Banking on it ... !!

I have a savings account with 2 or 3 banks but the features provided by each account are like chalk and cheese. But I take a liking to one of these accounts.

The ATM pin number is 6 digit instead of the conventional 4 digit pin. I am not sure if this is a boon or a bane but I like it for the simple reason that someone in possession of the card will have to try harder to crack the pin. If you forget to collect your card from the ATM machine and someone else comes after you and tries to withdraw money from your account, he/she will not be able to do it. This is due to the fact that you are prompted once again for the pin on every cash withdrawal. I like this feature a lot. The next is the Sweep In/Sweep Out facility. This is the most impressive.

If the balance goes beyond 20000, the remaining amount is converted into a Fixed Deposit. For example, if you have 50000 in your account, 30000 will be converted to Fixed Deposit for 6 months and you will get the prevailing FD rate on this sum (it is 8.5% now). This may seem like a forced FD. It is not. The beauty is the reverse operation called Sweep In. Supposed 30 K out of the 50K is converted into a FD. Now, you have 20K available for withdrawal. Lets assume that you remove 19K. Now you have only 1K available. Lets say that due to some X reason, you need some cash in excess of 1K, for example 2K. When you attempt removal of 2K, 5K out of the 30K kept in FD are swept into your account for removal (in fact, sweep in works in such a way that you will always get your cash, no matter what amount by reducing the FD amount). So what happens to the terms and conditions of the FD? Nothing changes except the FD amount. Your FD amount will now be 25K. The duration for FD does not change. The 5K that was swept in will fetch you the interest according to the bank savings account rate. Now, if somehow your balance increases again and goes beyond 20K, it will again be swept out albeit as FD2 since the duration for this will be different. Lets discuss a scenario.

You have 50K in your account today. 30K will be swept out as FD1 for the duration Aug 27, 2008 to Feb 27, 2009 (6 months). You remove 19K from the remaining 20K. Now you have 1K left. You remove 4K. From FD1, 5K will be swept in to your account. Now you will have 1 + 5 = 6K available for removal. Since you want 4K, you will get this amount and 2K will remain in your account while FD1 now has 25K. Now, you deposit 20K in your account on September 1, 2008. So the balance goes up to 22K. Out of this amount, 20 K will be swept out as FD2 for the duration Sep 1, 2008 to Mar 1, 2009. If you now attempt to remove some amount more than the available balance, money from the lower valued FD will be swept in ... in this case FD2. The best thing about the sweep in/sweep out feature is that you can view your swept out FDs on the ATM machine as well ... !!

I have found this extremely beneficial in the last 18 months since I get almost double the interest than other banks.

The customer feedback process is fictional. That was a firm belief until this bank came along. They have a dedicated customer feedback section on their online banking section (I know most of the banks have this). The difference is that you will actually get a call or a personal mail (within 24 hours, sometimes they called me within 5-8 hours and it is not an auto-generated mail). For example, I had written to them regarding the scarcity of ATM machines in Pune. They replied with the upcoming ATM machine sites and today I see these machines at all the places they promised. There is one right in front of the housing society where I stay :). Another feature (I am not sure if this is a feature) of theirs is that if you pay your petrol bill via their debit card, there is some surcharge deducted from you account after 3 days. This used to happen here too. But they credited the surcharge back at the end of the month. In between, they stopped doing this. So the surcharge was only debited and not credited back. When I wrote to them about this, they immediately called me and informed that they have changed the policy and it is in the process of going back to the previous policy. And Yes, they were right. Now I don't have to pay surcharge for petrol, although they have warned be beforehand that the new policy may come into action later.

I also have my locker with them. Whenever I visit the branch and tell them that I want to use my locker, they will leave whatever they were doing and guide me to the locker room. I have seldom taken more than 5 minutes at the branch. When I forgot my net banking password, I called their customer care. Firstly, the line was not busy. It was answered immediately. They told me that they can tell me the new password right away on the phone. I liked it but I didn't opt for it. Instead I asked them to courier it to me. They said it will take a maximum of 3 days. The new password was at my doorstep 2 days later. Marvelous ... !!

These are some of the features I like about them.

On the flip side, there are some cons too. The minimum quarterly balance amount is 10K which is a bit high. Plus, all banking activities which demand some banking/service charge/tax may end up emptying your pocket more than other banks. For example, I wanted to make a bank guarantee for myself and they were charging me at least a percent more than most other banks.

But the 2 activities mentioned above are not the regular banking activities and the points scored by the features are more than these cons.

Plus, this is my highest profit earning stock and due to this reason, I had opened an account with them.

Question : Guess this bank ;)

Cheers ... !!

Oscar weekend ... !!

Well, it started off as a plan to view 6 acclaimed movies but due to some wavering of activities, we managed to experience just 3 of those. My friend, Vikash had lent me his DVD containing these 6 movies and he had written the names of all 6 on the DVD, albeit in a very user friendly (a UI person acknowledges presentation :)) manner. He had written down the genres and the movies belonging to each genre. The genres were Serial Killer, Heist and Crime/Murder. Under Serial Killer, there were 3 movies ... Se7en, Mr Brooks and Silence of the Lambs. Inside Man and The Bank Job belonged to Heist while Crime/Murder contained Memento. I was quite impressed by this categorization and we decided to start of with genre of Serial Killer.

So we started off with Se7en. The movie basically deals with a 2 cops investigating the case of a serial killer who is murdering people in line with the 7 deadly sins. It is amazing how knowledge about a particular topic/belief stands you in good stead while watching such movies. It was guesswork that we predicted what the story might be when we saw the scene of the first murder, thanks to the knowledge about the 7 deadly sins. The portrayal of the 2 cops, played by Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt is very nicely depicted although I felt that Brad Pitt hammed in some of the scenes. In essence, as a viewer, you know that the murders will keep happening. But there is a subtle twist during the climax which makes you acknowledge the thought of the writer. I personally thought the highlight of the movie was the horrific way in which each of the victims is killed along with the climax. The protagonist during the climax (Kevin Spacey) reminded me of a similar climax in The Usual Suspects.

We shifted our attention to Heist and picked Inside Man as the movie (I remember Vikash recommending this movie as a must watch). How true he was. Kudos to the writer/creator. The movie is about a bank robbery planned by a person called Russell along with around 4-6 fellow conspirators. I don't think I will be able to post the plot of the movie since it will spoil the fun if you have not seen the movie. I freaked out on the performance of Denzel Washington as the cop assigned to save the bank robbery. I was also pleasantly surprised by the younger-than-normal look of Jodie Foster. The movie is all about the master plan of the bank robbery and the climax. The expressions of Washington during the climax makes you take your hat off to him. The most liked attribute of this movie for me is that way it starts and ends (the credits). You will hear Chhaiyya Chhaiyya (entire song) during the start and the end. Way to go Indian music :)

Finally, we moved to Crime/Murder and there was only one movie there ... Memento. I remember quite a lot of people recommending this movie to me (namely Vikash, Sabhtarsha, Prameela, Vivek and Mohsin). To be honest, I didn't think the story was all that great but the presentation was nice. I thought I will never understand the movie at first glance but I surprised myself. The narrative is the key in this movie and you get the hang of it after around 20 minutes have past. Again, I think I will stay away from writing about the plot. It is a nice movie which makes you acknowledge the technical creativity of Hollywood.

Out of the 3 that we saw, I would say Inside Man was the best followed by Memento and the least preferred was Se7en (this does not mean Se7en is not good, watch it for Morgan Freeman and the climax). The performances that I enjoyed were that of Denzel Washington in Inside Man, Guy Pierce in Memento and Morgan Freeman in Se7en. But you need to experience Kevin Spacey's cameo in Se7en. This guy is amazing. There were not a lot of ladies in all 3 of the movies. Jodie Foster was OKish. Gwyneth Paltrow as Brad Pitt's wife in Se7en was petite.

We look forward to the 3 remaining movies. I have also made a wish list of movies that I need to get my hands (or eyes?) on. They are:

Scarface
Forrest Gump
Shawshank Redemption
Pulp Fiction
Schindler's List
Citizen Kane
Casablanca
Vertigo
Cinderella Man
Brokeback Mountain

One last little note. I am assuming that Johnny Gaddar was not picked from some non-Indian movie and even if it was, I have not seen the original of Johnny Gaddar. If I take into account Johnny Gaddar and the 3 movies I saw, I would say that Inside Man and Johnny Gaddar would be my top 2 followed by Memento and Se7en. This is just a personal opinion and not intended to ruffle more than a few feathers ... Cheers ... !!

Decoding GOLF ... !!

I was chatting to one of my friends when GOLF came up. He was of the opinion that its a boring game. Possible reasons for this is that it is a slow game and not many people know how it is played. When I started watching GOLF, I too was under the impression that it is a boring, slow and dull game. But believe me, its one of the most skillful games on the planet. Plus, one of the biggest money earning individual sport on par with Tennis and Formula 1. So what exactly is this game all about?

I don't know how to formulate the work flow of the game. So I will just let my mind rip.

Well, for starters, there are 18 holes in a standard golf course. Now, 18 holes also has a 1 to 1 mapping with fairways. In essence, when you say hole, it actually comprises of the fairway and the green. So what is a Fairway, a Green and a Tee?

There is a small piece of real estate called Tee on each Fairway. It can typically be thought of a circular/square area of radius/side = 3 meters. You have to place a ball holder (I am sure people have seen this in some Tom and Jerry cartoon. A Ball holder can be imagined as a small 1 inch nail which is dug into the ground and you can place the golf ball at the top of the nail) anywhere you want on the Tee. Place the ball on the ball holder and start off in your attempt to putt the ball. Phew!! Now what is a putt? Putt is defined as the attempt to make the ball go inside the hole of a particular Fairway. Now what is a Fairway? Fairway is the distance between the Tee and the Green. Simple. What is a Green? Green is the piece of real estate where the hole is situated. It can be imagined as circular/haphazardical (is that a word) area triple the size of the Tee.

So in short, there are 18 Fairways in a standard golf course and hence 18 Tees and 18 Greens. I hope I have been successful in my endeavor so far.

Each Fairway (from now on Fairway and Hole will be used interchangeably) has a Par value assigned to it (does 'par' ring a bell? I will come to this later). It is typically either Par 3, 4 or 5. Now what do you mean by Par? Well, the par value of a hole means that you need to putt the ball in maximum those many number of shots to not change your score. Confusing? Lets take an example.

Lets say you are on Hole 1 which is Par 4. Your score is Even(zero) at the start of the game. I will come to scores later. Now, you start at the Tee of Hole 1. Typically, Fairway lengths are the functions of the Par value. Par 5 holes are longer than Par 4 and Par 4 holes are longer than Par 3. So when you tee off from Hole 1 of Par 4, you will land somewhere on the Fairway, still some distance away from the Green. This was your first shot. The second shot will take you somewhere closer to the Green, if not the Green. The third shot will be your putt shot where you attempt to put the ball in the hole. Now if you do so in the 3rd shot itself, then you have taken one less shot than required for Par, since it was a Par 4 hole. This will subtract one from your score of Even. Even can be though of Zero. So now your score will be -1. Remember, in GOLF, lesser the score, better you are. The person with the least score wins since he has taken the least shots to putt the balls in the 18 holes of the course.

This is becoming longer than I imagined but I am enjoying it.

So the 18 holes of the course are made up of Par 3, Par 4 and Par 5 holes. I have seldom seen anything other than these 3 values. Typically, when you add all the par values of the holes in a golf course, it should add up to 72. Very few golf courses around the world add up to 70, 71, 73 or 74. So a snapshot view of a golf course can be 10 holes of Par 4, 4 holes of Par 3 and 4 holes of Par 5 which imply 10*4 + 4*3 + 4*5 which adds up to 72. So if you take 72 shots to putt 18 holes, your score will remain Even, hence the English phrase "par for the course" which means average or not bad.

Now the scoring system. In most golf tournaments, there are 4 rounds, each of 18 holes where each round is played on a new day. So typically all major golf tournaments span 4 days. There is a cut off for every day similar to our entrance exam percentile system. Each tournament has its own percentile system. For example, if the percentile value for a tournament is 50%, then all players within 50% of the score of the leader make the cut for the next day. The remaining players don't make the cut and are eliminated. Of course, there is much more the percentile system than just this. I have just written the most basic elimination system.

So the scores. Every player starts off on the first day at the score of Even (denoted by capital E and most often in BLACK. E denotes zero). If on a Par 5 hole, you take just 4 shots to putt the ball in the hole (from Tee to the hole), then you have taken 1 shot less. So your score at the end of that hole is -1 (most often, scores less than zero are denoted in BLUE). If you take 1 shot less than the par value, it is called a BIRDIE. If you take just 3 shots to putt the ball on a Par 5 hole, it means you have taken 2 shots less. This is called an EAGLE and it subtracts 2 from your score. If you take 3 shots less then it is called a DOUBLE EAGLE and implies you subtract 3 from your score. In almost 100% of the cases, you cant putt the ball in 1 shot on a Par 5 since Par 5s are the longest holes/fairways. You need to be Heman/Shaktiman (or a cartoon) for that to hit the ball right from the Tee into the hole (Par 5s are upwards of 500 yards).

On the flip side, if you take 6 shots to putt the hole on a Par 5 hole, it means you have taken 1 shot extra. This is called a BOGEY. It adds one to your score. (Most often, scores greater than zero are denoted in RED) If you take 2/3 shots more, it is called a DOUBLE/TRIPLE BOGEY. It means you need to add 2/3 to your score. And the most common score in golf is Par. This is when you take the same number of shots as the Par values. So on a Par 5 hole, you will take 5 shots to make a Par. Par does not change your score. So the champions have more of eagles, birdies and pars rather than bogeys and double bogeys.

The equipment comes next.

Every golf player carries a heavy bag with himself. Since he devotes his entire time on analyzing what shot he will play, he leaves the task of carrying the bag to another person. This person is called the CADDIE. You will generally see a person walking with the golfer carrying his bag. Now what does this bag contain? Lots of stuff.

By lots of stuff, I mean lots of clubs. Yes, golfing clubs. Golfing clubs are divided into 3 parts. Woods, Irons and Putters. Woods are those clubs which have a solid base at the bottom (looks like a sophisticated version of a hockey stick). A very thick one. Woods are used when the golfer wants the ball to cover a lot of ground on the fairway. Typically, Woods are used for Tee shots since the hole is very far away from the Tee and the golfer wants to get as close to the hole as possible. There is variety in Woods too. There is a universal scaling nomenclature for golfing clubs which I am not too sure about. For example, there is stuff like 1 wood, 2 wood and 3 wood which essentially means that the base of the club differs in some respect. I don't know how it differs. Typically, Woods help the golfer cover around 250 yards. Similarly, there are Irons. Irons are used when the golfer does not want to cover a lot of distance, Irons help the golfer cover around 90 - 200 yards. Why such a big gap? It is because irons also have many flavors. Like Woods, Irons also come in the type of 1 iron, 2 iron ... right up to 9 iron. 1 iron has the capability to cover the maximum distance while 9 iron will cover the least. Putters are used on the Greens when the hole is very close. You just need to push the ball and not hit it. That's when putters are used. Whenever you see a golfer position himself close to some hole, it means that he is using a Putter. Putters don't have numbers but most golfers carry more than 2 or 3.

So, adding up everything, 3 Wood clubs, 9 Iron clubs and around 3 Putters. This gives you around 15 clubs to carry in the huge bag. Pity the Caddie. Mind you, caddies get paid a lot. So if you fail in your endeavor to learn Golf, you might be interested to give Jeev Milkha Singh a ring.

Some errors that golfers can make on the course.

There are some patches on the fairway that are troublesome like trees, bunkers and water. When a golfer tees off, he might not always land the ball in a suitable position for the next shot. There are lots of trees on all Fairways. In fact, a Fairway can be thought of an avenue with trees on both sides. If the ball falls among the trees, then his next shot may become difficult since he has to negotiate the trees and then head towards the hole. The shot might hit the trees and fall at the same place. One shot wasted. Remember, every shot counts to your score. On a Par 5, if your tee shot ends up in the trees and you take 2 more shots just to get out of the trees, then it means that you have consumed 3 shots and you have just 2 more shots to putt in order to avoid your score being incremented. Then there are bunkers. Bunkers are trenches of sand mostly found near the Greens. The problem with them is that once the ball falls in a bunker, you need a lot of ability to get it out of the bunker and at a spot close to the hole. Most often, golfers goof up bunker shots which leaves them far away from the hole. Irons are used to get out of bunkers and they are mostly the high numbered ones since the hole is very close to the bunker. Water is the most interesting according to me. Most of the holes on the golf course also have a small pond (even small lakes), sometimes close to the hole, sometimes not. If the ball falls in the water, you cannot go inside the water to hit the ball :). The golfer is allowed to place a new ball somewhere close to the place where the ball fell in the water. Of course, this means that the new ball is now placed on the course and not the water. But the golfer has to give up one shot in the process. For example, if on a Par 4 hole, the golfer's tee shot landed on the fairway and his second shot landed in the water (which is close to the Green), then he will place a new ball somewhere close to the Green. But in doing so, his shot count will be 3 and not 2, since he was provided the liberty to get the ball out of the water.


Now about the golf course. Not many of us know that there is a lot of thought and planning that goes into the designing a golf course. Yes, a golf course is designed and most of the golf courses in the Americas, Europe and Asia are almost wonders of the world. I may be exaggerating but one of the reasons the popularity of golf has gained is due to the fact that people flock to the courses to enjoy nature's bounty besides enjoying some high class golfing acumen of top players. Every golf course has pretty ponds (almost on every hole), small waterfall streams, bunkers (trenches of sand), serene and green fairways, pretty trees and a clubhouse (where golfers rest after the day's play). Golf has also become an extremely fashionable sport. The clothes and the entire attire of golfers make people sit up and take notice. More so with the women players :)

Now about the tournaments. The golfing universe is governed by a body called the PGA (Professional Golfer's Association) in the US. In Europe, its called EPGA and the woman's counterpart is called the LPGA. There are 4 Majors in Golf synonymous to the Grand Slams in Tennis. The only difference is that the Golf Majors happen only in the US and nowhere else. The Majors are Augusta Masters, US Open, the PGA championship and the Open Championship. There is the thrilling Ryder Cup which takes place once every 2 years alternating between US and Europe as a venue where the top 15 players from the US take on the might of the top 15 players from Europe. It has the same needle as the Ashes or an India-Pakistan encounter or a Brazil-Argentina match up in soccer. It is my personal favorite although the Augusta Masters comes a close second. The number of people that turn up for the Ryder Cup is amazing especially on the last day of the tournament when tension runs high among players. I think I will need another post for the Ryder Cup. I can go on and on with the Ryder Cup.

Some common terminology now.

Front 9 refers to the first 9 holes.
Back 9 refers to the last 9 holes
Hole in 1 means that on a Par 3 hole, the golfer's tee shot directly put the ball in the hole, which is an amazing feat, more to do with luck rather than ability. This also means that he has made an EAGLE, since he took 2 shots less than the par value and now his score needs to be subtracted by 2.


The golf course is a sea of green but immaculate planning takes place to keep different shades of green at different places. For example, the Tee is a light green patch of grass. The fairways have comparatively thick grass and also a darker shade of green. The Green (the place where the hole is) is the most contrasting. Almost 90% of the Green (again, the place where the hole is) is a very light shade of green starting from the hole and flowing outwards. The Green is like a circle inside a bigger circle where the non-common part between the two circles is lined with the darker shade of green as that of the Green.

When you see a golfer hitting a shot on TV, you can see some graphic like the following:

Tiger Woods -4
Hole 12 423 yards Par 5
2nd shot 2I
193 yards to the hole/pin

This can be deciphered as: The current score of Tiger Woods is -4. He is on Hole 12 which is a Par 4 and it is 423 yards long. He is playing his second shot of the hole. From where he is at the moment, he is still 193 yards away from the hole. This also means that his Tee shot (first shot) made a whopping 423-193 = 230 yards. 2I means that he is using a 2 iron club to hit the ball.

You can also see something like the following when a golfer is attempting to putt the ball in the hole on the Green.

Phil Mickelson -11
Hole 4
For Birdie

Note here that when a golfer is actually attempting a putt, all other details are not shown in the graphics. Since he is on the Green itself, the length of the hole is not required coz he is very close to the hole now. Neither is the par value required since "For Birdie" tells you that if he makes the putt, then he has done so in 1 shot less. If he makes the putt, then his score will become -12 and he will move onto the Tee of Hole 5. If he misses, then the next graphic that comes up will be:

Phil Mickelson -11
Hole 4
For Par

If he makes this put, then there will be no change to his score and he will move to the Tee of Hole 5. If he misses then he has to attempt the BOGEY putt.

At the end of the playing day, the card of the golfer may look like something like this:


Front 9
Hole 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Par 4 5 4 3 4 5 4 3 4
Score 4 4 4 3 5 5 3 3 3

Back 9
Hole 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Par 4 4 4 3 5 5 4 4 3
Score 4 3 5 2 4 5 4 4 3

This can be read as follows:

Hole 1 was a Par 4 hole and the golfer took 4 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score Even
Hole 2 was a Par 5 hole and the golfer took 4 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score -1
Hole 3 was a Par 4 hole and the golfer took 4 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score -1
Hole 4 was a Par 3 hole and the golfer took 3 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score -1
Hole 5 was a Par 4 hole and the golfer took 5 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score Even
Hole 6 was a Par 5 hole and the golfer took 5 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score Even
Hole 7 was a Par 4 hole and the golfer took 3 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score -1
Hole 8 was a Par 3 hole and the golfer took 3 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score -1
Hole 9 was a Par 4 hole and the golfer took 3 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score -2
Hole 10 was a Par 4 hole and the golfer took 4 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score -2
Hole 11 was a Par 4 hole and the golfer took 3 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score -3
Hole 12 was a Par 4 hole and the golfer took 5 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score -2
Hole 13 was a Par 3 hole and the golfer took 2 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score -3
Hole 14 was a Par 5 hole and the golfer took 4 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score -4
Hole 15 was a Par 5 hole and the golfer took 5 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score -4
Hole 16 was a Par 4 hole and the golfer took 4 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score -4
Hole 17 was a Par 4 hole and the golfer took 4 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score -4
Hole 18 was a Par 3 hole and the golfer took 3 shots to put the ball in the hole. Score -4

It can also be observed that the golfer made 6 birdies (on Holes 2, 7, 9, 11, 13 and 14) which makes his score -6. He also made 2 bogeys (on Holes 5 and 12) which makes his score +2 and he made 10 pars (on the remaining holes) which don't change his score. So his overall score is -6 +2 = -4 as seen as the score after the 18th hole.


Now the greats of the game.

I don't know a lot of them but Jack Nicklaus (The Golden Bear), Arnold Palmer and Hale Irwin are legends of American golf. Some of the more contemporary American names are Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Fred Couples, Davis Love, David Duval, Corey Pavin, Tom Watson and Chris DiMarco. Some great European players are Colin Montgomerie, Seve Ballasterous, Sergio Garcia, Bernhard Langer, Jose Maria Olazabal, Padraig Harrington, Nick Faldo and Lee Westwood. There are some greats outside America and Europe as well like Ernie Els, Greg Norman, Nick Price and Vijay Singh (he is from Fiji and not India). Some of our dear Indian players are Jeev Milkha Singh, Jyoti Randhawa and Shiv Kapur. The women's game also has a lot of greats but I know only two ... Annika Sorenstam and Laura Davies. The problem with remembering names with women is that you are hardly looking at the names ;)

Well that's about it. I don't know if I have missed something but I think I have covered the basics of the game. I will end with a short summary of the game.

• A golf course contains 18 holes.
• Each hole consists of the Tee, the Fairway and the Green.
• The hole is on the Green.
• You start at the Tee and end at the Green.
• The distance between the Tee and the Green is called the Fairway.
• The distance between the Tee and the Green ranges from 150 yards to 600 yards depending on the Par values.
• Clubs are classified as Woods, Irons and Putters.
• Each hole has a Par value assigned to it. It is either 3, 4 or 5.
• Shots made by a golfer are called Double Eagle (-3), Eagle(-2), Birdie(-1), Par(0), Bogey(+1), Double Bogey(+2) and Triple Bogey(+3).
• Troublesome areas on the golf course for a golfer are trees, bunkers and water.
• The person who carries the golfer's bag of clubs is called CADDIE.
  

Cheers ... !!

Expectations ... !!

That word scares me. I have promised myself so many times that I will let go of expectations. I am ashamed to admit that I have tried and failed on numerous counts. Certain situations, certain people, certain surroundings will coax you into expecting that much more than you should normally be expecting.

As most of us know, expecting a lot disappoints sometimes. But expecting a lot less may not always be the right way of going about things. For example, before I got married, I used to get worked up when my then-girlfriend-now-wife couldn't meet for a long time or not meet at all. After analyzing the cause, I backed off and I didn't put a lot of pressure on myself and her. It looked like a solution but then I started getting surprised whenever we met which isn't that most amazing thing in the world.

That's the problem with expectations. You never know how much or what to expect. But in most of the cases, you can escape by expecting less (again, less does not mean way below what you should be expecting). Only a few days back, I experienced this feeling when I had lost all hopes of something (I don't want to write about it) happening. But it happened and at the very last moment. It made my day.

Henceforth, I am not playing games with expectations. I will always lose. Cheers ... !!

Prison Break ... !!

One of the most thrilling TV shows that I have ever seen ... that would be an understatement. One that has kept me glued to my DVD player/laptop for the last 2 weeks. Here is a brief run through of the show.

Michael Scofield is a stuctural engineer who wants to rescue his brother Lincon Burrows from the Fox River jail in Chicago. Lincon has been falsely charged with the murder of the Vice President's brother. Apparently, there is an organization called The Company who is behind this incorrect framing of Lincon. They have trapped him in such a way that the video tape of him shooting the Vice President's brother looks very real. All attempts to prove him innocent go a begging. There is Lincon's ex-girlfriend (Veronica, who is an attorney) who is giving it a last shot at the behest of Michael.

So what about it? Well, Michael knows the internal path map of Fox River jail and has inherent "genius" capabilities. By this, I don't mean that he is a magician but he has an amazing analytical mind. He has the blueprint of the jail tattooed on his upper body. The only thing remaining is that he needs to get into the jail. He does so by attempting a armed bank robbery. And Michael enters Fox River.

But life is not rosy at the jail. He has to share his secret with his cell mate, played fantastically by Fernando Sucre (reel name). But then various other characters flare up unknowingly who also want to get away. Each character is well penned and has a telling impact on the storyline. Parallely, Veronica is being hounded by the Company at every step. Michael also falls in love with the jail doctor, Sarah.

The first season is all about creating the path out of jail for Michael and his co-conners. The build up is immaculate and leaves you wanting for more. The climax to the first season is mind boggling. They leave the prison after another potentially disastrous secret is leaked out(I don't want to spoil the fun).

The second season basically deals with the conners running all around America trying to escape the police as well as the FBI (headed by Alexander Mahone). The conners go their separate ways (Michael and Lincon go together of course) but its apparent their paths will cross again since all of them now know about the secret. Its a bit odd to start watching season 2 with the focus shifting to outside the prison since you are so used to seeing the prison all the time.

Michael trains his mind on proving the innocence of brother, which is no trivial task. This includes a wild manhunt for all the Fox River detractors across the map of America. In the meantime, all conners meet again as destined at the place of the secret. The way each one of them ends up there is amazing. This is one of the most thrilling phases of the series. Although, they unearth the secret, not everything goes according to plan for Michael and his brother. The conners separate again.

Michael and Lincon get their hands onto some crucial evidence which can exonerate Lincon of all charges but the story takes a crucial twist which again sends the brothers on the run. Season 2 ends on a fantastic note and Season 3 promises to be just as lively.

My personal favorites from the series are ...

1). Sucre's undying love for MariCruz.
2). T-Bag's ruthless and cunning character.
3). Michael's determination to save his brother.
4). Mahone's relentless pursuit of the brothers. He matches Michael punch for punch in Season 2.
5). Kellerman's character
6). C-Note's love for his family
7). Their first attempt to escape
8). The way Sarah prevents herself from expressing her love for Michael
9). The camaraderie between the brothers
10). Michael's plan on his tattoo
11). The Dont-Trust-Anyone attitude of every escapee.
12). Fox River. I would love to end up there. Its beautiful ... :).

My top 3 characters from the series would be Sucre, Lincon and T-Bag.

I can go on and on. I start Season 3 tonight ... Cheers ... !!

Hooked onto movies ... !!

Yeah, I never imagined I would be saying that of all people. I have never been a movie freak and in some sense, I am still not. Its just that I have never seen (or wanted to see) so many movies in a short duration. Having a USB DVD player is the biggest motivation I guess :)

We started of seeing Manorama Six Feet Under. The genre is more or less like Johnny Gaddar, although the narrative is completely different. You can call it a thriller and to be honest, I quite liked it. Something to do with an offbeat cast that always catches my fancy ... !!

This movie really kick started my fad. When I came to office the next day, I logged into our office movie Server and asked some of my more esteemed movie afficianado friends to help me select some good movies. The 2 that I took home that day were THE PRESTIGE and THE DEPARTED. Since I do not understand English movies all that well (I hate that), I could never dare to watch it alone. My wife gave me company for both the movies.

THE PRESTIGE was the first one. We started watching it at around 9 pm and I fell asleep watching the movie at around 10 pm. This is no way speaks about the movie. Its just that I was sleepy. We completed the movie the next day and I didn't understand what was going on. Blame it on the non continuity ... !! My wife had to painfully explain each and every part of the movie, literally dissecting the movie. I could sense the irritation coz I was not able to fathom the simplest of things. Me and my English movie jinx.

Anyway, later in the week, we visited a multiplex to watch Jaane Tu ... I liked the movie. Reminded me of my college days and my group of friends.

We sat through THE DEPARTED in a few days time. Though there was not a lot in this movie to not understand, a quarter of the movie was dedicated to swearing. We had a tough time separating the proper words from the so called expletives. But still, the confused look on my face wasn't going to go away. This time I didn't ask my wife anything about the movie ... which does not mean I grasped everything ... :)

When I came to office the next day, it was back to movie hunting. I saw the Oceans series on the movie server and took it home. Unfortunately, Oceans 11 was corrupt and I didn't want to see the sequels before Oceans 11. So I came back to office the next day and began the routine again. Some of my friends had suggested that a TV series called Prison Break is very nice. I asked one of my colleagues to get the first season of this series.

Currently, we have seen the first 3 episodes of the series and it sure is gripping. All this has happened in the last week or so. But one thing is for sure. My constant grappling with English movies is here to stay ... I expect to go one up sometime ... Cheers ... !!

All in a day's time ... !!

One of the most tiring days of my life.

We(Biwi, Dinesh and I) had planned a trek to Rajmachi. We left from Pune by train at 8 am. Since we were late coming to the railway station, we had to stand all the way till Lonavla. After we reached Lonavla at around 9:30 am, we had breakfast in a nearby hotel which was a 10 minute walk from the station. We then headed towards Tungarli Dam, since the way to Rajmachi was from there. It took us another 45 minutes to walk upto Tungarli. The Dam itself was not very appealing. After spending some time there, we started walking towards Rajmachi. It seemed like a never ending walk. Slopes and Climbs were the order of the day. We kept walking till 2:30 pm until we cam across a waterfall. We had asked several people on the way about distance left to Rajmachi. Every person told us that it would take a long time. When we reached this waterfall, we were still 2 hours away from the base village and another 30 minutes away from the fort. We were walking since 9:40 am. We had walked close to 11 kms till now.

Since we needed to get back to station (and more importantly out of the jungles before dark), we decided we will abort the trek and head back. We started walking back towards Lonavala with the Rajmachi peak lurking in the background. By the time we descended from Tungarli, we were almost dead and we had walked close to 20 kms.

We found solace in a Bhutta vendor who was also serving tea. Though we didnt have any Bhuttas and neither did we have a lot of tea, we gorged on the tasty Farsaan he was vending. So much so, that we finished all the Farsaan that he had. A samaritan (God?) dropped us till Lonavla station when we asked him for a lift. God Bless Him.

It was 7:20 pm when we reached Lonavla station. Fortunately, there was a train waiting there bound to Pune. Biwi got into the ladies compartment where she found a place to sit but Dinesh and I were not so lucky. Another 90 minute ordeal !!!

I was so tired that I removed my shoes inside the compartment amidst such a heavy rush. We were glad to find a place to sit in the doorway at Pimpri.

Finally, we reached Pune at 8:50 pm and bid adieu to Dinesh. It was 9:15 when we got home. We badly needed a bath and we also needed some alcohol. After the bath, I realized it was Sunday and I knew there were lots of sporting events taking place.

When I switched on the TV, I expected news channels to flash the winner of Wimbledon. But I didn't see anything. When I tuned into Star Sports, there was no live coverage. The play was halted due to rain with Nadal leading 6-4, 6-5, 4-5. Man, this was unexpected. I mean I knew Nadal would play well but 2 sets to love was amazing.

Biwi was rooting for Federer and I was cheering Nadal. By the end of the 4th set, we were cheering both. When the final rain delay came, it was frustrating as a viewer. But when it restarted, Nadal pushed Federed to every corner of the court to win 9-7 in an epic final. Easily the best final that I have seen. Reminded me of another epic between Agassi and Ivanisevic in the 1992 final.

Lewis Hamilton also rejoiced by winning a rain soaked British Grand Prix at Silverstone. India lost the Asia Cup final to a deserving Lankan side. Luke Ronchi and David Hussey hit 20 ball half centuried against the West Indies.

To cap it off, we raised a toast to the eventful day by sipping a shot of Antiquity, even though our heels, calfs and thighs ached throughout the night.

I will definitely give Rajmachi another shot ... Cheers ... !!

Birthday tragedy ... !!

I was in the middle of a conversation with one of my friends who was celebrating his birthday. When I asked him his age, he told me that it was his 26th birthday. When I asked him his birth year, he told me it was 1982. I didn't speak for the next 10 minutes or so. I don't know what struck me but I felt weird about the way we celebrate birthdays. It was like someone hitting me with a rock. I couldn't quite fathom the fact that the day we are born isn't counted as our first birthday. Think of it.

Citing my example, I was born on April 29th, 1982. So, that should count as my first birthday. Yes, we are talking numbers ... plain numbers and not AGE. So, I should be celebrating my 28th birthday in 2009 and not my 27th. Yes, I will be 27 ... but that's my age. I would say AGE and BIRTHDAY COUNT are 2 completely different entities. I feel its grave disrespect to the day that we are born as to not count it as our first birthday.

In essence, the birthdays that follow the first are not actually birthdays because ... If you take the simple English meaning, BIRTHDAY translates to THE DAY YOU ARE BORN. 'Anniversary' or 'Remembrance' may be better words for it.

I cant strike out one birthday from my life ... I just cant ... especially if its the reason I live today ... Cheers ... !!

King of forts ... !!

I feel very lucky being in Pune. Its like the epicenter of all tourist destinations. Beaches, forts, renowned temples (read Ashtavinayak and Jyotir-ling) ... everything is accessible with minimum of effort. Due to monsoons hitting Pune earlier than expected, all monsoon plans had to be preponed. Yes, preponed and not postponed. Last weekend, we (read Biwi, Omkar, Dinesh, Prakash and I) visited a fabulous point at Mulshi and we didn't want to waste this weekend too.

The original plan was to trek from Arthur's seat in old Mahabaleshwar to Pratapgad on Saturday. But Dinesh had to stay in office on Saturday. So we rescheduled it for Sunday. We called up a person in Mahabaleshwar to inquire if traffic to Mahabaleshwar is proceeding. The answer dampened our spirits a bit. Apparently, traffic to Mahabaleshwar it halted at Panchgani itself during heavy rain. So, now what?

Oye koi gall nahi baashaaon. We decided we will trek Rajgad. So, everyone assembled at my place at 6 am sharp (quite a surprise huh?). We stopped 16 km off Rajgad to have naashta and then proceeded to reach Rajgad at 8:30 am.



I could vividly remember my first trip to Rajgad on Republic Day in 2005. That was CoV's first official trip and what a joy that was, although it was in January when most of the greenery was wiped out and we had skipped the trek to Baale Killa. Cut to 2008.

We started our trek from a place called 'Gunjavane paayta'. It was a pleasure to be amidst such a green and misty locale. The scenic horizon tempted us to hurry up with every step.



The last section was extremely treacherous, at least when we saw it first. It was a vertical climb with a few railings for support. But we managed to negotiate it and reached the top at around 11 am.

The atmosphere around the lake was astonishing. Almost surreal.



We had tea at a place called the 'Kacheri'. There was a nice statue of Shivaji Maharaj kept over there.



Sipping hot tea along with chips was the perfect recipe for this kind of weather. Did someone say 'Kaanda Bhaji'?

But then started the fun part. We had to go up to Baale Killa. This was even more hazardous.



Kudos to everyone who pulled their weight and completed the 2nd trek successfully. No wonder that everyone was overjoyed on reaching Baale Killa.





It was even more misty and windy at the top.



After spending around an hour on top, we started trekking down, which was non-trivial. It was a long time before we came back to Gunjavane. I guess it was 5:30 pm. We reached home at around 7 pm.

One of the most enjoyable as well as difficult treks so far in my life. King of forts as well as King of treks ... RAJGAD ... !!



Cheers ... !!

Trends ... !!

Its funny how trends change. In fact, if they wouldn't change, I don't think such a word would have existed. Its worthy to note how you discuss stuff with your family/friends at various junctures in your life.

For instance, during childhood, your eye would always be on your friend's toys. Why cant I have that toy? Why don't I have his fancy shoes? Some more years down the line, you would be inquisitive about the school your friend goes to. Your conversations with your friends/cousins would revolve around exams, marks, weird teachers, etc.

Your first bicycle would draw comparisons and lead to discussions. For days, you will discuss how many times you fell off while learning to ride your bicycle.

During the 10th grade exams, the focus would be on each other's preparations for the exams. Your strong and weak subjects. As soon as the exams are over, the focus shifts to expectations, possible career paths and colleges. Once the results are out, accompanying each other to various colleges for admission.

Attraction to the opposite sex is a long term activity, which is at its peak during these days. The time you spent talking to one particular pretty lass makes you brag about it to the entire circle. Then its about career, specialization courses, etc. IITs, IIMs, Engineering, Hotel Management, Business, etc. This becomes normal jargon.

At the end of your education, its basically talking about jobs. Indulging in your family's business or seeking an opportunity in an MNC? You are dead curious to find out where your friends/cousins are placed and how they are doing.

Then comes marriage. All of a sudden, everyone starts getting hitched. All you know is that you are running from one marriage hall to another to attends weddings. This doubles when you are married yourself since you have to attend weddings of all people related to your better half.

Then kids take over. Its moves from marriage halls to hospitals and Baarsaas.

I don't know what the next phase would be in my life. But I don't think this will stop. Trends will remain just that .... trends ... !!

Cheers ... !!

Fairytale finals ... !!

No, this is not related to cricket, soccer or tennis or any other fad sport followed by Indians earnestly. Its about basketball. Yes, its NBA finals time and ever since the Playoffs started, I had been rooting for just 2 teams ... they go by the name of Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics. For some, these 2 name might sound like ... What? ... while for true NBA fans, it will sound like the biggest sporting phenomenon in the world. Yes, a NBA finals comprising of the Lakers and the Celtics is almost like a fairytale ... in fact it is a fairytale.

Now, why is this a fairytale. Well, just looking at it from a historic point of view. For starters, just talk about the legends who are part of this storied rivalry. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird are two unparalled icons in the NBA history. Both were pillars for their respective teams, almost like blood running through their team's veins. Talk about the hookster Kareem Abdul Jabbar (famous for his hook shot), the sublime Bob Cousy, the irresistable Bill Russell, the energetic Danny Ainge, the most amazing Jerry West or the larger than life Wilt Chamberlain. Each champion willing to slug it out till the last second with its competitor. 4 quarters of 12 minutes looked like a never ending highlight reel.

Who can forget a forward/guard like Magic Johnson filling in as Center in place Kareem to win the deciding game for the Lakers in one of their Finals contests. Talk about colour ... White and Green for the Celtics and Purple and Gold for the Lakers. Talk about the venues ... the Boston garden and the Forum at LA.

They have met 10 times in the past in the finals. Boston have won 8 of them. It does not reflect the intensity with which these two teams have played. Its just that Boston has upped their tempo in the clutch moments. Together, they have won a staggering 30 titles together. Phenomenal.

So its no wonder that when the playoffs started, I desperately wanted these 2 teams to be in the finals. So who will win? Or whom do I want to win?

My heart says Lakers but I think the Celtics have a better team. Its gonna be Garnett, Allen and Pierce from the Celtics against Kobe Bryant of the Lakers. Yeah, Lakers dont have that kind of "Big-3" force but if their bench plays the same way as they played against the Jazz and the Spurs, then Lakers might just pip the Celtics. I cant wait to watch the finals. As an update, Celtics won Game 1 tonight. My prediction is 1-1 in Boston ... then 2-1 to Boston in LA and finally 1-1 in Boston again. So my prediction is 4-3 to Boston ... but I would still like the Lakers to win ... Cheers ... !!

First brush in 2008 with favourite season ... !!

Yeah, my favorite season has kicked off ... just at the right time ... since IPL just concluded ... ;)

My first brush this year with the rains wasn't according to script though. I was in the middle of a meeting when the sound of thunder forced us to peek out of the room. At that time, it was just dark clouds and plenty of thunder and lightning. But what followed was the true essence of the Monsoons.

After completing my naashta at office, I took off for home at around 6 pm. It was going according to script till Mehendale Garage (by script,I mean enjoying driving my bike in rain). After that, it was a first for me. There was a traffic snarl close to Mehendale Garage. This is another bare essential about rainfall, especially in Pune. You cant keep traffic jams and monsoon away from each other. In fact, % increase in the number of vehicles added in a year can be thought of being directly proportional to the % increase in time you spend in traffic jams (during monsoons) between the 2 years in question.

I kept my bike running for the initial 100 meter struggle. But after that, I heard the sound of my bike at around 10 pm, when I was close to City Pride (Satara Road). It was a tough ordeal not to drive my bike for 4 hours but just push it forward as and when the traffic inched ahead. This was my first stint with the Kothrud-home stretch in the monsoon since for the last 3 years, I had been going home from Aundh and I could easily escape from Khadki station during those days. But Kothrud to home is like a nightmare since it includes negotiating Mhatre Bridge, Shastri road, Sinhagad road, Swargate/Parvati and finally the chaotic BRTS Satara road.

But thats what monsoons are all about. A little hit here, a little whimper there. I made some friends during this horror journey. Yes, I call it a journey. I was audience to some of the most hilarious conversations. There was this woman who was on her Spirit and she was constantly getting calls (presumably from her home). When she received the first of such calls, her response was ... "Mi ata traffic jam madhe adakli aahe ... maala vel laagnaar ghari pochaayla". Fair enough. Next call ... "Naahi, azun tithech aahe ... khup vel laagnaar asa distay". Encouraging. Next call ... "Naahi, tithech aahe". Sublime. And the clincher was ... "Ho baal radat asel, pan ata mi pan radnaar aahe". That was brilliant.

Two college going boys were at the extreme left of the road, almost kissing the footpath. This footpath was very narrow. Hardly one person could stand at one time without falling out. Plus, the footpath was surrounded by short trees/plants/shrub. So, if someone was to walk on the footpath, he/she needed to jerk their head outwards to avoid the tree/plant/shrub. These 2 guys were immersed in some college conversation. Just then, 2 girls came walking from the opposite side. The first girl now had to avoid the tree/plant/shrub but if she bent her head outwards, she would be touching this guy who was driving the bike. The guy obviously wouldn't have minded. And these guys were the typical taporis. Good girl or bad girl ... comments would not stop. This is what their conversation was like ...

Boy 1 - arey bagh bagh ... ithech thaambaayla paahije hi ... majaa yenaar mag ..
Boy 2 - saalya maala de naa gaadi ... ata mi thoda vel chaalavto
Boy 1 - veda beda zhaalay ki kaay ... thoda vel thaamb ... hechya pudhchi mulgi tujhi
Boy 2 - chal zaao de ...
this is when the girl came agonizingly close to the guy. I really pity her.
Boy 1 (in a slight hush)- kasla scent maarlaay re ... gaadi nasli asti naa .. tar ... (i will skip this) ..
Boy 2 - chal pudha chal pudha ... raatra bhar ithach naahi thambaycha aplyaala ..
Boy 1 - Chyaaila ... maagchya 15 mintaat ek hi gaadi pudhe naahi geli .. ataach zaaychi hoti kaa ... B*******
Boy 2 - tula aadhich saangitla hota maala gaadi de ... tuzha luck futka aahe ...
Boy 1 - gapp re ch****, tuzha luck baghu pudhchya chowkaat ... aey pan mi tila vicharu kaa kuthla scent hota?
Boy 2 - vichaarun kaay gh**** karnaar aahe ... ladies asnaar .. tu laaun kaay karnaar?
Boy 1 - arey mi maajhya baayko laa laavnaar naa ...
Boy 2 - ho ... milaali tula baayko ... chal pudhe aata ...

This is what i call ... once in a lifetime experience ... ;)

There was another chap on a bicycle just in front of me ... since everyone was moving forward inch by inch ... I too tried to occupy every inch available. On one such occasion, the front tyre of my bike brushed the bottom part of this guy's trouser. He looked back ... I wasn't apologetic ... this happened again after some time ... this time he couldn't help but respond ...

Man - arey bhau ... zara baghun ...
Me - kaay zhaala?
Man - tyre laagla tumcha maajhya pant laa ...
Me - mag?
Man - dusryaanda zhaala he ...
Me - arey paaus padtoy, traffic jam aahe ... he tar honaarach ...
Man - te barobar aahe tumcha ... pan don da naahi hoyala paahije ...
Me - kaa?
Man - kaa mhanje kaay? ek daa zhaala ki theek aahe pan tumhi don daa kela ...
Me - Ok Ok ... sorry.

It seemed he had a tolerance value of 1 ... ;)

One person was coming from the opposite side of the road (wrong side) in such a huge traffic jam ... I was so angry at him that I told him ... "arey ch****, kuthun gaadi kaadhaaycha prayatn kartoy ... (and some more ... lets leave that). I expected him to reply aggressively. Instead, he was calm as a cucumber. He didnt say anything. I told him ... "arey aiku naahi yet aahe kaa ... shivi dili tar kalat naahi kaa?". His response was so surreal ... "arey kaay karu ... shambar shivya aiklet ith paryant ... tula kaay vaat ta ... mi correct side try naahi keli kaa?".

I couldnt help but smile at this.

It was surely a first for me ... trapped in a traffic jam for more than 3 hours ... what a start to the monsoons ... I need to get down to business planning my monsoon ...

I hope such encounters visit me day and again (just the conversations and not the traffic jams)... Cheers ... !!

IPL heroes ... !!

As an exception, IPL lived upto its hype if not surpassed it. It had become such a habit to head back home and sit glued to the TV for 3 hours while indulging in a cup of Coffee/Kokam/some X drink and a bowl of snacks. For all its worth, it has been a tremendous success ... atleast for the viewers. Its scary to think about the void left over as a consequence of the curtains coming down on the first edition.

But there have been lots of heroes ... local and non-Indian. Its worth to note I am categorizing even our Indian international players as local. It would be quite befitting to come up with a pool of 20 local and non-Indian players based on their performance in the IPL. Lets start with the local team of XX.

Well, a team should contain 4 openers, 2 wicketkeepers, 4 fast bowlers, 3 spinners, 3 all rounders and 4 batters

Lets start with the wicketkeepers ...

MS Dhoni cant be left out. Though he didnt do justice to his price tag, he was basically trying to cope with the loss of Oram, Hayden and Hussey throughout the tournament. His captaincy stood out again and his team almost won the trophy. The other wicketkeeper would be his team mate from Chennai ... Parthiv Patel. His glove work was great but he surprised with his batting. He raised his game when it mattered in the last 2 league games and in the semis and finals.

Now the openers ...
Gautam Gambhir and Shikhar Dhawan were extemely consistent. Though Dhawan came in at No. 3, he is primarily an opener. I would also pick Virender Sehwag as one of the openers. This format of the game suits him and he played some murderous innings. The 4th opener would be Swapnil Asnodkar. The dimunitive batsman did well whenever he was presented with an opportunity.

Now the fast bowlers ...
Manpreet Gony is the first that comes to mind. Apart from his sharp pace, he also exploded with the bat. Sreesanth would be the next. His opening spells were a joy to watch. Ashoke Dinda was another impressive performer from Kolkata. The last one would be YoMahesh from Delhi.

Now the spinners ...
Piyush Chawla was undoubtedly the best on view. Amit Mishra was the surprise element from Delhi. The third would be Pragyan Ojha from Hyderabad. He did well in patches but his performance was creditable.

Now the allrounders ...
Irfan Pathan can be termed as one of them. He was great with the ball and hit some out of the park when he batted. Laxmi Ratan Shukla was a revelation in all departments of the game. Finally, one of my favourite players of the tournament ... Yusuf Pathan. He rocked with the bat and got crucial wickets when it mattered.

Finally, the batters ...
Rohit Sharma would be an automatic choice. Abhishek Nayar was also a good performer. Venugopal Rao struck gold late in the tournament in an otherwise disappointing team display. The last spot goes to Suresh Raina. I am wondering why this man is still not in the senior team (atleast in Tests).

So the final team would be as follows:

Gautam Gambhir
Virender Sehwag
Shikhar Dhawan
Swapnil Asnodkar
Rohit Sharma
Suresh Raina
Abhishek Nayar
Venugopal Rao
MS Dhoni
Parthiv Patel
Irfan Pathan
Laxmi Ratan Shukla
Yusuf Pathan
Piyush Chawla
Amit Mishra
Pragyan Ojha
S Sreesanth
Manpreet Gony
Ashoke Dinda
YoMahesh

Notable absentees from the World Cup winning T20 team are Yuvraj Singh, Robin Uthappa and RP Singh for obvious reasons.

Now, for the non-Indian team ...

Lets start with the wicketkeepers ...

This one was easy ... since there were just 3 contenders practically ... Gilchrist, Mccullum and Sangakkara ... 2 of these didnt play all the games ... in fact Mccullum played just 3 games ... so I would say it will have to be Gilchrist and Sangakkara.

The openers would be ...

Shaun Marsh without a shadow of a doubt. He was awe inspiring. The next 3 spots are quite straight forward ... Hayden, Jayasuriya and Graeme Smith though Hayden played a handful of games.

Fast bowlers ...

Makhaya Ntini came in late but was magical. Glenn Mcgrath proved that age doesnt matter. Dale Steyn was quick and effective. The last spot would go to Sohail Tanvir. His opening spells as well bowling at the death was phenomenal.

Spinners ...
Shane Warne would be the first. Shahid Afridi purely as a bowler wasnt bad. And you cant leave Murali out.

All rounders ...
Shane Watson of course. Farveez Maharoof would be the next. A toss up between Hopes, Bravo, Morkel and Pollock ... I would go for Morkel since he was more effective with both ball and bat and was instrumental in guiding his team to the finals.

Batsmen ...
Not many options here ... the 2 Husseys will certainly be there. Bravo will be another. The last spot according to me should go to Cameron White. I dont know why he didnt get many opportunities but he is a devastating T20 player.

So the final non-Indian XX looks like ...

Shaun Marsh
Mathew Hayden
Sanath Jayasuriya
Graeme Smith
Micheal Hussey
David Hussey
Dwayne Bravo
Cameron White
Shane Watson
Farveez Maharoof
Albie Morkel
Adam Gilchrist
Kumar Sangakkara
Shane Warne
Shahid Afridi
Muttiah Muralitharan
Makhaya Ntini
Glenn McGrath
Dale Steyn
Sohail Tanvir.


so what about the dream team? well, it can be something like this ...

Gautam Gambhir
Shaun Marsh
Sanath Jayasuriya
Graeme Smith
Rohit Sharma
Dwayne Bravo
Suresh Raina
David Hussey
MS Dhoni
Adam Gilchrist
Yusuf Pathan
Shane Watson
Albie Morkel
Shane Warne
Piyush Chawla
Muttiah Muralitharan
Glenn McGrath
Manpreet Gony
Sohail Tanvir
S Sreesanth

well this is just my dream team ... :) I hope to see IPL going from strength to strength ...

Cheers ... !!

Appraisal ... smile or frown ... !!

The Appraisal process was completed in office last week. Since I was on leave, I was one of the very few who hadn't received my revised compensation. I was relieved to get it on my first day back at work. I was happy with my compensation and also with the new designation. The title of Team Lead is quite misleading though, coz I don't know whom I am supposed to lead. But anyway, its quite a happy moment. For the record, I have had a new designation in each of my appraisals so far which can be something extremely difficult to live up to.

In hindsight, I always wonder whether I should be happy or sad. Happy, coz I get more money, a better job profile and more authority. Sad, coz I am enjoying my moment of joy and luxury at a job that I never wanted to do. This jolly moment means that I will now have to stick to this job for longer than I had anticipated. I never thought I will be complaining about excess of money but sadly thats a fact. How I wish that one rainy night at Mumbai in 2000, I should have never called one of my friends.

But as the saying goes ... The show must go on ... so adhering to that ... Cheers ... !!

F.R.I.E.N.D.S frenzy ... !!

I have been thinking of posting this for some time now. During the month of March, my wife and I happened to experience all 10 seasons of the iconic Friends series. I had seen it quite a few times but it never gets boring. For my wife, it was the first time so she was in splits 25 hours every day. Watching Friends is extremely addictive. You just cant stop. Weekends were consumed finishing off atleast 20 episodes. By the end of it, it felt miserable especially the last episode when the entire apartment is empty.

Anyway, I have posted this for some of my most favorite hilarious dialogues ... here they come ...

"You are 18 and she is 44 ... when you are 36, she will be 88" - Joey to Frank (Phoebe's brother) (Frank replies with - "You think I dont know that?")

When Ross is playing the bagpipe horribly ... "Why is your family Scottish" - Monica to Chandler. Chandler replies with ... "Why is your family Ross?" (since Ross is Monica's brother)

During Ross and Emily's wedding, this is how Emily's Dad introduces Ross's parents to his wife ... "Darling, meet the Gellers ... this is one and this is the other one" (Ross's surname is Geller)

"Its OK Pheebs" - Phoebe to Rachel. Rachel says ... "Pheebs is your nickname". Phoebe says ... "Oh, is it? I thought thats what we all call each other lovingly"

"Ducks is heads and Clowns is tails" - Joey to Chandler when they lose little Ben and start finding him. They get 2 babies and cant decide which one is Ben. One of the babies in wearing a shirt with Ducks and the other baby is wearing one with Clowns. So they decide to flip a coin and choose which one is Ben. Chandler asks "Why heads for Ducks?" ... Joey replies ... "Coz Ducks have heads" ...

When Frank brings his 44 year old teacher cum girlfriend to the Cafe and they start kissing in front of everyone ... Chandler says ... "If that doesnt keep kids in school then what will?"

When Phoebe enrolls for a job for a telephone operator to sell something called Toner, the person in charge explains everything to her about how to speak, how to market Toner, etc and finally she asks Phoebe ... "Ok ... all fine?" ... Phoebe replies ... "Yes, but just one thing ... what is Toner?"

Joey to Chandler ... "Imagine if our Duck and Chick have a kid, what will we name them ... Chuck" ... Chandler replies ... "or ... Dick"

Chandler is watching Yasmeen Blith on Baywatch and his Chick is making some noise ... he starts talking to the Chick ... "You both are chicks (Chick and Yasmeen Blith) ... I love you both ... but in very different ways"

Monica is a cleanliness freak and she doesnt like anyone tinkering with the arrangement of her apartment. Chandler plans to surprise her by changing the arrangement. Ross walks in and tells Chandler that Monica will freak out. Chandler gets worried and suddenly Monica knocks on the door. Chandler goes upto the door and says ... "You cant come in because Ross in naked" ... then he goes upto Ross and tries to explain ... "Ross, I had to take your name coz Monica has seen me naked millions of time" ... Ross asks ... "Why does anyone has to be naked?"

Joey to Ross - "If they homo-sapiens were indeed HOMO sapiens, is it the reason why they are extinct?"

I am sure there are many more but these are the ones at the top of my head. I think the best lines have been given to the guys ... Chandler and Joey pull off every dialogue remarkably.

It doesn't annoy me seeing any episode of Friends any number of times ...

Cheers ... !!

Do favors exist in RELATIONSHIPS ... !!

Do they?

Parents often hide the intricacies of how they raised their kids just to keep their kids aloof from stress or the struggle they went through. This is true for poor or rich, just that the level of struggle varies. But does that mean its a favor for their kids? I know there are bucketful of cases where parents harass their kids (to the extent of murder, prostitution, etc) no end but I am talking about the not-so-horrible parents.

Is there anything like a favor in a relationship and even if the answer is YES (for me, the answer is NO), does it give the favorer (the person doing the favour) the right to commit atrocities on the favoree. I don't think so. Does it give a person the bragging rights to always remind someone that their existence is only because of them.

If a person falls sick and someone in the immediate relationship takes care of him/her, how can you use that as a favor? I mean, if there are kids, parents will have to take care of them. If there is a younger sibling, the elder one has to take care. Why is it so difficult to understand? How can you term it as a favor? In any case, even if you consider this as a favor, how can you undo all that by committing hedious crimes on someone who isn't even objecting to anything. This may be sounding a bit abstract.

For parents, how does it matter if some offspring of theirs earns more/less than the other or why one of them should get less/more if the other one already has more/less of something. If it is such a big favor so as to kill your offspring of mental torture, then they shouldn't have done a favor in the first place. What joy can parents get by initiating hatred between their off springs? Why is there such a lot of difference between a daughter and a daughter-in-law? Or for that matter, mother and mother-in-law or any set of parallel relationship. Why is every concern of yours weighed in terms of money? Why is your concern for anyone termed as an effort to gain monetary advantage of that person?

I know I will never get these answers. The reason being, people are so entrenched into thinking about you in certain way that they cant possibly think about the real you. And finally, if you have ever done a favor on your child/sibling/parent, please get that spirit back because for the person being favored, that was Love and not a favor.

Relationships have gone off flavor for me ... !!

Less of BAD is GOOD ... !!

I didn't hope to stumble upon the practical instance of this phrase so soon. During the bull run of the Indian stock market in the last 4 to 5 quarters, the Technology stocks have been the only laggards with Infosys, Satyam, Wipro and TCS leading this bunch. The weakening dollar, credit concerns in the US (since most of their clients are financial companies based in the US) and the global economic meltdown are some of the catalysts responsible for the downward growth graph for these blue chip companies. The sentiment has been so pessimistic on Technology that the time has come that even a straw of good news is being lapped up as potentially positive news.

Infosys came out with their yearly results yesterday. Growth was about 9% (slowest in history) and they upped their EPS guidance to Rs. 93 (the market expected something less - I guess it was 90). Interesting to note that the growth in itself isn't very substantial but because it beats market expectations, it becomes good news. Funny.
Adding on, Infosys declared a dividend of 145% (Rs. 7.25 per share) which is great comparing it to the dividends it dished out the last 3 times. But the SAY IT ALOUD fact is that it declared a special dividend of 400% (Rs. 20 per share). So the total dividend comes out to Rs. 27.25. Now, how do you explain that as a correlation to economic slowdown.

The global markets collapsed on Monday and traded with a negative bias on Tuesday. We were closed on Monday. So we were expecting our markets to collapse yesterday. And so we did. We opened with a 200 point gap down. But then Infosys declared its numbers and BANG ... no looking back. Infy closed around 80 rupees up for the day and the markets boomed 350 points. All this on the basis of just beating market expectations (which were abysmally low).

So there will be talk of economic slowdown (Infy themselves admitted it), but all it needs for the market to sustain its march ahead is some low expectations. There is something much more to this market than what the common man knows.

For now, its pomp time for me. I hold 96 shares of Infosys.

Cheers ... !!

No new games ... !!

Since my last post was about 2 games, I have started wondering why there is a dearth of new games. You always hear or read about some path breaking innovation in some Eks Wie Zee walk of life but personally speaking, its been a while that I have heard about a new game being originated. Just imagine some people spending time to come up with a game. The thought itself is hard to digest. Games we know, seem so natural like they were ought to be that way but if you keep everything aside to think of a new game, it will take a lot more out of you than the so called WORK PRESSURE at your job. The thing that will kill you is that you know it is not something you will hate doing but still you will struggle to make a game of your own.

I am game about not creating a new game ... Cheers ... !!

Remembering Persistent ... !!

Yeah, its been a long time since I blogged. I am not going to quote any cliches for doing so ... :)

After spending 3 years at AirTight, I finally experienced a means of leisure in the form of a Table Tennis table (quite a word that ... ;)). Thoughts raced back to mid 2004 when I joined Persistent Systems Private Limited (Private is struck off now I guess). 2 games that had caught my fancy then were Carrom and Table Tennis. Though I tried my hand at both, I could never graduate past "below average" in TT, though I managed something better in Carrom. But I am relieved to be playing better TT than what I used to play in PSPL. Now, I need to pester our HR to get a Carrom board.

Till then, I guess I need to hone my skills on the TT table (I hate using this term ... reminds me of terms like 'FC college' and 'short nap').

I also hope I can get back to blogging ... till then ... Cheers ... !!

Chak De India ... !!

You would to yell out that slogan in order to get people going to see this movie. Yeah, its precisely that good. This being said by a person who hates SRK top to bottom. For the time being, I need to keep my reservations against SRK aside. Only the 2nd SRK movie that I have liked so far. Of course, there have been some that I haven't seen yet. But lets talk about the movie.

From the opening sequence till the time the team lands in India with the World Cup, the movie is rivetting. Though the onus shifts to the actual matches in the 2nd half, it doesnt make you lousy. I must say this is an intense performance by SRK. He is especially good in the scenes where he is displaying the plight of facing the wrath of the entire nation after he misses the penalty stroke against Pakistan. His sense of accomplishment after winning the World Cup makes you admire his expressions.

But the movie belongs to the interactions between SRK and his team. And what a team. No wonder we use the phrase "Unity in Diversity" so often. Even though unity will always fall short of diversity, it still makes for inspirational viewing. There are some highlight reel scenes when SRK takes the entire team out for lunch and when the team loses against the men's team of India.

In hindsight, you always know what is going to happen but the journey is quite fulfilling. I would seriously recommend this movie to every Indian. However, the movie doesnt make me feel that I will now watch all SRK movies :).

Cheers ... !!