December Diaries-2
As the inter IIT sports meet began, the action started to unfold on the pitch. Day 1 saw very well contested matches between all IITs.But IIT Madras contingent stood out in terms of its vocal ( or shall i say "expletive") cheering of its teams, which lead to it being noticed by the disciplinary commitee and appropriate warnings beings issued.

The IITM cricket had a bad start ( as usual!), with Kharagpur giving us an 8 wicket drubbing.
So we were back to the familiar situation, wherein which every match was like a knockout; there was no room for mistakes left.
So after all the build up to the Bombay game, the game finally began. We won the toss and decided to field after learning from the previous days horrifying experience batting first. Things went to our liking for a change. (Yes! this team had not seen victory for two years.. so anything remotely positive is always exaggerated!) Thanks to an excellent bowling performance from our spin trio , we were able to bowl out Bombay for a meagre 106 in 25 overs.
The bowlers had done their job, now it was time for the batsmen to stand up and be counted. However, that was not to be. Within the next hour, from being in a position of strength, we were practically out of the match at 65/8 first at and subsequently 69/9. The captain for some strange reason,( which later he claimed was part of " team strategy") kept pushing me down the order untill there was noone left to send but me. It was a familiar situation for me, having been in a situation similar to this on two earlier occasions,both of which i ended up being on the losing side.I was not thinking of that; I still dont know for sure what actually was running through my head when i walked in to bat.My captain whispered to me his desperate hopes as in walked in.One thing was sure, I was in a defiant state of mind. The first few balls i faced, i never thought of the target in mind.( which at that point of time was 39 in five overs)I was just trying to connect the ball and stay calm while the bombay fielders were barraging me with their "words of wisdom".
Me and my partner somehow managed to spend three overs there without getting out and soon we got to the situation where 26 runs were needed of two overs. I still never thought we could make it, but i did not want to get out and that kept me going. A leg spinner was to bowl the penultimate over. He had been bowling an extremely tight line and the wicket was assisting him with a lot of turn and bounce.Despite this,My partner and me decided to chance our arm against him,since the bowler at the other end was far more difficult to slog against. So off the very first balll i danced down the track and hit him straight to the fielder on the boundary,who let it slip through his legs to cross the ropes! The pressure was on the bowler now, and he panicked and fired a ball down the leg side to get a stumping, only to find that the ball beat the keeper and go for a boundary! Suddenly we needed 13 runs from 8 balls, and the bombay team was getting all jittery and nervy on the field. we managed another four runs of the over and brought the equation to 9 runs required of the last over.
We applied enough pressure on the bowler to make him panic and thanks to some absurd cricket from bombay(overthrows, wides, misfields) we brought the match to within shooting distance( three runs of one ball). It was only then that i started to believe that we could actually win the game. I was at the non striker's end and told my partner to hit straight no matter what the ball was. Just before the ball was going to be delivered i stopped the bowler on the pretext of tightening my shoelaces,in an attempt to piss the bowler off and make him do something stupid.Then the final ball was bowled. Well what happened still baffles me, as Bombay committed harakiri by literally gifting us three runs for a shot which deserved no run! We ran the first run and then two runs off an overthrow and i cannot explain the feeling that was running through my head. The next few minutes were the best moments in my life. I had for first hand witnessed a miracle! My teammates came running after me, but i just wanted to keep running and running. The adrenalin rush subsided and i finally lay on the ground, when all on my teammates pounced on me in celebration. Those scenes of ecstasy and joy are still running through my mind as though it was just yesterday.
That victory changed it all. It gave us the confidence to go on and win every match after that, and eventually win the cricket gold, which led IIT Madras to beat Bombay in the overall championship by two points! Yupp, it was redemption for the Madras cricket team and me personally after the disappointments of last year.

December Diaries -1
As part of my annual schedule, december is the month which takes me touring to a new IIT. So here i am, in the far east, at Guwahati(actually 45 mins from the main city in a place called Malegaon). The campus is scenic, with mountains,lakes, and the mighty Brahmaputra flowing very close to it. It feels as though you are in the english countryside,with all the natural beauty around you. But with that stops all the praise about that place!
The place is deserted, with absolutely NO LIFE around campus. Inside campus, the story starts and ends with the word CONSTRUCTION. There is just so much being constructed, that it hardly feels like a college campus. But i guess, one has to expect that considering the fact that it has been only a decade since its establishment.

The IITM contingent was here two days prior to the start of the event, so we got sufficient time to acclimatise to the conditons. The weather is just perfect, hot during the day( a day which turns to night at 5 in the evening!),and chilly during the nights. Let me just say that the weather was very romantic!The sporting facilities for all sports are pretty good with the exception of the cricket ground, which according to the director of IITG, was made by filling a swamp 3ft deep with mud. No wonder you get that sinking feeling now and then!
Thats part one of my diaries, More about the actual action later.....

I'm back!

Well, finally I have tasted victory on the field!

Yes, after countless number of attempts at trying to emerge triumphant in a match, IIT Madras has finally won a match. The last time I was part of a winning eleven, I was, a naïve young boy, finding my feet in the team, and all I cared about was to see to that I don’t make any mistakes. Things have changed significantly now, (indicative of how long it has been since this victory!) with me having become an integral part of the team.

I am expected to keep the spirits high even during tough times and my performances tend to play a significant role in match outcomes(although today despite my non performance, we emerged victorious; that’s why they say, “ There is no I in a team”) Moreover, when I made my debut, I was purely a bowler coming at No.11 to bat, while now, I am looked at as a bowler has can contribute a quick 20-30 to the side and keep the scoreboard ticking over.

All these are just the superficial changes. At a deeper level, the game has taught me a lot of lessons. Yes, I might be sounding all philosophical and all, but It is true. I have learnt how to handle setbacks, both in sport and life, in a more sedated manner. During the course of the last year, I suffered a fracture of my thumb, which sidelined me from the game for half the year. That period was extremely frustrating. Sport has been an integral part of my life from a very young age, and this was the first time that I was in a situation where I had to stay away from the field for such a long time. Initially I found it difficult to divert my energies towards other aspects of my life and learn to live a life without sports. It was during that phase of a wavering mind that I developed a very good friendship with two people, whom I count today amongst my closest friends. It was as if they were my guiding light during that phase of my life. Both of them inspired me to look at other aspects of life and widen my horizons. I have learnt a lot from both of them, and friendship with them has been one of my biggest gains of life. Due to the sudden void that had developed in my daily schedule, I suddenly found time to do a lot of “other” things. I found that I could spend time with my academic work and suddenly I developed this great desire to learn more from each one of my curriculum subjects. I discovered the abundance of wealth of knowledge that was present in the library, of which I had absolutely no idea until then.

One of the close friends I talked about earlier, kept me constantly fit, by getting me to start running. Running, contrary to popular opinion, is more a challenge to the mind than to the body. Like they say, “If you think can or if you think you cant, you are always right.” When you get tired after running for a while , your body wants you to stop, but you have to tell your mind to step in and take charge and push the limits of your body.

It taught me to keeping increasing my pain threshold and to still keep going, while enduring the pain. I learnt to enjoy the pain beyond some point and suddenly no distance seemed insurmountable.

Thus, today when the winning runs were scored, all what had taken place during this long time period started to hit me in my head. This spontaneous emotional outburst was at some level due to the magnitude of changes that had taken place in my life over this period. All the losses have made me wiser and more mature. Truly a momentous victory!

“Kya Ye Dil Maange NO more?”
Yes, that’s the question everyone is asking, ever since the pesticide story resurfaced in the media last week. The media is pouncing on the government for not having taken measures to improve safety standards among soft drink bottlers, as recommended by a parliamentary committee overlooking the matter. A variety of opinions have come out; some calling for soft drinks to banned while others asking for a statutory warning to be put on soft drinks, as it is done for cigarettes. Soft drink companies, Pepsi Co. and Coke, are on their part trying their best to contain the spread of this bad publicity by coming clean regarding their production processes. Yes, everyone it is known that pesticides are all around us, whether it be in the vegetables we use or the Pepsi we drink. But the important point here is whether the quantities present are meeting world safety standards or not.
Banning soft drinks is not even an option in this whole controversy. Vegetables are known to have much higher levels of vegetables than soft drinks, so why not ban them too?? In a country where cigarettes are sold openly, despite the fact that almost everyone is aware of the harmful side effects it has, banning Soft drinks can only be called as an prejudiced act on the part of the government. I am wondering that maybe this is the “left” of the government speaking out their jaundiced minds.
Over the past couple of months a number of incidents have made me to think that someone doesn’t seem to be happy with the kind of open and free society we have. First it was the blog incidents, then the proposed bill to curb the media’s reach, then the RTI act being scrapped of its effectiveness, and now this sudden outrage against soft drinks!
Jaswant Singh talked about a mole who was leaking secrets to the Americans a decade ago. Well, from the look of things, the mole is back; only this time he is trying to pull the plug on most cherished right in this country: FREEDOM!

WHY??WHY???
“I just witnessed the most outrageous piece of skill from zizou.It has spurred me on dedicate a piece on my blog for this great legend of football. It was his bald head which sprung him to fame in 1998, when as a youngster he was part of the French world cup winning side, contributing in part with his two goals against brazil. 8 years on, he still has the fire burning in him, and I am sure anyone who saw that chipped penalty over buffon, would agree with me when I say only a player of zidane s class could have done that.”

These were my instant thoughts after seeing Zidane score the penalty in the World cup final against Italy. Little did I know that, what was to follow would be even more dramatic and leave us all dumbfounded. And yes it was bald head again in the thick of the action!With ten minutes left on the clock, a rush of blood through Zidane makes him go head first into Materazzi’s abdomen. An act of utter frustration, he saw red and brought an abrupt end to his illustrious career No wonder they say sport is unpredictable. Within a spate of 100 minutes, the genius went on to being a lunatic..

A true ambassador for the sport , Zidane represents the success of Algerian immigrants in modern French society. His success represents the success of this community. He is also a UN ambassador and has been known to a very philanthropic person.

Sadly though, despite whatever he has achieved and done for club and country, “Zizou” will always be remembered for his last act………..THE ZIZOU!!

No wonder they say in cricket parlance “you are as good as your last innings”.

This is to toast to one of my favourite footballers!

The history of chokers

There are certain cultures which are born to be winners. This seems quite a sweeping statement to make at first, but I have noticed this too many times for it not to be a valid hypothesis. Germany Vs Argentina, the penalty shootout and you just knew that the solid germans would not crumble under the pressure. The way they were walking to take the penalty said everything. The captain, despite carrying an injury, stood up to be counted and delivered the vital kick. Historically, the Germans have suffered humiliation a number of occasions and this lead to their developing a very tough generation of germans which has been carried to this day and age.

In February of 1999, Chennai played host to what I reckon has been the toughest day in any Indian cricket fan s life. India, thanks to a superlative century from Sachin, were on the verge of scripting a historic win against arch rivals Pakistan. The tension in the air was palpable. And , succumbing to that pressure, within a spate of 3 overs , the Indians wound up shop and bit defeat from the jaws of victory. I think somewhere deep within us, is embodied the Gandhian spirit of non aggression, which prevents us to go the full distance. On the other hand, the Pakistanis, are by birth used to fighting for everything, whether it belongs to them or not. This spirit manifests in every action of theirs and sports is no exception.

Another very hard and aggressive culture is that of Australia. A nation, which until recently accepted the queen of England as its ruler, the Australians know how to play and play hard. No wonder, Australian teams are so successful at the international stage In various sports.i attribute their fighting instinct from the nature and terrain of their land. The continent is barren to a great extent, and considerably sparsely populated. In such situations, survival needs one to be tough both physically and mentally. It would make an Indian go bonkers to not see another soul in sight for miles, but not an aussie, born and brought up to live alone and face the wild.

Its amazing how a football match can lead to such a fascinating line of thought!

THE PITCH BATTLE

The world cup of football has many facets to it. One of them is football! Another latent but major battle is between the where multinational companies trying to gain the most out of this sporting extravaganza. Consider the ADIDAS and NIKE fight. Nike, who until a decade back was an unknown quantity in the European stage, is now claiming to be a world leader. On the other hand you have the German giant, Adidas which after its acquisition of Reebok has become the largest sports apparel company in the world.

The world cup is a stage where the world will be watching, and neither of the two major players wants to miss out on the action of the pitch.

As per FIFA regulations, Adidas is one of the official sponsors of the tournament. This in theory, should give Adidas a tactical edge over Nike. But does it actually?? The answer lies in the extent of ambush marketing that takes place during the period of the world cup.

Ambush marketing – a term often hissed in industry circles – occurs when one brand(Adidas) pays to become an official sponsor of an event and another competing brand attempts(Nike in this case) to cleverly connect itself with the event, without paying the sponsorship fee and, more frustratingly, without breaking any laws. Ambush, or guerilla, marketing is as undeniably effective as it is damaging, attracting consumers at the expense of competitors, all the while undermining an event’s integrity and, most importantly, its ability to attract future sponsors.

We saw ambush marketing at its most effective during the 1996 WILLS cricket world cup , when Pepsi, which had lost out to Coca Cola for the official sponsorship, came with a “there is nothing official about it “ Ad line starring Sachin Tendulkar which literally left Coke lost for words.

Even this year, the message from the American brand is front and center, and the sunshine bright: "Joga Bonito." The phrase is Portuguese for "play beautiful," and it's a double-edged dig at Adidas. It reminds us 1) that the world champion Brazilians are a Nike squad, and 2) that Brazil plays a creative, dazzling style of soccer that makes the more conservative, bruising teams (ahem, Germany) seem passionless by comparison.

But Adidas, has been equally aggressive in its “impossible is nothing “campaign, showcasing stars as ordinary mortals who have achieved “the impossible”.

The official ball of the tournament, made by Adidas, is where it hopes to make most of its gains from. The predicted sales figures of the ball are estimated to be around 15 million, for which Nike has no answer.

Another major setback for Nike has been the bad publicity it has received ever since the metatarsal injury to Wayne Rooney, causing him to be doubtful for the world cup. Stories having been doing the rounds, claiming that the Nike boots which Rooney was wearing at the time of the injury were partly responsible.

If you thought the pitch was the only battlefield this summer in Germany, then think again, because the showdown between these two brands is guaranteed to generate a lot of heat, and as a consumer, we have the best seats in town to witness this battle!

A uneventful afternoon
picture this : you go to a movie hall to watcha flick and to your dismay ,there no tickets available. dejected, you would go back home or land up and at some eating joint and curse all those people who are in the comfort of theatre , staring into the screen. well , a similar thing happened to us(Me and vendy) today. but then we decided why not try our hands at bowling for a change....
So we went to this bowling joint and started playing...
first rolls :: both of us fail to hit a pin!!! nice start.. guess things can only improve..
Then Vendy the man who claims to have played this game many a time before, comes up with his first points .
At this point i am thinking of just getting the ball to drop atleast one pin...so i take short run leave the ball and let it glide..and whoa!! i drop all the ten !! not bad for my second ever roll!
and then the rest as they say his history.....
i somehow manage to come up with two more complete strikes (dont know what the exact term is for that..)and our dear vendy also manages to to completely miss all the pins on two more instances!
ah! i was congratulating myself at an extremely well deserved victory,when vendy suggested that we try out the real life version bumper ball called ..hmm.. i dont know..some hockey!
you ae given to knobs with flat bases to slide a puck around a board .

GAME 1
i make a liverpool style comeback from 2-6 down to win the game 7-6 in the dying moments of normal time!
GAME 2
Vendy at his clinical best 6-2 victory, courtsey 4 own goals from yours truly..
GAME 3: the decider
the game is very fast paced, vendy scores early , but i reply back instantly and then disaster strikes as i score 4 back to back own goals to seal my fate!
buoy! that was a lot of fun....

BARCA Vs ARSENAL : the preview
I can’t help but write this blog out of pure excitement and anticipation of the events which are going to unfold tonight.Well the time is ticking and soon the action is going to erupt at Paris. It is going to be the Catalan giants versus the gunners of north London! A few months ago, if one were to predict the finalists then Arsenal definitely would not have even been in the picture. After all, they had to contend with some of the biggest names in Europe like Juve and Madrid. However they have made it and they owe it all to the brilliance of one man, Thiery Henry. Every time when a challenge was standing in Arsenal s face, he stood up and delivered the goods. But the important thing to note is football is a team sport and the remaining 10 do have significant impact on the game. HENRY playing at home might be a threat but if the remaining 10 of Arsenal players are unable to perform , it might be a wash out( which as die hard football fan is not what I want to see, especially after the magic of last years final!) , because the team that they are facing has players who gel well with how the team plays as a whole. Arsenal would look for Frebegas and company to support henry in the midfield.
Barca plays its game in a such way that every move finally ends up with Ronaldinho!
But apart from him, there is a lot of quality in the midfield and in the forwards area, in the form of Lionel Messi, Deco, Etoo etc. the argentine prodigy is tipped to be the next maradona and with the kind of form he has displayed this season, he could be a handful for even the Arsenal defence which has not conceded in a long time. Also , the speed and agility that guily provides to the Barca attack , as found out by Milan, should test Sol Campbell and Co..
Everything is set up so beautifully, let the game begin!!

Our beloved hostel's not so distant past!

I was browsing on the comp when i accidentally fell upon the Nov 2002 edition of our beloved fourth estate( which for some reason or the other like most other things in the campus has vanished all of sudden--read green areas and trees!)
well, when you think of GANGA , the first which does not come to your mind is ACADS! well as per this piece by a certain Vipulv aga( @#!@$!#!#!) the situation was quite the opposite a few years back.... Read on...


Ganga
Ganga will think up a proactive policy to make its residents study harder and RG their classmates. Ganga will lose the drive to participate in all non-essential activities and shall collectively set up mechanisms so that every resident concentrates on his acads(sic!).'Mug Until God' shall be the motto of the Gangaite, (Muggum tathaha Ishwarah) emblazoned in Sanskrit on his T-Shirt too. The security will have the power to whip any student trying to play in the field or be found outside his room during study hours at night. Lights shall not be switched off before 3 am, any offenders' rooms will be broken into and cold water poured on his face. The LitSec shall block most of the books from the Central Library at the starting of the Sem and put them in the Hostel Lib so that only Gangaites may have access to them. Consequently, the average CGPA will still be around what it was because half the denizens will pass away or go into a coma during end sems and get U grades in every course. The other half which get 10 pointers shall return to IIT Madras as Professors.

WOW~!!! can you believe it? guess people would be happy to note that things have changed (for better or worse, I dont know! )

i recommend a reading of this edition..pretty good stuff... hilarious and full of optimism , unlike the present day IITian' s write up's which are full of cynical comments on the system and how they are better off without it!

When I got high….

Life has been too fast off late. Since the beginning of the month there has been so much activity that I haven’t actually been able to take a back seat and introspect. Well, finally I got the time, and the space which I was looking. I went up to the terrace of my hostel and there it was! What I had been yearning for …..SPACE and plenty of it! Amidst the empty bottles of boose and packets of cigarettes and the monkey shit here and there, was where I found the perfect setting where life almost seems to stop. The evening sky was filled the different shades of red blended with blue. The birds were cruising above my head and every now and then one could spot a plane in the air heading towards its destination, the jet of its exhaust clearly visible to the naked eye. The site was perfect. The weather could not have been better with light breezing blowing to prevent me from sweating. I had reached a high (and not by consuming anything!) and a vague sense of elation filled me from inside. Alas! As they say all good things must come to an end and so did this…but it had recharged my mind and me regain my lost enthu! Life is great…….

Looking ahead......

I just finished writing my manifesto for the post of sports secretary. oh no, dont say that i am unanimous (which i am by the way),because there is a contest and that is between me and ........ME! this might sound very wierd but it is true. i realized this today evening while having a conversation with my wingmates that , because i got this on a platter, without me making a ounce of effort to get it, i might just let myself get drifted with the wind.

This has not been a very pleasant year as far as my sports is concerned. whether it be losses or injuries, i seemed to be doing the wrong things at precisley the wrong times! anyways no point looking back now and brooding over the spilt LASSI(ya i hate milk!), so lets move ahead and take a sneak peek at what lies in the future of dhanian and ganga...
hmmm....I see..... very vaguely though.....

• Ganga celebrating a comprehensive schroeter victory!( that would be very nice!)
  

• a gold at inter IIT in the far east(please god please!!)

and the rest of the picture seems distorted.....cant read anymore.....

sport rarely teaches you nothing and all through the losses and broken bones(exaggerating ...I know!) i have realized that you are always a winner ,irrespective of which side you are on!

ahem! just to let y0u all know that I also, through my XTRA sensitive, high end futuroscope see the letters "L I T S O C" being associated with GANGA.....wonder what that could mean.......... anybody???

(DISCLAIMER: this is very emotionally charged piece, so pregnant women and young children are adivsed not to read it!!! )
"Pain excites me."."
these are the words a man who has stared death in the face and come back to conquer the world. Yupp , the texas born Lance armstrong is the guy i am referring to. last semseter , when i had to make a presentation on a personality, i chose armstrong and since then he has been my role model in my life. a week ago , a friend of mine gave me his autobiography to read ,knowing very well that i would instantly love the book! the book captured my imagination, and gripped me completely. At certain stages in the book when Lance describes the his fight to survive, i actually had goosebumps! the sheer nakedness with which he describes the pain and the suffering and also the ecstasy he experiences with every single victory, both, in life and on the cycling track. Many people think that Lance never gave up through the course of his tussle with cancer, but this not true. He was so distraught with life that he was satisfied with becoming a burger eating house husband who would play golf on weekends. This was natural, and expected of anybody who has just miraculously survived death( he was given a less than 50% chance of survival , but in reality the situation was much worse and Lance was informed later about it.)
But, Lance was no ordinary guy. Ya he felt lost, but when he was made to realise that he survived and he had life to live, he came back much stronger and became more mature. From being at the bottom of the cycling world , it took him less than 2 years to regain the number one spot in cycling. But that was not enough for him, because , he yet could not convince himself and the world that he had recovered completely. the Tour de France, became his ultimate goal in life. the race is one of the most gruelling sporting events in the world,and it tests you both mentally and physically.
Well the rest is history and so i shall say no more.
on sunday night when mark boucher hit brett lee to the fence and South Africa had achieved the unthinkable, it just made me a stronger believer in Lance 's motto in life:NEVER QUIT!

VETTY WED

Written below is a concised report of a certain evening in the life of DH(ya thats my new nick....courtsey strong tam boy!)there is purpose behind my posting this on the blog, which i have mentioned at the end of the report. So here goes...(pardon me for typos)
well , sometime in life a kind a vacuum sets in , which leaves you lost for thoughts to ponder over , actions to do and in such cases , nothing makes sense !!! last night was one such night...It began with me coming back from a marathon playing session that included one of the best goals which i have scored in my life(goal no.3673..ya i have maintained a record of every time the ball hits the back of the net!!!) .Fast forward and i found myself at dhaba,along with a bunch of my hostelmates, waiting for food to arrive and staring at my phone, as if expecting a call or something!
Scene shifted to hostel an hour later, and to 255 where we got into one our usual election related conversations, and the whole talk drfited from there to other very mundane issues(like the "false " claim of bale in a paper..for details refer to his blog!) By this stage i was extremely aware of what i was doing....I was filling the VACUUM!
Thanks to the comp troubleshooter aka anush maadher, i was able to successfully upload my picture onto my blog...which prompted me to motivate him to stand for the post of technical affairs secretary.
Soon, i had a visitor to my room, the one and only Jha. This guy always seems to have noble intentions and desires, but somehow fails to live up to them.(No offence meant to Jha, after all how many of us actually have desireS???)He was here for "business" reasons.Suddenly something within me wanted to laugh all the way through the night .... so in comes duck into the picture. He had just lost one of his "limbs"; Yes, duck, like most IITians has six limbs: 4 natural ones and a mobile phone and GOOGLE talk! Our man had for some reason lost the G limb, so he was all paranoid, and was in one of his cranky states. He comes to my room, and when i offer the choice of which movie to watch , he comes up with K3G!!!
So we watched K3G, ( bale entered the party soon enough and suprisingly was game for K3G!!) the stereotypical SRK blockbuster, which takes you supposedly, through a range of emotions; anger, betrayal, happiness, and yes! celebration.The three of us having watched it decided to look at it from a different perspective : a critic s opinion of the whole drama. Well, half an hour into the movie, the three of us could bear no more and decided to call it quits.... in hindsight, a very wise decision. The only thing which kept me watching it for half an hour was the absolutely astounding performance of Kajol as the country dilliwali.
It was 12:30 then....It is 01:30 now.
CONCLUSION:
buoy! does it take time to write a blog or what!

thats me!

hey thats me me and more of me!

Huff...puff...huff...
(P.S: The opinions reflected in the post might be seen as offensive to some, so reader discretion is advised!!!)
The smell of fags heavy in the air.... open skies .... five people( extremely hungry!!!) wait with baited breath for the guy from the kitchen to get their burgers!!!!
Yes, this was the scene at the burger joint where we had dinner today. We were surrounded by "Tam brams" who were smoking their lives away, reflecting on the day that had gone by,and probably looking ahead to their day ahead. While i waited for my Italian burger( pretty cheeesy stuff, i must say!!), one amongst us raised the question : why do people fag? there was a moment of silence, and then..... the burgers arrived!!!! The next twenty odd minutes saw noone speak. Everyone was busy filling their tummies, and so the question was never answered. So , when i ask myself now , i still dont have a definitive answer. What is it that makes a person a light a cylinder of 120 mm length and 10 mm diameter and breathe the smoke that emanates from it?

They say its an addiction, but the addiction is only once you start it. everyone knows its sideeffects. When one smokes, one is not only eating away at one's lives , but is also reducing the lifespan of the bystander. The industry might be a very profitable one both in terms of size and revenue, but sometimes you got to think away from the economics and think of welfare of society while making decisions(YES....economics quiz was today...). The Suprising part is that majority of the people who smoke are educated and are well aware of the consequences of their actions. Yet , they seem to behave apathetic to the situation. Its as if they are at the mercy of the fag . In the remaining world smoking is getting branded a taboo, while in India quite the reverse seems to be happening. The young , with a sudden influx of wealth (thanks primarily to the outsourcing bubble!!), have their pockets full , and are looking for avenues to spend. Smoking to them seems to be the right way to go, beacause:
- its a long term investment..... meaning you will have a monthly amount for it, which keeps increasing.... as you get addicted....the only difference being that the premium is taken at the end - with your life!!!!
- smoking makes you thin and slim....now you can eat more junk food,if and when you get time from your beloved partner--the sutta!!!
- Your friends suddenly seem to take notice of your actions...what you do and how you do them....(although there might be some who would stay away from you....then the next point is for you)
- You need no company of anyone else, You and your sutta are enough.... everything becomes secondary in life !!!!!!!

Its a pitiful situation, that the youth(15-40;forming two thirds of our population;) is being drawn by the bud. The fire is burning, and if it is not put out soon , there might be only ash left to collect!!!!!


"A cigarette is a pipe with a fire at one end and a fool at the other"

A collection of my thoughts

Last Saturday i saw the hindi version of the movie " Paint it Yellow". A light hearted ,yet with deeper message, the movie was a completely miscible mixture( ...just back from a quiz..so pardon me for your using phase equilibria jargon..)of all the various sterotypical themes one notices in cinema nowadays. A overall well compiled product, which leaves you humming its music for a long time to come.The songs of the movie was well slotted and the music was upto what we have come to expect of A.R Rehman-- stupendous!!

There was plenty of cricket action to take note of this week. Well it all began with the pounding that Sri Lanka got at the hands of "Punter" and a certain bloke named Andrew Symonds!!!
It was a show of strength from the world s best cricket team on why exactly they are number one.
Having lost the first final, the pressure was on the men from down under, and to say that they beat Sri Lanka would be an understatement! After all, its not often that you see Muralitharan going for a 100 runs in 10 overs!
While this was going on down south, up north, Team India clawed its way back to beat the Pakis and regain some pride after humiliation in the test matches. As usual , the bombay bomber was among the runs, although Mohammad Asif had him dancing in his crease on more than one instance!!
And I almost forgot , we had our quizzes this week, so that kept me occupied the most of the time!! They will go on till the coming tuesday, so i am wondering what to do after that....
any ideas?

like they say...
"An idea can change your life"

"People are talking too much"

These are the exact words which a friend o f mine mentioned to me last night, which got me into writing this blog. All of a sudden the world seems to have become a smaller place, and information arbitrage is to "blame" for it. Yes, agreed that it is good that people can access information from anywhere and at anytime of the day, but there is also negative repurcussion to this phenomena.
This sudden surge in information accessibility has led to people to think that they can beat the experts in different fields at their game. What people dont realize is that whatever they know is only the superficial aspects, and at the end of the day it is best to take the word of the expert in that field before jumping to any conclusions.After all, A engineer can't claim to be a doctor just by reading all the medical pages that Wikipedia has to offer!!!
There is also another dimension to this information super highway that we find ourselves travelling on. Most of us have this urge to be always stay connected to the world, whether it be through Google talk, Yahoo messenger, or through mobile phones. People behave as though they are handicapped when they are not "logged on". Also , since all these means of communications are well within the reach of the common man, its become an integral part of our daily routines to spend certain amount of time in using these softwares. After all, it is cheap and in some cases free !!!
Free SMS; one of the biggest and most popular market strategies of the mobile revolution, it has become second nature to most of us. The idea of SMS is a very appealing; You are able to share informtion without having to getting a instant reaction from the other side, and when it is free, the urge to sms is irresistable!!! It has sort of become a timepass for most of us to message when we get bored or are lost for ideas. Its as though, we are using the service because it is available and more importantly it is free!!
Ya its true, the world is shrinking by the minute...... but lets just hope that there is still some space left for each one of us to live and breathe fresh air!!


"The next best thing to knowing something is to know where to find it."

"lets have chocolate crunch da"


one most difficult things to decide when goes to a place like Planet Yum is......
"what do i eat today?"
A couple of my friends are in a similar situation here!!!
seeing the picture a question comes to mind .....
who is going to make the decision?
i guess everyone who was there then knows who actually made the decision...
think think....

annoying thing --- crazy frog ---- captured!!!

finally we have succeeded!!! the most funfilled and exciting frog has been captured on camera.
well i was reading this book by tom friedman and in it he mentions a very important fact....
"printing made us all readers. xerox made us all publishers.television made us all viewers. digitisation makes us all broadcasters."
what i am doing now is evidence to the above statement.

LAUGHTER, THE BEST MEDICINE....

ahhh!!! i see its been a long time since i blogged... so here goes. Well, today is yet another one of those days where i have no idea of what i want to do. at my head is absolutley blank!!
my "ornament" on my left thumb is still on. Tomorrow is when i might find out when it can come off. i have learnt a lot of things during these past few weeks about my right handed abilities, and i am happy to say that i am not as bad as thought i was with it.
Our semester is not particularly interesting as i was hoping it would be. I have made a few "discoveries" duirng the course of the evenings when under normal circumstances i would have been on the field sweating it out.
yesterday night was a lot of fun!! okay we( we referring to naresh, ducky and self) didnt booze... nor did we go places..
so what did we do?
Well, it all started when i buzzed ducky to ask him if he was interested to make the coffee trip to gurunath... and the rest as they say is history!!! naresh joined us and so did one other friend of mine( you know who!!!). the four of us camped at gurunath for the next two hours or so discussing anything and everything under the sun!! it was clearly evident to all witness at gurunath at that time that the four of us were totally jobless. Soon the scene shifted to 263 ganga where the fun and frolic continued,with spanky and wiper making guest appearances duirng the course of the next hour or so. by the end of it all, my jaw was so tired of laughing that it actually started hurting!!!
it might not seem a whole lot of fun to those who are reading this, but trust me when i say it was!!
suprisingly enough, i was paying attention in every single class today. now , is that just coincindence or what?
5 days to go to SAARANG.... and god knows how many days before i can get back on the field again....

The hidden side of everything...
okay.. This is the last blog from the chill and cold of northIndia...(thank god for that!!) Soon i will be back in chennai , the sweat, the humidity the huzzle buzzle of college life...ahh aahh what a pleasant thought...
i had a great december , despite the fact that i broke my thumb, and we lost at Roorkee(refer to my previous blogs for details..).I travelled a lot during the last month, met a lot of old friends and cousins during the course of my travels.
My brother gave me a book called "freakonomics". It is not that typical economist book, which will explain to you why america is the biggest superepower in the world and how India and China are catching up fast. It tells you how abortions in the 70's and 80's were responsible for drop in crime rates in america during the 90's.Sounds interesting ? you bet it is...
Dont worry, it tells you much more than than that. For instance, you are informed about what crack is, how it is prepared, and why it is more popular, both amongst customers and suppliers.
Stephen levitt(the author for all you who didnt know), gives us an insight into how a drug gang organises itself,and amazingly enough, you will find that it is quite similar to how McDonald's is structured!!
a must read for all!!
"Incentives are the cornerstone of modern life"