Donate for the Tsunami victims

If you haven't had a chance to donate as yet, here are a few sources where you could donate for the Tsunami victims.


Red Cross


India Development and Relif Fund


Worldvision


p.s: I am sure there are so many other channels to do the same. I just happen to know about the above.

Kissing good-bye to tech jobs

There is an article today in the SJ Mercury News about a couple who transitioned from hi-tech jobs to managing and owning a Baskin Robbins. There are going to be a series of such stires in the newspaper over the next few days/weeks.

Return of dotcomm days?

An online dating site picked up a cool $110M in VC funding. Is this the beginning of the return of the dotcomm days? Interestingly, this announcement coincides with record highs on Wall Street.

Fewer desis want to go to grad school

A report in todays NYTimes states that there was a 28% drop in applicants to grad schools in the US from India. It's not surprising given the way the world has changed in the last few years. Wonder who is going to do the "heavy lifting" at the Univs.

Pakwan: A Shalimar clone worth visiting

Tired of the long wait at the Shalimar resturant in Fremont, California? You now have a lessser know alternative by name Pakwan, not very far from Shalimar (less than 10 minute drive on Fremont Blvd). The food and price are very similar and the quality definitely comparable. At present it is less crowded than Shalimar, mostly because most people don't know of its existence. Its opposite the Lucky Sweets on Fremont Blvd. There was previously a Malaysian/Singaporean restaurant at the same place.


Location: 41068 Fremont Boulevard, Fremont 94539

Stand up comedy

Stand up comedy among asian ethnic groups seems to gaining momentum here in the US (or maybe I am just starting to hear about it).


Check out this very funny piece from a second generation Indian about the Desis and Chinese.

The Master's Wisdom: Reading between the lines

Read Sachin Tendulkar's recent interview. Overall, insightful, yet some contradictory views. A couple of questions in the long interview, in particular, caught my attention.


Here they are...


The team has gone in the right direction since then, under Sourav Ganguly.

I am a firm believer that it's not about captaincy, but about how the team plays, how the individuals perform. If you are going to score 700 runs in Australia, you are going to be on top, but if you score only 220, obviously it will be a different story.

How would you interpret this? If I were to put words in his mouth, "I don't think much of Ganguly as a captain" is what I think he is saying. Instead, "Things have fallen into place for him because the individuals in the team have performed well." Clearly, this goes against conventional "leadership" theories. Given that Tendulkar is an all time great, and that this view of his is completely contrary to views from leadership gurus, it at least warrants some analysis. On the one hand, I think with age and maturity he has come to accept that its "all time and place" and does not believe in all this fuss about leadership and its transformational effects, at least not in cricket! On the other, one could argue that Sachin (deep down) is envious of Ganguly's success as captain. He does not show it because he is also a down to earth gentleman at heart.


The other response that caught my attention...When asked about Dravid's batting.


"I also think that wicket-keeping has helped. When you're keeping you are watching the ball all the time, and you are watching the game from where the action is taking place. I feel that angle helps."


This is very insightful indeed. I have never heard anyone say this. On the other hand, we have had no shortage of former stars complaining that Dravid should not keep, his batting will be affected etc. Given the kind of transformation Dravid's batting has undergone in the last few years, its quite possible that there is a lot of truth in his view on this topic.


Ironically, this comment undermines Sachin's earlier view on captaincy because Dravid would never have taken on the keeping role but for his captain. Dravid's success in batting has played a huge role in India's success. So clearly, Ganguly deserves a significant share of the credit for this (among score of other things), because he has shouldered all the blame and criticism for forcing Dravid to keep! In other words, Ganguly's leadership clearly has had a lot to do with India's success and its not just about players in the team performing.


This interview re-inforces the fact that despite his superstardom, Sachin is still very "human" and has dreams and aspirations, like most normal people (which I personally think is wonderful). I dare say that Sachin still has a strong interest in captaining the Indian team. On the other hand, he is too fine (I am tempted to say "super") a human being to be obnoxious, or vocal about it. Observing his public persona over the years, one can be rest assured that if captaincy were never to return to him, when his final match comes about, he will walk away into the sunset with an unfulfilled heart, but no tantrums whatsoever.

Starting early on entrepreneurship I suppose?

Give the reserves a shot in the second test, please!

India thrashed Bangladesh as expected in the first test. Given that its very unlikely that India can loose to Bangladesh, I hope the selectrors will give all our reserves a shot in the second test. A good performance by any of our stars against Bangladesh hardly means anything, while on the other we know that a failure by one of the newbies can be a partial reflection on their overall "international readiness". So I hope the second test won't see another meaningless run riot by one of our stars or a wicket taking spree by one of our lead bowlers!

Bollywood takes the lead!

New Bollywood movie clips on cell phone Check out!

Movie Review: Veer Zaara

Saw the recent Hindi film, Veer Zaara starring Shahrukh, Rani, Preity.


If Bill Clinton were a bollywood movie maker, this is the kind of movie he would deliver. Unlike most Hindi movies based on Indo-Pak themes, this one does not show Pakistanis as jerks and terrorists and Indians as great patriotic fighters. Instead this one is "luvy-duvy" all over. Pakistanis and Indians will both come away from this movie "pretty" pleased.


Pak girl (Preethi Zinta as Zaara) travels to India and oooo...everyone is soooo goody-goody, cho-chweet. Amitabh (who appears in a superb cameo) along with ever-slim Hema Malini and Midas-man Shahrukh sing and dance in the fields of Punjab. All the lovely greenery, the papi-shuppy among the people, its love and camaraderie all over, wah-wah -- in short, its an out and out nostalgia trip that is bound to make every surd reach for his turban to wipe off his overflowing tears.


In India, Zaara falls for Veer, a Squadron Leader in the Indian Air Force. His parents despite being from the village are very progressive (duh?), and completely disregard the fact that she is a Muslim and encourage their son to propose to her (remotely realistic? who cares). Just when he is about pour his heart out, he realizes that she is already engaged. The fiance lands up at the train station! Her imminent wedding is the coming together of two political power houses (with supposedly plenty of clout, despite the fact that Pak has spent most of its independent years under some ruthless dictator or the other and that politicians can't do diddly) that will pitch fork her fiancee into the political limelight. In any case, Veer bravely pronounces his love for Zaara, who in turn is completely devastated an overwhelmed with love for the man.


Zaara returns to Pak, all hell breaks loose, calls upon Veer, who in turn heads to Pak. He wins the hearts of everyone he meets, but looses the girl, and ends up in prison, thanks to Zaara's fiance (played by Manoj Bajpai). Before you think he is a hardcore gun totting villain with nasty laugh, hang on, he actually portrays a new brand of villainy, one with a rationale(!). His theory is that he will have to suffer all his life knowing that another man loved his wife. So if Mr. Veer wants Zaara to be happy, he needs to forget her for good and go to prison never to see her again. Veer accepts, lands in prison, while his folks in India think he died in a bus accident. After 25+ years a young lawyer (played by Rani) working on her first case decides to fight his case. The entire story is in flash back mode with prisoner Veer (with the magic number 786) sharing his life story with the lawyer. The lawyer working on her first case, strictly believes in single sourcing! She has only Mr. Veer as her source of info. She never bothers to do any research of her own. The rest of the story revolves around how she unites the couple.


Despite all the above, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Yash Chopra is simply a master at the art of movie making. He has the knack of taking his time to tell you his story in great detail without every making you bored. His attention to detail and precision are evident in every single scene -- acting is excellent right through and across the board; the choice of Amitabh-Hema pair could not have been more perfect; the songs are great and never forced; the make-up, especially the old age Veer-Zaara, is very impressive; last but not the least, not giving Manoj Bajpai a duet was a sign of divine intervention to ensure success of the movie; Most importantly, the Director ensures that King Khan does not overact (like he has a tendency to do very often). All the shaking, nose twitching and stammering are kept to a very minimum. In fact, he does a terrific job as the old prisoner.


This movie was bound to rake in the big moolah. After several years I ventured to see a movie in the theatre. The place was so packed and I was rewarded with a seat in the second row watching my bollywood stars like they were in heaven. In true desi style the Naaz cinema turns of its air conditioner intermittently for additional special effects. Nevertheless, an entertaining movie, definitely worth checking out.

From here and there

Some interesting links I have come across lately.

• Interesting report about growth of blogs in China.
• Amazing how a blog launched after the election has gained so much momentum and continues to do so. Classic example of cashing in on a defeat. Great idea nevertheless!
• Nice short quiz to know more about yourself.
  
  

And finally, some funny junk mail (someone creative has some time on their hands!)

1. NIIT : Not Interested in IT
2. WIPRO : Weak Input, Poor & Rubbish Output
3. HCL : Hidden Costs & Losses
4. TCS : Totally Confusing Solutions
5. INFOSYS : INFerior Offline SYStems
6. SAPIENT : Silly And Puzzled Idiots Exploring Network Technology
7. HUGHES : Highly Useless Graduates Hired for Eating and Sleeping
8. BAAN : Beggers Assosciation and Nerds
9. IBM : Implicitly Boring Machines
10. PARAM : Puzzled And Ridiculous Array of Microprocessors
11. C-DOT : Coffee During Office Timings
12. AT&T : All Troubles & Terrible
13. CMC : Coffee, Meals and Comfort

Future of Digital Media

Check this out. Really cool look into the future of Digital Media. If anything like this were to come true, its bound to have significant implications on practically every form of online content (highly personalized manuals, training materials, for instance)

Powell on Iran

The United States has intelligence that Iran is working to adapt missiles to deliver a nuclear weapon, further evidence that the Islamic republic is determined to acquire a nuclear bomb, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said Wednesday. (as quoted in the Washington Post).


Hello!! didn't he say the same thing last time (about Iraq) at the UN. What kind of credibility do we have to accuse any other country based on our intelligence reports!!

Some useful junk email

Note: A friend of mine maintains his own email list of personally known spam victims. If you are part of this list, you end up receiving all kinds of jokes, pictures and other forms of email (sometime referred to as junk mail). Here is an email that I received recently on this list. I have no idea about who authored this piece. Nevertheless, I learnt a few things from it. Moral of course is, before you delete a junk email, just give it a quick read, you might find some hidden treasures. Next time someone asks you about Diwali, or you kid needs to crank out a school report on the same topic, you might find this handy :-)

DEEPAVALI is the festival of lights and is celebrated with great enthusiasm by all Indians all over the world. The uniqueness of this festival is its harmony of five varied philosophies, with each day to a special thought or ideal. If we celebrate each of its five days of festivities with true understanding, it will uplift and enrich our lives. It is a festival of joy, splendor, brightness and happiness.


Deepavali which leads us into Truth and Light is celebrated on a nation-wide scale on Amavasya - the 15th day of the dark fortnight of the Hindu month of Kartika (October / November) every year. It symbolises that age-old culture of our country, which teaches us to vanquish ignorance that subdues humanity and to drive away darkness that engulfs the light of knowledge. Deepavali projects the rich and glorious past of our country and teaches us to uphold the true values of life.


The word "Diwali" is the corruption of the Sanskrit word "Deepavali" - Deepa meaning light and Vali, meaning a row. It means a row of lights and indeed illumination forms its main attraction. Every home - lowly or mightly - the hut of the poor or the mansion of the rich - is alit with the orange glow of twinkling deeyas-small earthen lamps - to welcome Lakshmi, Goddess of wealth and prosperity.


HISTORY


Deepavali is a five day Hindu festival ..


THE FIRST DAY OF DEEPAVALI


The first day of Deepavali is called Dhanvantari Triodasi . It is in fact the 13th lunar day of Krishna Paksh (the dark forthnight) of the month of Kartika. On this day, Lord Dhanwantari came out of the ocean with Ayurvedic medicine (medicine which promotes healthy long life)

for mankind.


This day marks the beginning of Deepavali celebrations. On this day at sunset, Hindus should bathe and offer a lighted deeya with Prasad to Yama Raj (the Lord of Death) and pray for protection from untimely death. This offering should be made near a Tulsi tree (the Holy Basil) or any other sacred tree that one might have in their yard. If there is no sacred tree, a clean place in the front yard will suffice.


THE SECOND DAY OF DEEPAVALI


The second day of Deepavali is called Naraka Chaturdasi. It is the fourteenth lunar day (thithi) of the dark forthnight of the month of Kartika and the eve of Deepavali. On this day Lord Krishna destroyed the demon Narakasur and made the world free from fear. On this day, we should massage our bodies with oil to relieve it of tiredness, bathe and rest so that we can celebrate Deepavali with vigour and devotion.


On this night, Yama Deeya should not be lit. The Shastras (Laws of Dharma) declares that Yama Deeya should be offered on Triodasi night with Prasad. The misconception that Yama Deeya should be offered on the night before Deepavali came about some years ago when the fourteenth lunar day (Chaturdasi) was of a very short duration and caused Triodasi to extend into the night before Deepavali. Some people mistook it to mean that because Yama Deeya was lit on that night, that it should always be lit on the night before Deepavali. This is absolutely not true. It is advisable that one consults with a learned Pandit or Hindu Astrologer for proper guidance on this matter.


THE THIRD DAY OF DEEPAVALI.


The third day is the actual deepavali. On this day Goddess Lakshmi is worshipped. Hindus cleanse themselves and join with their families and their Pandit (priest) and they worship the divine Goddess Lakshmi to achieve the blessings of wealth and prosperity, the triumph of good over evil and light over darkness. During this time, homes are thoroughly cleaned and windows are opened to welcome Lakshmi, goddess of wealth. Candles and lamps are lit as a greeting to Lakshmi.


THE FOURTH DAY OF DEEPAVALI.


On this day, Govardhan Pooja is performed. Many thousands of years ago, Lord Krishna caused the people of Vraja to perform Govardhan Pooja. From then on, every year Hindus worship Govardhan to honour that first Pooja done by the people of Vraja.


It is written in the Ramayana that when the bridge was being built by the Vanar army, Hanuman was bringing a mountain as material to help with the construction of the bridge. The call was given that enough materials was already obtained. Hanuman placed the mountain down before he could have reached the construction site. Due to lack of time, he could not have returned the mountain to its original place.


The deity presiding over this mountain spoke to Hanuman asking of his reason for leaving the mountain there. Hanuman replied that the mountain should remain there until the age of Dwapara Yuga when Lord Rama incarnates as Lord Krishna in the form of man. Lord Krishna will shower his grace on the mountain and will instruct that the mountain be worshiped not only in that age but but in ages to come. This deity whom Hanuman spoke to was none other than Govardhan (an incarnation of Lord Krishna),who manifested Himself in the form of the mountain. To fulfill this decree, Govardhan Pooja was performed and is continued to be performed today.


THE FIFTH DAY OF DEEPAVALI.


The fifth day of the Deepavali is called Bhratri Dooj. This is the day after Govardhan Pooja is performed and normally two days after Deepavali day. It is a day dedicated to sisters. We have heard about Raksha Bandhan (brothers' day). Well this is sisters' day. Many moons ago,in the Vedic era, Yama (Yamraj, the Lord of death) visited His sister Yamuna on this day. He gave his sister a Vara dhan (a boon) that whosoever visits her on this day shall be liberated from all sins. They will achieve Moksha or final emancipation. From then on, brothers visit their sisters on this day to enquire of their welfare. This day marks the end of the five days of Deepavali celebrations.


According to Ramayana, Deepavali commemorates the return of Ram, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu and the eldest son of King Dasharath of Ayodhya, from his 14-year exile with Sita and Lakshman after killing the Ravan, a demon king. The people of Ayodhya illuminated the kingdom with earthen deeyas (oil lamps) and fireworks to celebration of the return of their king.


During the reign of Emperor Prithu, there was a worldwide famine. He ordered that all available cultivatable lands be ploughed.When the rains came, the land became very fertile and grains were planted. The harvest provided food not only to feed all of India, but for all civilisation. This harvest was close to Deepavali time and was a good reason to celebrate Deepavali with great joy and merriment by a wider community.


When Lord Krishna destroyed Narakasur on the day before Deepavali, the news of it travelled very rapidly throughout the land. It gave people who were already in a joyful mood, another reason for celebrating Deepavali with greater pride and elaboration.



CELEBRATION


Celebrations of Deepavali begin from Dusshera, which comes twenty days before Deepavali. At a metaphysical level, Deepavali is a festival signifying the victory of good over evil, the latter is

destroyed and reduced to ashes by fireworks is the belief of the people. Different people celebrate Deepavali in different ways. Each region of India celebrates Deepavali in it's own unique way.


People visit the places of their relatives and friends to wish them on the occasion and exchange gifts and for those who can not pay a personal visit there is a mind-boggling range of cards and gifts to choose from. Feasts are arranged and gaily-dressed men, women and children go to temples and fairs, visit friends and relatives. Markets are gaily decorated and lit up everybody adorned with new and bright clothes, especially ladies decorated with the best of ornaments, captures the social mood at its happiest. And all this illumination and fireworks, joy and festivity, is to signify the victory of divine forces over those of wickedness. Even countries like Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia celebrate this festival but in their own ways.


In Punjab, the day following Deepavali is known as tikka when sisters make a paste with saffron and rice and place an auspicious mark on their brother's foreheads as a symbolic gesture to ward off all harm.


In North India on the day of the Deepavali the children emerge, scrubbed clean to get into their festive attire, and light up little oil lamps, candles and agarbathis the wherewithal for setting alight crackers and sparklers.


For the Bengalis, it is the time to worship Goddess Kali , yet another form of Durga, the divine embodiment of supreme energy. KALI is the Goddess who takes away darkness. She cuts down all impurities, consumes all iniquities, purifies Her devotees with the sincerity of Her Love.


For the grown-ups, there is also a custom of indulging in gambling during Deepavali. It is all in fun, though, in a spirit of light-hearted revelry, and merrymaking. The children can be seen bursting fire crackers and lighting candles or earthen lamps. This is a time of generously exchanging sweets with neighbors and friends. Puffed rice and sugar candy are the favorite fares.


Deepavali is a time for shopping, whether for gifts or for adding durable items to one's own household. The market soars—everything from saffron to silver and spices to silks. Yet, symbolic purchases are to be made as part of tradition during Deepavali.


In South India that victory of the divine over the mundane is celebrated in a very peculiar way. People wake up before sunrise prepare blood by mixing Kumkum in oil and after breaking a bitter fruit that represents the head of the demon King that was smashed by Krishna, apply that mixture on their foreheads. Then they have an oil bath using sandalwood paste.


In Maharashtra also, traditional early baths with oil and "Uptan" (paste) of gram flour and fragrant powders are a `must'. All through the ritual of baths, deafening sounds of crackers and fireworks are there in order that the children enjoy bathing. Afterwards steamed vermiceli with milk and sugar or puffed rice with curd is served.


Whatever may be the legends behind the celebrations of Deepavali, all people in India exchange sweets, wear new clothes and buy jewellery at this festive time.


Diwali on the whole has always been the festival with more social than religious connotations. It is a personal, people-oriented festival when enmities are forgotten, families and friends meet,

enjoy and establish a word of closeness.

Movie Review: Pandavar Bhoomi

I checked out Director Cheran's movie Pandavar Bhoomi (Tamil). This movie is by no means recent, but I am so hopelessly out of touch with Tamil films and its more recent stars that selecting a Tamil film at the video store has become a major challenge. The net result is that I manage to see one Tamil film, maybe once every 3-4 months at best.


I was really impressed with another more recent film directed by Cheran, titled Autograph, that I diligently searched for a move directed by him and landed this one. I was a little disappointed, mostly due to the high standards set by Autograph. Nevertheless, I thought Pandavar Bhoomi was a watchable film.


A bunch of new actors (I think!) do a fine job of their roles. The hero looks a lot like Vjiaykumar (who also plays a small role in the film), probably his son? The theme of the movie is certainly different from conventional films. Based on Autograph and this movie, the director seems to have a passion for building stories based on past events. He clearly enjoys probing the past in avid detail. The story revolves around a five sibling family which migrates from a village amidst a tragedy and later returns to their roots. To re-live their past they decide to re-construct their ancestral home. The engineer who builds their home develops a close relationship with the family, particularly a girl in the family. Unfortunately for him, the historic family tragedy comes in the way of a love story, otherwise headed for marital bliss.


The Director has thrown in one fight sequence at the end and a couple of songs, otherwise the movie is pretty "clean" and devoid of unnecessary add-ons. He has also thrown in some left leaning utterances about Swadeshi-Videshi for social message purposes. Overall, the movie is watchable but no where close to Autograph.

Warne will get away, easy!

The recent on the field clash between cricket umpire Aleem Dar (Pak) and Shane Warne seems to have gone unnoticed as always happens when Aussies clash with umpires. On the other hand Saurav Ganguly almost had to face a two match suspension for a low over rate! The test is not over as yet and I hope Match Referee: MJ Procter (SA) comes up something more than a silly slap on the wrist.

Movie Review: Mujhse Shaadi Karoge

Another product of the David Dhawan factory minus Govinda. Instead we have Akshay Kumar, Salman Khan and Priyanka Chopra. Akshay Kumar and Salman are good friends, separated since childhood, Priyanka is Salman's love, while Akshay provides the comedy, along with Amrish Puri and Khader Khan. Standard stuff with different permutations, a handful of plug and play songs, a couple of stunts sequences and there you have it another David Dhawan product. The grand finale of the movie involves a bunch of cricket stars -- Kapil Dev, Irfan Pathan, Kaif, Harbhajan, Srinath and others. If you are in a mood to leave your senses behind, have a few laughs and enjoy some standard desi masala this could be your fix for a Friday evening.

Did you know?

Check this out. Never knew something like this existed. Nice way to raise a stink and still be commended for it! :-)

Movie Review: Phir Milenge

Saw Phir Milenge, the Hindi movie starring Salman Khan, Shilpa Shetty, Abhishek Bachhan. The story is based on the successful Hollywood film, Philadelphia. To give you a quick synopsis: Salman (Rohit) and Shilpa (Tamanna) are lovers. Abhishek (Tarun) plays a lawyer. Salman goes to US, picks up AIDS unknowingly and infects Tamanna while in India (pre-marital sex). Then, he return s to US, finds out that he is infected with AIDS, returns to India. Meanwhile Tamanna gets to know that she is HIV+, gets fired because her boss can't stand having someone infected with HIV in his office She wants to sue, can't finda lawyer, until a happy-go lucky Tarun comes along to fight the legal battle of his life. This in short is the story. Some key highlights and thoughts:

• The movie is well made and definite worth watching. Revathi (former south indian actress) is the director and has done a really nice job. Can you imagine, there were scenes when I felt Salman-bhai was actually acting! Hats of to Revathi.
  
  
• Abhishek Bacchan, the Ajit Agarkar of Indian films. Appears in almost every film but can never turn a hit. But someone appears to have taken it upon themselves to make a success out of this guy. While his papa might be the one, I always wonder who Ajit Agarkar has as his prime sponsor. When the onus of carrying an entire film is not on him, Abhishek usuually does a decent job (though there are many movie watchers who can never be convinced of this!), as I think he did here. (If you belong to the "I can't stand this guy" group, I have a request, please forget that he is Amtabh's son when you assess his performance. Its completely unfair to the guy).
  
  
• Shilpa Shetty for once gets a chance to act and does a fine job. One could argue that her glamorous looks right through the film are a shade inconsistent with the theme of the film.
  
  
• Music is decent, but I'll need to hear it a few times before I latch on to any of the songs in a big way.
• Salman Khan was bearable. I am glad he didn't show his body for a change. I was expecting a raunchy dream sequence given Salman-Shilpa duos typical portrayals, but I was pleasantly surprised not to see one.

In summary, a very well made film. No unneccesary masala, histrionics etc. simple, to the point, and well presented. I hope Revathi directs more films. The movie had a strong south indian feel to it (it felt like watching a malayalam movie). Some of the actors, the one who acted as Tamanna's sister and her boss, both spoke slowly and carefully like they were not native hindi speakers. Plenty of lines in English were thrown in, perhaps to suit ome of the actors who prefer english over hindi, if possible!

Butt kicks for Indian cricket team, time hopefully for a wake-up call

Pak beat India fair and square at the Eden Gardens, one of India's best grounds, at the momentous occasion of the platinum jubilee of the BCCI. If this comprehensive defeat is not enough for a reality check, I don't know what is. Hats off to Salmam Butt, a very calm, composed and talented player with a bright future ahead of him.


The only thing consistent about the Indian cricket team are its consistent defeats. For a team that is packed with talent and plenty of bench strength, its clearly a sad state. Here are some thoughts on a new look towards approaching selection of the one-day team for India.

• Full time keeper an absolute must: Dravid as the keeper has to stop. Whenever Dravid is the captain, he always brings in a specialist keeper. There is no better proof that India's star batsmen does not approve of the 7 batsmen formula. The formula is no longer working and its about time its abandoned.
  
  
• Kumble permanently out of one-day games: Bhajji is clearly a better choice for one-dayers. Then why bother with Kumble in the 15. If Bhajji is out of form, as a replacement, Murali Karthik is always a proven option who can perform as well as Kumble if not better. Or hunt the country for some fresh talent.
  
  
• Laxman out of one-day games(though he faired decently in this match): VVS is by no means a great fielder, a poor runner between wickets and his batting form is not the best currently. Most importantly, I think he is a mis-fit in the one-day game. He can always be brought back into the test team, provided his form is predictable.
• Time to kiss good-bye to Agarkar: Can someone tell me what on earth this guy is still doing in the team today? He has had enough opportunities to prove himself and barring that one test performance in Aus and a century at Lords, he has nothing to show for all these years in international cricket. Time to send him packing.
  
  
• Captaincy change: Ganguly appears to have lost his magic and it might be worth re-thinking the overall captaincy issue. Undoubtedly, Ganguly has a record as good or better than any Indian captain. In fact, he has groomed a fighting unit unlike no other captain in Indian cricket history. At the same time he has to bear the brunt of the responsibility for all the recent defeats. To be fair, I think the selectors should influence Ganguly to re-think the overall team strategy. If he continues to be totally inflexible and hell bent on simply repeating the same old strategy, retaining him as skipper will simply mean more of the same thing.
  
  

In my opinion, the reason Australia is able to perform to the highest quality so consistently, is that they never compromise on quality or form. In other words, only the best make it to the team. Can you imagine someone like Katich being dropped after his recent performance? If he were playing for India, he would be a fixture in the team for a min of 5 years after such a performance! Unlike test cricket, there is little room to recover in one-day games, once errors are made. So if India were to dream of winning with some level of consistency, then they have to be brutally honest in its assessing players. One easy way to look at it is to assess each player against the four aspects involved: Bowling, fielding, batting and current form. Based on assumptions derived from these aspects, let us analyze the team competition.

Criteria 1: If possible all 11 players should be top notch fielders and excellent runners between wickets. If you strictly apply this criteria: Laxman, Ganguly, Kumble, Nehra are all candidates who won't make the cut. Zaheer Khan is also a borderline case.

Criteria 2: 6 batsmen and 5 regulars bowlers who can consistently be counted to bowl their full quota is the ideal formula. The 7 batsmen-makeshift wkt keeper-4 bowlers formula has failed miserably. If you apply the criteria that all 5 bowlers must be counted on to complete their quota of 10 overs. Agarkar is certainly the first one to not make the cut. Nehra having been axed based on criteria 1, plus the fact that he has been injury prone, plus the fact that he has very few noteworthy performances, opens up two bowling slots.

Criteria 3: The team needs five rock solid batsmen, plus one wkt keeper batsmen. Sachin, Sehwag, Dravid, Yuvraj, Kaif are automatic first choices because they clearly are not impacted by criterias 1 and 2. Dinesh Karthik is the current choice for keeper.

Criteria 4: If possible all players in the team must be in peak form. This not always possible. Besides, its not good to disrupt the team by tossing players in and out. But there has to be some basic ground rules. Ideally, I think there should be a 3 strikes and your out rule. That is, fail in 3 successive games and you are out the door for a break. Several domestic stars who deserve to be consider for the team could be beneficiaries of the three strikes rule include: Badani, Sriram, Venugopal Rao, Ambati Rayudu, among others.

Criteria 5: India needs an allrounder, ideally a heavy-hitting allrounder, the elusive Kapil Dev replacement. Romesh Powar looked like an option, but the guy was hardly given an opportunity. Other press stories indicate he was out of favor with Ganguly. In any case, a player who fits this profile is an absolute must in the team. This player must ideally be able to bat in the last 15 overs or sent up the order for pinch hitting. Currently, the only players who are capable of big hitting in the Indian team are Sehwag and Ganguly (Shahid Afridi, Flintoff, Symonds, Abdul Razack, Ricardo Powell, Chris Cairns or examples from other teams).

Based on the above analysis, Sachin, Sehwag, Dravid, Yuvraj, Kaif, Karthik, Zaheer, Irfan, Bhajji make the top 9. Also, it means that, the two remaining slots have to be players who can be counted to deliver 10 overs in every match. In other words, ideally they should be bowlers who can also bat. If its a turning track, Murali should take one spot as a specialist bowler. If its not a turning wicket then one of the many bowlers (Salvi, Bhandari, Balaji, SS Paul) should take this spot. The other spot is the allrounder spot which in my opinion is completely up for grabs. Until India can find one, maybe Ganguly should take this spot, continue as captain with a new strategy, and drop down the batting order. If he is hell bent on batting up the order, then Sehwag has to drop down the order to play the role of the big hitter. Lastly, it should be made clear to Ganguly that time is running out for him and he has to deliver. The other alternative is to pick a captain from among the top 9 players and rotate the all rounder big hitter spot among currently available talent across the country. My pick would be to give Ganguly another 4-5 matches to revise his strategy. What would your pick be?

Fascinating!

Just read an interview with Mr. Ved Mehta, a writer for the New Yorker and author of several books in the India Today magazine. Its amazing what some people manage to accomplish despite serious handicaps. (Mr. Mehta lost his eyesight at the age of 4).

Predictions on cricket

Lately my predictions have been hopelessly wrong. In fact, the opposite of what I predict usually happens (President Kerry, for instance!). So here are a few:

1. India will loose the fourth test against Australia.
2. Sachin will score 50+ in second innings. (Sachin losing magic, When a god called Sachin fell!)
3. India won't score more than 150 runs in the second innings of the fourth test.

Democrats in a hopeless state

Boy, that's quite a defeat for the democratic party. Its party time for Bush and his team. After four years of economic downturn, rising deficit, war etc. etc. the voting patterns across the US don't seem to have changed despite the "far-right" stance of the Republican party.


I am surprised that the democratic party did not make a more concerted effort to grab one of the states in the heartland. It appears that they completely disregarded these states. From this perspective, in hindsight, it might have been better for Kerry to have chosen Gephardt or some other VP candidate who could deliver at least a state or two.


I think the moral of the story for the democrats is that they better find a Presidential candidate who can carry a couple of red states in the American heartland (a la Bill Clinton) in 2008. Hillary Clinton, perhaps! At least you can be sure that the best democratic campaigner will be out there in full swing.

Aussies vs. Desis

India put up a pretty pathetic show in third test at Nagpur. Needless to say as an ardent cricket fan it was disappointing to see India loos so badly. Our leading batsem have shown very poor form. With the contract system in place I hope that the board and the cricketers develop a better working relationship based on mutual trust and confidence. Right now, you have players literally holding on to their slots in the team even if they are not in the best of form, have injuries etc. This has got to stop. There is so much talent in Indian cricket these days that unless the top players make room for the youngsters from time to time, promising players like Badani, Sriram, Ambati Rayudu, Dhoni, Jadhav, Gambhir and others will never get a chance to play for India while they are still in their prime. Just as Ganguly suggested a pool of fast bowlers it makes sense to do the same for batsmen and wicket keepers as well. Lets hope India puts up a better show in Bombay and most importantly I hope all the youngsters get a chance to play the test.


The Aussies on the other hand have had a great tour except and their hard work and professional approach to the game has paid off. They simply are the best team in the world. Even a world team would find it hard to beat the Aussies today.

It's President Kerry, I think.

Despite all the media and pundits promising a close race and lawyers lined up to fight the battles in court, I think John Kerry will win the presidential elections and win convincingly. Here are some reasons why:


The Debates: Kerry did a fine job in all three debates winning them 3-0. Until these debates he was relatively unknown. But in these debates he came across as a very knowledgeable on policy issues (on par with Bill Clinton) without the arrogance and over-confidence portrayed by Al Gore. He also showed his lighter side and sense of humor in answering the question about what he had learned from his wife and daughters. Last but not the least he showed that he was a very shrewd politician at heart when he dragged Cheney' s daughters name into one of his answers.


The Campaign: Despite all the talk about lacking charisma, Kerry did all the right things to run a very inclusive campaign. The important thing was that pretty much everyone in the democratic party was on-board the campaign. Unlike Gore, he took all the help he could from Clinton and signed on as many of Clinton former team as possible. Besides, he ran a campaign that was relatively scandal free (no serious revelation barring the failed swift boat campaign), with no special surprises.


The VP Candidate: Though I think Kerry didn't really care a whole lot for Edwards, he did the smart thing by selecting John Edwards as his running mate. For whatever its worth, Edwards managed to energize the party base after Dean screamed himself out of steam. There was no chance of Edwards stealing Kerry's limelight given his relative inexperience. In short, as a team they served each others purpose.


Newspaper endorsements: Kerry landed a number of key newspaper endorsements (not sure how much of an influence these are) like the NYT, Washington Post, Economist, Financial Times etc.


External Support: Michael Moore, and the rest of Hollywood had made a very visible plea to the voters to dump Bush. Again, its hard to measure the impact of that, but it was definitely something that benefited Kerry more than hurt him. To his credit he did a fine job of tapping this support to energize the voters bringing in the actors, singers and other entertainers at the right time to draw the crowds.


Young, first time voters: The amount of money raised online, the number of student volunteers, and the overall presence online was far stronger for the democratic party than the Republicans. John Kerry did a fine job of tapping into the online momentum that the Dean campaign had put in place.


Anti-Bush: There has been an incredible anti-Bush wave in the US and across the globe that one can't but notice. Several people overseas were hoping that Bush would loose the elections. There were no shortage of people who felt "anybody but Bush". All these voters will most likely vote in favor of Kerry. While he might not have done anything to win them, I think he made sure he didn't do anything to loose them!


Lastly, I think Bush and his team have chosen to operate too far to the right all through his first term. Having lived here for over a decade I think the majority of US citizens are uncomfortable with such extreme positions and are more accommodating and moderate. The best proof of this are the results in an election with an all time high turnout.


All in all, I think John Kerry will become President by a comfortable margin.

A few interesting links

Interesting news and sites I learned about lately:

• If you are closely following the presidential elections in the US, here is one you'd love. This site follows all the various polls and gives you an estimate of the electoral votes for Bush and Kerry.
• Fired from Delta Airlines for blogging . I guess it won't be long before companies have strict guidleines for blogging.
  
  
• Truly fascinating fund raising effort from the Firefox browser folks $250K in less than 10 days.
  
  
• If you use gmail, just fyi.
• If you are into following VCs, investments and other tech stories from silicon valley, this a useful blog
  
  

Top 10 signs its a Kerry White House

10. Environmentalists are celebrating because a Bush has been planted in Texas.

09. Laura Bush is back to being a librarian, this time of the Bush Presidential library.

08. Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz openly distribute their Halliburton business cards.

07. New Social Security policy: "Don't ask, Don't touch"

06. Thanksgiving celebration all across the Middle East.

05. Bush says the unemployed should get the flu vaccine first.

04. Bush recommends building a Whitehouse in Bangalore to cut costs and is open to re-locating.

03. Boston and Chennai named sister cities as Tam-Brahms (Tamil Brahmins) bond with Bos-Brahms (Boston Brahmins).

02. Communication strategists have a new name for Outsourcing, its called "In-and-Out" Sourcing.

01. Arnie is having "fantastic" sex every single day!

Six months of Blogging.....and to be continued

I have been blogging for close to 6 months now and I must admit that lately it has become hard to keep up. As Mr. Bush would say, "It's hard!" There has been so much going on, finding time for blogging has been difficult. The truth though is that there has not been a single day when I have not thought about blogging. Hope to be back with more frequent posts in the not too distant future.


Meanwhile, boy, there has been so much going on -- Aussies have thrashed the desis (you find video highlights here), the Bush-Kerry battle has been a dead heat, Googs are now worth close to $200 a pop (and we thought there is no money in tech stocks!), even the elusive Veerapan is no more, Arafat is fighting for his life while two leaders have been chosen to cover up in his absence (The French are thrilled that they finally beat the Americans in something), a close buddy of mine chucked his job and re-located to India with plans to chill out for a couple of years, Rajnikant is back (this time for real), and so is Mr. Bin (not surprising the tape came in from Pak). To top it off, I managed to have a get together with my close buddies from undergrad dorm. 7 out of 9 folks who happened to be in North America actually got together in the SF bay area for a wonderful weekend full of laughter and nostalgia.

The Vice-Presidential debate

Saw the debate. The format certainly suited Mr. Cheney's style, but he couldn't help coming across as a "school principal who knew all the answers" like Tom Brokaw aptly put it. Mr. Edwards on the other hand looked young, charming, but almost canned. He certainly does his best to emulate Clinton, but he just can't come close. Nevertheless, I think he held his own throughout the debate. On the crucial question of being a heart beat away from the Presidency, I thought Mr. Edwards did a less than convincing job of answering the question. Instead, he quickly diverted attention from it. Mr. Cheney didn't quite jump onto the issue (and even if he did it lacked impact because of his low-key style of delivery) as I think he should have. I guess he doesn't like to talk whole lot about it, because in his case he gets to be President while he is still the Vice-President! Mr. Cheney did his party's campaign some damage when he referred to http://www.factcheck.com instead of http://www.factcheck.org


In the current battle for the Presidency, a lot has been said about "flip-flop". First the Republicans accussed John Kerry of flip-flopping. Now the democrats say that President Bush is the one who has been flip-flopping. When does one flip-flop? Obviously, it happens when you are not sure of something. Ironically, when asked specifically about it (What's wrong with a little flip-flop every now and then?) in the debate, both candidates evaded the question and instead accused each other of flip-flopping!


When significant decisions that impact millions of people across the globe have to be taken, its understandable that there might be a legitimate reason to flip-flop. In fact, it might be better to flip-flop and analyze the situation a little longer before coming to a decision. In President Bush's words, "Its hard!" Perhaps, if we hadn't been so sure about Iraq and instead flip-flopped a little we might not be in the mess we find ourselves in today?


In the summary, I think Mr. Cheney came across as tough, hard-assed and uncompromising while Mr. Edwards did appear a little light weight at times. I don't beleive that either side did enough damage to the other to impact public opinion or the race for that matter. In short, this debate will be forgotten by the time the second debate gets underway, which incidentally is in a couple of days.

Top 10 signs you are likely to vote for Kerry

10. If you knew everything you know today, before we invaded Iraq, you would still be both for and against the war.


09. You think that, push comes to shove, Teresa can write checks and bring down the deficit.


08. You can't bear the thought of President Hillary Clinton in 2008.


07. You are scared to imagine the kind of things an out of work Bill Clinton would do in the White House come 2008.


06. You heard that Clinton advisors are back and think Lewinsky can't be far behind.


05. You are tired of being jobless in America and hated in the world.


04. You won't drink even if Bush wants to have a beer with you.


03. You love John Edwards so much, you don't want to hurt him.


02. You are very upset because you think Tiger Woods' title was outsourced.


01. You think that John Kerry looks like the perfect horse for America to ride.

It's the Browser war again? I hope not.

The infamous Netscape vs IE battle ended with Microsoft destroying both Netscape and its browser. Just when you thought the browser battles were behind us, comes Mozilla's Firefox browser. Its really well designed and has a pleasing interface. Besides it has several powerful features, my favorite one being the "tabs" feature. I am one of those crazy web users who is always willing to experiment with the latest and greatest in Internet technology. I don't mean to take away any credit from the developers of the Firefox browser, its an excellent product, no doubt. But sometimes I can't help wonder, why bother with another browser?


Microsoft makes most of its money from MS-Office and its continuing to grow by the minute. Just look at Powerpoint, everyone from teachers, Prof, trainers, business professionals (of course!), now school kids (yes!), politicians, and lawyers, can't seem to live without it! Instead of re-starting the browser wars, the anti-Microsoft world will serve its cause much better if it simply came together to try and develop an alternative to the ubiquitous MS-Office. By this I don't mean just another MS-Office clone (Star what?). Instead I mean, something fundamentally new, different, easy to use, and does the job of MS-Office and plenty more. Until this happens, its going to be virtually impossible to even make a dent in the MS monopoly. Just when I was writing this a friend sent me a rumor about Google's potentially upcoming new browser! Maybe they have a browser plus more coming and not just another browser. Given Google's products to-date (not including the painfully slow Orkut which Google acquired), I think something exciting could be on its way.

Top 10 signs you are likely to vote for Bush

10. You can't speak a single sentence in English without making a mistake.


09. You believe it is a good thing if you are forced to re-locate to Bangalore.


08. You hate the French.


07. You make way too much money and are sick and tired of paying taxes.


06. You believe that the best way to spread freedom is to stuff democracy down other countries throats.


05. You have fallen for Cheney's good looks.


04. You think the environment is nothing to be concerned about as long as your heater and air-conditioner are working fine.


03. You think that the guy you like to drink beer with is more likely to protect you and your family.


02. You don't care what the rest of world thinks of America or its citizens.


01. You are afraid Bush will be born yet again and kick your ass if you don't vote for him.

Gmail is really cool

I have been using Gmail for a few months now and I think it is really cool. There was a lot of hype and hoopla about the 1G free space, outrage over targeted advertising, accusations about Google trying to ape Yahoo etc. In any case, there is no question that unlike the scores of free email services available today, Gmail is significantly different. It has really brought a fresh new thinking to the email application. As a regular user over the last few months, here are some of my thoughts on Gmail in general.

• Discussions instead of email messages: All email exchanges on a certain subject are nicely grouped together and available as "discussions." This makes it so much easier than having to review so many emails before recalling the thread of an email trail. If you find yourself constantly searching your email folders trying to figure out what the context of a certain set of email exchanges were, you will find this features immensely helpful.

• Labels instead of folders: All email can be assigned one or more labels. This gets away from the conventional folder approach. You can now assign multiple labels to an email and find the same email under multiple labels. It is like being able to store the same email in multiple folders. If you find yourself in a dilemma very often about which folder a certain email has to belong to, then this is a feature you are going to love.

• Search across email messages: Understandably, there is powerful search capability that comes with gmail. The gmail philosophy revolves around -- why delete email when you can easily search and you have more space than you care for? While I don't necessarily subscribe to the "never delete email" philosophy, I think the ability to search your emails is extremely powerful. In fact, it will be really powerful if someday email search can happen magically across all email accounts of a user and not necessarily only in Gmail.

• Apply Stars to messages: Messages can be assigned stars. This makes them easier to find during search. Another very useful feature which goes hand in hand with the search capability.

• No Drafts: I didn't find a way to save the draft of an email so I could come back to it later. This will be a very useful feature to have. But at this stage, I don't think this feature is supported.

• No Sorting: I didn't find a way to sort the messages in my Inbox. For instance, there is no way to view your Inbox such that you see all the messages sorted according to the sender. This will be very useful, because the user can easily apply a common label and then archive all the messages from a particular user.

• Beta: Gmail is still in beta. I have come across times when the service is unavailable. The occurrence of this has reduced dramatically over the last several weeks. On the one hand it is very annoying when this happens. On the other hand, I am happy to give the Google folks a break, after all its a free service! Google often has extended beta periods (sometimes seemingly indefinite). For instance, google news which has been around for several months now, is still in beta.

• Accounts by invitation only: New accounts are assigned only when an existing gmail user invites other users. It is an interesting approach, but despite this restriction, I believe there are a large number of registrants. If you want an account, send me a note at pkurup@gmail.com A friend of mine invited me to open an account and I have been a user ever since.

• Targeted Advertising: Despite all the privacy concerns raised, personally I think targeted advertising is fine. In fact, I think targeted ads are pretty useful. They appear on the right side of the page just like ads that appear when you run a search on Google. It is by no means intrusive. For instance, I have always been interested in DVDs of past cricket matches and haven't found a good site that sells these. The targeted ads from Gmail pointed me to one.

• Ease of Use: Gmail is clearly different from other email tools. So it does take some time to get accustomed to it. But my experience has been that Gmail grows on you to a point that you start longing for similar features in your everyday usage of email (for instance, at work).
  
  

I believe Gmail is a great first step towards more powerful email and personal knowledge/information management tools. The vast amount of email traffic in corporations and across the world has reached a point where inefficiencies are being introduced simply because of the sheer volume of email content generated. (For an interesting side note check out -- Fridays: Casual days without e-mail) It is becoming imperative that smarter ways of dealing with email be developed and made available. The challenge is to develop new applications that blend well with the conventional email usage but at the same time is fundamentally more powerful. Gmail is clearly a good first step in this direction, in my opinion. The folks at Google are obviously very very smart and I expect more such cool stuff from them in the years ahead.

An Old Cricket Match Report: A blast from the past

Note: This is an old cricket match report from 1992 contributed by Prasad Saggurti. Back on popular demand! Its a Fri evening, and time for some nostalgia. Pyarae bahiyon, enssooyy!


It was definitely the stuff dreams are made of. Well, maybe Dan wouldn't actually agree with that, but i'm sure Adam will. Yesterday, SCCC II played UC-Davis at home. Dan "The irritating Man" won the toss and decided to bat. The first ball of the game resulted in a snick which didn't quit carry to keeper. The second ball was a plumb lbw. From then on, it was a procession. Noman and Adam bowled very well and bowled their 9 overs straight.Noman got 4 wickets and Adam 3. Davis was reeling at 42 for 8and there was talk of sending Rehman and Sam in as the openers. Pran was bowling well but he got nailed by a stright drive which broke his finger and split the skin. Really bad cut. Believe me, I was there. It was not very pretty. So he had to leave and Justin filled in for fielding. Then David started batting very well. He got good support from the other end from Tahir. Those two had a ~70 runs partnership when Shamim finally got Tahir run out for 27. David holed out to Noman at long off for 46 in the next over.

They were all out for 118. If you thought that was bad, you should have seen our batting. I got a creeper which seemed to increase in speed after pitching, in the second over of the innings and was bowled for 2. A coupla overs later, Barinder was lbw to David for 3. Shamim went in next. Shree was batting sensibly leaving all the wide balls until he decided to gofor a drive which he nicked to keeper. It got worse. Shamim and Noman were playing well until Shamim thought he could finish the game in the next five overs. He holed out to deep cover point for 8. Noman and Adam started batting and visionsof a recovery seemed a reality with Noman hitting a six which carried a maximum of 24 inches above the ground. He too got a tad carried away and tried to flick a ball on the middle stump and got bowled for 15. Ram went in and after a coupla overs got bowled, again by Srini, the ball cutting back and Ram playing half-cocked and very half-heartedly.

Adam was in there with Sam. Adam was playing well, taking the singles and hitting the occasional loose balls for more. Sam had afew lusty hits and in between cussing at Dan and at the pitch, the earlier batsmen, the bowling, the phase of the moon and the wicket keeper's beard, he compiled 10 runs. He then got run out in a most unfortunate manner. Then Rehman went in. He played for a while giving good support to Adam. The score was now close to 60 for 7. Remember we didn't have Pran and we could only bat 10 people. Adam decided to take matters into his own UCLA-bound hands and started a bit of clobbering in inimitable Pirrie-style. A coupla boundaries and the opening bowlers were back in to grab the wickets. They were seen through. Dan and Bissu had 5 overs betweenthem to get these guys out now. After a few overs and 25 runs, Rahman was bowled by Bissu, an inswinging full toss. Deepak, our replacement for Krish, went in and batted well. Then Adam decided to farm the strike, which was a very good idea at this juncture. The score then moved quickly to 92 before Deepak got bowled by Bissu trying to swing him to leg. He made 5. The score was 92 for 9.

Pran decided to bat one handed, and what a heroic sight it was to see! The man can bat! One hand behind his back to keep the ball from hitting his finger again, stiff bent-at-the-elbow top hand, he defended. He stretched forward, he stayed back, but he was never beaten. Never beaten. Dan bowled fast, Dan bowled slow, Dan even chucked. Nope. Pran was still around, defending away, stoically. Nothing bothering him, not even the regular sledging from Davis's most uncharismatic captain. Adam on the other end, was playing most excellently. He kept the scoreboard moving. The pair saw Dan and Bissu's overs through. Then the non-regular bowlers came on. Nothing seemed to bother Adam. He kept taking the singles on the last coupla balls of the over and the occasional 2's before. Pretty soon, the score was 108. The bowling was changed, but the singles kept coming. And then with the score at 113 for 9 and six more to win, Adam hit a glorious six over long onto pull off a most unlikely victory.

The heroes for us were definitely Adam and Pran, but one cannot forget Noman forhis excellent bowling, Sam, Rehman and Deepak for the determination they showed in providing solid support for Adam in our quest for glory.

Gentlemen, I hereby nominate Adam Pirrie for Man of theMatch for his most excellent all-round display of cricketingskills. Dat Australian! He-a reel gutsy, maan!! Woh ekdumgood cricketeer, yaaaa!!! Dat Adam, he da real Comeback Kid!!

Gentlemen, I hereby nominate Pran Kurup to the SCCC Hall of Fame for his most heroic display of blood and guts. His score may only show up as zero on the scoresheet, but comrades, in the eyes of thosewho watched the game, he tallied more than the rest of the players combined. He shall henceforth be known as Blood'n'Guts. You may rise now, Pran "Blood'n'Guts" Kurup.

It was a great game. It will always be remembered as a game where character triumphed over seemingly insurmountable circumstances. I was reminded of the statement made by the legendary Neville Cardus - "what knows he, who only knows cricket?". Definitely thestuff legends are made of. definitely.


Ooops. did i get carried away and forget to postthe score-sheet? That's because i don't have it with me. But the team scores were:

UC-Davis: 118 all out in 40.2 overs. (Noman 4w, Adam 3w, David 46, Tahir 27)

Santa Clara II: 119 for 9 in 39.3 overs (David 3w, Srini 3w, Adam 61n.o., Pran 0 n.o)

Why?

• If you observe, you'll find a number of cops hanging around perfectly safe areas in the US. For instance, drive down Castro Street in Mountain View, California once, and you'll find at least a couple of cops driving by. I agree there is a police station not far from there, but why do these folks have to hang out in such a safe places? Don't we distribute our cops so areas with a higher crime rates have more cops deployed? I guess the constant joke about cops hanging out at donut shops definitely has some merit.

• Sounds like Russia is headed for more blatant dictatorship. More terror => introduce more controls => Instill more fear => Consolidate power (patriot act, color coded threat levels, detention without hope for due process etc.). The World now has another dictator to deal with, perhaps its time to re-draw the axis of evil and think pre-emptive(!!), I suppose.

• Most of the Indian newspaper websites (TOI, Sify, Chennaionline etc.) have started displaying those annoying, intrusive flash ads. The interesting thing is that all of them started displaying these pretty much at the same time almost like identical dance steps seen in hindi films. Ironically, there was picture of President of India, Abdul Kalam and a report about something he said about education and just when I started reading it, across flashed an ad for Golden Eagle beer!!

• John Kerry appears to be dropping behind in the polls. Edwards is all but missing. I have never seen a mention of his name in the newspapers for several weeks now! The Bush-Cheney team is crusing along since their very well orchestrated convention. The recent international survey findings about the US presidential race were interesting, but not surprising.

IIT KGP Alumni picnic 2004 in the SF Bay Area

The IIT KGP alumni picnic in bay area was back in business after a break of one year. Last year the kgp picnic was folded into the pan-iit picnic. Obviously, the experiment to bring all the IITs together for a picnic had not worked. This year better sense prevailed and all the IIT volunteer armies were issued marching orders to do their own thing. In other words, the widely popular kgp bay area picnic which has been a regular feature for over a decade was back!


The loss of a year appeared to have impacted the events momentum. A number of the regulars (especially from the 80s batches) were not seen around, while a majority of the attendees belonged to the post 1996 batches. The 80s grads were busy chauffering their kids to soccer/baseball games, while there were others who were travelling and could not attend. Of course, there was also the regular "Kaata-yaar, tempo nahin hai" types who did not make it to the event. Missing this year were the singers and guitarists (Shyamal and Dennis duo). A surprise attendee was Aditya Nath Jha who is based in India (86 batch RK) but who happened to be in town. A new feature of this years event was beer guzzling competition. Food, beer, volleyball, cricket and tug of war were the other attractions. The kids loved the pizza and the bubbles.


Overall, the event was great fun as always and hats off to the organizers for pulling it off. The "young and the restless" volunteer team under the seasoned guidance of Roy de Silva (President of the Bay area chapter) has set a target of 500 for next years picnic.


Click here to see a few pictures from the event. (My camera ran out of charge as always after these pictures).

Couple of interesting links

• Check out the news item about the scientists in India developing a cure for TB. I am surprised this hardly made the news here in the US. I think its a very impressive accomplishment. Unfortunately its no where in the news here in the US.

• Ebay founder's blog. I think its a great way for him to be plugged into the next hot thing. Didn't know this existed until yesterday. (Doesn't appear to be a very active blog, but exists nevertheless)

My First Online Book Reading Experience

Book Title : We the Media

Author: Dan Gillmor

I am delighted that I actually managed to read this book entirely online in little over a week. The book is about the new internet phenomenon "blogs". The author Dan Gillmor is well know, particularly in the bay area (and on the Internet!) through his articles in the San Jose Mercury News. After reading a recent book by another journalist, I must admit I am a little biased against "journalists turned first time book authors". As journalists, they know what is hot, and they are well connected in the publishing industry. Besides, they are fairly visible, atleast sufficiently enough to promote the book and ensure a worthwhile business proposition for the publisher. It is to a large extent, like the first mover advantage in the dotcom days. All you needed was a new feature and plenty of buzz and you (possibly!) along with a bunch of investors could make a fast buck! In the publishing world, this means a book high on hype, but low on substance, churned out in record time.

To my pleasant surprise Dan Gillmor's book was different. Firstly, its admirable that a journalist has written a book about a new and emerging technology phenomenon. The author has taken pains to research the latest developments in this area and appears to be completely plugged into this in the course of his daily activities, automatically making him an expert of sorts in this area. Besides, the author has done a really nice job of analyzing his thoughts, impressions, and findings and explored the various challenges and implications of this new phenomenon. Overall, it was very interesting and engaging (partly because I am so excited by blogs myself), and this certainly contributed to my completing the book in such a short time.

Given that this is my first cover to cover (or rather web page to web page!) online book reading experience, here are some thoughts that come to mind from my reading experience.

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  Online Book Reading is Faster: The online version of this book was available as separate PDF files, ie., one PDF for each chapter. This gave me a good sense for where I was in the book at every stage. Besides, I never felt comfortable stopping midway in a chapter. Instead I made sure that whenever I stopped it was after completing a chapter. In fact, I was averaging about 1-2 chapters a day. In short, I believe I read this book much faster than I would have read a hard copy.

• 
  
  No Distractions: The PDF files itself appear to be identical to the final print version. In other words, if you disregard the space allocated for binding, what you see online is plain text restricted right to the center of your browser with lots of empty white space on both sides (the print version needs this to account for the binding). In other words, with no distraction from the main text its very easy to remain focused unlike reading an online newspaper, for instance, where there are so many distracting ads, links to other articles, blurbs etc.

• 
  
  External Links: This book had so many references to other websites, blogs etc that I was tempted frequently to wander away. The PDF file did not however provide links to these sites which would have made it very convenient. On the other hand, I am glad the links weren't provided, because I am sure that would have proved be a huge distraction. I found myself visiting a laundry list of sites after completing each chapter. It would have been useful to list these at the end of each chapter.

• 
  
  Missed the ability to highlight text: When I read books, especially non-fiction, I love to underline/highlight text that I find useful or interesting. This helps me come back to it at a later stage and regain my thoughts that occurred to me when I first read the text. Unfortunately, this was not possible in the online version.

• 
  
  Strain on the eyes: Staring at a computer screen for several hours (which most people in the Bay area especially do these days anyway) has its challenges as everyone is aware. Interestingly, I didn't quite feel the strain because I read the book at a steady pace of one or two chapters a day.

• 
  
  Impact on book sales: As a published author myself, I have often wondered about the impact of providing books online on the actual sale of the book. I am convinced that by and large it will help in the sale of the book. In my case, I don't think I will buy the book (I might choose to buy a used copy or a paper back version if it ever comes out), but I have mentioned this book to so many people, who might otherwise not have known about it. So in the final analysis, I believe that providing the entire book online will only help the sale of the book and won't necessarily hurt it. Its akin to distributing free copies and should be considered as "marketing" for the book.

• 
  
  Makes piracy easier: Just as there is rampant software piracy in many part of the world, making a book available online makes is so much easier to copy and distribute these books. Unfortunately, this only makes it easier for those who indulge in such unlawful practices. The reality is that in the final analysis I don't believe this will negatively impact the book sales. These were sales of pirated copies anyway and will remain so. Given that we don't have a solution to prevent piracy in general, I guess its of little use to worry about this issue.

• 
  
  Online versions of book likely to increase: I am fairly confident that a day will come in the not too distant future where all published books are available for those to prefer to read it online, irrespective of whether they are free of charge or for a price. There might be interesting technologies and creative business models that add variations to how published books are made available online. But I strongly believe that this is an emerging trend that is here to stay. Besides, the whole concept of Creative Commons Licensing (which Dan Gillmor's book is licensed under), there could be a great ripple effect in terms of creative work inspired from writings available through this form of licensing.

In summary, its great that thanks to the Internet, its possible to read a book entirely online. I had always thought about it, but never really gone through the actual experience of reading a book online. I am glad I did, and happy that I actually liked the first book I read online. This article was not necessarily meant to be review of the book, though I feel the author has done a fine job of capturing this new phenomenon of blogs (the concept of grassroots journalism and the citizen journalist is really powerful and cool!), where the there are so many unknowns as the technology and usage matures.

Relevant links you might want to check out:

• Stanford Law school Prof, Lawrence Lessig's website (the spirit behind Creative Commons Licensing)


• Website directory from this book


• Chapter 8 of this book (a great insight into the latest and greatest)


• Sun exec Jonathan Schwartz's blog


• Microsoft's official blogger


• Back to Iraq (the story of how several unknown people contributed $ to sponsor a guys's travel to Iraq to cover the recent Iraq war)

The new Moore's Law

Michael Moore has more than been in the news these days. Sorry my semiconductor junkies, Senator McCain's "disingenuous film maker" is making more painless news these days than the entire slumping semiconductor combined. The slump incidentally is led ironically by Intel, founded by none other than the other "Moore" we all know.


The other day I was talking to a friend of mine and he said he read somewhere (San Jose Mercury News?) that there is a new Moore's law! Its as follows:


"Michael Moore's notoriety doubles every 18 months!"

Foreigners in India

There has been a lot of press about outsourcing and its impact on cities in India. In fact, its very common these days to find foreigners on the streets of major Indian cities. And these folks are not tourists, but people who live and work in these Indian cities.


When I come across such articles, I am reminded of a hugely successfully Tamil film (starring Rajnikanth) in which a comedian by name Janakaraj, portrays a tea shop owner who pretends to know English. In one scene, a foreigner (a white in this case) walks up to the tea shop. All excited, Janakaraj brushes aside his friends and says "Saar, I will tell you ever thing that is in this shop saar...we have tea, bun, vadai ...". The man turns to him and says in the local dialect, "Oru single chaya, rendu masaal vada".


Don't be surprised if this happens some time in the not too distant future in Chennai!!

More than what you want to know about Home Water Heaters

Has the water heater in your home stopped working? If yes, trust me, "I feel your pain". Read on, this can be useful to you. If not, read on anyway, your water heater bust might just be around the corner.


The water heater at home simply stopped working one fine morning. I didn't quite realize that this had happened until I was half way through my shower and noticed that there was no sign of hot water. I grew up in Madras (now Chennai in India) where it is hot and humid all through the year. One of the positives of this awful climate, is that you never had to care for hot water. Growing up there I had become so used to having cold showers that I continued not using hot water even in winter after I had moved up to Kharagpur (in the eastern part of India). So when the water heater stopped working it wasn't exactly too difficult for me to continue my normal life without hot water. Besides, my wife and kids are travelling in India and as long as I got the water heater fixed or replaced by the time they return, I was in good shape. So I decided that I was going to research the "water heater vertical" and explore the market a little. I also sought the help of my lab partner from college to see if he still had his magic touch. No luck, unfortunately. My wife who was terrified at the thought of not having access to hot water on her return that she sent me daily emails to check on the status.

My first step was to visit the water heater which by the way, is installed in the garage in most houses in the SF bay area. Its a cyclindrical piece about 4-5 feet in height, installed on raised platform. On my first visit, I merely looked at it carefully and turned a few knobs hoping that I might miraculously get it to work again. No luck. There were a few notes on it about how to "light" it etc. I decided not to take a chance. There was a flyer right next to it from a company named Water Heaters Only. After close examination, I noticed that the water heater brand said "State Industries". So I now had two sources to call for help. Being a web-addict, I promptly "googled" water heaters and gathered a couple more leads on possible sources of help. My wife shot an email to the local home owners blast email list and got a couple more pieces of advices. (Off the 50+ registrants on the list only two responded. One neighbor provided some tricks on how to get it to start working again, another referred us to Water Heaters Only. In any casr, here is the scoop (while it is still fresh in memory)on what I eventually ended up doing.

• Water Heaters Only: This company is a contractor who resells Rheem, a particular brand of water heaters. They quoted me $920 for parts, labor, installation etc. They never mentioned anything about requiring an approval from the city. (the city inspectors are supposed to pay a visit and ensure that the installation was good to meet standards/codes etc.)
• Allied Plumbing: Similar to Water Heaters Only, except that they deal with Bradford-White brand of Water Heaters. They quoted me $820 all inclusive after visiting our garage. They were honest enough to inform me that city permits/clearance is required and if they took care of it, it would cost an additional $100. (In short, I knew after these two discussions that I am looking at $800+ on this endeavor!).
• State Industries: Given that they are the incumbent, I decided before hand that I had some leverage to negotiate a deal. Unfortunately, they didn't quite seem to care. (In fact, the guy from Water Heaters Only told me that they used to install State Industries Water Heaters at one time, and that they actually went bankrupt and they had too many support problems!). They gave me a quote of $875 without a visit. I had to mentally add a margin for some additional $$ because these folks had not visited
• Home Depot: Another friend of mine had informed me about Home Depot as an option. On visiting the website I noticed that they had a "Free Inspection". I promptly signed up for one since they promised a response within 24 hours. 48 hours went by and I didn't even receive an email acknowledgement! Given that I had three other options and my time was running out (family will be back soon!), I called up the 800 number listed on Home Depot's website. I was promptly informed that the website was incorrect and that they don't provide any free inspection!! They howver offered to pass me on to a "sales specialist" who could potentially give me a quote! After some interrogation, my lucky number was $739.08. I figured this was my lowest quote, the heater brand was GE, plus maybe another $100 suprise additional charges since they had not visited my garage as yet. So I went ahead and ordered the purchase and installation. On the scheduled time the expert appeared, took at look at it and said there would be additional charges of $280!! I had taken half a day off of work, I had mentally prepared my self for a $800 to $900 hit, so I figured I had to go ahead anyway. I called Home Depot and they feigned innocence pointing to the contracting company that was delivering the service. Understandably, the contractor in turn pointed fingers at Home Depot. After negotiations, the contractor agreed to bring it down from $280 to $200. Totally frustrated, I agreed.

The water heater at home, thankfully has been replaced now. It cost me $900. (I downgraded from a 12 year warranty to 9 year warranty 50G GE Water heater). Its working well so far.

Some Additional Tips:

Your serial number on the water heater should read something like A90**** (the 90 refers to the year when it was first installed. In short if this is over 10 years, you need to replace the heater (or atleast that was the pat response from all the vendors/contractors). Most of the folks who visited my garage site, didn't even bother to see if they could fix the existing heater. It was blanket "this needs to be replaced. Tough luck" feedback.

If you find water at the base, ie., around the water heater. It means there has been a leak due and it is probably one more reason to replace the existing heater with a new one.

Water heater salesman suck or there is simply way too much sales of water heaters. In other words, I got the feeling that they don't really care if you buy or not. I never got a follow on call from any of the folks I approached. So its a sellers market.

In summary, my advice: Get the best deal you can and move on, don't sweat, you need the hot water.

Arundhati Roy's talk in the Bay Area

Arundhati Roy is clearly a crowd puller, especially in the bay area. By the time I got to know about the talk at UC Berkeley on 18, August 2004, the event was already sold out despite the $21 cost per ticket. However, I had the privilege of watching the recording of her talk on Booktv (C-Span II). (I think this was a talk she delivered in San Francisco and not the one at Berkeley). The event lasted about a 100 minutes in all including the speech and the Q&A.


Overall, the content of her speech was interesting and engaging. She read her speech from written text and her responses during the Q&A session were not necessarily as impressive or as insightful as her speech. Her strength clearly lies in writing than in speaking. She is brilliant in word play and has the ability to draw interesting parallels that most people can relate to. Some of the points I recall from the speech (I am writing this from memory and not from notes. Note taking is not my strength, unfortunately!):

• Terrorisim is the privitization of war! (I thought this was a nice way to present the idea)
• Extending her view that George Bush and John Kerry are not very different she drew an interesting parallel about two soaps (ivory coast and one other name I can't remember) both being products from P&G. "You'll have Bush without Bush if Kerry were elected". She said a similar situation exists in India --while she described the BJP as blatantly fascist, she said the Congress party's policies are not very different on most issues.
• The people of a country pay the price for the mistakes of their Govt. In Afghanistan, the people suffered because of the US attack instigated by the Taliban; In Iraq the people suffered because the US chose to get rid of Saddam; likewise the US people suffered the 9/11 attack because of the US govts policy in the middle east. The difference she pointed out was that barring the US where we have a democratically elected President (or so to speak as she pointed out tongue-in-cheek) the others are oppressive regimes. In short, people have been forced to suffer for no fault of theirs. The US population on the other hand, needs to feel responsible for its predicament and can't entirely blame its govt.
• She described Call Centers as an extension of racism. "Sure they are better off because of these jobs, but requiring people to work odd hours, pretend to be somebody they aren't (Rosy , Roxanne etc.), and speak with a fake accents, is a form of racism!".
• When asked about the US, she said she admires Americans and thinks that because the people here are far more well off than the rest of the world, the Americans can mobilize and make a difference to humanity as a whole by influencing the role of Govt. and the military establishment than people any other part of the world.
• She talked about the role of Big Media (how Afghanistan no longer gets press, and soon the same will happen to Iraq, The World Social Forum event held in Mumbai in Jan 2004 got no coverage whatsoever in the mainstream media in India despite the huge turnout. btw, if you care to learn more about this vist the Independent Media Center etc.), the questionable motivation behind several NGOs (their source of funds etc.).
• On Iraq, she thought the US should withdraw and repatriate (and pay in $) the loss. She referred to the "thugerry of Cheney, Rumsfled and Wolfowitz" At one point, prior to saying something controversial she said, "If I have to go to jail, I would rather go to jail in India than here in the US"
• "Sarkar" (govt in hindi) and "public" ("this is now a hindi word used extensively to refer to the people") -- she referred to these at various points in the speech. She said that it was important that everyone understand that sarkar is the servant of the public and are not kings! She described her moving experience of an entire village in the Narmada destroyed by its own people. Apparently, the people in this village were forcibly relocated by the Govt. to less than acceptable new housing in a different area in return for destroying their existing homes.
• She dodged a question about more fiction writing by her or simply forgot to respond to it because the "mc" combined too many questions together.

Immediately following Ms. Roy's speech, one of the folks on the stage innocently said to the camera man, "Can we find out from the camera man if its ok if we did it on the table!" (he was referring to the fact that Ms. Roy was back on the chair after the speech and if it might be ok for her to answer questions while she is seated!" (the guy was embarrassed as soon as the crowd was roaring with laughter at the snafu!).

Overall, I enjoyed the C-Span telecast. Besides, I can't complain having saved myself a painful drive in traffic, plus the certain frustration of finding parking in Berkeley, and the $21 entry fee.

A Few Interesting Links

Like everyone else who has email access, I often get emails from friends with interesting links. Here are a few that I found worth checking out.

• The Political Compass (if you want to know where in the political spectrum you stand personally, there is a quiz on this site which takes about 5 minutes to complete)
• An interesting view about the movie Farenheit 9/11 (the author has a very different take on the movie)
• Hindi Film Music over the web (from 2..0 pm to 4.00 pm PST) from UAE
• Article on outsourcing's impact on Chennai, a city in India. (This article is really long, in fact too long in my opinion, but a good one nevertheless).