Sivaji

Watch Sivaji. Not for the story, not for Thalaivar's gravity-defying stunts, not for the comedy and certainly not for the morals. Then why? For these two lovely ladies. Ippudu choodu :-D

1. Nayantara

2. Shriya - no words to describe her, she's flawless!!!

Cool!!!

Hindustan ka Dil Dekho

Folks, if you have not watched the ad for MP Tourism, here's your chance to do so. Catchy, hummable lyrics. Wonderfully executed!!

Egg on the BCCI's face; lets egg on whoever threw it

Finally, someone screwed the BCCI; and as cleanly as it can get. It was something awaited for a long long time. From time immemorial these slimy rascals have been throwing their weight around, dictating terms to players, coaches, television channels, boards of other countries and surprisingly, they even managed to rake in the moolah for all their farting.

Now, making money is no sin. But not utilising the money for legitimate and necessary purposes is a crime. For starters, BCCI does not have a website of its own. For any information, one has to either go to Wikipedia or visit this unofficial site which resembles one of those elaborately designed blog sites through which people either keep asking for forgiveness for taking a long time to put up their new template, keep thanking the people who helped them or keep thanking people who liked the new design. Can any organisation be so unprofessional in this new millenium which is defined by Information Technology? Just to put things in perspective, Zimbabwe whose cricketing structure has been destroyed by politics has a website, and a very pleasant one at that.

Another area where the BCCI has failed to utilize the vast ocean of money it commands, is the improvement of facility in stadiums. See any match played in Australia/England and compare them to the matches played in India. The contrast is stark. Do you think you could "enjoy" the experience of watching a match at the stadium unless you are one of those privileged pass holders or are able to get hold of the VIP seats? Hell, going by the scenario wrt public toilets in India, I could also be forgiven to think that the BCCI is not bothered about the existence/state of toilets in the stadiums.

Training facilities for budding cricketers, a talent development program are some of the other areas where the BCCI should have pumped in money.

Instead, the money that has been hoarded by not spending on vital aspects has been used to bully opponents, buy votes and acquire an arrogant swagger. Any tom, dick and harry can occupy top positions in the organisation. I do not see a single professional cricketer in the board. Instead we have a dual tasking agriculture minister (whose advent has deteriorated both the agriculture and cricket sectors in India), businessmen, tycoons and the filthy rich lot who in my gully cricket playing days used to be represented by the neighbourhood scowl-face who used to take sadistic pleasure in ruining an entertaining evening for the boys.

The lack of professionalism was evident right from the time India were booted out of the CWC 2007. Finger pointing, a lack of urgency, a chalta-hai attitude were all evident in the BCCI's press statements. And the way they dealt with Whatmore resembled a sort of back-stabbing that usually happens in the Indian electoral scene. (I'll write about this sometime using the union elections in KREC as an example) It was at that moment that I got the feeling that finally something was brewing. All these days the unprofessionalism used to be cloaked under timely victories, a sense of "team-work" etc. This time, it was out in the open for all to see. It was there in newspapers world-wide. The arrogance that their over-flowing coffers could achieve anything became too much in-the-face for the people.

And then came the rejection by Graham Ford!!!!

After having been disrobed in public, all that remained was to garland the BCCI with slippers, blacken their face and parade them on a donkey. This, Graham Ford has achieved in style. People might say that he used the BCCI offer to up his pay at Kent, but this is precisely why the BCCI should have had a transparent process with a pool of candidates who would be evaluated. Remember how Chappell was selected?

All said and done, the BCCI's plight can be described by way of a Dire Straits song 'Telegraph Road' with minor modifications as follows:

Then came Greg Chappell
Then came The World Cup
Then came Ravi Shastri
And finally 'came' Ford
Then came the rejection and the shutting of the door
Which proved that the BCCI is an unprofesisonal board

What's the way out? The BCCI has to first admit that it's sorry for carrying out shadowy business. The selection of the next coach should start with that basic of communications called an ADVERTISEMENT inviting Expressions of Interest from interested individuals. The process should be transparent with former Indian players and present players also being provided an opportunity to have a say. And please, don't gag the captain and other team members from speaking to the media.

What has happened is a national shame, yes!! But right now, I am extremely proud of the humiliation since it has happened to that inept, slimy BCCI.

'Spit-fire' the spitters

It was official all these days; it was statistical upto now; it was written about by foreign returned people; but now it's personal. The wretched Indian habit of spitting on the road has finally ripped apart my sad air of helplessness which was characterised by the statement, "Why are some of my fellow citizens like this?"

It's true, for any issue to affect your conscience, you need to be a victim or in my case a part-victim.

The scene: normal traffic signal at Priyadarshini signal, Chembur. Waiting for the mandatory 4-5 minute signal to turn green; when all of a sudden I find something like a red pepper flake that is generally consumed with pizza on the Mumbai Mirror that I am reading. This was simultaneously accompanied by THAT FAMILIAR SOUND; of someone spitting. Rage overtook me and as I looked out of my auto, I saw an aged man in some high end air conditioned car hastily rolling up his window.

"Bastard!!", I said, which would have appeared to him as being mouthed. A look of disgust and a shrug of my shoulders conveyed what I wanted to him. And for a change from my usual shy behaviour, I held his gaze for a full minute and wagged my finger like a primary school teacher admonishing her wards.

"Sorry", said the bastard (I hope) which appeared like being mouthed.

Such defilers should be punished by making them perform fellatio on an Ingram with the climax being that the trigger is pulled.

And holy-fuck, I bet this aged bastard would be a 'respected' individual in his society; giving fundas to the youth on how they should behave; complaining about how the BMC has fucked Bombay etc. "Arre, behenchod!! You are the problem."

Thank You God for saving my white shirt!! Thank You Mumbai Mirror for handling THAT flake.

Prairie Wedding

This song is the one that's got to be the signature song of guys whose fate is to have an arranged wedding. And just for the record, please don't draw any parallels with me.

Artist: Mark Knopfler
Album: Sailing to Philadelphia

We only knew each other by letter
I went to meet her off the train
When the smoke had cleared and the dust was still
She was standing there and speaking my name
I guarantee she looked like an angel
I couldn't think of what I should say
But when Adam saw Eve in the garden
I believe he felt the selfsame way

I handed her up on the wagon
And I loaded up her trunk behind
She was sitting up there with the gold in her hair
And I tried to get a hold of my mind

Do you think that you could love me Mary
Do you think we got a chance of a life
Do you think that you could love me Mary
Now you are to be my wife

We finally headed out of the station
And we drove up the home trail
And when we came on the farm she laid a hand on my arm
I thought my resolution would fail
And I froze as she stepped in the doorway
Stood there as still as could be
I said I know it ain't much, it needs a woman's touch
Lord she turned around and looked at me

Do you think that you could love me Mary
Do you think we got a chance of a life
Do you think that you could love me Mary
Now you are to be my wife

We had a prairie wedding
There was a preacher and a neighbor or two
I gave my golden thing a gold wedding ring
And the both of us said I do
When the sun's going down on the prairie
And the gold in her hair is aflame
I say do you really love me Mary
And I hold her and I whisper her name

Do you think that you could love me Mary
Do you think we got a chance of a life
Do you think that you could love me Mary
Now you are to be my wife

Lyrics apart, the song is so so so so seductive. You just got to hear it

How the Russians Influenced Hollywood

We have all seen the disclaimer in Hollywood movies, "All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.".

Ever wondered from where this statement came into being? You will be surprised to know that a Russian; infact a Tsarist era nobleman is the driving force behind this.

Read about the nobleman and the origins of the disclaimer.

The Abel Prize 2007

This year's Abel Prize has been awarded to Prof. Srinivasa S. R. Varadhan of the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York:

for his fundamental contributions to probability theory and in particular
for creating a unified theory of large deviations.

The citation released by the prize committee reads

Probability theory is the mathematical tool for analyzing situations
governed by chance. The law of large numbers, discovered by Jacob Bernoulli in
the eighteenth century, shows that the average outcome of a long sequence of
coin tosses is usually close to the expected value. Yet the unexpected happens,
and the question is: how? The theory of large deviations studies the occurrence
of rare events. This subject has concrete applications to fields as diverse as
physics, biology, economics, statistics, computer science, and engineering.

You can also read the citation in Hindi. Read this article to know more about Dr. Varadhan.

Apart from Calculus, probability has been one of the most fascinating branches of mathematics. Countless frustrating hours have been spent in solving problems on probability from The Challenge and Thrill of Pre-College Mathematics. In hindsight, the effort has been completely useful. It has taught me the art of sitting at my desk for long hours while trying to solve a tough problem. Going further, it really made my job during engineering really easy. The confidence to tackle problems out of the comfort zone was also sown by those solving sessions.

An earlier article I wrote on the Abel Prize.