Man that was awesome fr me. I loved that pattern where almost every skill of urs was tested. You had to be a mugger cum hard worker to get thro that 200 marks of board exam. And it was not all, u also shd have that craftiness to get the required marks in entrance as well. Come on guys out there tell me which other entrance exam was so complete in making. I think TNPCEE testing was one such entrance exam. I scored abt 286 on 300 and was ranker around 1800's. And ofcourse i loved every bit of it.

I had no problems with it. Neither did my friend from my school or any in my city. So then why is this system being scrapped so asks any chennai lad walking down the street. The answer they get is very difficult to digest fr two reasons, one it means their uture has been toyed with by some so called politicans and also that they were not all informed abt this earlier, now thats totally unfair, brutal anddoenst deserve any justification.

Now wat does our beloved amma say, she says that it benefits rural students. Now let me talk frm rural students angle. Also let me tell u guys abt my knowledge on rural students of tamilnadu. During my TNPCEE time there was this same system but unlike last year for one special year in tamilnadu engineering entrance history there was 25% rural quota for the first as well as for the last time. This was history, as far as i remembre there was no people or student opposing this (i mean city lads) but ofcourse no city lad cud digest it. Now having said this, wat this meant was 25% of my college were rural ppl plus some more as well. Thus I have interacted this fellows and wud share my experience.

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First case, a guy whose dad is nothing but cycle pucture shop owner, he has two sons both get thro using rural quota to this prestigious institution. One was senior to me by a year(that year there was 15% rural quota) and other my set. Both get placed in well to do companies (ofcourse are earning arnd 20k per month each)

Second case, his dad a farmer, hasnt seen more than some 2 or 3k in whole now earns 22 k in MNC called IBM.

Third case, a guy whose dad isnt even alive and is now very happy earning and saving his money fr his mom.

Now these were very few of the so many cases that I did observe in my own college, there shd so many hundered cases elsewhere as well. Now at that very moment I felt these quotas were justified but then I also saw hundred cases where students struggled cudnt speak more than two words of english, studied in tamil medium schools and were struggling. They always kept disance from city lads and also many eneded up struggling to find jobs but eventually did get some job or the other.

Having said all this, people might think I side rural quota, my answer is yes and no. yes fr the moment not just in tamilnadu but also whole india and ofcourse I dont mean have it in every damn college, have it only in some top 50 engg colleges in India. Reason was ofcourse mentioned above. For a city lad an engg degree frm top rated college in country means a difference either only to him or his family whereas fr a rural quota ppl it means a difference to his whole village. Thats wat wud transform this nation into a force to reckon with and that wat we need as well. We dont need CEO's and business tycoons to be working in US rather we needto see that there is not a single soul who sleeps hungry in this country.

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But also I said NO to the question coz wat i eventually want my government to do is not to just give them quotas but build it up slowly in 5 to 10 years such that in that time, the rural students are able to beat the heck out of thsi city lads without any quotas. Give them facilities. I know thousands of rural students who didn have house to study, didn have power like u guys, didn have bed to sleep after the hard studied day. Give them these facilities plus the lecturers as well. I don say all this is not there but u know how much it is and even what is there is nothing but eyewash. Wat we need is ingle minded purpose to transform these people frm rural into something totally classy.

Ok these all might sound bit jazzy not practical but i believe its very much one and if i was given a chance to be the CM of this state that wud be the foremost idea in my mind. Coz as gandhiji said india lives in villages. Another thing is we always are selfish but tats okkkk as long as u are in ur family but once u come out u gotta think as an indian and not as a family man.

I have given loads of suggestions as well as my thoughts on this issue and now coming back to real issue, I believe if at all u wanna help rural whether its fr votes or fr real symphathy, the better system was the one which was during my year (remember there is 0% rural quota fr last 2 years as well as this year). This wud mean 25% rural ppl will face the real world and that wud also mean they will come out of their villages and face the music and understand what is what. I know a rural guy who didn know how computer looked like when he entered in first year and now he can write C programs that cud mock mocrosoft paint software. Ahhhh tats a development. I know u guys wud lose some coveted seat but my suggestion is there is more happiness in giving than taking. Also these rural quota shdnt apply to mkore than top 20 or 30 colleges otherwise there is no meaning in it. Coz tats where the real development is.

The Movies like RDB

2006-05-20T03:09:00.000+05:30

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mmmmmm saw this movie. Was another in tht great list of patriotic movies, i have seen in like say past 5 years. The list goes like this:
1)Yuva
2)Swades
3) RDB
4)Mudhalvan aka Nayak

All these movies had somethin in common if one had cared to noticed. It was all abt contemporary youth. In all these movies the hero was youth, the youth power. What the youth can achieve blah blah. mmmmmm now the interstin part, am the youth of this great nation called india so after watching all these movies do i replicate the hero of the movie. Now i watched the RDB the latest among these list and find it more appropriate especially in first half to what the youth of our nation is thinking. The youth of our nation is least bothered abt anything tat is happenin in our country like india. There is no Nayak like journalist youth (when i say no its mostly) who cares so much abt nation. There is no yuva like youth who wants to enter politics inspite of all the hoolah boolah(okkk exception is lok paritran). There is no swades like youth who gives up his fortune in a dreamland called US and comes back to serve his motherland. (again exception is lok paritran ppl).

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But teh majority if not all of our youth is pretty much like RDB first half and are least bothered abt nation and think in terms of wat nation has done to them and not in lincoln's lines of wat u have done to nation. (also pardon my sms lingo, tats how my most writings will be). They need tat spark reminiscent of teh RDB to change to youth of RDB second half

Now some recent happenings in my daily life. After watching these 4 movies, especially after RDB, I got inspired to write somethin in those lines and so struck an idea in my mind, let me make a drama of this script and present it to again the youth of nation. Difference being am studyin in US and the youth to which am showin this, atleast most of them have come to find some fortune in US and don wanna even dream abt goin back to india. So I decide to show them the situation replica of my own univ (Annai Univ). I show how the youth becomes the VC fr one day and changes the happening of univ in one day so tat the foreign ppl start comin to this univ fr studies. http://uploadfile.putfile.com/videos/13610594041.wmv Here u say glimpses of my play.

The response fr this play of mine was mixed, ofcourse there were usual great actin, great coordination etc which pleased me. I didn hear anythin in lines of great concept, but will it happen. U were jokin werent u? Most of them knew it was just play and boy they have seen so many movies in same fervour and very well accept tat these things sound good in movies but in reality are least practical.

Now i end this first real post of me wonderin is it really hypothetical and all dreamy or these things tat we see in movies is really possible??? still dreaming........

Hi there

2006-05-19T09:04:00.000+05:30

This is Asad Ahmed R doing masters in Aerospace engg at SUNY-UB, NewYork. Wanted to do blogging and have tried once or before as well but wanted to do start afresh and with a bit of difference so here am again. Basically vist me on orkut if u need more info on me and my friends and my life etc. Basically am planning to write loads and loads of stuffs, wateva comes in my mind. I suppose i have many good points and i can write on varied topics as well. So lets see how many of u like my posts coz my views are mostly controversial but i think it is quite conclusive as well.