Some gyan on curreny issues

by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha

Well, What can I say

One of those days where you feel your life is good. Heard some kind words from a friend that made me feel so happy that the disappointment from a day back seemed irrelevant.

Well, life moves on.

Second one?

So, I get my the second bump in the course of my Phd. Should I get used to it?

Hmm !!

Hmm

One of those weird horoscopes

You can't be everything to everyone, even if you try. You may be very talented and able to do many things well. Still, you can get into something too deeply now if you don't pay attention. If you are in over your head, consider withdrawing from the situation. Make your escape plan, but wait a couple of days before spoiling the party.

Quotes

from Wikipedia

• "The trouble with me is that every match I play against five opponents: umpire, crowd, ball boys, court, and myself."
• 
  
• "I wouldn't want to go to a sports psychiatrist, because when you're finished, you come out more crazy than you go in."
• 
  
• "I still break racquets, but now I do it in a positive way."
• 
  
• "My fines? I pay more fines than some guys' career prize money on the tour."
• 
  
• "I think it's interesting, you have three movies in one match: horror, comedy, drama. It's fun. I enjoy it. I am like that. I don't like to change. And if I could choose, I would be the same again. Just me, and I like who I am."
• 
  
• "In every game I play there are three players in me that could surface anytime, Good Goran, Bad Goran, Crazy Goran! They can all serve aces."
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• "I have so many runner-up cups that I am thinking of starting my own tea shop."
• 
  
• "I do not want that 'plate' again." - coming into his fourth Wimbledon final having lost the three others.
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• "Today's players, they do not know how. If you are going to throw it, you break it. You have to show commitment." (on throwing rackets)
• 
  
• "I go kill myself" (after losing the Wimbledon 1998 final against Pete Sampras)

Obviously they are from Goran Ivanisevic

Random

Well, another b'day of a friend. It was fun. watched some random stuff
House - Could not understand that you make comedy out of others health problems ! surely not my type of fun!
Ninth Gate - Good movie. Surely not foolish action. Somehow movies that make me use my brain appeal to me more (of course not so for Telugu ones :P)

Now its time to start work again!!

Impressive videos of UT Austin

Minds


Sole Purpose


Change


Soul


Gutenberg

A very good post

of an ABCD's experience

Interesting article

Though I cant make out exactly whats gone wrong, you see some pointers from this article on Nandigram

A goal in life

Was watching some of the past tennis videos. I saw the Goran Wimbledon final in 2001. He wanted to win it so much and could not finish it with his strongest suit in Tennis (his serve). But, it meant so much to Goran that it was as if his life depended on it. Of course for a man who lost 3 Finals on those courts he knew he wont get another chance. It is such a nice feeling to see someone achieve what they have lived for all their life. At the same time, it raises a very relevant question. What are you living for? What is the goal? When will you feel as happy as Goran felt when he won Wimbledon?

I don't have an answer. I wish I had one!! But I hope to find it

Pure bullshit

like this can occur only in India. If this is how democracies work, you might prefer dictatorship !!

Can you believe it?

I just can't. I ran for 3 hours. Yes not 3 miles, 3 hours and 14.5 miles.
A little slow, but I will take that!!

Fed wins one more

Ferrer sums it best:
"Maybe I play with a little bit nervous, but
him do it all, no? Serve, volley, slice. It's very difficult. My game,
it's difficult to play with him, no?"

Go Fed !!

Interesting horoscope

"The tension between your inner world and your need for a relationship can take a lot of your attention today as you try to find the proper balance. This dilemma could reach new heights as you are intrigued by the idea of forgetting your responsibilities to others and doing something for yourself. No matter what, just getting the facts out into the open can be helpful to everyone."

runs

Today I ran for 90 minutes in hilly terrain. It was good fun, especially the huge houses around the river!!

My schedule

My Marathon schedule

Om Shanti Om and Saawariya

Well, two big budget movies released for this Deepavali.
Saw OSO completely. Its a huge hit in India. Well, I personally felt it was an ok film. I liked the fact that SRK finals admitted he overacts. Apart from its an ok movie.

Saawariya is an experiment gone wrong and I won't complain or crib against the director for trying. At least it was not a routine love story. But the problem with trying something new is its either very good or pathetic. Saawariya falls into the latter category.

Anyway!!

Well wriiten piece

by Sumit Bhattacharya on Nandigram

General rant

I simply find it very difficult to understand what has changed. I am unable to work at the level that will please me. I am here to a PhD and I am supposed to be highly motivated. What is wrong with me? Why am I not working hard enough!! I am taking things too lightly. I might have to graduate this coming August. If that has to happen I do not even know what will happen to me. What about my future plans. Still, I am cool about everything working and thinking of things that never mattered to me earlier. I just cant see how to change back to the mood that I was in earlier.

Hopefully soon I will fall into the groove!!

Milton Friedman explains in a amazingly

simple way why government spending will never work !!

Brilliant!!

Why Free Markets Work

I am amazed at the clarity with which Milton Friedman describes the advantages of free market

Really moving

An autistic child REX

Indian squad for the tests

I am disappointed because sehwag is missing!!

A real nice article

on why Americans in general can't get cricket

Oh God

You won't see a more God fearing/loving cricket player other than Robin Uthappa

What more can you say

A comment on the India Vs Pakistan match

"This has to be the conglomeration of the worst 22 fieldsmen one can possibly assemble on a field. The London Bridges, the butterfingers, the Gateways, the mosquito nets, have all arrived. And although they have been putting up their wares for the last two games, they reached
their absolute crescendo in RP's fourth over. When Salman Butt punched the first ball, Ganguly first dived over it at short cover, and Yuvraj
Singh, at point, instead of diving tried to stop it with his foot, which lost all the gravitational pull and arrived late. Immediately, Ganguly was moved to mid-on.

The next ball RP bowled was full and driven straight to Murali Kartik at mid-off. Kartik went down in slow motion, the ball came at live speed and RP had given eight runs off two balls for no fault of his.

It was fitting that the only piece of brilliance turned into a run-out by chance and not by design. When Yuvraj Singh dived to save a sure boundary, Mohammad Yousuf had taken off for a run. Zaheer Khan, running to collect the throw [slow and loopy], missed it completely and somehow it hit the stumps."

2 movies 1 ticket

A interesting evening began with my trip to school to work. I worked for a couple of hours and did good progress. Then we thought about going to the movie OSO. However, we had very little so we hurry around to get something "to go" and eat on our way to the theater. Once we reach the theater we realized the show for OS was house full. Not a bad thinga s far as I was concerned. But my friends felt bad. Then after considerable deliberation we decided to watch "Lambs for Lions". It was a very nice movie. More importantly it was a short one too. As soon as LFL was done we went into the OSO theater and watched that one. Luckily, for me, the most important parts were still there. I would not have survived for 3 hrs of OSO for sure. So clearly I got the best deal.

Good way to finish would be to work for a while, chat at home and sleep!!

Surely emotional

"One of the most emotional days in cricket history, as South Africa played their first international match for 21 years, against India at Calcutta. Global opposition to apartheid had seen South African cricket ostracised since they beat Australia in 1969-70, but four months after rejoining the ICC they began a speedily arranged tour with this one-dayer. India's victory was more comfortable than the three-wicket margin suggests, despite Allan Donald announcing himself to the world with 5 for 29. Defeat hardly mattered though, and South Africa's captain Clive Rice whose three matches on this short tour were his only official internationals - summed up everyone's feelings when he said, "I know how Neil Armstrong felt when he stood on the moon.""

His humility evident

in this interview

A cricket rant

to illustrate the differences/similarities among a bunch of India's greatest match winners in my generation (of cricket watching).... I
agree statistics don't tell the full story... but still Kumble is never mentioned in the same level as a Sachin or a Dravid.... but his performance in Indian victories clearly highlights what a great match winner he is !!... hopefully he will get his due .. may be now that he is the captain.....


Anil Kumble

                     Mat  Runs  HS   BatAv 100  50   W    BB  BowlAv 5w  Ct St

All                   118  2212 110*  18.13   1   4 566 10/74   28.73 33  53  0
Victories              40   687  45   20.20*  0   0 272 10/74   18.50 20  23  0

*Kumble's batting average also improves in victories :P

Rahul Dravid

All                  112  9492 270   56.50  24  48   1  1/18   39.00  0 153  0
Victories             36  3674 270   76.54  10  18   -   -       -    -  70  0

Sachin Tendulkar

All                  140 11150 248*  54.92  37  45  42  3/10   50.83  0  93  0

Victories             44  3736 248*  64.41  13  13  13  3/31   41.76* 0  33  0
*Sachin's bowling average too improves in victores

WebCam

Finally the internet at home worked. I could chat with my parents with a webcam. The looks of happiness in their faces made my day.
Its great that I can talk to them more often this way!!

Funny ain't it?

From one of the cricinfo blogs
"What always used to amaze me, knowing Courtney Walsh's propensity for ducks, was that he used to bat at number TEN in the order, ahead of Pat Patterson.

And then I saw Patterson bat. And realised just why it was that he
was possibly the only person on the planet to bat lower than Walsh...

Happy Diwali

Well, another festival comes by. Happy Diwali to all the people in India and everywhere else.
Time moves very fast. It is my 4th Diwali in the US!!

Today

One of my friends recently pointed out I write every small detail of my life (for example brushing my teeth) on the blog.Well, I write my blog as a recollection for my sake. So nothing will change.

Today after 3 months of swimming I finally swam a lap - yes 50 yards. Until today I used to swim 8 lengths of 25 yards. But today I managed to swim for 50 yards in one go :P I just have to increase the number of laps to 10 soon !!

Indian Cricket

After playing for 118 tests and in my view, never ever considered a potential captain, now becomes one. Anil Radhakrishna Kumble will lead India against our arch-rivals Pakistan. I wish him all the best.

Well, I never thought he was captaincy material. But may be he is. I hope he will prove me wrong. But he is for sure the greatest competitor India has ever produced.

A refreshing take on the child labor issue

by Amit Verma

A very nice read

on the Rizwanur case

Interesting strategy

An article on how too much is made of sports psychologist in cricket is here

An interesting excerpt
A sports nutritionist attends a team meeting and begins to espouse the benefits of reverse eating (consuming more food earlier in the day - providing more energy during the waking hours, and lessening the traditional emphasis on a large meal in the evening).
Before the nutritionist explains his strategy, the big burly fast bowler instantly replies “does that mean we have to shove our food up our arse”.

I seriously want Congress

to be ousted, in Karnataka, as stated here

At least he is sane

about the capataincy. I appreciate that

Yes did it

I successfully completed my first half marathon. Am I happy!!
Now, I can proudly claim to be a half-martahoner. Some time in the near future I will try to get rid of the half too. Lets see how that goes.
One thing I have to admit though is that i was slightly under prepared for today. So have to rectify that in the future.

My wait

As I wait for my race to start, I have many weird feelings. May be I am tense and nervous. I just want to run the race and complete it.
Run boy run.. The destination is only 13.1 miles away!!