Saamy!
"Onnu saamy,
rendu saamy,
moonu saamy,
naalu saamy,
anju saamy,
aaru saamy da naan!"
Saamy rocks... So does Chiyaan. Watch it!
An unconventional treatment of an oft-repeated theme in Indian cinema - Good Cop vs. Bad guys in small town. A saambhar western, if you please! Good cop comes to small town as deputy commissioner. Goes undercover on first day to see what goes on. Pulls up policemen and sets an almost "police-state" like administration in the town. Falls in love with a young girl who acts boldly. Meets bad guys and voila (hitherto unseen previously in similar movies) takes money from them. Turns a blind eye to their activities unless the common man is affected (don't they always suffer because of the anti-social elements, DUH ?). Bad guys are lulled to softness by this unconventional policeman. Bad guy leader thinks this guy is one of them, but his henchmen don’t see what he sees. Finally, bad guy sees reason and uses clout to transfer him to another town. Cop vows to stop him in his tracks within the seven days he has still to serve in that town and proceeds to do it. Finally kills the bad man and burns the body (without anybody else's knowledge) in a brick kiln. His reasoning - Bad guy's death could spawn similar people. Bad guy not dying would endanger his (the policeman's) own family's living. So he kills, but not telling anyone about it and letting the people and the other policemen think the bad guy is absconding and hence deter anyone who would glorify such a "coward". Whatever, this argument seemed much more novel than the others seen so far and Vikram's body language makes him the ideal man to play this tough cop. Final shot of the movie, cop taking a dip in the river (with the setting sun as the background) and coming out of the water topless. Symbolic washing away of all sins.. heh ? And I don't wanna forget this. The good cop actually donates the money he got from the bad guys periodically to various government charities (like the Gujarat Earthquake fund and so on) and actually obtains the receipts for the same in the bad guy's name. And yeah, duly preserves the same in a file as evidence.
Hmm. No role for Trisha except to smile and cry as the scene demands. Same for Vijaykumar except to put senti and die because of the bad guy's bomb. Vivek's socio-centric, priest character spews Subramanya Bharathi's poems in every frame and makes oblique references to every single social issue these days, ranging from Veerappan to the right to basic education and to even the eternal Iyer-Iyengar quarrel. Some more references to the Indian President Dr.Kalam too. We hear that a tape of Vivek's comedy tracks (from this movie too?) was sent to the President who sent a personal letter of congratulations comparing his work to that of NSK and other similar performers of yore. Loud sometimes but full of thought, this Vivek comedy track.
By the way, the statement in the QOTD refers to the fact that Aru Saamy's mother had five stillborn babies before she had him. That line made me laugh every time I heard it on screen.
QOTD: "Porakkum bodhe anju pera konnavan da indha Aaru Saamy" - Vikram as DCP Aaru Saamy in "Saamy" (2003)
Wednesday, August 27, 2003
Friday, August 22, 2003
"Bad Attitude" - A fine excuse to foist someone's preferences on the whole country!
Rediff.com has posted this question by one of its readers in its Ask Mohandas Menon column. Read this.
"Question: Could you please give the statistical comparison of Sadagopan Ramesh, Sanjay Bangar, Shiv Sundar Das, Deep Dasgupta in Test cricket when they opened the Indian innings? Why was Ramesh is not selected even for the India 'A' tour?"
In response, Mohandas Menon, the official statistician of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (or whoever is ghost writing the responses to these questions) has a table with statistics. It had the stats of four players that the questioner had asked about. I have taken the liberty of adding one more player to this list whom I think is another valid choice for opener. That is Wasim Jaffer. I have also removed Deep Dasgupta from this list, because he does not figure in the list of 36 probables and his entry into the team is surely not possible in the light of the presence of two specialist wicket keepers, Ratra and Patel. Hence, I have below, a edited version of Rediff's table with Wasim Jaffer's stats added. It is to be noted that the stats are only for the opener's slot and these players may have scored more runs in other positions as the case may be.
The other players that should be compared are Sehwag and Laxman. For different reasons, both of them have been omitted from this table. Sehwag, has publicly stated that "he is a middle order batsman". This, I think is enough hints (going by the past record of public statements from the Indian team and its management) that Sehwag will bat at a position lower than that of opener. Laxman on the other hand has said that he is ready to bat, regardless of his official position in the past, at the top of the order. So the positions of these two certainties to the Indian test team seems more or less certain. The other probables for the choice of openers are players who haven’t played any Test cricket at all. Going by the Indian team management's strategic moves in the last couple of months, an experiment with unknown faces at the top of the lineup is not apparent in the horizon. So as per my thoughts, it is going to be Laxman and one the two between Jaffer and Das.
But as the question and the list indicate, there is one other person whose records are either better or at best par with these two choices. But he does not figure in the 36 at all. At different points of time, reports indicate that he is "short of technique" and is loaded with "attitude problems". But haven't we heard these words before, more famously to describe another southpaw, who is slowly developing into the best captain India has ever had. To quote Partab Ramchand,
"But even as he ran up a Test average of 50 plus in his first half a dozen Tests, there were the cynics who pointed out to his faulty footwork and awry technique. Then there were the detractors who said he would never get runs away from the sub continent and he would come up a cropper against the Australian pace bowlers on the faster and bouncier pitches `Down Under.' Taking up the challenge, Ramesh proved that he could get runs in any conditions and while he did not exactly set the Yarra River on fire, he did enough to show that he is here to stay. He and Shiv Sundar Das have the makings of a long term opening pair for the country."
Partab Ramchand may not be the best judge of a cricketer, but those words can be corroborated with the numbers from the table that’s has been featured above. After a lay off from cricket due to a back injury which forced him out of even being considered for the infamous 2001 South African tour, he was rankled by a bad run of scores. But he is back in form. The Hindu reports (Google cache of the article titled 'Ramesh's omission surprising') that among his string of three figure scores this season in the Chennai first division league is a record unbeaten 307. The Chennai league is reputedly the best in the country and the best of the country (Dravid, Srinath et. al) regularly play for First Division teams in Chennai. Hence it is certain that the man has regained his form. So why keep him out? The coach, at different points of time in the last two years, has offered some words of consolation, but words are often not enough to mollify the hurt of such magnitude. Will something change or will Ramesh still be the "Afghan of Indian Cricket". Fifteen months after my initial thoughts, I have still not lost hope. I hope this is the case with Ramesh too.
QOTD: "He has to take it in a sportive manner." - Indian coach, John Wright commenting about the no-show of S.Ramesh in the list of probables
Rediff.com has posted this question by one of its readers in its Ask Mohandas Menon column. Read this.
"Question: Could you please give the statistical comparison of Sadagopan Ramesh, Sanjay Bangar, Shiv Sundar Das, Deep Dasgupta in Test cricket when they opened the Indian innings? Why was Ramesh is not selected even for the India 'A' tour?"
In response, Mohandas Menon, the official statistician of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (or whoever is ghost writing the responses to these questions) has a table with statistics. It had the stats of four players that the questioner had asked about. I have taken the liberty of adding one more player to this list whom I think is another valid choice for opener. That is Wasim Jaffer. I have also removed Deep Dasgupta from this list, because he does not figure in the list of 36 probables and his entry into the team is surely not possible in the light of the presence of two specialist wicket keepers, Ratra and Patel. Hence, I have below, a edited version of Rediff's table with Wasim Jaffer's stats added. It is to be noted that the stats are only for the opener's slot and these players may have scored more runs in other positions as the case may be.
| Batsman | M | I | NO | Runs | HS | Ave | 100 | 50 | 0 |
| SS Das | 23 | 40 | 2 | 1326 | 110 | 34.89 | 2 | 9 | 3 |
| S Ramesh | 19 | 37 | 1 | 1367 | 143 | 37.97 | 2 | 8 | 3 |
| SB Bangar | 8 | 13 | 0 | 327 | 77 | 25.15 | - | 3 | 1 |
| W Jaffer | 7 | 13 | 0 | 261 | 86 | 20.07 | - | 3 | N/A |
The other players that should be compared are Sehwag and Laxman. For different reasons, both of them have been omitted from this table. Sehwag, has publicly stated that "he is a middle order batsman". This, I think is enough hints (going by the past record of public statements from the Indian team and its management) that Sehwag will bat at a position lower than that of opener. Laxman on the other hand has said that he is ready to bat, regardless of his official position in the past, at the top of the order. So the positions of these two certainties to the Indian test team seems more or less certain. The other probables for the choice of openers are players who haven’t played any Test cricket at all. Going by the Indian team management's strategic moves in the last couple of months, an experiment with unknown faces at the top of the lineup is not apparent in the horizon. So as per my thoughts, it is going to be Laxman and one the two between Jaffer and Das.
But as the question and the list indicate, there is one other person whose records are either better or at best par with these two choices. But he does not figure in the 36 at all. At different points of time, reports indicate that he is "short of technique" and is loaded with "attitude problems". But haven't we heard these words before, more famously to describe another southpaw, who is slowly developing into the best captain India has ever had. To quote Partab Ramchand,
"But even as he ran up a Test average of 50 plus in his first half a dozen Tests, there were the cynics who pointed out to his faulty footwork and awry technique. Then there were the detractors who said he would never get runs away from the sub continent and he would come up a cropper against the Australian pace bowlers on the faster and bouncier pitches `Down Under.' Taking up the challenge, Ramesh proved that he could get runs in any conditions and while he did not exactly set the Yarra River on fire, he did enough to show that he is here to stay. He and Shiv Sundar Das have the makings of a long term opening pair for the country."
Partab Ramchand may not be the best judge of a cricketer, but those words can be corroborated with the numbers from the table that’s has been featured above. After a lay off from cricket due to a back injury which forced him out of even being considered for the infamous 2001 South African tour, he was rankled by a bad run of scores. But he is back in form. The Hindu reports (Google cache of the article titled 'Ramesh's omission surprising') that among his string of three figure scores this season in the Chennai first division league is a record unbeaten 307. The Chennai league is reputedly the best in the country and the best of the country (Dravid, Srinath et. al) regularly play for First Division teams in Chennai. Hence it is certain that the man has regained his form. So why keep him out? The coach, at different points of time in the last two years, has offered some words of consolation, but words are often not enough to mollify the hurt of such magnitude. Will something change or will Ramesh still be the "Afghan of Indian Cricket". Fifteen months after my initial thoughts, I have still not lost hope. I hope this is the case with Ramesh too.
QOTD: "He has to take it in a sportive manner." - Indian coach, John Wright commenting about the no-show of S.Ramesh in the list of probables
Thursday, August 21, 2003
Answers for the cricket quiz!
Sometime back, I posted a cricket quiz on this blog. Here are the answers with the questions for convinience.
01. Ellis Edgar Achong played 38 first class matches including 6 test matches for the West Indies in the period between 1929 and 1935. Primarily a bowler, he finished his first class career with 110 wickets at 30.23 runs apeice. He also stood one Test Match as a umpire in 1953/54 (West Indies versus England, 4th test at Port of Spain). Little else is known about this son of a Chinese father and a Trinidadian mother, but he has contributed a term used these days in cricket (more often these days, when Australia is playing). What term are we talking about?
Ans. Chinaman, which a left arm spinner, for example, Michael Bevan or Paul Adams, bowls. It is a mirror image of the leg break bowled by a right arm spinner.
02. Five of the authors of the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM) article titled “Exact moment of a gastrocnemius muscle strain captured on video" are Orchard JW, Alcott E, James T, Farhart P, Portus M. Name the sixth "author". (I have a copy of the journal article and the actual videos that were part of the article too. Ask me if you want to see them.)
Ans. Stephen Rodger Waugh. Look here for more details. The abstract of the journal article follows:"A left gastrocnemius strain was sustained by an elite cricket batsman while he was taking off to run. The exact moment of injury, captured by a camera in the middle stump, appears to correspond to the sudden appearance of a deficit in the gastrocnemius muscle, seen through the player's trousers. The strain occurred when the entire body weight was on the left foot with the centre of mass well in front of the leg. The injury probably occurred close to the time when the gastrocnemius complex was moving from an eccentric to an isometric phase."
03. Yorkshire's Herbert Sutcliffe and Percy Holmes put on a record partnership for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton. It was then the highest partnership for any wicket in first-class cricket history. What brand name of cigarettes (allegedly) takes its name from this partnership ?
Ans. 555 cigarettes, this could be a urban legend too, which is why I used the word "allegedly".
04. Who was the only bowler to have got Don Bradman out hitting his own wicket ?
Ans. Lala Amarnath.
05. In 1949, Australian Broadcasting Corporation changed its P.O Box number. What was the occasion and what was it changed to?
Ans. The occasion was the conferring of the knighthood on Don Bradman and the number was changed to 9994 to match his test average of 99.94.
06. Who is the only player to have opened the bowling, the batting and also keep wickets, all in the same test match ?
Ans. Budhi Kunderan.
07. Brett Lee has two nicknames. The first is is Bing. His second nickname is what? And why is it that way?
Ans. Oswald, because someone noticed that the immediately preceding names in the batting line up of the New South Wales team were Lee (Shane Lee) and Harvey (Ian Harvey). Hence Brett Lee got the nickname "oswald" from Lee Harvey Oswald (JFK's alleged assasin)
08. A "famous" cat called Peter (it was REALLY called Peter, I swear) died in 1965 in London. Where did it usually loiter and what is so trivially strange about its death?
Ans. It was member of the feline family, supposedly a cat that lived on the ground of Lord's in London. When it died, its obituary appeared on the next edition of Wisden, making it the only animal (other than homo sapiens) to have its obituary featured in the magazine. fyi, W.G.Grace's mother was the first lady to have her obituary appear on Wisden.
09. Who was the non-striker when Javed Miandad hit that famous last-ball six off Chetan Sharma at Sharjah?
Ans. Tauseef Ahmed.
10. Soccer, Cricket Connection - Whats common to Franz Beckanbauer and Mario Zagallo and Geoff Marsh?
Ans. Only people to have won World Cups (albeit in different sports), both as player and coach.
-x-x-finito-x-x-
To compare your entries with the correct answers, please see this link. In addition, Shashi replied on IM and he gets 3 points out of a maximum of 10. Kuzh and V.V.Ramanan will get their viruses and scores (respectively) over email.
Sometime back, I posted a cricket quiz on this blog. Here are the answers with the questions for convinience.
01. Ellis Edgar Achong played 38 first class matches including 6 test matches for the West Indies in the period between 1929 and 1935. Primarily a bowler, he finished his first class career with 110 wickets at 30.23 runs apeice. He also stood one Test Match as a umpire in 1953/54 (West Indies versus England, 4th test at Port of Spain). Little else is known about this son of a Chinese father and a Trinidadian mother, but he has contributed a term used these days in cricket (more often these days, when Australia is playing). What term are we talking about?
Ans. Chinaman, which a left arm spinner, for example, Michael Bevan or Paul Adams, bowls. It is a mirror image of the leg break bowled by a right arm spinner.
02. Five of the authors of the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM) article titled “Exact moment of a gastrocnemius muscle strain captured on video" are Orchard JW, Alcott E, James T, Farhart P, Portus M. Name the sixth "author". (I have a copy of the journal article and the actual videos that were part of the article too. Ask me if you want to see them.)
Ans. Stephen Rodger Waugh. Look here for more details. The abstract of the journal article follows:"A left gastrocnemius strain was sustained by an elite cricket batsman while he was taking off to run. The exact moment of injury, captured by a camera in the middle stump, appears to correspond to the sudden appearance of a deficit in the gastrocnemius muscle, seen through the player's trousers. The strain occurred when the entire body weight was on the left foot with the centre of mass well in front of the leg. The injury probably occurred close to the time when the gastrocnemius complex was moving from an eccentric to an isometric phase."
03. Yorkshire's Herbert Sutcliffe and Percy Holmes put on a record partnership for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton. It was then the highest partnership for any wicket in first-class cricket history. What brand name of cigarettes (allegedly) takes its name from this partnership ?
Ans. 555 cigarettes, this could be a urban legend too, which is why I used the word "allegedly".
04. Who was the only bowler to have got Don Bradman out hitting his own wicket ?
Ans. Lala Amarnath.
05. In 1949, Australian Broadcasting Corporation changed its P.O Box number. What was the occasion and what was it changed to?
Ans. The occasion was the conferring of the knighthood on Don Bradman and the number was changed to 9994 to match his test average of 99.94.
06. Who is the only player to have opened the bowling, the batting and also keep wickets, all in the same test match ?
Ans. Budhi Kunderan.
07. Brett Lee has two nicknames. The first is is Bing. His second nickname is what? And why is it that way?
Ans. Oswald, because someone noticed that the immediately preceding names in the batting line up of the New South Wales team were Lee (Shane Lee) and Harvey (Ian Harvey). Hence Brett Lee got the nickname "oswald" from Lee Harvey Oswald (JFK's alleged assasin)
08. A "famous" cat called Peter (it was REALLY called Peter, I swear) died in 1965 in London. Where did it usually loiter and what is so trivially strange about its death?
Ans. It was member of the feline family, supposedly a cat that lived on the ground of Lord's in London. When it died, its obituary appeared on the next edition of Wisden, making it the only animal (other than homo sapiens) to have its obituary featured in the magazine. fyi, W.G.Grace's mother was the first lady to have her obituary appear on Wisden.
09. Who was the non-striker when Javed Miandad hit that famous last-ball six off Chetan Sharma at Sharjah?
Ans. Tauseef Ahmed.
10. Soccer, Cricket Connection - Whats common to Franz Beckanbauer and Mario Zagallo and Geoff Marsh?
Ans. Only people to have won World Cups (albeit in different sports), both as player and coach.
-x-x-finito-x-x-
To compare your entries with the correct answers, please see this link. In addition, Shashi replied on IM and he gets 3 points out of a maximum of 10. Kuzh and V.V.Ramanan will get their viruses and scores (respectively) over email.
Quiz in Chennai and that too in Ethiraj!
A week since my last post and the world is still the same. The status quo remains and will remain so till someone flicks the switch off a nuclear bomb somewhere or cut a power line somewhere in Northern Ohio. And that is something we don't have to really bother. So why talk about it.
And yeah, quizzing scene in Chennai still hot I guess. A team from IIT(M) beat the British National Champions in the University Challenge, a couple of weeks ago. The annual Landmark Quiz as usual set records for attendance last week. The QFI rocks as usual and Ethiraj wants a quiz master for their general quiz early next month. *siggggggggghhhhhhhh, if only I was in Chennai. Another chance for watching the birds. Hmmmmm.
About the quizzing scene here in Ohio, the lesser said the better. I get off by frequenting the Trivia Tango Chatroom on MSN which is full of Mumbai teens. But one of the professors (Dr.Masel) in my department made it to the final in "Who wants to be a millionaire" here in the US. His "Phone buddies" were another professor in my department, Dr.Hale and his (Dr. Masel's) father. A peice of trivia that Dr.Hale told us at our first seminar class in September 2001. If you have seen the movie "The Crucible" starring Winona Ryder, Daniel Day Lewis (among others), you would definitely remember the "Reverend Hale" character played by Rob Campbell (also starred in Unforgiven). This was Dr.Hale's great-great grandfather (i might be mistaken about the number of "greats", but he was a direct ancestor). One more peice of trivia. If you have seen Michael Madan Kamarajan, and if you remember the start of the song "Ram Bam Bam", the guy on the motorbike thats following Raju's (Kamalhassan) fire engine is my former landlord's son who was my brother's buddy. Trivia everywhere regardless of the place.
And keeping up with the theme, I found this joke that appears on the QOTD today, on the Net when I was trying to tell one of these goras that the questions on "Kaun Banega Crorepati" are the toughest among the different versions of "Who wants to be a millionaire". Enjoy.
QOTD: "Kitne options the ? Chaar ! Soover ke bachchon ! Chaar chaar options ! Bahut na-insaafi hai ! Dhish-keoin Dhish-keoin ! 50-50 kar ke do galat jawab main uda diye. Ab bol, tera kaya hoga kaaliya?" - Gabbar Singh hosting an imaginary episode of Kaun Banega Crorepati.
A week since my last post and the world is still the same. The status quo remains and will remain so till someone flicks the switch off a nuclear bomb somewhere or cut a power line somewhere in Northern Ohio. And that is something we don't have to really bother. So why talk about it.
And yeah, quizzing scene in Chennai still hot I guess. A team from IIT(M) beat the British National Champions in the University Challenge, a couple of weeks ago. The annual Landmark Quiz as usual set records for attendance last week. The QFI rocks as usual and Ethiraj wants a quiz master for their general quiz early next month. *siggggggggghhhhhhhh, if only I was in Chennai. Another chance for watching the birds. Hmmmmm.
About the quizzing scene here in Ohio, the lesser said the better. I get off by frequenting the Trivia Tango Chatroom on MSN which is full of Mumbai teens. But one of the professors (Dr.Masel) in my department made it to the final in "Who wants to be a millionaire" here in the US. His "Phone buddies" were another professor in my department, Dr.Hale and his (Dr. Masel's) father. A peice of trivia that Dr.Hale told us at our first seminar class in September 2001. If you have seen the movie "The Crucible" starring Winona Ryder, Daniel Day Lewis (among others), you would definitely remember the "Reverend Hale" character played by Rob Campbell (also starred in Unforgiven). This was Dr.Hale's great-great grandfather (i might be mistaken about the number of "greats", but he was a direct ancestor). One more peice of trivia. If you have seen Michael Madan Kamarajan, and if you remember the start of the song "Ram Bam Bam", the guy on the motorbike thats following Raju's (Kamalhassan) fire engine is my former landlord's son who was my brother's buddy. Trivia everywhere regardless of the place.
And keeping up with the theme, I found this joke that appears on the QOTD today, on the Net when I was trying to tell one of these goras that the questions on "Kaun Banega Crorepati" are the toughest among the different versions of "Who wants to be a millionaire". Enjoy.
QOTD: "Kitne options the ? Chaar ! Soover ke bachchon ! Chaar chaar options ! Bahut na-insaafi hai ! Dhish-keoin Dhish-keoin ! 50-50 kar ke do galat jawab main uda diye. Ab bol, tera kaya hoga kaaliya?" - Gabbar Singh hosting an imaginary episode of Kaun Banega Crorepati.
Saturday, August 09, 2003
Yeh hi hai right choice, baby? Ya phir wrong choice?
Chemicals used to quench vermin life in the popular quenchers of human thirst? Just when the western world (read “hypocritical Bush land”) is complaining of how free the Indian economy has become, here comes the story that “big brother” multinationals are slowly indulging in slow genocide. Do these sound like lines straight out a Hitler basher’s book? But these are just the words that our lawmakers have spewed out in the last couple of days.
Banning soft drinks (or soda as it is known here in the US) is one thing. But will the banning of soft drinks in just the Parliament complex solve the troubles faced by the whole population of India? But lawmakers are queer people. No, I am talking about their sexual preferences, but about their ways of reacting to stuff in general, regardless of the part of the world. When France showed reluctance in supporting the US “Shock and Awe” approach, there was talk of the US Senate passing a motion renaming “French Fries” as “Liberty Fries”. I don't think such a suggestion actually found favor, but it made news all the same. But now, after 4 months of shock and awe, in McDonalds, that behemoth of an all-American symbol, you ask not for “liberty fries”, but for “French fries” or “fries” as they are colloquially known. So what would/did such a motion achieve? Nothing. Except that this "symbol of rebuke" made headlines. Same goes now with the Indian Parliament.
An acceptable reaction to a report of such magnitude should have been the setting up of a academic panel to do all these tests to know for sure if all the reports of pesticides are true and also to quench all the talk about falsification of reports and the reported errors and omissions in the findings. But we get word play as a substitute for strong action. I got a copy of a report (see this pdf file) and it looks okay at first glance. However most of the jargon makes no sense to me and hence this report can be maligned by anyone. Unless another study, this time by people nominated by both sides or maybe from the IITs or the IISc, is undertaken, this issue shall continue to rock India. As I pen this, I am reading a report that "samples of 15 brands of softdrinks and allied products have been sent for testing to the Centre for Food Technology Institute at Mysore and report is awaited.". After almost a week of mad shouting, comes a step at probably the right direction.
From what I understand, like almost every other industry in India, the soft drinks industry is also unregulated, as this report says too. And as the report says, everything is due to the pesticides in the water used. And who is responsible for the water in India? Everyone knows the answer. So the blame goes on to the government, not just for the unregulated business, but also for the failure to provide services. As someone (I forget who, now) said recently, India loses a lot more because of sub standard infrastructure than from other causes. But before someone says “Dude, don’t repeat complaints”, I am going to say this too. We as citizens have been callous too. We use a lot of things that the government provides at subsidized rates, but we sometimes don’t pay the taxes that support these subsidies. And we complain if we find these subsidies are removed because we don’t deserve it. Most states in India provide free electricity for farmers to run their water pumps. These same farmers have been found, in Tamilnadu, in the areas around Chennai, to use this same electricity to fill tanker trucks with water from the pumps and make a tidy sum. But every time the government talks about removing these subsidies, there is talk of unrest.
So do we want to be labeled “developing country” from yesterday to eternity? Some people want to do this more for their own profit than for anything else. They want to be spoon fed in everything. And I don’t think this situation is prevalent anywhere except India. Most countries chose to go open the first time they got a chance. Some went totally closed (the western bloc countries) and now don’t exist in the same form anymore. But we, the independent India, went “non-aligned”, “secular”, “socialist” and what not. And all that we have left now, after half a century of such word play is an underdeveloped country loaded with anachronistic attitudes. Is that a lesson? For whom? Someone in another dimension perhaps. So learn to make the choice. There is no middle way. There simply cannot be. Binary rules!!
QOTD: "If the report indicates presence of pesticides beyond the permissible limits, then we would take stern action against them and may also consider to revoke their manufacturing licences." - S.T. Shanmugam (Union Minister of State, Food Processing Industries, August 9th, 2003)
Chemicals used to quench vermin life in the popular quenchers of human thirst? Just when the western world (read “hypocritical Bush land”) is complaining of how free the Indian economy has become, here comes the story that “big brother” multinationals are slowly indulging in slow genocide. Do these sound like lines straight out a Hitler basher’s book? But these are just the words that our lawmakers have spewed out in the last couple of days.
Banning soft drinks (or soda as it is known here in the US) is one thing. But will the banning of soft drinks in just the Parliament complex solve the troubles faced by the whole population of India? But lawmakers are queer people. No, I am talking about their sexual preferences, but about their ways of reacting to stuff in general, regardless of the part of the world. When France showed reluctance in supporting the US “Shock and Awe” approach, there was talk of the US Senate passing a motion renaming “French Fries” as “Liberty Fries”. I don't think such a suggestion actually found favor, but it made news all the same. But now, after 4 months of shock and awe, in McDonalds, that behemoth of an all-American symbol, you ask not for “liberty fries”, but for “French fries” or “fries” as they are colloquially known. So what would/did such a motion achieve? Nothing. Except that this "symbol of rebuke" made headlines. Same goes now with the Indian Parliament.
An acceptable reaction to a report of such magnitude should have been the setting up of a academic panel to do all these tests to know for sure if all the reports of pesticides are true and also to quench all the talk about falsification of reports and the reported errors and omissions in the findings. But we get word play as a substitute for strong action. I got a copy of a report (see this pdf file) and it looks okay at first glance. However most of the jargon makes no sense to me and hence this report can be maligned by anyone. Unless another study, this time by people nominated by both sides or maybe from the IITs or the IISc, is undertaken, this issue shall continue to rock India. As I pen this, I am reading a report that "samples of 15 brands of softdrinks and allied products have been sent for testing to the Centre for Food Technology Institute at Mysore and report is awaited.". After almost a week of mad shouting, comes a step at probably the right direction.
From what I understand, like almost every other industry in India, the soft drinks industry is also unregulated, as this report says too. And as the report says, everything is due to the pesticides in the water used. And who is responsible for the water in India? Everyone knows the answer. So the blame goes on to the government, not just for the unregulated business, but also for the failure to provide services. As someone (I forget who, now) said recently, India loses a lot more because of sub standard infrastructure than from other causes. But before someone says “Dude, don’t repeat complaints”, I am going to say this too. We as citizens have been callous too. We use a lot of things that the government provides at subsidized rates, but we sometimes don’t pay the taxes that support these subsidies. And we complain if we find these subsidies are removed because we don’t deserve it. Most states in India provide free electricity for farmers to run their water pumps. These same farmers have been found, in Tamilnadu, in the areas around Chennai, to use this same electricity to fill tanker trucks with water from the pumps and make a tidy sum. But every time the government talks about removing these subsidies, there is talk of unrest.
So do we want to be labeled “developing country” from yesterday to eternity? Some people want to do this more for their own profit than for anything else. They want to be spoon fed in everything. And I don’t think this situation is prevalent anywhere except India. Most countries chose to go open the first time they got a chance. Some went totally closed (the western bloc countries) and now don’t exist in the same form anymore. But we, the independent India, went “non-aligned”, “secular”, “socialist” and what not. And all that we have left now, after half a century of such word play is an underdeveloped country loaded with anachronistic attitudes. Is that a lesson? For whom? Someone in another dimension perhaps. So learn to make the choice. There is no middle way. There simply cannot be. Binary rules!!
QOTD: "If the report indicates presence of pesticides beyond the permissible limits, then we would take stern action against them and may also consider to revoke their manufacturing licences." - S.T. Shanmugam (Union Minister of State, Food Processing Industries, August 9th, 2003)
Thursday, August 07, 2003
Tramlines, Cyclops and Trinity
Stepped for the first time on to a tennis court with my own racquet. Well, it has been a year since I actually bought it, but the Midwest Tournament last year and this year too had kept me off the court. I was too lazy to do anything more than the hour or two of cricket that the practice sessions afforded. But after much plans with two buddies, I just had to go today. And I enjoyed my two hours.
Make no mistake. I can’t serve to save my skin. I think I had just two legitimate serves in the four or five of the games I served in. All the rest, were double faults. Most of them even failed to enter the other half of the court while some really went past and were too good to be accepted as valid. But to compensate for this lacking, I seem to have a wonderful return of serve. Yeah, I know I am talking too much. I do this all the time, so don’t even bother telling me.
Coming back to the tennis, partnered one buddy for a single set, which we won, I think 6-2. We changed partners for the next set. My serving woes continued this set to and after much huffing and puffing by my partner, peppered with a few winners from me from all parts of the court, scores were level at 6 each. Then we decided to forgo the tiebreaker and after some more rallies found ourselves at 7 each and all the others ready to go home. Then it was decided that whoever wins the game wins the set and naturally we won, me doing the honors with a couple of magic shots and service returns.
I think the game of tennis has been enriched by the entry of a talented player into the fold. But then everything is enriched if I am around. Whatever, I am out, its so late here that I am falling over the keyboard. Have to catch some winks.
Update:
I just got in to fix the QOTD which I missed last night (early this morning) at 4:00 am. Here it is...
QOTD: "New Yorkers love it when you spill your guts out there [at Flushing Meadow]. Spill your guts at Wimbledon and they make you stop and clean it up." - Jimmy Connors comparing British and American attitudes to displays of emotion on court.
Stepped for the first time on to a tennis court with my own racquet. Well, it has been a year since I actually bought it, but the Midwest Tournament last year and this year too had kept me off the court. I was too lazy to do anything more than the hour or two of cricket that the practice sessions afforded. But after much plans with two buddies, I just had to go today. And I enjoyed my two hours.
Make no mistake. I can’t serve to save my skin. I think I had just two legitimate serves in the four or five of the games I served in. All the rest, were double faults. Most of them even failed to enter the other half of the court while some really went past and were too good to be accepted as valid. But to compensate for this lacking, I seem to have a wonderful return of serve. Yeah, I know I am talking too much. I do this all the time, so don’t even bother telling me.
Coming back to the tennis, partnered one buddy for a single set, which we won, I think 6-2. We changed partners for the next set. My serving woes continued this set to and after much huffing and puffing by my partner, peppered with a few winners from me from all parts of the court, scores were level at 6 each. Then we decided to forgo the tiebreaker and after some more rallies found ourselves at 7 each and all the others ready to go home. Then it was decided that whoever wins the game wins the set and naturally we won, me doing the honors with a couple of magic shots and service returns.
I think the game of tennis has been enriched by the entry of a talented player into the fold. But then everything is enriched if I am around. Whatever, I am out, its so late here that I am falling over the keyboard. Have to catch some winks.
Update:
I just got in to fix the QOTD which I missed last night (early this morning) at 4:00 am. Here it is...
QOTD: "New Yorkers love it when you spill your guts out there [at Flushing Meadow]. Spill your guts at Wimbledon and they make you stop and clean it up." - Jimmy Connors comparing British and American attitudes to displays of emotion on court.
Wednesday, August 06, 2003
Cricket Quiz
I had sent in my review and a quiz to the TOC for the e-zine and I think you must have seen the review by now. But the quiz never appeared on the e-zine beacause there was very poor response for the first one (mine was the second) and
so they discontinued the quiz. Try to answer it. The questions follow. Leave your answers in the comments box below the post. Answers in a couple of days or as and when I get around to do it....
Cricket Quiz
01. Ellis Edgar Achong played 38 first class matches including 6 test matches for the West Indies in the period between 1929 and 1935. Primarily a bowler, he finished his first class career with 110 wickets at 30.23 runs apeice. He also stood one Test Match as a umpire in 1953/54 (West Indies versus England, 4th test at Port of Spain). Little else is known about this son of a Chinese father and a Trinidadian mother, but he has contributed a term used these days in cricket (more often these days, when Australia is playing). What term are we talking about?
02. Five of the authors of the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM) article titled “Exact moment of a gastrocnemius muscle strain captured on video" are Orchard JW, Alcott E, James T, Farhart P, Portus M. Name the sixth "author". (I have a copy of the journal article and the actual videos that were part of the article too. Ask me if you want to see them.)
03. Yorkshire's Herbert Sutcliffe and Percy Holmes put on a record partnership for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton. It was then the highest partnership for any wicket in first-class cricket history. What brand name of cigarettes (allegedly) takes its name from this partnership ?
04. Who was the only bowler to have got Don Bradman out hitting his own wicket ?
05. In 1949, Australian Broadcasting Corporation changed its P.O Box number. What was the occasion and what was it changed to?
06. Who is the only player to have opened the bowling, the batting and also keep wickets, all in the same test match ?
07. Brett Lee has two nicknames. The first is is Bing. His second nickname is what? And why is it that way?
08. A "famous" cat called Peter (it was REALLY called Peter, I swear) died in 1965 in London. Where did it usually loiter and what is so trivially strange about its death?
09. Who was the non-striker when Javed Miandad hit that famous last-ball six off Chetan Sharma at Sharjah?
10. Soccer, Cricket Connection - Whats common to Franz Beckanbauer and Mario Zagallo and Geoff Marsh?
-x-x-finito-x-x-
P.S: Most of the questions have been framed by me based on facts gleaned from the Net (basically from Cricinfo). A couple have been framed based on my own knowledge of the game too. There may be (just a possibility that I can't really discount) multiple answers to these. However, I, as the quizmaster, reserve all the rights to rule an answer incorrect. Yeah, you don't get any prizes too. People who read this post and don't answer the questions are losers. Don't worry, I am a loser too... So have fun.
QOTD: "..a bumble bee has just come to have a look at us through the window... they're lovely buzzy things, I rather like bumble bees, bumble bees and ladybirds" (Henry Blofeld on Radio4, England Vs Sri Lanka, 2nd Test, 06/01/02, Edgbaston )
I had sent in my review and a quiz to the TOC for the e-zine and I think you must have seen the review by now. But the quiz never appeared on the e-zine beacause there was very poor response for the first one (mine was the second) and
so they discontinued the quiz. Try to answer it. The questions follow. Leave your answers in the comments box below the post. Answers in a couple of days or as and when I get around to do it....
Cricket Quiz
01. Ellis Edgar Achong played 38 first class matches including 6 test matches for the West Indies in the period between 1929 and 1935. Primarily a bowler, he finished his first class career with 110 wickets at 30.23 runs apeice. He also stood one Test Match as a umpire in 1953/54 (West Indies versus England, 4th test at Port of Spain). Little else is known about this son of a Chinese father and a Trinidadian mother, but he has contributed a term used these days in cricket (more often these days, when Australia is playing). What term are we talking about?
02. Five of the authors of the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM) article titled “Exact moment of a gastrocnemius muscle strain captured on video" are Orchard JW, Alcott E, James T, Farhart P, Portus M. Name the sixth "author". (I have a copy of the journal article and the actual videos that were part of the article too. Ask me if you want to see them.)
03. Yorkshire's Herbert Sutcliffe and Percy Holmes put on a record partnership for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton. It was then the highest partnership for any wicket in first-class cricket history. What brand name of cigarettes (allegedly) takes its name from this partnership ?
04. Who was the only bowler to have got Don Bradman out hitting his own wicket ?
05. In 1949, Australian Broadcasting Corporation changed its P.O Box number. What was the occasion and what was it changed to?
06. Who is the only player to have opened the bowling, the batting and also keep wickets, all in the same test match ?
07. Brett Lee has two nicknames. The first is is Bing. His second nickname is what? And why is it that way?
08. A "famous" cat called Peter (it was REALLY called Peter, I swear) died in 1965 in London. Where did it usually loiter and what is so trivially strange about its death?
09. Who was the non-striker when Javed Miandad hit that famous last-ball six off Chetan Sharma at Sharjah?
10. Soccer, Cricket Connection - Whats common to Franz Beckanbauer and Mario Zagallo and Geoff Marsh?
-x-x-finito-x-x-
P.S: Most of the questions have been framed by me based on facts gleaned from the Net (basically from Cricinfo). A couple have been framed based on my own knowledge of the game too. There may be (just a possibility that I can't really discount) multiple answers to these. However, I, as the quizmaster, reserve all the rights to rule an answer incorrect. Yeah, you don't get any prizes too. People who read this post and don't answer the questions are losers. Don't worry, I am a loser too... So have fun.
QOTD: "..a bumble bee has just come to have a look at us through the window... they're lovely buzzy things, I rather like bumble bees, bumble bees and ladybirds" (Henry Blofeld on Radio4, England Vs Sri Lanka, 2nd Test, 06/01/02, Edgbaston )
Monday, August 04, 2003
Trouble viewing this blog?
A couple of people (okie... it just one, but "couple" sounds better) said they have had a "windows installer" window popping up when they come to this page. And then the computer hangs. I am inclined to think that this is one of those quirks that crop up time and again in Windows. However, if you hear about someone else facing this same problem, please tell me. I will look into my template to see if something's wrong.
And thanks to you Shobha, I took today's quote from your page. Thought it was fitting....
QOTD: "It's a wonder I haven't abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical." - Anne Frank (from the "Diary of Anne Frank")
A couple of people (okie... it just one, but "couple" sounds better) said they have had a "windows installer" window popping up when they come to this page. And then the computer hangs. I am inclined to think that this is one of those quirks that crop up time and again in Windows. However, if you hear about someone else facing this same problem, please tell me. I will look into my template to see if something's wrong.
And thanks to you Shobha, I took today's quote from your page. Thought it was fitting....
QOTD: "It's a wonder I haven't abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical." - Anne Frank (from the "Diary of Anne Frank")
Sunday, August 03, 2003
Friendship Day(s) are here again!
Apparently it was Friendship Day today (3rd August). Well, my roomie just corrected me by saying that because today was the first Sunday in August, it is Friendship Day and not because it is the 3rd of August. For someone who spent 4 years in a hostel and then two years now away from home in the US, it is not really a surprise that my life has passed in such a way that the thin line between friends and family has been kind of fogged. These days I don’t really differentiate between them. In fact sometimes I feel that I am more comfortable with my friends than with family (barring my parents and my sister of course)!
Students of sociology and the associated sciences would affirm to the fact that this is just a logical phase in one’s life and I am inclined to agree with the same. But I don’t really agree that these relationships that form an integral part of life should be celebrated. Why do you want to just put a day aside and say today is “Friendship Day”? Aren’t friendships (or for that matter, any other relationship) a clear part of everybody’s life as they live it? Wouldn’t “Magic Nathan” be my friend if I don’t send him a line thanking him for being a part of my life? I am sure he won’t react in the most negative sense and disavow our friendship (which I am quite glad to say, goes back like 18 years now), but I think he would be miffed. But then, he is miffed with any such trivial proceeding or the lack thereof. So life goes on.
Sorry dude, no virtual greeting cards today. Too much waste of bandwidth. I am using that bandwidth to put up this posting, so the world will be enriched. That is just why my father/mother does not get a greeting card for “Father’s Day/Mother’s Day". I am sure they don’t really care, because they hail from the days when India was still a sheltered and closed economy and Archie’s was still a figment of someone’s imagination in India. I think of you everyday guys, so I am sure you don’t really want me to send you an e-card just to say so. And Magic dude, I am sure you will understand that, if the situation demands, I would gladly spend four hours inside an entertainment center (if you find a size that will accommodate me).
But yeah, courtesy demands that if I get a card today, I reply to it either with a similar card or e-mail. I am doing that just now. “Magic” sent us all (the group) a mail on the account of today with a sweet verse affirming his sense of belonging to the group and how we are his friends. Dude, you have already done enough for all of us. We know you. This posting is actually in response to that email. Now another friend of mine, who normally does not resort to such sugary emotions, sent me a card and I dutifully sent her one in return. Hope that’s enough saccharine for all you biker babes out there. It’s enough for me. And yeah, no offense meant to all you “Friendship Day” fanatics. Send me a card and I will send you one in return. Don’t shun me completely. As John Lennon once said “I get by with a little help from my friends”. So do I.
And to end today’s post, I have to include something from what is probably the best ode to friendships in the modern world – the NBC sitcom FRIENDS!!! (Non-believers please excuse!!)
QOTD – 1: “Married a lesbian, left a man at the altar, married a gay ice dancer, threw a girl's wooden leg in the fire, lived in a box!” (Monica describing each of the “Friends”)
QOTD – 2: "Ross…. Joey. Joey…Ross." (Monica, introducing Ross and Joey to each other for the first time)
Apparently it was Friendship Day today (3rd August). Well, my roomie just corrected me by saying that because today was the first Sunday in August, it is Friendship Day and not because it is the 3rd of August. For someone who spent 4 years in a hostel and then two years now away from home in the US, it is not really a surprise that my life has passed in such a way that the thin line between friends and family has been kind of fogged. These days I don’t really differentiate between them. In fact sometimes I feel that I am more comfortable with my friends than with family (barring my parents and my sister of course)!
Students of sociology and the associated sciences would affirm to the fact that this is just a logical phase in one’s life and I am inclined to agree with the same. But I don’t really agree that these relationships that form an integral part of life should be celebrated. Why do you want to just put a day aside and say today is “Friendship Day”? Aren’t friendships (or for that matter, any other relationship) a clear part of everybody’s life as they live it? Wouldn’t “Magic Nathan” be my friend if I don’t send him a line thanking him for being a part of my life? I am sure he won’t react in the most negative sense and disavow our friendship (which I am quite glad to say, goes back like 18 years now), but I think he would be miffed. But then, he is miffed with any such trivial proceeding or the lack thereof. So life goes on.
Sorry dude, no virtual greeting cards today. Too much waste of bandwidth. I am using that bandwidth to put up this posting, so the world will be enriched. That is just why my father/mother does not get a greeting card for “Father’s Day/Mother’s Day". I am sure they don’t really care, because they hail from the days when India was still a sheltered and closed economy and Archie’s was still a figment of someone’s imagination in India. I think of you everyday guys, so I am sure you don’t really want me to send you an e-card just to say so. And Magic dude, I am sure you will understand that, if the situation demands, I would gladly spend four hours inside an entertainment center (if you find a size that will accommodate me).
But yeah, courtesy demands that if I get a card today, I reply to it either with a similar card or e-mail. I am doing that just now. “Magic” sent us all (the group) a mail on the account of today with a sweet verse affirming his sense of belonging to the group and how we are his friends. Dude, you have already done enough for all of us. We know you. This posting is actually in response to that email. Now another friend of mine, who normally does not resort to such sugary emotions, sent me a card and I dutifully sent her one in return. Hope that’s enough saccharine for all you biker babes out there. It’s enough for me. And yeah, no offense meant to all you “Friendship Day” fanatics. Send me a card and I will send you one in return. Don’t shun me completely. As John Lennon once said “I get by with a little help from my friends”. So do I.
And to end today’s post, I have to include something from what is probably the best ode to friendships in the modern world – the NBC sitcom FRIENDS!!! (Non-believers please excuse!!)
QOTD – 1: “Married a lesbian, left a man at the altar, married a gay ice dancer, threw a girl's wooden leg in the fire, lived in a box!” (Monica describing each of the “Friends”)
QOTD – 2: "Ross…. Joey. Joey…Ross." (Monica, introducing Ross and Joey to each other for the first time)
Friday, August 01, 2003
Snakes and electoral planks
"Good sense will prevail even on those who are opposing it... We feel confident in front of his funeral pyre." – The words of the head of the government in what is supposedly “the world’s largest democracy”. Food for thought here. Indians have been continuously misled by people (read “politicians”) who have harped on this (erroneous) fact for ages. Erroneous, considering that India is not the biggest country in the world and also because most of the countries which are bigger are also democracies (or so they claim). Hence do we treat such claims seriously? Hmmm, I am transgressing as usual here.
Well, I initially started this post with a line delivered by India’s Prime Minister at some random person’s funeral. I mean no disrespect to a dead citizen of India, but I think too much newsprint has been wasted on the death of someone who was part of the whole jamboree that still aims to disturb the peace in India everyday. This random person happened to be the head of the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas, a society that claims to be at the forefront of the struggle for a temple at Ayodhya, a struggle which (if successful) would doom India to the very fate that it was left to when the British left. That the Prime Minister chose to be there at his funeral and also made such a provocative statement proves that doom is in the horizon unless the vote bank wakes up. Lets let go of religious interests when we vote.
This is a lesson for all of us voters. A poisonous snake never loses its capability to kill. That’s nature.
QOTD: "We will fulfill his (the Mahant's) last wish. We are confident that all obstacles will be removed and the path paved for it” - A. B. Vajpayee, Prime Minister of India (August 1st, 2003)
"Good sense will prevail even on those who are opposing it... We feel confident in front of his funeral pyre." – The words of the head of the government in what is supposedly “the world’s largest democracy”. Food for thought here. Indians have been continuously misled by people (read “politicians”) who have harped on this (erroneous) fact for ages. Erroneous, considering that India is not the biggest country in the world and also because most of the countries which are bigger are also democracies (or so they claim). Hence do we treat such claims seriously? Hmmm, I am transgressing as usual here.
Well, I initially started this post with a line delivered by India’s Prime Minister at some random person’s funeral. I mean no disrespect to a dead citizen of India, but I think too much newsprint has been wasted on the death of someone who was part of the whole jamboree that still aims to disturb the peace in India everyday. This random person happened to be the head of the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas, a society that claims to be at the forefront of the struggle for a temple at Ayodhya, a struggle which (if successful) would doom India to the very fate that it was left to when the British left. That the Prime Minister chose to be there at his funeral and also made such a provocative statement proves that doom is in the horizon unless the vote bank wakes up. Lets let go of religious interests when we vote.
This is a lesson for all of us voters. A poisonous snake never loses its capability to kill. That’s nature.
QOTD: "We will fulfill his (the Mahant's) last wish. We are confident that all obstacles will be removed and the path paved for it” - A. B. Vajpayee, Prime Minister of India (August 1st, 2003)
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