Well

the more I think about it the more it becomes evident. So, i think I should understand and take it easy!!

Well, weddings are sure fun

like this article points out

An awesome article

By Artherton here

Specifically these lines are awesome
"If Mr Mallya does read The Times of London, he may be interested to learn that I happen to know the best cricket statistician in the business. I'm happy to pass on his details; for a small consideration, of course. "

Financial analysis

of IPL franchises here

Seattle

I have been wanting to blog about my vacation since I came back. But with things the way they were I just could not get to it. Finally I managed to get a post done in class.

The trip was something I looked forward to a lot. PSP is getting married and it was our last chance to get away as bachelors. Add to that the lack of quality guy time and my general frustration at work you would know how much I wanted the break. Wednesday was when I was planning to leave and it was a hectic day with me trying to finish a lot of work. Somehow I managed to get to airport with the help of a friend on time. But my flight to Houston was delayed and I nearly missed my connection to Houston. For me the trip started at Houston because Bobba was on the same flight. And from then to when I caught my return flight time flew so quickly. It was amazing.

We reached in Seattle late wednesday night. All of us (me, bobba, psp and chakka) met at airport rented a car (PTCruiser) and reached our residence. I was driving for most of the trip. Fortunately nothing untoward happenned.

Thursday and Friday
We started out trip to Mt.Rainier. We reached around 3.30 at the camp ground. The camp guard looked surprised we wanted to camp at the camp ground for the night. He told some precautions 1) There might be bears, 2)You guys will be the only group up there for the night and 3) Be careful with the rain the river might swell. Pretty encouraging words. We walked for 5 miles backpacking our luggage. It was the firsttime I carried so much weight for such distances. I enjoyed the trip. We reached the campground and went ahead with setting up the tent and started cooking. Very soon we were realizing how cold its going to get. We ate the food and got inside the tent. We were happy to be there without any contact to the outside world. The feeling of being so disconnected with the outside world but connected with the nature wss awesome. The night wasn't as eventful as we hopped. There were no bears, no river swelling. But there was rain and God was it cold. But we manged to survive. We got up and decided we will return soon. so we packed and reached the base by 10.30. We were very tired and decided to go home and rest. The evening we went to an Ethipoina place and treated ourselves :P

Saturday
We decided to go to Mt Helen (the active volcano). The drive down there was awesome with some really great views. The eruption video portrayed the intensity of the blast. It was pretty scary to say the least. From there mountain we drove to Portland. Downtown Portland was pretty with lot of life and vigor. And as luck would have it it started pouring heavily in the evening. So, we decided not to spend the night in Portland. We drove back to Seattle. The driving with the rain was tough and there were 2-3 times where I couldn't see much. But fortunately we made it back safely.

Sunday
Sunday was a relaxed day with us watching IPL. (Somehow Delhi won!!) We went to the needle building from where we could take a peak at Seattle downtown. The view was good. From there we went on to drop chakka. After that we just walked around in the downtown and I tried some fish near the shores. It was just like everytime - not good!! After that I could meet one of my seniors from UT and the catching up was pretty good!!

Monday
It was already time to leave. I was pretty scared to return. We dropped Bobba at the airport early in the morning. We returned home to get an extra hour of sleep. Then I and psp started off to the airport and as luck would have it, we ran out of gas about 0.75 miles from our rental drop-off location. Somehow we got help with that and just managed to reach the airport in time. The trip back home was uneventful until I reached Austin.
Thankfully there was a pickup and good dinner ready by the time I reached Austin

Overall it was so nice to be with people who know you well. There was great food...great fun... very good actiivty and most important of all great company for 4 days. Thats all that matters to me!!

Already looking forward to next trip....

What Man Mohan Singh didn't do

A well detailed article here by Ashok Malik

A list of good articles

highlighting the poor role of media in providing constructive criticism (or any criticism) on the UPA government
1, 2.

Really !!

I hope at least now I hope things will take a turn for my friend!!

Good to see this

guy realize his dream

PS: blogging from class!!

A great list

of UPA achievements (or non-achievements)

Nice article

on selling Faith by Vinay

Well...

All you need is a good 2-3 hours with a friend to feel very good!!

A well articulated

dilemma that most Indians in the US face

Good to see the benefits

of an international experience from IPL to youngsters!!

Surely Peter English

gets this one right! He warns Warnie from returning into test cricket.

More on what Warnie thought here

Nice piece of advice

on doing your bit

This does not seem to be good

An in-depth analysis on why crude prices will further rise here

Pretty cool ha?

If so many whites can come for his speeches, they can also vote i guess!!

Link via ipatrix

Have to agree with

Ashok Malik on this one

Delhi daredevils

Well, the team nearly managed to screw this one too. Now, if they win their remaining games and manage to have some luck (which I personally fell they didn't have in most close matches) they will get through. But knowing how they are capable of playing its a tough ask. They somehow manage to loose from winning positions (not very different from the fortunes of their captain!!)

Anyway!!

Freinds

Another random post on friends.

I looked around in Austin and I realized there is significant shortage of a particular kind of friends. I really miss the good old times with this group. The way I have become i don't see myself making friends too. So this will be slicha bad.

I am pretty different from most of the people I know. May be a little to crazy, a little too emotional and a little too easily angry with small stuff. Am I changing or was I like this before? You are bound to change with age. But, sometimes I am scared I am changing a little too much because of the people around me. Further, off late I am realizing that I do not have fun in groups most of the time. This is pretty scary. I used to be a very social and had fun in huge gumbals. Now it seems like I prefer being one on one. What does this mean?

Anyway!!

Weekend

Was a pretty weird weekend this one.
Friday I was in pretty low spirits what with hearing lots of bad news, my work not going according to plan and also because of the setbacks to favorite teams. All of this put in me in a real shitty mood. So Saturday I decided I will not work and relax with some gult movies. I ended up watching 4 of them.
Anasuya
First serial killer telugu movie. Pretty well handled. There were some parts that were dragging, but overall a very nice attempt and I enjoyed it.

Manthra
A telugu horror genre movie. Decently directed and was ok types scary at different points. I thought it was well done

Then had a nice dinner at a friends home. It looks like getting married is a very good option. Anyway more on that later. Also managed to watch Aithe and Amma Nanna Oka Tamil Ammayi in the remaining part of the day.

Sunday started with no sleep. But somehow managed to pull myself up for the austin library book sale and managed to get some good books pretty cheaply. Good bargain!!

Then lunch at Souper Salad was al right except for some minor things that pissed me!
Evening was very good with another great dinner at a friends place and the converstaion that follwed was fun. This finally managed to cheer me enough!

Anyway, tomorrow shall be work day again!!

A nice article on

Mohammad Azharuddin

Awesome article

on what cricket "purists" like me are afraid of

Pretty funny

story

Terrorism in India

Most of you would have read or heard about the Jaipur blasts. Nothing very different about this blast compared to incidents in Hyderabad, Varanasi and elsewhere. The most significant fact when a blast like this happens is the inaction at previous blasts. Media covers such incidents for 2-3 days and after that these blast are forgotten. So do the investigators. And once a new blast occurs media realizes that nothing has been done in the earlier cases. But the irony is 2-3 days later the new case is no different. I can understand the difficulty (benefit of doubt) in identifying where a bomb blast is going to occur. We are a very large country with significantly large population from various segments and it is very difficult to keep tract of anti-social elements. But, once a blast occurs, I expect the security department (or whatever name) to be able to arrest the individuals responsible. If they cannot do this I don't know what will terrorists fear? They can freely trigger new blasts and be aware that they will never be caught. Is there any better incentive for them?

God knows how we will address this inaction of our security departments.

Well, after seeing

this I feel very few people will find a reason not to vote McCain

Well Greatbong

puts the usual sequence of events concisely here

Very well orchestrated

reasons on why Indians do not care about other Indian lives here

An very relevant article

on the new India by Mitra.

An interesting case for

the argument on banning cheer leaders by Shobha

Should we talk or not

is the debate point after the Jaipur blasts. I think we should talk.

More here

A critical look at the atatck on

Jaipur by ipatrix

I have to agree with some of his views

Delhi Daredevils

They have a bowling line-up to swoon over. Their batting isn't far behind. Yet they find ways to loose. Its pretty frustrating for a fan!!

Interesting analysis on

the Indian economy. The picture is not as rosy as it appears!

Very rarely this happens

Very rarely in cricket I have issues with loyalty. today for the first time when I am watching Delhi Vs Kolkota I am not sure. I want Delhi to win. But I always have a soft spot for Ganguly. That makes it slightly difficult. Lets see!!

An interesting article

on reverse culture shock... discussed here

Thats nice to hear

Jacob Oram reishes bowling in Test cricket (after IPL)

"In your first spell at the Rose Bowl against the England Lions, you started with five maidens. It must be nice to come back to a stage where there is some respect for the good-length ball?

Before my first over at Chelmsford [against Essex], Kyle Mills was at mid-off and he threw me the ball before I started my first spell and said, 'At least you know this over will go for under ten'. So it was nice to come back to first-class cricket. You are bowling on wickets that have a little bit more in them and guys are going to respect the
bowling a little more. You can get away with the odd loose-ish ball."

An awesome telugu song

Turmoils in the lives

of people who don't watch cricket due to IPL

Fight Club

Watched Fight Club yesterday night.

Was a very different kind of movie to the routine ones. When I watch English/ Hindi movies nowadays I look for something special in them. It could be emotion, concept or characterization. Fight club has a very nice concept. So initially I liked it a lot. But once the concept was evident it started dragging it for ever. That was pretty painful to watch. The movie would have been fine if it was for 11/2 hours. But it was at least an hour more and resulted in me totally hating it.

Further, though the concept is fine, it is crazy to think so many people will foolishly believe in it. That's something I could not take!

My rating: 6/10

Volleyball and the spike serve

Well, Today was one of the best volleyball days this year. It all went so well. I for the first time served my spike serve all day. Even when we were under pressure trailing. That was so cool.Add to that some dive pick ups and smart placements it was not difficult to be happy! There was one dive that was pretty memorable. I dived to get to one ball. Then my team mate was close enough to pick it up, but it was still on our side. I was aware of the situation to play the ball still flat on the sand. That was the point that made my day!!

Weekend that started pretty bad is now in good shape!

Surely a great achievement

for a man who many consider has wasted his precocious talent to score 100 first class hundreds.

Simon Jones talks of Mark Ramprakash and his possible achievement

Good to see the smile

back on Balaji's face after this

October Sky Movie Review

Just watched October Sky. What a movie it was!

A story of a young boy who dreams to go to space after watching "Sputnik" pass by in the night. He works hard to make his dreams true. This is along expected lines. However, the movie portrays is a classic conflict between the kid and his father. The kid adores his father. But he is not willing to work in a coal mine like his father. The father loves his son, but is too strong headed to accept what his son is doing. The way this emotion is captured in the movie is wonderful. There are so many fathers out there who think they know what their kids want to do. Also, there are so many kids who fight for appreciation of their father. At adolescence all kids can think is that their fathers don't appreciate them enough. It is only when you grow up to be men that you realize that your Dad's are proud of you. Until that appreciation is not known there is always a struggle between kids and the father. This is portrayed amazingly in the movie.

To clearly explain what it means to gain your parents appreciation. Imagine if you are playing in school cricket game and you are doing very well for years and your father does not come to watch even one game it hurts! But once he comes your happiness will know no bounds. May be I am a romantic and I am attaching too much attention to trivial things but when you are 14 - 15 thats all you dream about. In the movie the dad comes to watch the rocket flying in the end and thats when he shows his appreciation for his son and the son sees he has made his father proud!

What else do you want as a son!

Rating 9/10

A minor admission: I had tears of joy while watching the movie. It felt so good!

Its getting

very tedious and frustrating!
Don't know what to do!

At least the courts are

acting sensibly

Pretty detailed information

on the financial model of IPL here

Sounds promising and workable to me!

An excellent article

on the common guilt trip that mothers face by Mitra

This is interesting

The public fued bewteen Dr.Venugopal (AIIMS director) and Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss is ridiculous. It was obvious to everybody that Anbumani Ramadoss made changes to the constitution to remove Vengopal. But fortunately Supreme Court ruled against the amendment.
Also, the reason why Anbumani Ramadoss and Dr.Venugopal don't get along well is because of their different opinions on reservation. Dr.Venugopal is supposedly against the new reservation rule.

Also, talking of which I found this today!!
"Coming close on the heels of the Supreme Court’s decision to exclude
the creamy layer, or second-generation beneficiaries of reservation,
from the proposed quota for OBCs in Centrally funded educational
institutions, Venugopal’s reinstatement, experts say, is an
embarrassment for the ruling alliance."

This is good!!

Full article here

A nice short film

Some nice temple photographs

here

Hilarious

from Amit Varma

Cool article

on IPL and its ramifications to everybody involved

Hmmm

Was reading this article on cricinfo

Suddenly it felt man thats life!!
You have a 6 year old kid who watches cricket and tennis with you. Hmm. Thats something to look forward to!
I will have to say the guy is blessed!

Lets see how lucky I shall be!!

Of course there is a small matter of marriage before getting to the next stage!!

An interesting artcle on the Campaign

here

Really funny

My guide calls me up about my results and asks me Naveen why do you think this is happening? (He was genuinely stunned). My first reaction was to laugh! and Laugh I did!

Anyway, hoping t reach convergence today!!

An interesting economic perspective

into the IPL

Should I or should I not?

There are days when you are not sure of some things!
Well, hopefully time will straighten them out !!

Atherton Vs Donald

One of the greatest rivalries in cricket!
An interesting incident that Atherton recalls here

"A good bit of barney' is a nice way of putting it. For some reason, Allan Donald got very upset when I punched a short delivery to the wicket-keeper, Mark Boucher, and was given not out. Trevor Bailey, commentating on the BBC at the time, said that he thought the ball came off my chest. It nearly broke my hand, and I was doing all I could not to shake it too obviously in front of the umpire. It provoked a fair bit of 'barney'. What did he say? Well, there was a fair bit of Afrikaans thrown in, which is not my strong suit, although it didn't sound like he was complimenting my technique.

What was going through my head? Well I could give you all the nonsense about how much it meant, playing for England and all, and how much the situation of the game meant, but in all honesty the only thing going through my head was too watch the ball as closely as I could, because it was coming down at a fair rate of knots, usually towards my throat.

Donald was one of the greatest competitors that I played against. He was also, off the field, a champion bloke. At the end of that match, we had a beer together and he asked me to autograph the offending glove. There was a little red mark where the ball had hit it, so I wrote my autograph all over it. Thankfully, he got the joke."

Thats a good one!!

David Gower as elegant as ever, be it with his bat or mouth

"What? Six weeks' razzle-dazzle enough to consign over a hundred years of Test cricket to the dump? You must be off your rocker."

It's obvious he is talking about IPL!!

Random ego booster

Was updating my resume, so had to check if one of my papers got published. I realized it was and from there I started checking if any of my published papers were cited by others. Man, it feels so good to see others refer your paper. I can see where my advisor gets the kick out of publishing!!

So far, 4 studies have referred my paper and its awesome pleasure to see my name :P

Agree with Booth

on most counts

Indian media gets ridiculous!!

Bush might not be respected in many places, but blaming him for something he has not done is ridiculous!!

More here

A very nice article

by Amit Varma

Warnie

Ian chappell pays tribute to Warnie's captaincy skills

Experience with Maggi noodles

discussed in detail

Work

This week has been one of the most productive weeks in the recent times in terms of getting work done (other than writing). Hopefully one more productive night and I will be able to wrap up the work I am doing now!!

Keeping my fingers crossed!!

A nice article

that asks a very pertinent question

Nice article

on "put in a word" syndrome in India

Is n't she awesome

She is at it again. Shobha on running and increasing your lactic acid levels

Surprised to

see this about McCain

Peter Roebuck on IPL

Good to see a nice article on IPL

Excerpts
"In short, cricket ought not to be shy of providing brief entertainment
to the population at large. In some opinions the IPL has laid it on a
bit thick, but then, traditionalists are not forced to attend.
Suggestions that the game will be permanently damaged by these
exuberances are also unduly pessimistic. The trouble with
traditionalists is that they present themselves as protectors of the
game's values but are actually doomed romantics. They lament the
present state of affairs yet resist innovation. Casting themselves as
heavyweight, they reject the slap-happy, mistaking it for the slapdash.
But it is a mistake to overestimate the past. It was not such a fine
place. Nor is it possible to pin cricket into a book, like a dead
butterfly."