IPL notes

Now that IPL is getting over with only knock-out matches remaining, I had few things to talk about.

1. After more than dozen league matches where each team plays against all the other teams, it does not make sense to have semi-finals.

Imagine, in a freak game today, Rajasthan Royals loses to Delhi Daredevils in the first semi-final. They have won convincingly against all the other teams barring 3 loses. It would be a real let-down if they don't play in finals.

Yes, semi-final knock-outs add that extra drama and spice to the tournament. It seems very unfair if the best team of the league loses out because of a bad day.

2. The finals should be best of three matches instead of one. One at home, one away and third at a neutral ground. Sort of a level playing field. Again the same theory applies that the team should get a chance to claw back in. One bad day should not be a decider for such tournament.

3. With no semi-final rounds and each league match is important. There should be spare days for matches that were abandoned because of Lord Indra's whim. I am not saying that the next day should be kept free which may be improbable with such a busy schedule. After every leg of the league, there can be a week or half off where those matches that were abandoned can be played.

Look what happened with Mumbai Indians (14 points), Delhi Daredevils (15 points) and Kolkata Knight riders (13 points). If KKR vs DD matched had not washed out and if KKR had won, there would have been a 3-way tie between above teams ! So much fun.

All in all, it has been a satisfactory tournament. Going with the performance, Rajasthan Royals should win. But its not over till the last ball is bowled. Cricket is suppose to be a game of uncertainties. So expect some surprise.

Chala Murari Hero Banne!

So what's happens when Om Prakash Makhija gets a chance to be Om Kapoor[1] ?
He overacts to the hilt as if there is no tomorrow.

That's what I did when I was part of a TV quiz show based on Bollywood aptly titled Bollywood Ka Boss. It's hosted by Boman Irani.

Did I win and was the hero or I just ended up being the guy in a suit in fourth row behind the star ? You will know in the 12th part of the following video. To use a cliche, it does not matter. I used 39 seconds of fame out of my quota of 15 minutes.

Watch out in this video where Boman introduces all of us.




All the parts are available at following links.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6
Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12


[1] - Om Prakash is a junior artiste (also known as bhai log in slang) and Om Kapoor is a super star in Om Shanti Om.

Tale of Indian cities

Paul Graham in his latest essay begins with "Great cities attract ambitious people".

You always need a tipping point for anything to get effective, be a philosophy, a style statement or a revolution. Cities help in building a critical mass of people. and that critical mass acts as a tipping point.

Do Indian cities attract ambitious people. Do they have the right critical mass.

I am sure Bombay used to do. People coming from UP, Bihar, Punjab, from everywhere to become Bollywood stars. Or more enterprising lot from Gujarat or Marwar riding their luck on Dalal street. Sadly, Mumbai attracts hooligans. Holy Guns! From Maximum city to minimum tolerance.

Bangalore attracts cheer leadars. Yeah, it still has a high influx of every one and anyone who wants to ride the IT wave. Does it really attract the most ambitious technologists.

Ahmedabad, my home town, attracts all the Schumachers and Raikkonnens with license to kill. Of course,you have to drive on the wrong side (i.e. the correct side in US) to really reach your final destination. Lan(e)s are for computer networks. You see, Ahmedabad is closer to Amrika than anywhere else.

So who does your city attracts ?

On a side note, the more I travel the more I see that cities in India are losing their individuality. All the buildings look the same wherever I go. The clothes that people wear or their life style is not very different from city to city. There is no differentiation left. I don't know if that is something to worry or cheer about that finally India is becoming a homogeneous country.

Chak De! revisited

When you are the brand ambassador for mobile services company as well as company that makes handsets, the benefits are many including a very very long text messaging service feature available to you for free.

And what do you do with it is send a very very long text message.
So that the rest of us can read that very very long text message.

Read SRK's SMS to his Kolkata Knight Riders team after all the controversies and losses.

"Story time boys... I told you if you keep losing you have to bear with my long, boring msgs.... This is your punishment.... Many times I have made movies which don’t do well.... When I’m doing them, of course, I don’t know they won’t do well.... The story is written by somebody else and I just do my bit as an actor. But I have a way of dealing with flop stories..., I try my best to keep my character in the film at a level that it makes a failed story also special for me...."

“I enjoy the work.... I make jokes about the failure.... And, of course, feel awful about it too.... So, right now, all of us have become part of a failed script... A bad IPL script.... Let’s try and keep our characters worthy of still looking back at this story and remembering it as a special story becos we all worked very hard at this....

“So, chin up and don’t spoil yr character in the next two games.... Let’s go out with a bang and not a whimper.... In films, we say u r only as good as yr last film.... So let’s make the whole world know how good we r in the last (maybe not) two games...

“Also, do ignore all this bit about Dada, me and John having issues.... It’s a normal thing in the world.... People like to hit you when u r down.... So, we will be hit.... No stress.... It will make us stronger.... The only way to avoid this is to win.... That’s one of the reasons why everybody likes to be a winner....

“On the other hand, the beauty of failure is that it brings people together.... So, let’s stick this out together.... You know me well enuff to know I am not the kind of owner who has issues with the team ’cos of losses... I am too much of a sport myself to get beaten by defeats.... Like you guys are.... Like Dada and John....

“I am still trying to understand the code of conduct expected of me at the matches of the IPL.... ICC... Etc.... After I understand it, I will decide whether to accept it or not.... Till such time, I will be with you guys at the hotel... in the meetings etc., but won’t come for the matches.... So, please don’t ever feel it is anything to do with us as a team....

“I am as dedicated to my Knights as I am to my kids.... Only, I won’t be coming to the class room till the headmaster’s rules are understood by me.... I am a bit anti-Establishment kind of a guy, so I apologise for this quirk to u all.... So, head’s up.... Have a good match and let’s make 200 runs tomorrow.... This 150 seems to not work any more....

“We have nothing to lose now, except our character.... Let’s not lose that.... Lov... SRK.

A prayer

Nasrun min Allahi wa fathun qareeb
Help from God and victory is close!

- As Saff Sura 61:13, Quran

The Insignificant period

Eons ago SUN systems proclaimed that "We are the dot in .com" which has got nothing to do with this post. Except for the fact this post talks about the dots in Gmail.

As per this entry @ Gmail Blog, the dots are insignificant in Google's grand scheme of user ids. For this periodic loss, Google gets benevolent and allows extra pluses in your identity. It all evens out in Googlic form of justice. World is not fair, they are +f.a.i.r. And lovely, no!

For some body like Mallika Sherawat has ID say google.mallika@gmail.com, it can also be represented as go.ogle.mallika+just+dont+tell+your+girlfriend@gmail.com

So much fun this is.

Making of a Prophet

by Bertrand Russell.

"Ignore fact and reason, live entirely in the world of your own fantastic and myth-producing passions; do this whole-heartedly and with conviction, and you will become one of the prophets of your age."

Did Raj Thackeray read it, I wonder.

I found the essay via PickTheBrain blog. Do visit the site. It has got some real good articles on self-improvement. No, I am not kidding, really.

Cricket De Grace!

Why Dravid is not held equally responsible ?
Those who are following IPL know what I am talking about.

I don't think any body is following Bangalore Royal Challengers. Nobody is after them even in the points table.

Mallya sacked Charu Sharma for the poor performance of BRC. Dravid and Sharma chose the right people albeit for a wrong occasion. He could not sack the best looking guy in his team as the team plays like they are modeling for the Kingfisher calendar. Sunil Joshi was found doshi of being incapable to do that either.

Same goes for Ganguly. You cannot touch Ganguly in Kolkata Knight Riders who pisses off the other team by coming late on the pitch. And pisses off his players by not able to bat, field or bowl. Some would wish that he would be late enough to skip the game

Moving to our very own Re-Lax-Man. As per the grapevine, some body in his team went a la Bhajji and hit him hard so that he sits out for the rest of the matches. Everyone claimed it to be an accident including Bhajji. The same day Deccan Chargers won against Chennai Superkings.

The Master Blaster is in pain. He is hit where it hurts the most. Silly, he is losing out on the moolah of 40 million rupees. Though he was lucky that he was spared the wrath and with the Sardar gone, the team is now a-sardar (effective) and on a remarkable turnaround course.

That IPL is a ring circus camouflaged as war zone is a foregone conclusion. Now who concluded that, you may say. Yo Einstein, it's me! Koi Shaque.

The collateral damage has been the best four Indian batsmen. Its no surprise that their respective teams are in the bottom half of the points table. More importantly, in a way it was not entirely of their own making or was it. Being an Icon has its price, sometimes it brings the end quicker. Just like a T20 match.

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