Friday, May 30, 2003

13 year olds and the bees


Springs in full swing and its that time of the year when the bees are out. Notice that I haven't said anything about the birds. So this is not about the facts of life :) All you naughty kids need a rap in your knuckles for sure.

This "bee" that I am talking about is the is the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee competition, where kids from below the age of 16 and who have not passed 8th grade yet, here in the USA. This year's final was telecast live on ESPN yesterday (Thursday, 29th March). I happened to catch the ending and boy, was I surprised! The event was won by Sai Gunturi, a 13 year old from Dallas who was appearing for the fourth time in the competition. In 2000, he tied for 32nd place, in 2001 he tied for 16th place and in 2002 he tied for seventh place.

The word Sai spelt correctly to win the competition over Evelyn Blacklock was pococurante. (Click on the link to know what it means). All you geeks who claim to have godly verbal powers should take a test on the word spelt correctly by the two finalists. I got a couple of them (peirastic and symphily, to be more specific). This does not mean that I am the God of all things spelt with more than 4 letters. However it does mean that I am the God of all guesses.

Those kids were amazing. To see the son of a Indian immigrant (a chemical engineer actually) win the competition beating a Caucasian girl was mindblowing. To top it all, another Indian American, Samir Patel, a nine year old from Fort Worth (Texas) was tied for the third place.

Children with Indian roots have always done well in the competition, atleast in the last decade or so and Sai is not the first one to win this contest. That honor goes to Balu Natarajan from Chicago who won way back in 1985. There have been several other Indian American kids who have won the contest since then. Infact Sai's sister Nivedita was tied for the 8th place in 1997 and his brother Abhiram was beaten by Sai himself, in this year's reginal finals. Hmmm, and I thought I was a spelling geek.

And the kid wants to go into genetic engineering. Taking after his father, who is a chemical engineer, I guess. But it was refreshing to see Sai tell a interviewer that he would use his $12,000 prize money to buy tons of video games. Just goes to show that he is a normal human being after all.


QOTD: "College isn't the place to go for ideas." - Helen Keller

Tuesday, May 27, 2003

A Choice Of Reality

Apparently, I gel with Neo! Who am I to fight destiny? It will be so, only because it has to be so. However, Trinity is not just my idea of a woman and so I think I have atleast negotiate with destiny to get me someone like Aishwarya Rai. This, I think is not out of the question, considering the fact that Neo sometimes looks out of sorts around her!

Check out this image. I am Neo. I display a perfect fusion of heroism and compassion.

This image was the result of a What Matrix Persona Are You? test, courtesy Quizilla

Scribbled By Ananthanarayanan | 20: 30


Brains and Drains

I posted this game on the mailing list of the Quiz Foundation of India (Chennai Chapter) a couple of days back and got back a couple of replies and a couple of flames as well. However no one who responded for the first set of clues that I have given below, got the final answer. I shall be posting the next set of clues to the group tomorrow.

Check it out and see if you can make things out. All you have to do is to identify a place from the answers to the two different and yet connected clues (connected by the final answer). All I can say is that the final answer is a place.

======================
Clue 1. Also seen where Hitler was not a southpaw. (think celluloid)

Clue 2. "Why fret if Pepsi is unavailable when the slave has...." (complete)

Clue 3. Clues 1 and 2 lead to a place...
======================

Try it and leave your answers in the zonk board.....

And Blogger is so stupid (or maybe I am!) that it allows me to post just one log a day. I wanted to do this today, but look for a blog tomorrow or the day after on the interesting method of playing (simulating, as my Prof would say) cricket using a scientific calculator. But, all you fellow cricket fanatics don’t blame me for missed notes afterward, because this is one hell of a way to get through a dull soporific class and you are liable to let go of any inclination to listen to lectures once you are hooked.

QOTD: "There are people who think that everything one does with a serious face is sensible." - Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Wednesday, May 21, 2003

Long time no post... but lots of rain and some gardening !

It is more than a week since I posted something and all that has happened in the meantime is rain.. Lots of it... Saw "Matrix Reloaded" last Wednesday, a day before the official release. No. Not on bootleg copys downloaded off Kazaa, but at the premeire show at Movies 10 at Nelsonville. More about it on another post soon. I got lots to say about the movie. Positive things though.... Yeah.. about the rain now......

It all started with the International Street Fair on Saturday. Warm weather and then a light drizzle that continued through the day, effectively ruining one of the standout events in an international student's calendar here at OU. After doing next to nothing last year, I decided to volunteer for some stuff and started handing out the pamphlets advertising our stall. I had thought that it being just a drizzle, just my cap would suffice, but apparently I was wrong. In no time, I was drenched. As I am bound to do, I did finish handing out all the pamphlets and then took my place near the stall, standing in the middle of the cordoned-off Court Street to invite passers-by to take a look at our stall and sample the tasty Indian foodstuffs and the henna. Btw, henna was advertised as Herbal Tattoo, which I think is too cliched even for the standard American student who troops in for a better look. So next year, better term! By the time everything ended at 5:00 pm, I was too wet to come to the lab and tell you what happened. So went home and called it a day, of course after a meal of rice chilupas and Pepsi at the ubiquitous Taco Bell at Court Street. One femme fatale was with me through the day and I think the potent combo of wet hair and the cold Pepsi perhaps gave her this bad cold that has lasted over this week. That is another lesson for you all. Rain with all the wetness does not go too well with a cold Pepsi...

Sunday dawned and all day the sky threatened to break down into a sweat. So much that our expedition to survey the new OUCC ground was done with much trepidation. The ground adjoins the campus driving range and is really picturesque. We got there at four and as much as we tried, the lawn mower that we borrowed from a well-wisher refused to start. The non-OUCC member who accompanied us tried all his engineering ingenuity, but he was unable to do anything concrete till yours truly put his thinking cap on (which had been placed at another spot to mark one end of the pitch). But credit is due to him for the prompt application of whatever advice that yours truly had to give him. Finally after an hour, the machine was up and running and the area intended for the pitch was finally marked (by slightly lesser grass and weeds) against the surrounding undergrowth.

Sunny Monday dawned and after an uneventful day at the 292 lab, we made our way across to the ground where some more gardening needed to be done before the pitch looked anything like a pitch. We had borrowed a tiller this time from the Campus Facilities department and we proceeded to till the pitch area and then used a shovel to remove the darned weeds and grass off the area. We marked the pitch area and decided that only a half pitch was going to be possible with the limited manpower and other resources at hand. One good news was that the facilities department had taken responsibility of mowing the whole ground (other than the pitch area) for us. So the West State Street ground would finally look like the Cummins ground at Columbus (Indiana) rather than the GE ground at Cincinnati where the OUCC has played some memorable matches over the last couple of seasons. I think it is worth mentioning here that yours truly made his OUCC batting debut as opener in the Cummins ground with a chancy and yet well made 22 out of a total of 120 odd, a performance that parallels his debut for the Master Blasters back in 1997 at the SCE-A ground, which was actually as a first change bowler bowling military medium, returning a three wicket haul at a miserly average over a full spell of 4 overs, bowled on the trot.

Rain came back to Athens on Tuesday. But this was perhaps a boon because work at the West State Street ground progressed beyond expectations and the pitch is ready for leveling and the other activities. It is also worth mentioning that the ground perhaps lost a chance to rival Canterbury albeit in a more dubious manner when a strong root was found snaking down right in the middle of the pitch. The root was defaced after considerable discussions to let it grow, which would have made the ground the only cricket ground in the world to have a tree right in the middle of the pitch. I wished we let it grow because if Canterbury can have a tree inside the boundary and carp about it, why cannot we have one in the middle of a pitch.. Beats me!!!

Today was D-Day. It is sunny now. But Facilities have not gotten hold of the soil that they promised to give us. So today's work had to be put off to tomorrow. Tomorrow, we shall put some new soil on the pitch area and level it using the pneumatic leveller that the Facilities guys are giving us.

And just now I noticed (from the traffic reports of my blog, courtesy Bravenet) that this blog has been featured at this week's Bharateeya Blog Mela. Thanks Kingsley!!!! And thanks to all you guys who read this blog daily (or am I thinking too much of myself and this blog). My only request to all you readers, is to just leave a message on the ZonkBoard on the right whenever you are here, so that I dont have rely on the traffic reports to guess who read this blog and from where..

Note: This is solely my blog and intended, among other purposes, to boost my ego. And though I do question the veracity of Badri's (albeit unspoken) claim that he is the originator of Cogito Ergo Sum (as mentioned in one previous post), I whole heartedly agree with the phrase. May Monsieur Descartes rest in peace.

QOTD: "The future belongs to those who prepare for it today." - Malcolm X

Tuesday, May 13, 2003

Carnatic Music and South Indian Cinema

I am a music buff. Most of my friends know this, but I am always humming or whistling something. So much that I sometimes lose my own sleep at night because I am humming to myself. "Mental that one", as Ron Weasley would say! But I really am a music buff. But my knowledge of music is limited to movie soundtracks. Before one of you assaults me for carping about my knowledge of film music, I want to add that I usually do not know the lyrics for most of the songs I sing or hum. And also that I don't really sing for anyone else except me. Not that people are exactly behind me to sing for them. Actually it is quite the opposite. My music and whistling actually put people off. I know a bit (okay, a teeny weenie bit) of Carnatic music too, gleaned from the experience gained by playing the violin for a couple of years. Actually this "couple of years" is spread over almost half of my life so far, but that?s another story. However, I think I can still carry a tune. And I especially love those movie soundtracks that incorporate classical Carnatic music.

Music in south Indian cinema has evolved quite a bit from the days of MK Thyagaraja Bhagavathar and Papanasam Sivan. But the popularity of such songs (or should I say novelty) like 'Manmadha Leelaiyai vendrar undo ("Is there someone who has conquered Love", which I think is a passable translation) has not waned. Songs like these have I think been kept alive mostly by the college going crowd (Ok, I am one too). Then came the time of MSV and Co. If classical music was the backbone of the early Tamil hits, the likes of KVM and MSV certainly brought the nuances of popular western music of the time to Tamil cinema and what resulted were hits like "Vishwanathan Velai vendum" from "Kadhalikka Neram illai". But in the present times, I think Vidyasagar and to a certain extent ARR, have managed to get some of the old charm back. I know I am committing sacrilege by leaving out IR here, but I have not heard any serious classical raga based song from IR in the last couple of years. Would be grateful if someone tells me otherwise!

But, coming back to Vidyasagar, most of you would not have listened to Vidyasagar's brand of music, certainly not past the Tamil songs of his. But he has kind of brought about the fusion of Carnatic and the modern film music genres quite successfully. Panikaatre from Run (rather sadly, only parts of this song appear as background in the movie) notwithstanding, he has seemed to reserve his best for Malayalam.

Listen to this....Entharu Mahanu - Symphony. This is a "symphony" from Devadhoodhan, a Malayalam movie. Notice the way, he has blended the nuances of the Thyagaraja Keerthanai to the western classical symphony style!

Another of Vidyasagar's compositions is Raravenu ! Yes, the same old "Rara venu" varanam (raga Bilahari) that every kid (even the not so young) learns in the early phases of the learning curve (am trying to sound academic here.. lol) in Carnatic Music. IR has earlier converted this piece into a "pakka dappankuthu" piece "Maman veedu machi veedu" in Alaigal Oyivadhillai (??). The song, quality wise, does not compare to the standard of Devadhoodhan, but this is a completely different kind of piece, a funny dream sequence, so I think he did just fine.... I saw this sequence in a Surya TV program and it was hilarious. Funny video, funky interludes. Imagine a couple of matronly women (all of them akin to Bindu Ghosh) dressed up as Gopikas fighting over Dileep as Lord Krishna! For a long time, I did not know the name of the movie (Mr.Butler) nor the music director. And I am still trying to get the song in Mp3 format. Leave a message if you know where to find a mp3 version of this song.

But the piece that got me telling you all this is this - Enna Thavam Seidhanai from one of his latest movies - Parthiban Kanavu. Beautifully sung by Harini, this time he's fused the old Papanasam Sivan composition with nice interludes. Check out how she ends the song! Awesome....By the way, Kana Kanden adi from the same movie is another hummable number.

By the way, all the links are external, so open them in another window, as the "target="_blank" tag does not seem to work with Blogger. And before I go, the QOTD today, is to just dispell all doubts about its origins. It was originally made by Rene Descartes and not Badri as many people seem to think. But credit should go to him for popularizing C.E.S everywhere with the signature on his email. I wonder whether he noticed that C.E.S also stands for Chennai Environmental Services (yup, the CES Onyx), the company incharge of emptying the street dustbins in Chennai. Someone tell him!

QOTD: "Cogito ergo sum." - Rene Descartes

Monday, May 12, 2003

The Naming Game.. Some Clarifications!

Why is this blog titled "I'm no Superman"? The reasons behind such a move has already been illustrated by Anti here. However Anti would just like to clarify certain facts behind this title.
First, this line (or should I say ?phrase?), appears at a lot of places. There are atleast two songs with this line. One is the song Where Are You Going by the Dave Mathews Band. The second song that I am aware of, is the song of the same name by the group Lazlo Bane.
"Superman" is also the theme of the NBC series Scrubs which airs just after Friends every Thursday. Actually "used to air" is kinda better, because this season's episodes are all done. Well, Anti started watching this series only because of the catchy theme song and was hooked on the humor.
Anyways, here's the lyrics.

Artist : Lazlo Bane
Song : Superman
Album: All The Time In The World

Out the door just in time
Head down the 405
Gotta meet the new boss by 8 a.m.
The phone rings in the car
The wife is workin' hard
She's running late tonight again

Well
I know what I've been told,
You got to work to feed the soul
But I can't do this all on my own
No, I know, I'm no Superman
I'm no Superman

You've got your love online
You think you're doing fine
But you're just plugged into the wall

And that deck of tarot cards
Won't get you very far
There ain't no hand to break your fall

Well
I know what I've been told
You gotta know just when to fold
But I can't do this all on my own
No, I know, I'm no Superman
I'm no Superman

That's right

You've crossed the finish line
Won the race but lost your mind
Was it worth it after all

I need you here with me
Cause love is all we need
Just take a hold of the hand that breaks the fall

Well I know what I've been told
Gotta break free to break the mold
But I can't do this all on my own
No I can't do this all on my own
I know that I'm no Superman
I'm no Superman
I'm no Superman

Someday we'll be together
I'm no Superman
Someday
Someday we'll be together
Someday
I'm no Superman

QOTD: "Sanity is a madness put to good use." - George Santayana

Friday, May 09, 2003

Lightning strikes the same place twice - True or False

I just saw this English County Roundup on the Cricinfo page. This is awesome stuff from the Scottish Saltires (okie, thats how the English county teams are named these days), who beat the strong Somerset team (featuring England opener Marcus Trescothick among others). They beat Durham comprehensively a couple of days ago and now this. Dravid's gonna be starting out with a team thats on a roll. But the team still does not have a sponsor. How the heck are they finding the money to pay Dravid!

But what makes this victory even more sweeter is that on the 7th, Saltires were trounced by Somerset by 10 wickets in a Cheltenham and Gloucester Cup match. Trescothick scored 103 then and today he scored 80. The Scots were guided to a victory (not without help from Messers. Duckworth and Lewis, which by the way does nothing with the sheen over this victory) by hard hitting opener Ryan Watson who topscored with 103 of just 44 balls (!!!!!) studded with 5 sixes (4 of which came of successive deliveries).

Anyways... read this account of the match from the Daily Telegraph... interesting... - Scotland shock Somerset

Thursday, May 08, 2003

Go, Dog, Go!

Using Netscape certainly has its virtues. First, I am contributing to the fight against the monopolistic tendencies of the "Big Brother" of the Internet (actually the computer world) aka William Gates II. But the better reason (for all you Linux users, "GO LINUX !", in case you wanna lynch me for downgrading your cause) for me is that I have really not got around changed the default web page (which is home.netscape.com) in Netscape 7.0 to Cricinfo, which is my IE homepage.

Now, home.netscape.com has a wide range of interesting links everyday. A couple of days back, they had links to the Time magazine cover story on the biggest tornado this spring i.e. Matrix Reloaded. And being a harcore thalaiver fan (and of late, of the Wachowski brothers as well), I enjoyed the cover story to the last word.

But one of today's links took the bone. Well read this interesting and funny piece - Go, Dog, Go!


[ Thu May 08, 03:26:50 PM | Ananthanarayanan Subramanian |
Kaa Karoon Sajni... Aaye na Balam...

I was just listening to this beautiful song by Yesudas. He definitely has sung some real beauties in Hindi. When Audiogalaxy was still rocking, I had the good fortune of finding atleast a dozen of his Hindi songs and boy I was i raptures. "Gori Tera" from Chitchor, "Janeman Janeman" from Choti si baat are my favorites from this collection

Wonder why he did not get to sing more in Hindi. But then, he certainly has been very choosy. Maybe A R Rahman has given him some of his most wonderful songs lately. "Nenje Nenje" from Rakshagan and "Oh Bhavre" from Daud have been gems from these two. Chamak Cham Cham was also good, though the other songs in the album did not become too popular.

Anways, thats my mood for the day. Melancholic mainly but it should change when the law of the averages catches up. After all tomorrow is another day....

QOTD: "Idleness and lack of occupation tend - nay are dragged - towards evil." - Hippocrates

Kaa Karoon Sajni... Aaye na Balam...

I was just listening to this beautiful song by Yesudas. He definitely has sung some real beauties in Hindi. When Audiogalaxy was still rocking, I had the good fortune of finding atleast a dozen of his Hindi songs and boy I was i raptures. "Gori Tera" from Chitchor, "Janeman Janeman" from Choti si baat are my favorites from this collection

Wonder why he did not get to sing more in Hindi. But then, he certainly has been very choosy. Maybe A R Rahman has given him some of his most wonderful songs lately. "Nenje Nenje" from Rakshagan and "Oh Bhavre" from Daud have been gems from these two. Chamak Cham Cham was also good, though the other songs in the album did not become too popular.

Anways, thats my mood for the day. Melancholic mainly but it should change when the law of the averages catches up. After all tomorrow is another day....

QOTD: "Idleness and lack of occupation tend - nay are dragged - towards evil." - Hippocrates

Wednesday, May 07, 2003

Hypocrisy ? Truth ? I dont know !

I read this peice in Rediff just now. I am not too interested in religion but this kind of left me confused. The truth's out there. But I don't know where. It's for the reader to find out.. Anyways read this - Campus Capers. Might be interesting to some. But for me it is at best perplexing!


[ Wed May 07, 04:03:04 PM | Ananthanarayanan Subramanian ]
Quizilla!

Check this link out.... It's a page of wacky quizzes.. No.. questionnaires actually! - Quizilla


[ Wed May 07, 03:04:57 PM | Ananthanarayanan Subramanian ]
The next phase of Anti's life

Anti sent out his first networking mail today. He doesn't know if thats what it is called. But he just mailed someone his resume to forward to people. This represents the start of the next phase of Anti's life. Godspeed Anti..
For all of you who dont know who posted this message, it was Anti himself. He just likes to talk about himself in third person. He know's it is kinda cool. Yeah.. Anti rocks all the way.
Now for the QOTD (as the Quote Of The Day shall be called from now on).


QOTD: "Do thou restrain the haughty spirit in thy breast, for better far is gentle courtesy." - Homer.
Quizilla!

Check this link out.... It's a page of wacky quizzes.. No.. questionnaires actually! - Quizilla
The next phase of Anti's life

Anti sent out his first networking mail today. He doesn't know if thats what it is called. But he just mailed someone his resume to forward to people. This represents the start of the next phase of Anti's life. Godspeed Anti..
For all of you who dont know who posted this message, it was Anti himself. He just likes to talk about himself in third person. He know's it is kinda cool. Yeah.. Anti rocks all the way.
Now for the QOTD (as the Quote Of The Day shall be called from now on).

QOTD: "Do thou restrain the haughty spirit in thy breast, for better far is gentle courtesy." - Homer.

Tuesday, May 06, 2003

Blogger Users of the World, Unite

All you Blogger users, see blogger_user_support. Eventhough this mailing list is not affiliated to Blogger in any way, the support from the members of this list surpasses even the official Blogger Support Center.
With great powers come greater responsibilities

Just updated the blog template. It looks fine now. Shall post daily from now on.

Monday, May 05, 2003

Check this out......
And note the last line :)
-------------------------------
Durham v Scotland
Scorecard

A packed house at Chester-le-Street witnessed a nail-biting win for Scotland on their National League debut, showing they can match the county professionals. Disciplined bowling was the key to their success, as all five bowlers - in typically Scottish fashion - were incredibly stingy. Majid Haq stood out from the pack with 4 for 36 from his nine overs of offspin, as none of the Durham bastmen passed fifty. With only 168 needed to record a famous win, Scotland made a bright start as Douglas Lockhart and Ryan Watson put on 75 for the first wicket. But as they neared the target, a few Scottish hearts, however brave, would have jumped when Durham's Dewald Pretorious struck twice in one over leaving Scotland on 132 for 5. But Colin Smith and Neil McRae kept their nerves to record a famous win with four balls remaining. Who needs Rahul Dravid?