my 2 cents....

About the Black monkey...

2007-10-19T06:28:00.000-07:00

The current controversy continues to rage, and I continue to wonder, the relation between monkey chants and racism.
If crowd sentiments and favouring towards the local side are acceptable and understandable behaviours, then dislike for
the one player who perhaps single-handedly took the serious away from the Indians should be just as acceptable.
Doing monkey actions towards him, is perhaps a better thing than hurling verbal abuses. I guess, the aussies, being
the masters of such words on the field, are resilient towards them and hence find them more less "hurting" than calling
someone a "monkey".
One thing that aussies are probably not aware of is about the existence of a monkey-avatar Hanuman, who is worshipped
by hindus across India! Maybe, if Symonds came to know of this, he would start enjoying the monkey chants rather than
feeling "hurt".
Ofcourse, its obvious that the intent of the "monkey chants" is more of an abuse rather than a worshipping gesture, but then
again, the intent is to abuse the top scorer. In my opinion, Symonds is at the butt of these remarks not because he is a black
but because he has consistently taken the match away from India in this future cup series.
Unlike countries like Australia, USA, and UK, racial discrimination and abuse is not a particularly common feature in the Indian
subcontinent. What one is more likely to encounter are discrimination and abuse of a different kind(read sexual or religious).

Knowing all this, it is my belief that the "racial" tinge to the whole controversy sources itself from the aussie mentality itself, coz
however much brotherly they might feel, deep down they are consciously aware that Andrew is a "black".
In light of this chain of thoughts, I believe the best way to nip this entire controversy is not by trying to control or moderate the
crowd(coz if that was possible, then it would be a "crowd" it would be a "civilized gathering") but by encouraging the crowd to
be more generous and uniform with their "abuses" and "chants". Why single out Andrew Symonds? Give monkey chants to them
all! ;-)
And the T20 match in Mumbai is last place where this could be achieved!
Go on Mumbai! "Ape" them all~

The Destiny of Potter

2007-07-20T07:35:00.000-07:00

With less than 24 hours left, before the world will know the destiny of Harry Potter in his 7th and probably the last book, I thought about wondering how it could end...
Its a well known fact that authors, when they manage to create a larger than life character, tend to ensure that the character ends with them, so that no other author can continue with the legacy. Call it an intuitive defense towards one's intellectual property, but the world has seen it happen many times. As was the case with Sherlock Holmes, who was eventually wrapped up towards a "the end" albeit a not so happy one, by his archenemy in the final book, as intended by Sir Doyle. That public outcry/or pressure from his publisher made him revive the detective is as yet unknown, but I believe Rowling would be aware and probably would have shared the feelings of ensuring that the Potter saga ends, as and how she has planned.
There is the perennial fear of some other author continuing the story, which could perhaps make her decide to kill him off. Surely, if Voldemort kills him(and gets killed himself), the audience wont really be surprised as by now the-one-who-must-not-be-named has reached gigantic proportions, with his closest adversary Dumbledore also out of the way...
So will it be the end of probably one of the most popular fictional characters in the history of the world?
I somehow dont think so.
Reason? Well I believe JKR is much more sensible. Unlike Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, JKR knows that a movie is set to follow the book. And a happy ending would yield higher and much better revenues for the film.
But after the Rise of the "dark lord" can the boy who survived, keep surviving again and again? And better still manage to kill the murderer of his parents? That, although heroic, and suiting Harry Potter's current image in front of his followers in the wizarding word, would be very hard to swallow.
Due to all this, my prediction is that Harry would succumb to his archenemy, though he would be able to rise again, just like Voldemort himself, and ultimately manage to get rid of the Dark Lord. Moreover, to bring the story to a conclusion(and to avoid possible extension of the story), I expect JKR to settle Harry into a married life(assuming ofcourse that he survives) and/or blast him into the future after which a kid's book would not be that much of a possibility.

How correct my prediction is, I would know tomorrow, when the pre-ordered version should be delievered(hopefully). How I will manage to survive the night, with the pirated e-book so easily available over the interenet, is something that I do not know.

P.S: for those who didnt realise, I am back! ;)

Howz this for an Advertisement?

2007-07-02T04:40:00.000-07:00

I know and understand the technical difficulties that the site might be facing, but surely the occurence of the "24 hour" advertisement on a page that says otherwise is avoidable!!!

Dormant

2007-05-29T00:01:00.000-07:00

The Author of this blog, has reached the juncture in his life, where doing some work and earning his own living has become the need of the hour, thereby the moments when he used to indulge in free thoughts and ponder upon his musings are far and thin.
He will return, with a venegeance, that is a promise.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep
and miles to go before i sleep
Miles to go before i sleep....

~(lots to come from yours truly, very soon)~

Another Sad Day for Indian Cricket

2006-11-27T00:44:00.000-08:00

Another day in the life of Indian cricketers, another ODI, another sad page in the ever increasing group of disappointed and saddened Indian cricket followers...
Will this change?
...Ever?

For a long time it had been said that Indians(cricketers in particular) lack a certain quality known as Killer Instinct. In simple terms it is an instinct to go for the kill when the blood of the opposition is smelt. Putting it even simply, the Indian cricket team lacks aggression. As a follower of ardent follower of Indian cricket, I had often ridiculed this statement and even the neccesity of such an instinct in sports like cricket; but the more I see of the "new-age"[read Chappell-Dravid led] Indian cricket team, the more i feel that the above said remark is not just a statement but a fact, a bitter truth. And the sooner the Indian team realises it, the better it is!

For ages, Indian pacers had lacked the need of giving the batsman a cold look after a good ball, and even the need of bowling bouncers as a weapon has been long ignored. The players refuse to indulge in the art of sledging. In a way its almost like its a group of "nice guys" finishing last in what is called the Gentlemen's game.

Which is why, I for one, was pleased when an Australian captain, became the coach of the team. I believed that this would bring some much needed aggression or "Killer Instinct" into the players. I guess the BCCI followed a similar though process, but that was not to be.
After all this is not a Hollywood or Bollywood mushy story in which the nice guys get some guide to push them in the right direction (of the heroine) and a happily-ever-after ending...

Good guys,more often than not, finish last. Its high time that the players realised that.
Letting the South Africans off the hook, after 73/6* and 137/7* is something that really astounded me. I was shocked by the lack of aggressiveness in Rahul's captaincy. Enough is being said about India's repeated batting failures, but for this match, I will just continue to wonder how the hell the SA team reached 274 after being 73/6*. Why was Zaheer Khan saved for end-game, instead of pushing for the kill and making it the end-game then and there? Why wasnt Sachin(having gone for an economy of <4 in that match and also in the previous match) brought on when all the bowlers were being belted left right and center?!What was the point of persisting with a noticable-off-colour Harbhajan Singh when he was bowling atleast 3 loose deliveries every over? Why continue with complete pace attack when fast ballers can be hit farther?
All these question ridiculously simple in hindsight, but I for one believe, that a good captain should have been able to think of and counter atleast a few of these questions on the field!
After the dream start, the Indian bowling and captaincy were appalling to say the least. Having said that doesnt mean that I dont blame the batting for the loss. On a batting pitch, the absolute lack of approach by the Indian batsmen was shocking. One would have thought that after the Durban rout, the batsmen would have atleast tried somewhat to take responsibility or in Guru Chappell's words "stand up and be counted". I fail to accept it that a team which has in the past successfully chased 350+ runs fails to cross even the 200 run mark with the batsmen taking some initiative.
Sehwag, surprises me with his absolute lack of care with regard to his consistency. Playing the natural game is fine, but India cannot start 9 out every 10 innings with one wicket down! There has got to be some sense of responsibility!
Sachin Tendulkar, with his return, had showed some promise of return of the days of yore, but disappointed yet again. A batsman of his calibre should not be getting out in that manner at such crucial junctures.
Dravid, will you please return to number 3 position?! And why have you gone back to being a test batsman yet again?
Kaif, Rhodes gauranteed his place in the team only by improving his batting and consistency. You are good in the field but that alone cannot and should not reserve a slot in the playing 11.
Dhoni, lone performer yesterday... but these performances need to be more consistent!

Will this tunnel ever end?
Will there be a light at the end of tunnel?
Will Indian Cricket team ever touch the heights that it has long promised of achieving(atleast on paper)?

*For accurate scores, refer to a cricketing website like cricinfo.com. The scores mentioned in this blog are from my memory and thereby prone to major errors.

Living in a terrorised world...

2006-11-23T22:34:00.000-08:00

I had very recently sent a courier to a friend of mine, which contained a perfume as a birthday present, wrapped in a gift wrapping and all. I was shocked to have it returned to me after literally being "strip-searched"!
The gift wrapping and the container envelope had both been torn open and the contents analyzed! On contacting the courier people i found out that this had been done by the airport officials, and the package had been returned because it contained a liquid. I am well aware of the new norms casting restrictions on taking liquids(or cosmetics) with you during a flight but this is just plain ridiculous! As far as my knowledge goes, the liquids cannot automatically convert into explosives and explode by themselves, they need a piece of machinery (which could easily have been discovered in an X-ray scan) or manual triggering for that to happen!
I fail to understand whats all the paranoia with sending a courier containing a liquid in it. Is it just in India or is it a worse situation in west(which are usually said to be much more easily scared), is something that i wonder...

Aah the banes of living in a terrorized world.

Thank you Mr. Osama Bin Laden(and the other major contributors).

Sometimes, the best driver doesnt win...

2006-10-23T21:35:00.000-07:00

Schumacher recieving award from Pele awarded
by the FIA in recognition of his achievements in F1

What a race it was, F1 ace Michael Schumacher fought bad luck to prove that he is still the best! After a mechanical failure during qualifying, MS had to start from 10th position on the grid, but from the start the determination was there for all to see. Then a daring overtaking maneouvre on Fisichella which bordered on being maniacal and brilliant, but bad luck that has been haunting him since Japanese GP came to its full fore and MS and a puncture pushed him back to the end of the grid.
Still determination, grit and most importantly uncomparable talent was on display for the rest of the race as Schumacher ran on a full tank and yet progressed up on the charts. He passed the backmarkers only to be stuck behind Fisichella again, but this time Schumi's relentless pressure drove Fisichella to do a mistake and in a flash Michael was on P5, chasing his substitute for the 2007 season, Kimi Raikonnen. But next year is a different story and Raikonnen was playing for Mc Laren this year, so any hopes that Raikonnen would let the overtake be easy, were dispelled when he fought hard against Schumi's first maneouvre pushing him back. But after this realisation dawned on MS, he had none of Raikonnen's defensive drive as he overtook him by sheer pace. Next was Jenson Button and a podium position but just 2 laps to go and Kimi's defensive driving had increased the gap so much that there just wasnt enough time. Time was the only factor that Schumi couldnt conquer, and this was proved when Schumacher's drove his penultimate lap, the fastest of the race, over half a second quicker than team mate, and the GP winner Felipe Massa’s best!

Inspite of such brilliance, Schumacher was let down by bad luck through his car's mechanical failures. All the followers of F1 know that it is a team game, where the machine is just as important as the men, but just this one time, my heart wished "let the best man(driver) win"...

Schumacher’s competitive Formula One career may be over, but true to form, the great man entertained us to the last. Thank you Michael.

[Read about Michael's records here]

My favourite Hindi Poem

2006-09-27T22:35:00.000-07:00

World Champions of cricket...also of being cry babies!

2006-09-25T03:06:00.000-07:00

In the India vs Australia match of the DLF cup, one thing was highlighted. Australia might be the World Champion team right now, but they are also the among the worst(if not THE worst) when it comes to having sporting spirit.
In my opinion, the Indian team deserved to lose. Yes, you read it right, any team whose top order cant show any sense of purpose or determination in chasing as miniscule a target as 213(especially when the innings total of 400 has been reached four times!) deserves to lose.
But, in my opinion, Australia didn't deserve to win! In fact they won by default. I was totally shocked at the behaviour of the Australian captain Ricky Ponting. His display of anger at Sachin's wrong dismissal being reversed just went onto show how much of a cry baby he is! Is this the same person who was upset because he was run out by a substitute fielder? I wonder how he would have reacted if he had been in Sachin's shoes at that time! In fact it shocks me that Ponting was allowed to get away with a behaviour like this, when this was the third occasion in which he had shown dissent and argued with the umpires!
And then, with a captain like this, who can blame the wicketkeeper and the rest of the team for going up in appeal for Harbhajan Singh when there was not as much as a faint sound that came there. In fact, it might have proved to be a good thing that Gilly wasnt playing, coz knowing how much of a fair player he is, he wont have appealed on the non existent nick, and Bhajji might just have given India a deja vu and taken it to victory....
But well thats one thing that we will never know............

PS: Dinesh Mongia, after the match, went on to say that he "had faith on the tail" and that he knew "they can throw their bat around". I got quite confused by this, if he knew they could throw their bats around then what faith did he have? Didnt he realise that throwing their bats was not the call of the hour? Couldnt he have given them the simple instruction to defend and play along the ground each and every ball that they faced?! If only he would have had that much common sense, he might have been called a "match-winner" today. Alas.....

One Genius Retires, Another Returns

2006-09-20T21:52:00.000-07:00

bye bye Schumi is passe,
Welcome back Sachin is IN!
What an innings vs WI it was. To call it a masterful knock would be the understatement of the year. It was a perfect innings, with one slight blemish right at the beginning. The best thing about the knock was not how Sachin paced the innings, or how he carried his bat(stayed not out till the end) throughout the innings, neither was it the way he exploded in the end to carrry India over the 300 run mark. The best part about that innings was that it was an answer to all the critics who have managed to voice their opinions on how Sachin is now "past hist prime" et al. And What an answer it was!

Many a times it has been said that Sachin has not performed when required from him, well Sachin performed when it was required. The only batsman to support him was Irfan Pathan and Sachin relished the opportunity to accomplish his 40th century. Alas, the critics still had their say because ultimately India lost the match[more about the insanite of D/L in this situation later], but in the third match of the series Sachin delivered yet again, this time the only suport he got was from Harbhajan Singh, who is usually known for his ability with the ball turning and sometimes for throwing his bat around for getting some quick runs. On this occasion it was able support for Sachin, getting a few good shots, some clean hits down the ground as well, giving Sachin much needed support and a good stand. Ultimately it was this stand that took India to somewhat modest total, and ultimately it was Deja Vu for the West Indian team supporters (1983 WC final).
The best part in yesterday's innings for me was not how Sachin held his ground but the anguish when he got that freak dismissal. There was huge disappointment written clearly on his face. That to me shows that this man is out there and he is VERY HUNGRY for runs. May he get thousands of more runs and may he take India to many a series win(WC 2007 Included). Amen!

Coming to the Duckworth Lewis rule, In my opinion the latest rule change from ICC, cutting down of minimum length of innings to 20 overs from 25 for application of D/L, is totally insane. Mainly because the first 20 overs are the ones that the fielding captain chooses to use the Power plays, therefore giving the batting team a chance to take risks and get some quick runs. In future it would hold teams in good stead, if they would delay their power plays in rainy weather so as to avoid falling behind in the net run rate.
What, in my opinion, would be a much better thing to do in rain affected matches is, to take the score after the same number of overs from both the innings and expand them using D/L to 50 overs(to take the exact effect of the wickets lost) so that it is fair to both the teams. If such a rule comes into effect, i believe, it would be a lot more fairer for both the teams, because as of now the declaration of result is more of a gamble! If a team loses more wickets initially, but manages to settle down but just as they were abt to accelarate to reach their target, rain comes and WHAM! they have lost the match.
I think the rules for rain affected matches need a major relook.

But more than that what needs a through look through is the way these tournaments are being organized. Dont localites know what months are parts of the rainy season? Why plan a tournament when such a period is going on? We saw an example of it in Sri Lanka and then again in Malaysia. What baffles me is, that even after the first match was washed out it was well known that there was a high probability of rain for all the matches but only in the evening, so why still continue to hold the matches as D/N? Why cant the matches be shifted to the morning? Or atleast prepone the start a bit so as to get more overs before rain gets a chance to spoil the game

Update: finally the authorities have woken up and the games starting from WI vs Aus(2nd match round) will start 1 hour before the scheduled time.
Note: This article has been written over a large period of time, and therefore there might be some ambiguities in the way things have been mentioned. I started writing this article after the century from the boss, and have finally managed to finish it!

Good bye Schumi

2006-09-11T04:56:00.000-07:00

Another legend says good bye.
After Zidane, it is the turn of a much more famous sportsperson to retire, thankfully though, this time there has been no controversy. Atleast not yet.
Schumacher announced the end of his scintillating career after winning the Italian GP, the home GP for the ferrari team. By winning the GP he has not only reduced the lead of current champion Alonso to 1, but has also shown his will that he wants to retire when at the top. Looking at this GP, I dont give Alonso any chance of winning this year's championship. But then I have always been a Schumi fan...
Good bye Schumi, although my heart desires that you keep racing for ever and ever, I realise that it is not humanly possible for you to do so. You have been the one person who got me hooked on to F1, and I have been the biggest gainer from that. I wish you all the very best of luck in your retired life, and also may you win this Championship to go with a BANG!

Time to pull out the kitkats

2006-09-05T23:10:00.000-07:00

As the regular followers of this blog(actually i dont even know if *anybody* falls in this category) might already have realised, i have taken a break for blogging for the time being.
This break has more to do with time management problems rather than any lack of interest in blogging, but the good news is that the tunnel seems to be nearing its end, as I can see light very near.
This blog will be very soon be back with new posts.
And hopefully also a bug-fix!(It had been brought to my notice by a friend that commenting option is not appearing,despite commenting being fully enabled through the settings. I guess it has something to do with the template modifications that I have made)

Till then, lets just take a break :)

Update: As you can see, the pending posts have started coming. Not the "latest" issues per se but these were posts that I had started and wanted to finish.
In any case, the break is over :)

Why Indians must not make fun of Bush

2006-07-24T02:38:00.000-07:00

This post stems from two themes that have been central to umpteen forward mails recieved by me.
First theme is to make fun of George Bush, The US President. Mainly because of his dillydallying stands, incorrect statements or his outright ridiculous policies.
Second theme is of a "Be proud to be an Indian" series of mails. This goes on to show the CV of either Manmohan Singh or APJ Abdul Kalam or both, and then makes tries to prove that the county having such leaders can only have a "brilliant future".

I am sorry, but I beg to differ. Firstly, the stands and the policies adopted by our PM Manmohan Singh's UPA government has in a way proved to me that the reformist and the "economic wizard" that he was once, he is no more. How can any economist fail to realise the potential damage that the reservation issue can cause to the economy? How can he fail to realise the simple solution to the petrol price rise issue? How can a reformist be so unsure of his acts?
[Refer my previous post: My frustrations with the UPA govt.]
How?

As for our highly qualified President, well all I can say is that unfortunately the brilliant mind is nothing more than a signatory to the acts of the UPA government. The biggest proof to the fact being the Office of Profit issue.

Therefore, Indians like me should stop trying to glorify their leaders inspite of glaring fallacies from them, and realise that everytime you are making fun of George Bush or just laughing at a George Bush is so dumb email taht u recieved, our government is just as bad, if not worse.
Dont laugh. Be Sad. Very Sad.
The nation's future is definitely not heading upwards anytime soon. :-(

My frustrations with the UPA government

2006-07-23T22:09:00.000-07:00

Of late, I have been very frustrated with the policies and the paths taken by the UPA government. Agreed, that I never was a congress supporter because ever since i started being aware of politics all I could see was scams and more scams and Congress at the helm, forever(either as the leading party or "outside supporters"). Apart from this, I was pretty satisfied by the policies taken by the BJP government during power and was one of those, very surprised to find them out of power.
Nevertheless, I had made my peace with the decision of the majority of my fellow countrymen, and had not only accepted but also started to appreciate the good things in the UPA government.
I had officially buried my hatchet against the congress, atleast till they are in power.
But off late it seems the government wants me to dig out that hatchet once again. Ofcourse, me being a tiny little citizen in a country having billion others like me, the congress wont really mind me weilding a hatchet. After all what can I do?
But then what have the striking medicos been able to do?
It seems to me, that this government is taking a huge advantage of the the majority and the stability that they seem to enjoy and are fast behaving like they have noone to answer to.

My first and biggest frustration with the government is on the reservation issue. Its not that I am against the development of the people who are lacking and its not even that I dont understand the concept of "poor becoming poorer and rich becoming richer". I understand them both. But my problem is that I understand them much better than the government, or atleast our education minister, Mr. Arjun Singh. Why is there a need to increase the caste based reservation when stats pulled out by all the surveys show that the existing reservations itself are either not being utilized or not benefitting in the manner they are supposed to. Why cant the government understand that reservation based on the economic level is the correct answer when the same has been realised and reiterated by many people from as diverse a fields as politics media and showbiz!
Why cant Arjun Singh just ask himself this simple question, are we giving them (the beneficiaries) crutches for life, or just a push when they need it desperately?
There have been numerous incidents on same people taking advantage of the existing reservations throughout their lives, inspite of being financially well off to afford to explore other options.

My second frustration has been the terrorism/National Security issue. This was one issue which, in my opinion, the BJP handled brilliantly. Firstly, after the Mumbai 7/7 massacre, the PM did not issue any condolence to the public. Sure a condolence cant bring back the dead, but it definitely goes on to say that the PM has taken the loss very personally. The statement on behalf of the PM was issued by Shivraj Patil, our Home Minister, 4 hours after it had all happened and he began the statement with "Our PM wants me to convey to the...". What the hell? why cant "our PM" convey it himself? More astounding is the fact that it took the PM 4 hours to issue a statement(delivered by someone else) while Mrs. Sonia Gandhi issued statement within half an hour of the tragedy!
Furthermore, the "peace process is still on" - "peace making cant progress" statements by our PM shows the uncertainity and confusion that the government was in. Did the terrorists wish to interrupt the peace process? Or were the terrorists directly under Pakistan control?
Well if you dont know then dont say stuff that would make you appear foolish later on!

My Third major frustration has been the two sided nature being shown by the government on the issue of petrol price rise. On the one hand the government kept repeating on various occasions through various spokespersons that it was against an increase in the oil prices, but when finally it did permit the gigantic leap in the price, it just offered condolences to the middle class. Why could it not reduce the VAT on petrol to cushion the blow? Going further, why couldnt it remove VAT from petroleum products knowing fully well that doing this would actually decrease the price of petrol! Some states, went to reduce the sales tax being imposed on petrol, while Maharashtra completely removed it, Delhi partially removed it; but nobody did anything to the VAT. Why?
Agreed, that VAT from petroleum products is a HUGE amount catering to a significant portion of the budget allowance, but was it so hard to realise that such a huge increase in the price would result in the increase in the price of almost *every commodity*?

My fourth major disappointment has been the issue of illegal constructions in Delhi(by the Congress govt. of Delhi). Apart from see sawing on the issue, the government actually went ahead and tried to pass a bill that would partially legalize these structures! On the one hand they kept saying that the illegal structures have to go, but once the sword reached the bigger players, the bill was introduced! Ridiculous!
Similar stance was adopted by the UPA govt at the centre on the Office of Profit issue. Going ahead with accusations when the politicians in questions were from the opposition but immediately changing the stance and even passing the bill to reverse it when the person in question was their own leader. Even more ridiculous is their attempt to re-send the bill to the president as is, even after he has rejected it once!

The tyrannical nature of the government became visible when it chose to ignore or "bend" the rules laid down by the Supreme Court on various issues.

All I can say is that I am terribly disappointed by this government and I sincerely hope that there is a change in, if not the government, atleast the mindset of the politicians in question.

When will the politicians of our country move on from the petty selfish issues that they play with and move on to the more important questions pertaining to national development?! Why do they forget that their main aim should be to build a nation, not to build their bank balances and try and hold on to their seats!

P.S: The needless Vande Matram ruckus raised by the BJP just goes on to prove the oft repeated saying that all politicians are the same!

- A very disappointed Indian

Different views on Zidane's Headbutt

2006-07-14T01:56:00.000-07:00

An artists attempt at how or what was seen by various groups of the Zidane-Mattarazzi incident.
(very humorous!)

How the germans saw it...

How the Italians saw it...

How the French saw it...

How the Press saw it...

How the Americans saw it...(yup every joke
is incomplete without them!)

It has been said that give an artist the proper tools and see what he can come up with. Touche~!

Fifa to investigate Zizou-Materazzi incident:Disqualification of Italy a possibility

2006-07-12T02:19:00.000-07:00

In a surprise statement, FIFA has initiated an enquiry into the Zidane disqualification of the 2006 World Cup final. While it is not new to initiate enquiries into red card disqualifications, but what sets this case apart is the fact that according to Article 55 of FIFA Disciplinary code, Italy, if Materazzi is found guilty, could be disqualified!
What happens to the cup in such a case,though, is not clear. It might be awarded to France or maybe,just mayb, the world cup 2006 will not have any winner at all!!!

All this might just turn out to end insignificantly as FIFA would definitely raise a lot of ruckus if such a ruling is made, but what I find a really interesting question is, what will happen to the betting money, the rewards of which would already have reached the winners!

Download PDF version of Article 55 of FIFA Disciplinary code here

Update: Came across this flash game which lets you be Zidane and headbutt quite a few Materazzi's. How many can *you* hit before the referee sends you off?

How to make a 4Gb DVD video fit onto a 700 Mb CD

2006-07-12T02:05:00.000-07:00

This is a three page/part tutorial, very detailed and very precise(with screenshots) . It covers not only how to copy video from a scambled or encrypted DVD but also how to compress that 4Gb into 700 Mb so that you can burn it onto a CD without much loss of quality.
Read it here

The reason for the headbutt

2006-07-11T05:07:00.000-07:00

Now this seems like a reason that could invite a violent act of rage that we saw!
If this is true, then in my opinion, Materazzi got away light. He deserved a lot more.

Materazzi repeated dirt-talk can arise from only two reasons:-
1) Zidane had participated in a verbal duel with him: if this is the case then Zidane's act is inexcuzable, but from what i saw on the telly i dont think Zidane said much, if anything at all...
Or,
2) This was a part of a deliberate plan of the Italians to make Zidane do something stupid with the penalty kicks just round the corner. If this is true, then I am sorry to say that they might have won the trophy but they definitely lost all respect as sportsmen from me.
As i said before, there has got to be some line after which the shit talk should stop.

All my sympathies with Zidane, and i definitely dont blame him for losing his cool after such a comment for his ailing mother.

P.S: Suhel of Inquizzitive Google has linked to my Zidane article here. He had asked all the members of Inquizzitive to post come comments/remarks on the match, the red card and Zidane. It makes for a pretty nice read [Yup, now you know where i got that beautiful Zidane wallpaper from]

The best of the best comic strip ever.........

2006-07-10T23:49:00.000-07:00

Calvin & Hobbes!
Need i say more?
A few of the best strips of the series choosen by 3 fellas( i aint one of them)

I disagree with choosing a few strips as the best as for me the entire collection of Calvin & Hobbes is a materpiece!

Zidane-The end of an era

2006-07-10T06:31:00.000-07:00

What a match it was! Both teams equally competitive in attacks and again both equally strong in defense. A fitting finale it was, atleast in my opinion. But then there was the incident that not only marred the match but also left a scar in the last of the battles of a great champion.

For those who missed the match, the match started with a lot of aggressive play from both the sides and the first goal of the match was scored by Zidane off a kind-of controversial penalty awarded to France. But the italians came back almost immediately in the 15th minute through a wonderful header resulting in a goal off a corner. After that what followed was over 100 minutes of goalless football. Goalless it may have been, but it was definitely not incident free. Apart from the numerous attempts at goal from both sides the incident of the match, if not the tournament, was what resulted in sending off of the French captain, playing his last match, Zinedine Zidane.

Here is what exactly happened. During an offensive from the French side, Italian defender Materazzi who was gaurding Zidane seemed to be involved verbally with the French legend. As the offensive subsided and the ball returned to the French half, both of them started their movement towards the ball, then all of a sudden Zidane stopped, turned around and gave a vicious headbutt to Materazzi. Thereby resulting in the ouster of both, one by injury the other by red card, for the rest of the match. Here is a gif of the headbutting that i found on the net.

After the match, all i have heard (especially on Radio by a few RJs) is that Zidane was at fault, he should have displayed better sportsmans spirit and everything, and it was his "irrational" aggression that cost France the match.

Taking that piece by piece.
Why is it only Zidane at fault? It is obvious to everyone that Materazzi made some comment that infuriated Zidane to such an extent to stop and return to hit Materazzi Is sledging, even though its a part of competitive sport, an example of sportsmanship? You are out there to match your football skills with another team, so how does trying to force the other into making a mistake(yup thats the justification given most frequently by Aussie cricketers who are renowned for their sledging) figure into the game?
Agreed that holding the nerve is a part of the game and comments like "what a terrible shot", "how the hell did you get selected for the team" are ok for me. But there is somewhere that the line needs to be drawn! There is no way that sportspersons should be allowed to attack, verbally of course, a fellow player in some manner that infuriates the other.
When sexual comments are included in sexual harassment, shouldnt sledging also be considered a foul?
These players are role models for many, and unless such events are stopped, there will be kids who would take to this kind of behaviour.
For me, it is unfair that Materazzi, the initiator of the incident, not only gets away clean but also watches his team celebrate the world cup victory.

next, whats with this "irrational" word? Is it just that the RJ had learnt this word lately and wanted to use it or was she actually in Zidane's shoes that evening to make this kind of a judgement?

cost france the match:bullshit! sure had Zidane been there, the result might have been different but then again it might still have been the same. You cant just blame him.
-*
Apart from the RJ incident, there have been surveys that I have come across asking the people if Zidane's action has forever marred his image as a football icon.
my answer
What the hell?! Are you crazy?! This guy has given all the football fans so many moments of beautiful football, which is why he is the legend that he is. But in my opinion his reaction to Materazzi's comments, maybe a little too brash coming from such an experienced player, have made him respect him more.
Why should a legend take any kind of verbal abuse(racial, personal or whatever) from a nobody like Materazzi(yups he became a "somebody" only thanks to Zidane).

Good bye Zizou.
For me, thou will always be one of the best Football players that I have had the privelege to watch.
Lucky me.

Update: Materazzi's comment

Addiction....

2006-07-10T00:57:00.000-07:00

Additction. What do we understand by this word? The first thing that comes to mind is drugs and that is immediately followed, atleast for me, by numerous warning advertisements that i have come across shouting to me "SAY NO TO DRUGS", and till now i have managed to do just that. And i believe i will be able to say the same 20, 30 or even 50 years down the line. As it is, the first contact against such "addictive" substances is in this age only. The delicate age when we come across addictive substances and not in a position to know any better succumb to the "challenges" of our peers to "try" such stuff. This is the age that we need to be careful and later on when we become more intelligent we will ourselves know that whats good for us and whats not.

This is what i have been taught since my childhood. I guess it started with a scene in a movie in which a college student is literally pushed onto such stuff by calling him a scared cat and what not. I cant name the movie but i distinctly remember getting a lecture after the scene on how I shouldnt think twice about drugs and other addictive stuff. At that time i was wondering what did i do wrong? But i guess my parents were right in teaching me at that time cause i still havent forgotten. Very early in my life i had been taught that Addiction is something that is very bad! And thereby i have been always kind of scared of being addicted to anything throughout my life. Thankfully this fear has saved me and today I can say, proudly(if i may add), that i am not addicted to anything. And neither are most of my friends. Thats the truth.

Or is it?

In the past few years and especially in the last few weeks I have realised that I couldnt have been more wrong!
Till my entire school life, upto the time i went in college i held my naive opinion of being addiction free and strived hard to maintain it. Had read somewhere that Caffeine, the key ingredient of coffee and tea, is a very addictive substance. Didnt really understand how it could be so, especially since my parents used to drink tea rituosly twice a day, and so did most of the other elders that i knew. They couldnt possibly be drinking something addictive, could they?
Throughout my college life, during the countless night-outs numerous friends of mine thrived on tea just to gobble down that one additional morsel of course that might save the exam for them the next day. I religously stayed away from all that and somehow managed to endure all the night-outs, though i aint sure if i studied as much as the tea-drinkers were able to. But then there were some tea drinkers who seemed to gain so much energy after drinking tea that they realised the true meaning of the lives in the death of the night and proceeded to explore and conquer the world rather than try and conquer the exam the next day.

Then, I noticed it. For the first time i saw someone who was actually "addicted" to tea. He was a very close friend and inspite of my numerous taunts he couldnt lose his addiction(i seriously doubt that he even tried). He just couldnt do without it. Tongs, that was what i used to call him often, used to drink 10-15 mini cups(thats what we got in our college) or sometimes 10-15 double-mini-cups(equivalent to 1 regular cup) in a seemingly short span of 24 hours. Sometimes he used the "energy" he gained to study, sometimes to chase his other creative endeavours, sometimes just coz he needed to drink IT.

After my realisation that coffee and tea were indeed addictive I thought i would try and change the habits of my parents(even though i had failed miserably with tongs) before they also became addicted to it. My juvenile thinking failed to notice that 40 or more years of drinking tea would definitely have had them addicted if a mere 10 years were sufficient for tongs. It was then that i noticed the complains of headache that my mom had, the reason? She had her regular cup of evening tea because we were out shopping, or at watching some movie or just outside!
She was already addicted!

Saddened I was, but still I was thankful to her for having given me this priceless teaching of not to get addicted. Still I was proud of not having succumbed to the likes of cocaine, heroin, marijuana, tea, coffee, and the rest...
I was still addiction free.

Or was I?
In my second year of college, I had become enclosed in a very small and very close group of friends. We spent all our time together. We went to college together, we went to watch the movies together, the meals were all together and we even came back to the same apartment that we shared. And then as they say "disaster struck". Due to some reasons, there came drifts in the friendship and fault lines appeared out of nowhere in our seemingly unbreakable bonds. I was in the epicentre of it all and thereby suffered the most(in my opinion of course, I cant even imagine their PoV). Thus came another realisation. These 3-4 months of spending so much time and thought together had made me addicted to this group of people.
I spent almost an entire year trying to come out of the "addiction" and make a new circle of friends, again trying my best to be careful not to be too addicted to any of them.
After that initial ordeal, i was again happy and proud that i had managed to survive a minor tryst with addiction. After all I hadnt succumbed to the addiction of cocaine, heroin, marijuana, tea, coffee, people and the rest...
I was still addiction free.

Was i really?
Nopes, wrong again. Still learning, still jejune and yearning to mature i learnt that i was wrong.
This time my enlightment came from a powercut.
Delhi, as many of you might be knowing, is suffering from probably the worst power shortage that i have seen in my short lifetime. The people are outraged and what the rising prices of essential commodities like eatables and petrol; the seemingly autocratic attitude in pushing the reservation policy et al couldnt do, seemed to have been done by powercut. This is turning out to be the biggest threat to a successive next tenure for the Congress in Delhi(even the centre isnt all that safe).
The worst or probably the best part of the powercut is the fact that it cripples you(of course only when you dont have a genset or an inverter to save the day for you) so much so that you can do nothing. Nothing. Apart from sweating and sometimes also thinking, as was in my case.

It was a night when there were 11 powercuts, spread over 8 hours. Power returned for the duration of 5 minutes before to be taken again for durations like 45mins to 1 hour. All others had managed to sleep off while the room was still cool cause of the Airconditioner and I, being the late night sleeper that i am, got up from my computer seat only after my UPS gave way and i decided to call it a day. Expecting the power to return in an hour, as was the norm.
An hour passed and i was sweating profusely, and electricity came, albeit 15 minutes more than the usual and i heaved a sigh of relief. Thinking that now finally i will manage to sleep and go to office the next day. 5 minutes and a mayb one session of 40 winks later, there was a powercut again. This was also not really exceptional as there were 5 minutes of powercuts occasionally following the 1 hour loadsheddings. 5 minutes turned into 10 and my grumblings turned into full blown abuses for the BSES(the electricity provider for our area) and its employees.
After the initial anger had subsided, and i had again grown used to the sweat, I started reminscing the good-old days when such power outages were not really that uncommon. And we all(including the other dilliwallahs) had accepted it. At this time gensets and inverters became very common until the power situation improved. After which such equipment usually became obsolete and useless. Or so i thought until this night...
Tonight i was wanting more than ever that my inverter function properly.
Thats when it struck me.
Electricity.
I was addicted to it.
I just couldnt do without it. Try as I may, I just cant imagine how people survive in villages sans electricity. I just cant. And i shamefully confess that I, like most people around me, am also addicted to something.

Electricity i believe is too specific a term. We are all, with the exception of the sages residing in Himalayas and elsewhere, addicted to technology and maybe many more things.

Addiction in the end is unavoidable. But i guess the most dangerous and unavoidable type is the addiction to people. I have known for quite sometime that People can be addictive but inspite of that however much i try there have been people who have come close to me and forced me to become addicted to them. And there will always be people who will come close and then move away leaving you sometimes shattered. Thats just how it is meant to be.
Addiction is in our genes and we have either got to stay ignorant about it or accept it and come to terms with the fact of life.

It took me almost 23 years before this myth shattered. And I have still got so much to learn.
Many more myths and misconceptions will be broken. Maybe, just maybe, I will die a learned man...

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep...
And miles to go before i sleep,
miles to go, before i sleep
poem by Robert Frost

PS:This has turned out to be tooo much longer than i imagined. Congrats to those who endured this much amount of bland text in one go!

Books

2006-07-07T02:55:00.000-07:00

A beautifully written article by my friend Shriram. Its a must read for all literary enthusiasts!

PS: World E-Book Fair started this Tuesday(4th July) and will run for 1 month(till 4th August). The claim to have 33K free books for download. You can visit their site and download books from here.

Amazing article on history of Viruses

2006-07-06T05:11:00.000-07:00

read it here

ps:what the hell is the plural of PC virus? is it virii or viruses as the article uses?? i used to think it was virii..........

White House's Reaction to FIFA World Cup

2006-07-06T03:13:00.000-07:00

Got this in a forward yesterday...quite funny!

Disclaimer:If this or any other content on this blog is Copyrighted then kindly inform me and it will be promptly removed.

Tweak to boost ur computer performance

2006-07-05T08:21:00.000-07:00

Note:
1)The following Tweak has been taken from another blog and has been tried by me on my system. Seems to be working fine, but i should not be held responsible for any problems this creates. You may additionally want to browse through the comments left at the original blog post.
2) The following tweak will only work for computers running on Windows XP using IDE drives. Any other OS or computers with SATA drives might not benefit from it.
3) This post is exceptionally beneficial for Laptop owners who fall under the category created by note 2.

The speed at which your hard drive transfers data is very important, right? Especially if you need to copy a 20-gigabyte file, like I did. My laptop was initially copying the file at 2 MB/s because it was transferring in PIO-only mode, which would have taken almost three hours. Not only is PIO terribly slow, it consumes lots of CPU power. While copying that 20-gigabyte file, my CPU usage stayed at 100%. Therefore, I tried to figure out the best way to increase the transfer rate. I changed the transfer mode to UltraDMA-6, speeding it up by 600% to 12 MB/s, and the 20-gigabyte file copied in a little over 30 minutes. Plus, my CPU usage was only about 20-30%.

So, how did the drive get lowered from UltraDMA to PIO-only mode in the first place? Well, because Windows has a particularly dumb way of handling transfer modes for storage devices. After six cumulative (all-time total) errors while reading or writing a storage device, Windows will automatically lower its transfer mode. Worse, it never goes back up unless you reinstall the device. This is bad if you put in a scratched CD, causing those six-in-a-lifetime errors happen all at once. Even your hard drive will experience an occasional hiccup, so eventually its transfer rate is not safe either.

However, there is a setting to force Windows to only lower the transfer rate after six consecutive (in a row) errors, and then raise it back up when the errors stop. Therefore, you can keep your drives in UltraDMA-6 mode.

If you would like to try changing the transfer mode for your drives, follow the instructions below. Going from PIO-only mode to UltraDMA-6 will show you the most significant performance boost. However, your results may vary. Of course, your drive and motherboard must support UltraDMA-6, or you won't see much of a difference. Be careful while you are doing this; I am not responsible for any mistakes you make. Please back up your registry first in case something goes wrong!

How to Check Current Transfer Mode
Open Device Manager
Expand IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers
Double click on Primary IDE Controller or Secondary IDE Controller
Go to the Advanced Settings tab to see the current transfer modes. If you see anything besides UltraDMA-6, and especially if you see PIO Mode, then follow the steps below.
How to Force UltraDMA-6
Open up the Registry Editor.
Navigate to the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}.
There are several sub-keys under this one, such as 0000, 0001, etc. You are interested in two of them that say Primary IDE Channel and Secondary IDE Channel.
Make the following changes to both of those keys:
Delete any attributes named MasterIdDataCheckSum or SlaveIdDataCheckSum. This resets the tracking for errors that Windows uses to determine when the transfer mode should be lowered.
Add an attribute with the name ResetErrorCountersOnSuccess and a DWORD value of 1. This tells Windows that it should lower the transfer mode when there are six consecutive errors instead of six cumulative errors.
If they exist, set the following keys to a hexadecimal value of ffffffff (eight F's). This will change the transfer modes to UltraDMA-6:
MasterDeviceTimingMode
MasterDeviceTimingModeAllowed
SlaveDeviceTimingMode
SlaveDeviceTimingModeAllowed
UserMasterDeviceTimingModeAllowed
UserSlaveDeviceTimingModeAllowed
Reboot your computer and check the devices to see if they are set to UltraDMA Mode 6.

Original post here

Related Article:99 things you can do to improve performance of windows XP

The real face...

2006-07-05T03:36:00.000-07:00

Well I had planned a different post to be my first but i havent got the time to complete it yet, and this seemed too interesting a post to miss, so here goes.....

Any guesses who the following potraits are of?

Well these are supposedly the real faces of Jesus.
the first one is an artists impression drawn based upon the roots of jesus
(he was a dark skinned man(as were all jews @ that time, and he had to be
strongly built since he was a carpenter...)
the second one is what Forensic Science thinks jesus looked like....

if you are wondering why he was potrayed so differently(read white n skinny), in the movies etc
i guess its so as to make the common christian feel closer to him...

herez the article...(with more photos)
herez the printer-friendly(also reader friendly) version of the same article

Off the mark...

2006-07-04T02:27:00.000-07:00

So finally, after a lot of delays i embark upon this journey of sharing my two cents with the world( the indians would understand the significance of the blog-name now, for the rest paise is the equivalent of cent in Indian currency).
After a lot of deliberations, postponements etc today i have finally started this blog in which i will be sharing my opinions and musings regarding anything and everything, from sports to politics to just about anything...
Also, I will post here articles or stuff that i find interesting

Note:All the stuff that i will write here on the blog will be first and foremost as a diary entry strictly for my own pleasure, if u wanna read,discuss or leave a comment u r more than welcome to...Flamers and compulsive critics not welcome

Statutory warning: The views expressed in this blog may vary from indigenously thoughtful to insanely nonsensical. Read at ur own risk...