Q and its A

What should I do with my life ?
Most of the time, it ends up being a rhetoric.

Po Bronson in his book tries to make the question accountable and appealing. I am mid-way reading it. I strongly recommend it.

There is no (f)art of living pravachan or self-madad techniques. It is definitely not a Chicken Soup for Soul where alls-well-that-ends-well. Mere dost, picture is always baaki in most of the stories in the book.

The stories vary from poignant to mundane to inspirational. It is not a step-by-step guide to find yourself. It is more of a snapshot of a phase in life of people who really asked the question. Many are still searching for an answer.

The answer is somewhere within. Sometimes, it takes a lifetime to search over there.
That, mere yaar, is the gist of life. To ask the question for which you can spend your entire life looking for an answer.

Winning colors

My friend, Umang, tells me the success behind Chennai Super Kings uninterrupted winning run in IPL. Its the color of their kit and attire.

Any team that wears similar colors as Australian cricket team, wins. Different hue is acceptable :-)



I think it is substantiated by the fact that Mumbai Indians wear blue, what Indian national team wears (though not the same shade of blue). They have lost all their four matches.

The start-up

Life is like a start-up. You start off with something in mind but end up doing something totally different as the market (read life) dictates.

I had a plan, a perfect model for my life which was suppose to reveal on its own. As a kid, wanted to be in army and then wanted to be an electronics engineer with a short spell in the middle where I wanted to be a chemical engineer and eventually ended up doing electrical engineering. Then wanted to study but worked for some time. But then I did study computer engineering with seed funding from my family.

Followed my heart to do nothing and did precisely just that. Finally started working for reasons best known to me (or not) and then went on to join a start-up for again the same reasons as above.

I am slowly inching my way from red to black. The RoI is still to be recovered and break even is far off. When will I make it to getting listed in the history remains to be seen. Because it was never a question of whether I will but when.

Cheer-Haran

It was expected. So it happened. Nobody is surprised.

The cheerleaders in IPL were seen by one and all. Some wanted to see them again. Some said it was enough. They wanted newer cheerleaders. Mumbai Moral Sena raised a pertinent question "With Mumbai males not performing when it matters most (on the cricket field, I mean), who needs cheerleaders anyways?"

They got support from unexpected quarters. Shaheed Afridi and Shotgun Sinha. Though Afridi loves to play with the ball, of cricket obviously, he feels that he is distracted by the other balls...oops..balle balle dance of the cheerleaders. He comes early and then gets off..err..gets out sooner.

Sinha with neither age nor power and not even Pawar on his side has been reduced from Shotgun to firing blanks. He claimed that T20 and cheerleaders will eventually reduce the game to "Toss Toss". Regretfully, he did not mention what is being tossed around. The prospects do look inviting, if he spoke about his own fantasy and of other guys.

All this outbursts took place in the middle of bowling change when the zealous Set MAX instead of showing cheerleaders switched to Vodafone ka kutta running after the bus. What an anti-climax, yaar, causing utmost pain and trauma to many. No hard feelings there, buddy and yeah, it's a dog's life at the end of it.

Yeh IPL ka cricket hain bhidu

Crowds booing "Sreesanth Hai Hai". This could have happened anywhere but in India. Till last Monday.

Then it happened in Jaipur. The reason: Sreesanth gave that stare to a batsman and tried to sledge. The batsmen was Kamran Akmal! See in another context, the Jaipur crowd jeering an Indian bowler cos he took panga with a Pakistani batsman. What would have been unimaginable, just occurred. Akmal plays for Rajasthan Royals in IPL and Sreesanth for Kings XI Punjab.

It has happened before too.
The Eden crowd erupts in joy when Laxman, who made magnificent 281 on the same ground years ago, gets out.
Ponting rushing to Ishant Sharma, when the latter is walking back to his run-up, to advise how to bowl against Symonds.

As Dravid said "It's really unusual to come to Bombay, hit a four and see nobody clapping for you." The Mumbai spectators went "Sanath, Sanath" ala "Sachin, Sachin" style.

So barriers are breaking at international level and new divisions are being made at regional level. As long as those divisions confine to cricket, no harm in celebrating the sixes of Hussey off Pathan or the fall of Dravid.

I am hoping that we start taking pride in our local teams as much as we take "pride" in our national team. IPL may just be that catalyst.

Nayar say Nehra Again

On Wednesday 23rd April in Chennai, Abhishek Nayar came into bat when 99 runs were required of 42 balls. He came, he saw, he played. He brought the score to 8 runs in 2 balls with able support from Harbhajan.
Still Mumbai Indians lost to Chennai Superkings with 6 runs. A great nail-biting finish (though I personally did not indulge in that activity). Such fun.

Joginder Sharma gets all the accolades but I say, he is one helluva lucky chap. In T20 final, Misbah played that audacious shot off Sharma and gave a simple catch to Aakashwani-listening-Sreesanth. Last night, Nayar took a single run on a no-ball and gave strike to Nehra. Nehra who? Aashish Nehra whose claim to fame is that six wicket haul against England in 2003 World Cup and series of injuries later on. That strike ruined all the chances Mumbai Indians had of winning the match.

McCullumed!

Long after your hi-tech jobs got Banglored, Bangalore Royal Challengers got McCullumed in the first league match against the Kolkata Knight Riders.

Brendon McCullum scored 158 runs in 73 balls laced with 10 fours and 13 sixes. He is already famous in India with his heroics and another such innings from him will make him a superstar in India. Otherwise, he may end up just one innings wonder (as far as India & IPL is concerned).

There is always a difference between a Kumar Gaurav and Hrithik Roshan.

SRK vs SRK

This is not a remake of Kramer vs Kramer. SRK's new game "Kya Aap Paanchvi Paas Se Tez hain ?" show begins in the middle of the successful IPL.

The show is an Indianized version of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? I have seen few episodes on YouTube of the Fox Show and it does seem very very interesting. I think the success of the show depends a lot on the contestant. I don't know if the Indian contestant will open so easily in front of the camera.

With IPL hogging all the TRPs and especially the Kolkata Knight Riders matches leading from the front, will SRK's new show give fight to IPL?

The quiz show begins on Friday 25th April 8 PM Star Plus.
Catch the teaser below

Making of the stars

Ashoke Dindha, Wriddhiman Saha, Karan Goel, Salunkhe, Jadeja, Shikhar Dhawan etc
I am not talking about my friend list on Orkut. Neither it is the reunion list of my college.

These are the performers of IPL who were unknown till last week and budding stars this week. Who says IPL is about only money and razzle dazzle, the cheer leaders and Bollywood?

Its exciting to watch the keeper Saha take a dive for a catch on his wrong side or Virat Kohli pouncing on the ball with an eye of a tiger. Ravindra Jadeja hitting boundaries to Brett Lee in a cliff hanger of a match.

Imagine the exposure the young promising talent will get just by being in the same dressing room with the likes of Lee, Symonds, McCullum, Warne and vice versa. May be next time, Symmo will know exactly what Bhajji said! Ek bandar, IPL ke andar. Alrite, this monkey business is no more p(h)unny. So I will stop right here.

The Maa and The Baap

So it has begun. Its almost a week since it started. Its huge if the reports and feedback has to be believed.

Yeah, I am talking about the Manoranjan ka Baap and the Mother of all Reality TV in India.
Indian Premier League.

So far the matches have been exciting barring one or two of them. Expect lot many posts on IPL in the coming weeks.

I am leaving you with few videos for promotion of IPL.
The first one is "inspired" from NBA promotional video but I like the lyrics of the former so its cool with me.



The second one is Bollywood-ish promo which is howlarious !!!!