A journey begins ...

I had written most of this stuff for people back home in India. Guess it makes for a good excuse to bump up a rotting blog through some C&P stuff. ;)

I am finally getting proper internet access here from Austin. So far, whatever I have seen of this place and America in general has more or less convinced me as to why this place is everyone's dream (at least for Indians !). The places are just beautiful, the people polite and things all very simple and easy.

The Emirates flight to Dubai was quite comfortable. The breakfast was quite sumptuous as well. Starting with a lemonade, they had few mini idlies (with molapodi mixed), vada and some upma kind of preparation - all soaked in sambhar. Then they had fruits and a muffin with butter and jam to go along with coffee. The entertainment system was quite good as well (movies, audio, games - all controlled by a remote as well as touch screen !), although it took me sometime and the air hostess' help to figure out where to plug in the headphones !. They also had a nice cozy shawl for our comfort, to go alongwith a small pillow. After having the heavy breakfast (at around 5.15 AM India time), I watched some TV and slept well.

After clearing the security at the Chennai Airport, as I was waiting for the boarding call, I happened to catch a glimpse of Rajinikanth, who came late (about 15-20 mins after the last passenger) to board the Cathay Pacific flight to HongKong. The flight landed in Dubai almost on time, but it arrived far from the main terminal (near the new terminal that is being constructed). A lengthy bus ride took us around the huge fleet of Emirates aircrafts (nice little trick from Emirates to showboat ;) )and dropped the ongoing passengers for connecting flights. The security check at Dubai is almost straightforward. We have to remove all metallic items, including belts and then simply walk through the metal detector. If it beeps, we have to remove the item for checking, else, we are clean to go. The Dubai airport looks more like a shopping mall. As I was in a hurry, I couldn't look around much, but from what I could see, it was Massive and lots and lots of duty free shopping. Definitely a place to visit for holiday and travel !. Just before landing in Dubai, the in-flight TV shows the gates for connecting flights from Dubai. So, getting around in Dubai is made simpler.

I met up with Kiran (my roommate) near the gate for JFK bound flight and joined the queue along with him. We couldn't find any place for making a call or using a comp. They must have been available somewhere outside, but we had already checked in for the flight. The flight from Dubai-JFK was just as great !. Of course, the economy class legroom wasn't great for a long haul, but it was decent enough. The entertainment system on this Boeing flight is simply AMAZING !. There is a massive choice of entertainment ranging from movies to tv shows and audio - and all of them comes over a wide variety of genres. The games are plenty of their own. We can also make calls and send sms/email through the remote/handset, using our credit cards. One has to travel by that flight to experience the treat provided by Emirates. The food was excellent and sumptuous again. If needed, one could go to the rear of the aircraft and get food/water/juice based on availability. The air hostess' are multi-ethnic, but the asians appeared to be lot more cheerful ;)

I was watching bit of movies/tv and sleeping in between (I watched Kungfu Panda and My Cousin Vinny - apart from few episodes of Friends, Simpsons, Family Guy etc). Halfway through the flight, I changed my window seat with another small boy who was sitting next to me and got an aisle seat. But the journey was quite pleasant at both the places. They served breakfast, some refreshments in between and lunch later on. We were handed over immigration and customs forms shortly before the flight landed at JFK and were also shown videos on how to fill them. They questionnaire was quite straight forward. To our surprise, the flight departed Dubai only about 10 mins late (usually 30mins-1hr late) and reached JFK about 20 mins before time !!.

The immigration and customs at JFK was a mere formality. This was the biggest surprise of them all. I had anticipated huge queues for Immigration and lot of scrutiny for Customs. Immigration counters were all empty before it got filled by passengers from our flight and once that was cleared, we had to collect the baggage. We needed to pay $3 for using the trolley. The system is quite simple. If we put extra money, we get refunded. I put a $5 bill and got 8 quarters (25 cents) in return. After collecting the baggage, we went for customs. There we just handed over our form and they let us go. No opening of baggage or anything. We then dropped our baggage at Emirates connection gate for the next flight and then took a 'Air Train'. This train at JFK, is a wee bit similar in planning to chennai's own 'parakkum rail', in that it runs across and over the city's roads. It basically connects different terminals (International and Domestic) of JFK. We then got our boarding passes for the connecting Delta flight. Here, if we had booked the ticket online, we had the option of issuing the boarding passes ourselves using the kiosk. I used them - again, quite simple and self explanatory. After getting the boarding pass, we had to clear the TSA security for domestic flights. Here we have to remove everything, including shoes and belts. We are also not allowed to carry water beyond this point.

Since I had some time before the connecting flight, I had some tiffin stuff that I got from India. By this time, I was quite tired. The flight for Austin departed about an hour late, but it reached Austin on time. We were served some refreshments (biscuits, water/cool drinks etc) on flight and the journey was quite comfortable although I slept most of the while. Kiran had called his senior from JFK to inform of our arrival and he was there along with his friend to pick us up. As told by Vijay (local contact here), Austin airport was more or less deserted at this time, except for arriving passengers. But it was beautiful and well lit. We traveled back to the senior (Ashwin's) apartment by car. There are few more tamil guys living in the same apartment complex and I am currently staying in one of the guy's apartment. The apartments are all quite beautiful, with either carpeted or wodden flooring. Not all apartments come furnished and we may have to buy. But these apartments were furnished and quite beautiful with lovely couches and seatbacks !.

Today, I got some of the initial formalities done. The student ID card was issued in just 2 minutes. Ashwin took us to the place and showed few places around the campus. I then opened a bank account and have deposited some of the cash, all the traveler cheques and the DD. Because the DD was a large amount, they will credit it after 5 days, but that should be fine. The staff there were really helpful and talking about India, weather and stuff. They also gave away a complimentary Tee shirt for opening the account. It has the college symbol in front and is of the college colour (burt orange). The entire bank process took less than an hour and they even issued me a debit card, with my name printed, in that time. (This is efficiency at its best.)

The campus is quite huge and beautiful and it will take us sometime before we get used to the directions and lot of time before we explore completely. Ashwin dropped us in the evening for a 'movie day' event for new international students. Lot of people from India had come as well as from other countries. We watched The Pursuit of Happyness and refreshments were given away. The sun here sets only at around 8 or 8.30 ! We have traveled a couple of times in the University Shuttle ! It is completely air conditioned - like the G18 (bus in Chennai), but only many times better !

We went to a Grocery store called HEB with the senior. It was so massive ! and almost everything is available here. :) We are mostly finalizing the apartment where we are staying temporarily now. The seniors will be moving out by 17th or something and after some cleaning it should be ready for move in. Hopefully that is settled soon and after that phone and laptop will have to be done !

Austin is as hot as chennai ! It is really hot at this time of the year. but the campus is quite beautiful, with fountains and lovely buildings ! There is a super view of the State Capitol as well and at night, the buildings are really beautiful !

Making the most of now

People back home, here in India, would have seen the spate of new, innovative ads from Vodafone advertising to "Make the most of now". Vodafone took over from Hutchinson-Essar in India. Orange network was also a part of the Hutchinson network (not sure about the current status) and I guess Orange operates in Australia. My point is, am not sure if the same ads or similar ones appear in Australia, but the Australian Cricket Captain, Ricky Ponting definitely seems to be inspired to "Make the most of now" and how !!!. He is attempting to make a mountain out of a mole and unfortunately for the game of Cricket, he is being successful so far in this attempt.

In Harbhajan Singh, Australia found someone who could challenge them on the field - both in the cricketing skills department as well as in the verbal barrage. In him, they also found a weakness that they could exploit - his hot headedness. Most (I am now suspecting, ALL) of the current crop of Aussie cricketers are not just hot headed, they have hugely bloated heads, thanks to crushing victories over various opponents over different conditions over a long period of time in both ODIs and Tests. They go into matches not just wanting to win, like all teams, but expecting to win and win convincingly at that. They have shown of late that they don't take it well when they are being challenged, especially in the verbal department along with skills on the field.

There is no room for Racism anywhere, let alone sport. But the more pertinent question is, was Harbhajan Racist ? Did he make a comment meant to insult Symmonds based on his Race ? I wouldn't be surprised if Harbhajan did not even know what was Symmo's background or race. So, it is all the more surprising when the Match Referee Mike Procter goes on record saying "I am satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Harbhajan Singh directed that word at Andrew Symonds and also that he meant it to offend on the basis of Symonds' race or ethnic origin." He also says that this was not a case of taking the word of an Australian over an Indian. Well, Mr. Procter, then what is it ? Common sense (or naivety, depending on how you view) tells me that in the hearing, the Aussies would have charged that the comment (whatever it might have been) was meant to offend based on race. Indians would have naturally denied the allegation about the race. So, how did Procter arrive at his conclusion ? Unfortunately, only he would know, unless he cares to explain. But don't expect that to happen.

As we came to know later on, the Match Referee had instructed both the Captains before the start of the series asking them to report to him immediately, any issues of Racism. I am almost convinced entirely that he sought to mean that with respect to Crowd behavior, given both Australian and Indian crowds have been alleged of racist behavior in the past. Ponting very conveniently took it to mean anything remotely racist on field as well. So, once again, was Harbhajan racist ? Ponting and rest of the Aussie team would like us to believe so, but thankfully, there are still enough sensible people around the world to not buy that truckload of trash. Did Harbhajan mean to offend Symmonds ? Oh hell yes !. Symmonds by his own admission, let Bhajji know what he thought of his antics and it is but natural that Harbhajan let Symmonds know what he thought of him :-D, but did he mean to make a racist remark ? Hell NO!

So, was Harbhajan completely innocent ? Well, far from that as well. There has been a previously acknowledged crowd problem during Australia's tour of India with monkey chants surrounding Symmonds. I am not sure if it was communicated before the tour about between the teams as to what was construed as Racist by each of them. Even if that wasn't done, Harbhajan must have known better with his choice of words. But you don't punish a mistake like that with an allegation of racism and a subsequent ban. Ricky Ponting wanted to make the most of the opportunity, but he was naive and stupid enough not to realize that he was charing an opposing player of racism. Such an allegation is not a joke. Ponting quite simply failed to gauge the gravity of the allegation.

Harbhajan Singh is a brilliant character. The game needs personalities like Bhajji, Monty Panesar on the field. They are the ones who can light up not just the team, but the crowd as well. They are easily excitable and almost always give their 100% for the team's cause. Of course, such personalities have to be pulled up whenever they cross the limit, but not through such means without any forethought about the implications. This was an issue that Ponting needed to discuss with Kumble at the end of the day's play or at the end of the match and the Indian Management must have pulled up Harbhajan for that (it is a different matter if they would have really done that - but that is the best course of action from Ponting if he had any respect for the game and did not want it to go into disrepute).

Was this Punter's idea of a Mind Game, especially since he was woeful in tackling Harbhajan in the skills department ? Probably yes. Ponting has shown himself to be extremely stupid and hot headed at the best of times. He has shown qualities of a brilliant captain at times, but on most other occasions, he has shown himself in extremely poor light and unfortunately now, he has dragged the entire Aussie team along with him. A terrible act of immaturity and arrogance based on the belief that he could get away with anything since he is the captain of the world champions. Unfortunately, not for the first time though, Ponting and the Australians have demonstrated behavior that is unbecoming of true champions of sport.

The reaction in India is along familiar lines. Cricket is the most practised religion in India. The reaction of the majority of the crowd is almost always at an extreme (either end). Now those are during normal circumstances. These are not normal times, but extraordinary times and hence, the reactions are similarly that much more severe. There seems to be almost an unanimous feeling of being cheated and quite rightly so. India did not deserve to lose the Sydney test just as much as Australia did not deserve to win it. India played brilliantly for three days and decently for the last couple. They shouldn't have let Australia score 400 on that pitch in the second innings, but now, that really doesn't matter.

India were cheated, but not by the Aussies as majority seem to be liking to believe, but by the Umpires. It is not the fault of the Australian team that there were so many ridiculous decisions in that test match that went against the Indians. Including the last day, Australia did not do too much different from what other teams, including India have done on the final day of a tight test match. Indians have been equally guilty in home games of excessive and borderline ridiculous appealing with plenty of close in catchers. It doesn't make the job any easier for the Umpires, but unfortunately, in a close game, the excitement is at an exalted level and that is how the game is being played nowadays. India are just aggrieved at being very very harshly done in by some very crucial decisions and hence they are pointing at the behavior of the Aussies as well apart from the Umpiring. To that extent, the reaction by the one of the finest gentleman to have played this game, Anil Kumble is well and truly justified.

But, just as allegation of racism is serious and wrong, alleging the Aussies of cheating is also extreme. I have been a big fan of Australian cricket team for over 15 years now. I have admired them for the way they approach the game. Hard, professional, but mostly fair. Sadly, of late, the fair part is being ignored more often, especially in tight situations. :( I play the game in many ways similar to them. I sledge a lot, not abusive, but friendly banter, trying to get under the nose of the opposing batsmen while fielding. It is a different matter that, I did not play at any major level, but my point is that, some kind of bantering on the field is good and nice fun. :D But if you give, you must also be ready to take it.

Some of the incidents on the last day of the Sydney test makes me quite sad that it has to come from a team that I have been supporting for so long. I have played games, where we have appealed like crazy, mainly to infuriate the batsmen and make him lose concentration and also chance our luck. These rare games are the ones where the temper has been very high due to some incident or the other. BUT, I have never played as a professional and definitely never in the full view of millions of fans worldwide, not to mention the tens of thousands on the ground. Ricky Ponting and the Australians were doing that at the SCG and they behaved at times in a manner that is befitting of where I have mostly played cricket - in the backyard or gully cricket, as it is called in India.

What I saw was NOT professionalism. It was madness. It was a dangerously, mad desire to win. To secure the series, to equal the record. Unfortunately, it was a mad desire to win at any cost. The cost in this case has been professionalism and sportsmanship. I wouldn't say the Aussies cheated, but they definitely did not conduct themselves in a sportive manner. It was full of gamesmanship.

Symmonds has gone on record saying Australia were upset with India's celebration after their semi-final win over Australia during T20 W'Cup. How different were Australia in Sydney ? For Christ's sake, that was the Semi-final of a W'Cup, against arguably the best side in World Cricket by a very young team who had been almost written off before the tournament even started. What did he expect India to do ? To mourn for Australia's exit from the tournament ? Bollocks.
The Aussies might probably argue that Sydney was as excitingly close as a Test Match win can get and also it was a record equaling win. But, everyone has their own reasons to get excited and celebrate. If they really respected the game and its great ambassadors, they would have at least bothered to shake hands with one of the finest and someone who played the most brilliant and gritty innings, befitting a captain, Anil Kumble.

There has been enough written about Flintoff consoling Brett Lee at Edgbaston after Australia lost by 2 runs. 2 Runs Mate, that is still closer than 8 minutes, in my book. Andrew Flintoff wasn't the vanquished then, he was the Victor, but he had the wits (at least then :P) to respect and recognize Lee's contribution. Pitiably, none of the Aussies had the same wits to acknowledge Kumble's part. The Flintoff - Lee moment, I believe was recognized as the moment of 2005. The year has just started, but Aussie celebration might be tough to remove as one of the most Shambolic events of 2008. :(

In an ideal world, sense would soon prevail. Harbhajan should apologize for whatever was that he remarked (I believe he has already done so and if so, that should be that). Aussies should give up on their kiddish complaint and bury this and move on. But, we don't live in an ideal world. This has blown into a huge clash of egos and worse still, of national integrity. It is sad that, yet again, in a cricketing controversy involving professional cricket boards, National Pride is being dragged and brought to disrepute. Ponting being Ponting and Australia being Australia, I don't expect the inflated heads to be reduced by any measure. These are tough times for Cricket and sadly, I only see it getting murkier and tougher.


Comments - Most welcome. Scathing Criticism - Welcome. Baseless Abuse (Anonymous or otherwise) - Thanks, but no, thanks.

P.S: As much as the anger of the Indian Cricket fan is understandable and to a large extent justifiable, if only they realized and acknowledged that, election after election they are actually being cheated by the politicians and reacted even in half as reactionary a manner as this to issues more pertinent to the Country, things could be so much more better.

Cricket for Dummies

The farcical showpiece tournament of ICC is well and truly over. They keep moaning about globalisation of the sport. For any sport, capturing audience in US is monetarily, a huge boost. So, here we go, let us try and explain this wonderful game to the dummies :P, in US who think baseball is way better (haha hehe huhu - gilli is way better than baseball). Credits for most of the ideas to the original author (whom I am not aware of), I shall take the credit for only publicizing this now and take any bouquet and/or brickbat that might come along for the same :D.

History:

Popularized by the English and Irish, the game's origins stretch back to the 700s along the Pakistan-India border -- the birthplace of the bat. Italian monks, traveling the East on missions, brought the bat-and-ball game to Europe in the 9th century. Nine hundred years later, English gentry took the game to New York and Boston.

Baseball, as it is played today, grew out of cricket in the 1800s. Kids in urban areas modified cricket to allow for more participants and faster games (a game of cricket can last for days.) The Yankees introduced the new game to their Southern adversaries during the Civil War.

Gaining a Foothold in the States

Ten thousand cricket players in the U.S. sounds like a large contingent. Only about 1,700 men play professional football, and fewer still play pro basketball (465, give or take a Michael Jordan like un-retirement ;-) ). Why don't more people know about cricket?

One major hurdle is exposure. Better pony up the pay-per-view dollars if you want to watch a match. Another hurdle is the language barrier. A majority of the players in the US are foreign-born South East Asians. Imagine a passer-by trying to figure out what's going on when players are shouting strategy in Hindi.

Cricket in American Baseball terms

• Cricket fields have two bases (instead of four) signified by three sticks in the ground called wickets. Kids in New York replaced the wickets with bases.

• A batsman in cricket runs between the bases like a hitter in baseball. However, in cricket, there are two batsmen, one at each base. If the hitting batsman runs, they both run, trading places.

• A batsman does not have to run after a hit. He can chose when to run.

• Cricket games have innings. But only two. Each team goes through its entire order (or 10 outs) one time.

• Cricket bats are flat and crooked. Kids in Boston, New York and Philadelphia started using bats (probably broom sticks) because of more immediate availability.

• Every time a batsman successfully makes it to the opposite wickets, he scores a run.

• A cricket bowler is analogous to a baseball pitcher. The bowler throws overhand but keeps his arm completely straight. He also intentionally bounces the ball off the ground in front of the batsman.

• If a bowler strikes a wicket, or a fielder catches the ball before it hits the ground, the batsman is out. Cricket fielders don't wear gloves, and some bowlers can throw even at 100 miles per hour (a few others bowl at the same speed ;-) )!

• A batsman can hit the ball in any direction. No foul territory, no out of bounds. A home-run is worth 6 runs and the batsman continues to play.
  

• Bowlers alternate after six pitches until they either reach 300 pitches, combined, or 10 outs. Further, each bowler can't have more than 60 legal pitches per match.

Feel free to let your creativity flow in the comments section and add on to this write-up. There is a fair chance, I might credit you and edit the blog. So, please do let me know who you are than being anon.

P.S: I have tried sticking to explaining only the basics of ODI (One Day International, for the uninitiated) for now, because I realize, even many in the Indian sub-continent (assumed to be land of 'experts' when it comes to this game) don't actually understand and/or appreciate the beautiful part of the wonderful game - Test Matches. :-)

Cross-Roads

Have you ever stuck to a principle/value/viewpoint in life for long and been in a mode of denial towards all those in disagreement to that viewpoint ?
Have you then, over a period of time, ever wondered if so many are against my viewpoint, is it the fault of the majority or my value system ?? :-O :-??
If so, how do you deal with such situations ?

A lot of us spend most of our time laughing at 'stupids', 'idiots' and 'despos' (I quote-unquote these words, because the people concerned are that only in our viewpoint and not by any particular general ruling). Things move on and at times it appears as if, those 'silly' people do achieve/get what they set-out for, stupid/idiotic as the means might be. And what happens to 'us' ? We too move on and find a new set of idiots/despos to laugh at. Are we losing sight of the bigger picture ? Should we abandon our value/viewpoint against stupidity and accept it as being 'normal', so that we too feel part of the majority ? Or should we be pig-headed and stick to it and comfort ourselves saying, "so what if the idiot got what he/she wanted... he/she only got another silly person". :-? /:)

Damn !!! I hate to think of the smirks on the faces of all those people whom I have laughed at. Damn ... they do deserve to have them. They are, after all 'winners' or should I say "Go-Getters", nonsensical as the approach maybe to my value system.

TT - Terrifc Tuesday

So says one of my company's initiatives. With someone 'talking' on a topic either related to the domain or something in general which could be applicable to a wider audience and people from other location tune in (am sure, there would be just one or two apart from the main person who is dialling in).

But this is not about that Terrific Tuesday. This is about my own Terrific Tuesday - Oct, the 10th, 2006. Life simply couldn't be any more great. yes, that was my feeling as i hit the sack that day. Want to know what made me feel like that ? If yes, continue reading. If no, you have to be dumb to have been reading so far (People who already know of that day's events are exempted from the above rule :-) ).

It all started at 5.30. Yes, thats 24hr format and am talking about morning. Thats when i got up. Had to, because I was supposed to be in office by 6.30. (Damn!! some communication problem, because it wouldn't have mattered if I had reached office around normal time). So I reach office by 6.30 and things go as they are supposed to. Nothing out of the ordinary until late afternoon. One thing leads to another. A server that has to malfunction for just my ID amongst all other people, people unable to co-operate due to other committments (lack of will ???), situation from which the only way out is to wait for 'things' to happen and finally I leave office at 10 (Yes, we are back to 12hr clock and i mean P.M X-( ). I catch a cab and pay 70 bucks for a travel that usually costs 10 by auto.

If I thought things were to end there on a tiring day, I were to be proved so awfully wrong. There is an eerie darkness about my building whereas the neighbourhood seems pretty normal. There is no food outside my room. (I get to know the next day that the guy who supplies my food, assumed that I was out of town, since I hadn't returned from office till 9.45 and also since the home was totally dark).

So, I take my phone out and decide that there is no point in paying 300 as rent without using it (although that would only add on to the 300). Halfway through one of the calls, I get to know from my Landlady that there won't any power that day to our home. The power meter apparently blew and would be rectified only the next day. Wonderful isn't it ?.

I am in office from 6.30 in the morning till 10 at night, there is no dinner and there would also be no power all night. Could things get any more great ?. Surely I couldn't get in there that early. I had to spend sometime away from the sweaty hell and I chose to call up few 'jinglies' and 'polambify'. If I were to suffer, I wasn't going down alone. (Muhahahahaha) And so it went on till 1230. Finally I had no option but to sweat my way to sleep.

Thats how, TT turned out to be Terror Tuesday for me.

Hairy Affair !!!

I decide to blog after quite a lengthy break and guess what...the topic once again revolves around racism and cricket !!!

So, everyone has had his/her opinion on Umpire Darrel Hair, Pakistan, Inzy et al. Its a very unfortunate incident for cricket as a whole. But who is really at fault ? Could we possibly pin-point just one person or a group as being at fault ?? I think everyone involved with conducting the game at The Brit Oval that day failed collectively. Not just the ICC or Inzy or PCB, everyone of them.

Darrel Hair might have jumped the gun in accusing Pakistan of tampering with the ball's condition. But, seriously what can an on-field umpire do, if he finds that the ball has been tampered with ? He already has enough on his hands to be looking for videos for proof. Thats the job of the TV production company. If they miss out on something, that doesnt necessarily mean the thing did not happen.

I don't mean to say that Pakistan tampered with the ball. But their reaction to the allegation, was just childish. As Wasim Akram put it, it was like street cricket. We have had our batting, if you allege us, we are not going to bowl to you. That happens in gully cricket not on the international stage with the world watching. Pathetic. Their contention that they were just lodging a protest doesn't sound strong enough. I think that was a reason to reduce the punishment. The umpires had no choice than to go by the rules. They informed both the teams about the rules, the English batsmen came out to show their willingness to play and this is where things get interesting.
PCB chairman Shahryar Khan reckons Pakistan were ready to come back at that point and just needed some more time but the umpires wanted them to come immediately. Not exactly so, Mr. Khan. Because this time the TV cameras did catch what was happening with the Pak team. Kamran Akmal came out of the dressing room, without his pads/gloves, sat on a seat scratching his head for sometime. He then took a paper, turned few pages as if looking for a picture story and then went back in. He just wanted camera attention i guess. Silly fellow. Silly team. Inzy being the captain has to face the music. No doubt about that in my mind.

Some people claim that the incident is a slur to Pakistan as a whole, that they should defame Hair and stuff. Cmon folks, get hold of yourself. If that is indeed the case, does that mean everytime Pakistan or anyother time has been found indulging in illegal activities, that particular country as a whole has been cheating ??. People would just say anything to grab headlines and incite public opinion.

Another argument against Hair (from Maninder Singh) is that nobody is above the game. Well, so aren't Pakistan, are they ?. They had no right to hold the game and money-paying public at their mercy. Umpire Hair is a very strong umpire, but he is definitely not racist. Its important that we don't judge Pakistan by what some of its players have done before. In the same vein, is it not equally important that we don't equate this incident, even if Hair has got it wrong, with what he has done before ??

Coming back to the racist allegation, what is it ? Is it some kind of fad to accuse every white person who stands up against someone or something related to black/brown people as being racist ?. People are always on the lookout for the smallest faults and immediately the Australian (or for that matter, English or South African) player/official is branded as being racist without even considering the fact that they couldn't be all wrong.

Now isn't looking for oppurtunities to put down the whites as being racist, essentially a racist behavior on its own ???

Your call...

Racism in cricket

Recently there was a furore down under when a small section of the aussie crowd targetted few South African and Sri Lankan players with 'racist' chants during the VB series. Was the issue really as much as it was hyped to be ? I thought it was somewhat blown out of proportions, especially by the South African team management and i would think the reason for that would be the fact that they wanted some of the attention diverted from their continuous shambolic performances.

Racism can not be condoned and the guilty must be punished. One of the reasons given for the players taking it to so sensitively was because they have had a troubled past and these things rekindled those memories. (Seriously - are you joking ?? - D'oh). Crowds the world over in any sport always side with the home team. That is natural. The supporters try their best to egg their team towards glory and also try to put of the opposition with their boos and chantings. I think racism is a serious issue in a game like football (soccer) where hundreds and thousands make racist remarks in unison when a particular player gets the ball. But the issue in Australia was a group of at the most half a dozen people at a time who got 'high' and made some senseless remarks.

Am not saying that they are right, but at a professional level cant the players even take that much ?. The crowd along the boundary line will always be very voiceforous. Be it a test match or ODI or 20-20 or even a local district tournament. There will almost always be 'unparlimentary' remarks and hootings and all sorts of nonsense dished out. Many times i have seen players respond to that with a mock smile which could only infuriate the crowd further, but then in my opinion thats the best way to respond. If the players world over can take in the assh***s and mfk**s chants as being part of the mad crowd behaviour, why not this ?
If you were to stop all of these, would the match really be as fun as it normally is ? It would still be the same watching on tv, but for the players, crowd pressure is part of the package.

The South African team management went to the extent of threatening to pull out of future tours to Australia if the racist remarks did not stop. Back home, with a week before the return tour of Australia to South Africa kick starts, the South African players go to press and actually ask the crowd to target the aussies. ha ha ha - bunch of losers. Perhaps the crowd cant get in much racist remarks against the aussies, but whats the logic or sense in a player actually asking the crowd for support and that too in a sort of negative sense ?. Every one knows that the crowd will target the opposition players and now when a player from the home team comes out in the open and makes such statements i dont think the spirit would be great between the two teams. Its almost like, we were targetted down under and now its time to payback (probably with interest :P). Thats perfectly fine, then why complain when you were there ??

It all seems to be part of some mental game that the South Africans want to play and sadly they are too childish at that. Australia have lost the first two international games(at the time of writing) and could go on to lose the ODI series and even the Test series. But for me, South Africa have already lost it when Boucher went to press with his naive remarks and found support in none other than the so called captain fantastic - Greame Smith.

Thats a typical post by a hardcore aussie fan, aint it ;) :D ?

B to the A to the B to the A - BABA

Finally after a long long break, i decided to blog after hearing an interesting account of my friend's recent trip to Junagadh (hope i got the spelling right).

Junagadh is a place in Gujarat near Diu. Its supposedly famous for its temple atop a mountain (10000 steps :O) and a fort. Recently there was a 'shivratri mela' and apparently tens of thousands (if not lakhs) of people throng to that temple during this time. So my friend decided to go there not out of "bhakthi" or anything but just to have an unique experience with such a massive crowd. Pity he couldnt get anyone to accompany him all the way there (its a 12 hour journey by bus from Surat). Undaunted, he went alone all the way there and came back with a rather 'interesting' experience.

After climbing few thousand steps, he was eating some fruits when a "sadhu" who was resting there approached him and the first question he asked my friend was if he was married or not :D. When my friend replied in the negative, the 'baba' (that was what he told his name to be when my friend asked him) goes on talking all crap about girls. My friend tried to adopt a more neutral stand (slightly tilted towards girls) even as the 'baba' just went on the rampage about the fairer sex. So talking like this they climbed the stairs. In between the baba got tired and wanted to rest but my friend wanted to carry on as he wanted to return back and so the baba continued. Then with just couple of thousand steps or something to go, the crowd was so huge that it could have taken about 3 hrs to just climb up. So my friend decided that it was time to head back when the baba asked to rest for a while. As they continued the journey back down the mountain, the baba requested my friend to stay for the night (scary !!!!). He even told that he will get a room in a guest for them both :O. My friend insited that he had to return for imp college work that night itself though the next day was sunday. The baba requested so much so that he even mentioned that if he stayed for just this one night, his job would be over. (Now what on devils mind was he meaning by that ???). But my friend wasnt going to be convinced that easily and he had already started feeling bit uncomfortable with a baba who hates girls, rips them left right and center and talks about a night in a room and some 'job' :D.

The baba then took my friend to the eating place where i suppose 'anna dhaanam' (now whats the english word for that ?? Free food:p ) was taking place. There suddenly the baba started chatting some mantra looking into the eyes of my friend. My friend then put on his walkman (:D) and closed his eyes and started saying to himself repeatedly that he couldnt be hypnotized so easily and apparently the baba started chanting the mantra everytime my friend closed his eyes.

After the food, they continued on their journey downhill, when the baba tried to convince him again to stay back. Out of general genoristy to an elderly person who had given company till now and also paid the expenses incurred so far, my friend asked him of his address in Ahemdabad (yeah, thats where his 'ashram' or whatever was supposed to be) and said that he would visit at a later time. The baba asked how much time was left for my friend in college and was replied to as 2 more months.

Now comes the next eerie part: The baba suddenly proposes to my friend that why not he come with my friend to surat and live the next two months with him :D. My friend then politely refuses citing the strict hostel rules barring visitors from staying in our rooms. Disappointed, the baba asks my friend to come right away after college to his place and even promises regular food, job (selling kerosene perhaps - wtf !!!) amongst other things. He only wanted my friend to promise a single thing - My friend shouldnt get married in the next two months (Bond for job offer eh ?? - ha ha ha ). Finally my friend manages to get away from the place by catching the bus back to surat.

Now this is just about what had happened as told to me yesterday afternoon. I blogged this simultaneously while chatting, so apologies if the attempt is bit poor. I will try to get my friend to read this and see if i missed any key point :D.


Now my reaction as well as a handful of others on hearing about the incident was that the baba is most definetly GAY and just wanted a partner. But for all my friend or myself know, the baba could just be genuinely looking for a sishya to follow his idealogies or whatever. Am not too sure if anyone of us are correct in blaming him to be GAY when we dont know him at all. But then the jury is out in my blog i guess :P so let your views known :).

How Safe are you ?

I recently attended a seminar at Pune conducted by Ankit Fadia. It was my first visit to pune and the city seemed quite lovely, there was a calmness about it (compared with the ever hectice life in mumbai) and also quite lot of greenery. But the roads were extremely bad in almost all the areas in which i went during the day. It did not take me long to guess the reason -> it must have been the recent rains that caused havoc in these parts of the country.
Coming to Ankit, well he is a teenage prodigy. He has not ceased to amaze me since i got to know about him during my second year when there was a video conference of him in our college technical festival. This guy is one of the most important persons in the world of computer network security. If you are in that area and don't know about Fadia, i would say you really aren't much to be reckoned in computer security. For a few facts, ankit was supposedly born in Coimbatore, he is a gujju and did his schooling from the (in)famous DPS, R.K. Puram school in Delhi. He is currently studying in Stanford and is also a consultant to FBI, CIA, RAW as well so to many other big firms. And to think that he is all of 20....uffff. The intelligence sleuths in US of A were reportedly unable to work out the communication carried out by Osama with his Al- Qaeda members in the wake of Sept 11 attacks and they suspected the use of "Steganography" technique. So they called up ankit to help them on all that he knew and he helped them by giving information on how it works and helped them unravel the hidden messages. and he was just 16 at that time. Well one can probably go on and on about him but i rather not do that and leave it to the curious reader to google on net about him.
The seminar was basically on Computer Hacking, Network Security, ATM hacking and Mobile Hacking. Although the entire trip was quite costly, i felt i learnt at least something useful that day and the money and time spent was worth it. His start to the seminar really summed it up. He began with a few questions to the 500-odd audience in the jam-packed hall and to all his questions almost all hands went up.

Ankit Fadia: How many of you use Yahoo!, Hotmail etc for your emails?
Hands go up
A.F : Stop using them.
A.F: How many of you use the probably best search engine around, Google?
Hands go up
A.F: Stop using that. How many of you use Y! Messenger, MSN messenger, ICQ etc for chatting purposes?
Hands go up
A.F: Stop using them. How many of you use Microsoft Windows XP? stop using that. How many of you use ATM machines to withdraw money? Stop using them. How many of you use mobile phones to communicate, share pictures, music etc?. Stop using them.

Haha. Apparently all these things are some form of spyware and give out vital information of your system, without your knowledge. Information so trivial, yet vital that any unscrupulous person can easily gain access to your system and control everything. In fact he narrated an incident that happened in mumbai a few years back.
A woman used to live in a typical one room flat in mumbai. She was a gizmo freak and also addicted to computers. She had her own PC in that single room and had an always on broadband connection(or an equivalent one at that time). She was full time into chatting and also had webcam. What happened was that an attacker gained access to her system and started taking control over it and started even controlling the webcam that was connected to her system. Now he was getting live feed of everything that was happening in that single room without the woman being remotely aware of it. After a few months the lady went for an interview and on seeing her the interviewer immediately told her that why would i not give you the job? i enjoy seeing you everyday on all the porn sites :O :O :O. The woman got the shock of her life and realized something had gone wrong terribly. She informed the cops and they disconnected the connection and did the detective work. They traced the attack to a server in Russia, but never caught the attacker. For all they know, the attacker could very well be her next door neighbour connecting using a proxy server based in Russia.
Executing a perfect cyber crime is very very very easy. So the moment we get on to the net, we are in huge danger of being attacked unless we are careful enough to protect ourselves. Most of the attacks take place after the attacker gets to know your IP address. This can be easily avoided by connecting to the internet using proxy servers and also using a firewall such as ZoneAlarm(which incidentally i have been using prior to this seminar itself :D ). Ankit also explained other means by which one's IP address could be found out, such as during chat, file transfer, email etc. He also explained the different attacks and various methods of the same. The above incident was one of the worst cases of cyber crime. The attack could also take place for prank, to steal passwords, to steal other personal information, to steal intellectual property and what not.
Fadia also explained instances of ATM hacking and according to him Internet Banking, contrary to public opinion is much much safer than ATM banking if one took a few precautionary steps. Mobile hacking is the latest threat and he has also released his latest and fourth book along those lines recently.
Finally a bit of trivia to clear general misconception: Hackers are not bad people, in fact they are the good guys who work in tandem with police and help prevent the attackers or catch them. The crooks are Crackers.
So people if you want yourself to be safe from crackers or criminals, start thinking like a criminal. For only then would you know where are your weak spots and prevent them.

How callous can people get ?

Am just going to list out some of the incidents faced by few friends of mine over the past few years that i came to know only recently and needless to say was quite shocked to hear about them.

3 of my friends had decided to go back home at a very short notice and hence did not have reserved tickets. Since the number of trains from mumbai is much more than from here and also as mumbai isnt too far from here, they decided to go by that route. They boarded a bus and usually its an overnight journey and were of the view that they would reach mumbai early morning and from there would go to the station and look for the trains available and go in one of them. Then started the real "drama". There were all sorts of problem with the bus and by the time they reached andheri it was already 1030 or 11 :O :O. The driver at that point said that they had to get down as the bus couldnt go any further due to some problem. Now these people had booked their tickets in the hope of getting down at mumbai central. Most of the passengers were already furious and then there seems to have been a policeman nearby. He just calmly approached the bus driver and said you can let them get down here itself, only you have to pay the taxi fare for everyone till central...hahahaha (not all policemen are anti-public...remember!!!)
The driver had no option but to continue the journey and finally they reached mumbai central around 4. the last train going towards their destination was at 4.30 and they had no chance of getting the tickets and going...so end of story...but does the drama stop there..i thought it had, but then it seemed like just the beginning when i heard the rest of the story.

They decided to buy tickets for the next day and since the booking place was too crowded they decided to trust the "agents" there. (Never ever trust these ass#%#%@). So one of the agents went and booked the ticket and returned with a wait listed ticket. But behind the ticket was written in pen 3 seat nos and he went on to explain about a "VIP quota" which he had availed for their purpose. Then came the cost of those tickets. after some calculations which you will never understand with these crooks, it came to around 2700 that was almost exactly double the normal fare. the next day they came to the station and therein lied a bigger shock. there was no VIP quota or anything and all the seats were booked in the train :O. They then had to sit through the entire journey in the pathway before the wash basin and stuff and go...all that after paying double the usual fare....x-(

As they were sitting in the train before the train left mumbai, they met a sort of middle aged lady also going by their route. She boarded the compartment in which these guys were sitting and sat in the TTE's seat. one of my friends asked her ticket just to see the status and was totally shocked. In the ticket were three "Cancelled" words. :O. when asked about it the lady was totally stumped. Then they came to know what had happened. as she was rushing along the platform, one amongst the crowd asked her ticket to guide her to her compartment and then after seeing the ticket, neatly folded it and gave it back to her. ofcourse its not hard to guess what that rascal had done.
damn these people...
how cheap and low can they go...especially lot of this happens at mumbai. i was also cheated badly once when i took a taxi late night. since it was past midnight and i was travelling alone, i did not have the guts to argue though i knew that i was being cheated.
So coming back to the topic of this post...How callous can people get ????
let your views known...

First Kirukal

Resisted the temptation to register in blogspot for so long. Actually i started blogging just a few months back at Yahoo! 360. Was quite impressed by it and started writing my thoughts there. But the problem with 360 is that it is yet to really take off. So my blogs werent getting read or even if they were getting read they werent getting commented upon. Over a period of time, no matter how enthusiastic you are about a thing that you are working on, you need to get the attention of people, be it appreciation or criticization, you need someone to tell you something about your work to sustain the interest. Atleast with respect to blogging that holds true from my experience. So i have stopped bloggin there and have been really busy with ORKUT the last month or so :D
From there i have been seeing a few blogs and the temptation to register myself in blogspot starting coming back again. So far i could resist it. But the finally i saw a blog of my "akka"(sis through acquiantence) and she hadnt enabled anonymous comments...silly girl ;).
So here i am giving my first kirukals of india. Not sure how regular i shall be for almost most of views on various things are said in orkut and i wonder if i would be getting readers apart from the folks there. So usage of 'C n P' technology maybe a waste of time after all. Still lets see how things go...atleast now i have a blogspot id and can comment on all the blogs that interest me :D