Happy Birthday Google!

You must have heard and read about the masseuse who turned rich on Google shares. As Google celebrated its 10th birthday I was thinking of the tools and sites I have been using and contributing to the success of the company and well the other masseuses working there :). Here is a list…

Google
When Yogesh introduced me to the internet, apart from Yahoo’s mail and a few porn sites, Google was one of the first sites he had shown me. “Type in a word and hit Enter, you will get all the information”, he had said and Google crawlers have kept his word true till date. Long back I had noted down in a post that I hate Google when someone searches for Sudeep Sharma and I am not the first one to be linked. When my girl friend’s cousins came to know about our engagement plans the first thing they did was to google me out to see my photo and landed here. Now her family knows about this blog where as mine doesn’t, great isn’t it? Don’t be surprised if you find censored posts on this space now on :D

Blogger & Blogspot
If Suraj had not shown me his blog three years back, then I doubt I would have used these servers and I wouldn’t have been typing this and you would have been reading something more entertaining somewhere else :). Even though Blogspot is blocked by the System guys I am lucky that I can access Blogger to keep posting.

Reader
My access to the blog world for staying updated with all the nice, very nice, not-so-nice posts everyone writes on their blogs. I have some complaints regarding Reader but I won’t turn my post into a jeremiad. If you are a Reader user, then have you got directed to a feed which you hadn’t subscribed to? Well I got one such feed, when I had entered a changed url of a fellow blogger who had moved to different url; and unfortunately it was of a teenage girl who was fed up with something/someone and was contemplating either running away or committing suicide. Soon that blog turned into another language (probably Spanish) blog and I don’t know what happened with that girl, if she was real. I hate bloggers who don’t set their blog feed to the full :-.

Gmail
Earlier I hated the fact to compulsory shift to Gmail for Blogger and Orkut login id but when I started using Gmail, I found it to be great. In fact I have stopped using Yahoo and Hotmail since then. The best part of Gmail is the conversation windows (cascading mails).

Orkut
Yesterday’s newspaper carried an article how some companies have started looking at the social networking site profiles of candidates to get an insight of the person’s character which is not seen in the resume. Orkut in the initial days was an addiction; with no messengers allowed at the work place it was the only source of free networking and reaching out to friends. Now that Orkut is also blocked it has been a year I have logged there but I loved it (and still like it) for many reasons.

Gtalk
Even though this is also blocked, people here find out amazing ways to meander their way across the firewall. I use this rarely but since all the address book contacts are present this is a good way of interacting. Absence of invisible mode (not in the applet of Gmail) is one complaint regarding this.

Picassa Albums
I use my photo blog to share my pics but most of my friends use Picassa to upload their stuff. Thanks to this I came to know that there are many wonderful photographers in my friend circle. And Sean still prefers Photobucket! :D

iGoogle
The live cricket score gadget on iGoogle was the main reason I accessed it. A lot of nice gadgets shows how immensely talented people are coming up with such stuff. Jokes, puzzles, astrology, games, videos, weather etc. all come under one roof. I had subscribed to Babes of Googledex gadget on Google’s recommendation but they have only Angelina Jolie and Jessica Alba’s photos. Not that I don’t like these two but they are ranked way below in my list of hot babes. So later I subscribed to Sports Illustrated Model of the Day and now I rub shoulders or let’s say eyes with hot bodies like Ana Beatriz Barros :). Did someone mention censored posts somewhere in the post? :D

Google Groups
The conversation windows in Gmail are best to be used for group activities. My katta group had a conversation of about 150 mails in one day on a very silly topic.

Then there is Google Analytics for analyzing blog visits but I prefer Sitemeter, when I have time, for having a good laugh at the search words people use to land here. Also had started using Google Docs but for a very very short time. Google’s Language Tools also comes handy to me when I am working on my company projects as I have to deal with 8 foreign languages. When my company’s ex-CTO was with us we used to surf Google Earth and he used to tell a lot of interesting stories about some places he had been to.

Google has launched a project on the 10th birthday, so if you have a great or simple idea, which will change the world, then participate in it. With all the creative juices flowing may God bless you, me, all bloggers and readers, Google and the masseuses working there :)

Bull’s eye or Bull Shit?

(Had written this when the Games ended but was in Drafts till now)

2008 Olympics has been wrapped up. Beijing had its share of highs and lows and London is gearing up to match the set standards. Someone said over lunch that India might get to host the one in 2020 to which someone else countered that “The Commonwealth Games are a few months away and see the condition of the roads. How can India build a roadmap to Olympics if we can’t maintain our roads?” The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and the authorities concerned with road development has (or rather had) taken up the task of cementing all roads leading up to the Commonwealth Games venue here and to sum up the status and situation of the task in one word will be ‘pathetic’. It was expected that the repairs work will be over before the monsoons hit Pune and the 10 km patch which I use for travelling to and from office does not have a single road which has been completed. Where ever one goes the roads are dug up, the rains (this year they were below normal) have added to the misery of the commuters and no one from the governing body really cares about this.

So what do the authorities care about, you ask? Well they care about our Olympic gold medalist Mr. Abhinav Bindra. I am really happy and proud of the fact that India has bagged 3 medals (1 gold and 2 bronze) this time but I am rather amused at the 15 lakhs award for Bindra by the PMC. Let me make it clear that I am happy to know that Mr. Mittal has come forward to help Bindra and much more happy that in a cricket crazy nation even the Cricket Board has awarded the shooter. But PMC?? It is good that his state awards him; it is fine that other states including Maharashtra are awarding him but why the hell the PMC, when they have so many right areas where money needs to be put into for the citizens. Anyone please enlighten me if there is some plausible explanation for this. Drawing attention to the Commonwealth Games being hosted here might be one reason I can think of. Whatever the reason might be but it goes from the tax we all are paying, right?

I just hope that the athletes coming here from all over the world don’t find this place bull shit just due to the apathetic behaviour of the PMC and all involved in the hosting.

Hat trick!

And when we were kids we thought that it meant a magician pulling out a fluffy rabbit from his black hat. The devil sure finds work for idle hands.

Pssttt.. lemme tell you a secret

I was going through my reader last week and noticed that the number of unread posts from PostSecret had gone up as I had not checked it since quite a long time. I find this site quite intriguing. It sometimes amuses me, it sometimes saddens me, and most of the times it makes me feel that people are so talented to put down their secret so creatively. I had seen the PostSecret link many times on various blogs but never bothered to check it until one idle day when I subscribed to it. Going through a few posts had me hooked to it instantaneously. Till date I have gone through hundreds of secrets of hundreds of people spread all over the world and I am amazed by the courage people show to jot down their secrets which otherwise could have stayed buried forever. Amazed just for the fact that I never reveal my or someone else’s secrets. Secrets are just meant to be secrets, is my view. Might be it is this view point that many people show confidence in me to open up their hearts and minds. I have been stomaching many such secrets since school days and luckily I have been able to keep them with me. In spite of the fact that many people have shown me the skeletons hidden in their closets I have never had the urge to share my secrets with anybody. Not my parents or cousins and not even my best friends. I remember Sean writing in his post that it is confusing how much to reveal on the blog about his relationship. Blogs are double-edged swords as Parag had said, and it is difficult to keep the nosey-parkers in real life away if one starts writing minute details on the blog. I had successfully kept my relationship under wraps and now that I am marrying her next year I can openly discuss about it without caring for the real life pesky characters analyzing each post here to know who she is. Yes, I heard your congratulatory wishes and sincere thanks for that :). I have already conveyed the marriage information to my close blogger friends and a few guessed it right even before I could tell them. How much do you reveal about your life on your blog? Or to your closest friends in real life?
I got an e-mail today on eagles and one paragraph in the mail was:

When an eagle grows old, his feathers become weak and cannot take him as fast as he should. When he feels weak and about to die, he retires to a place far away in the rocks. While there, he plucks out every feather on his body until he is completely bare. He stays in this hiding place until he has grown new feathers, then he can come out.

We occasionally need to shed off old habits & old memories that burden us and add no value to our lives.

We skim through the old items in our households and throw away articles, which we had thought we would need some day but till date never used them. Life could have been better if we could do the same for the thoughts and memories in our minds. Try weeding out the garden of your mind from today and let colourful flowers bloom to make your own life colourful; after all we get only one life to live, don’t we?

Images from PostSecret

Friendly advice of the day!

Ignorance may be or may not be bliss but ignoring is definitely bliss.

Especially when you want some people out of your life. Permanently. Start ignoring mails, stop replying to mails and text messages, avoid meeting them even in public places, stop reading their blogs, block them from your messenger list, don’t pick up their calls etc. Sooner or later they will realize that you are avoiding them and they won’t contact you again. Life would definitely be better then. Your and their as well.

08/08/08

Glad I am not late in posting on this special date. Or am I early and should have posted at 08:08 pm?

Desktop Goddess # 13

soch zara jaane-jaan tujhko hum kitna chahte hai
rote hai hum bhi agar teri aankhon mein aansu aate hai
gaana toh aata nahi magar phir bhi hum gaate hai
ki aditi maan kabhi kabhi saare jaha mein andhera hota hai
lekin raat ke baad hi toh sawera hota hai
kabhi kabhi aditi zindagi mein yuhi koi apna lagta hai
kabhi kabhi aditi woh bichad jaye toh ek sapna lagta hai
ki aditi hasde hasde hasde hasde hasde hasde tu zara
nahi toh bas thoda thoda thoda thoda thoda thoda muskura

tu khush hai toh lage ki jaha mein chhayi hai khushi
suraj nikle badalon se aur batte zindagi
sun toh jara madhosh hawa tujhse kehne lagi
ki aditi woh jo bichadte hai ek na ek din phir mil jaate hai
aditi jaan tu ya jaane na gul phir khil jaate hai
kabhi kabhi aditi zindagi mein yuhi koi apna lagta hai
kabhi kabhi aditi woh bichad jaye toh ek sapna lagta hai
ki aditi hasde hasde hasde hasde hasde hasde tu zara

nahi toh bas thoda thoda thoda thoda thoda thoda muskura

Aditi Govitrikar is one of the 13 sexy ladies (Sakshi, on her blog, prefers to call them wannabe bimbettes :D) playing a dangerous game on Khatron Ke Khiladi program on the new channel Colors. I was watching re-runs of the initial episodes of this show over the weekend with cousins and fortunately amongst us guys we had one sister, who shrieked along with the contestants at the sight of rats and snakes crawling over their bodies. The Fear Factor India version was expected to be more of a skin show and a bitching club with these ladies taking part but they are fully clad in clothes and safety gear and the dares/stunts performed surely are worth applauding. When my mom saw Aditi she said I have seen this girl in a show. Her name is mmm… and while she was recollecting it I said Aditi Govitrikar and in an instant I rattled off all the 13 names. My mom and cousins were looking at me and wondering how I knew all names… he he he. And I say that I can’t remember names sigh!

During a few stunts my mom said that she too wanted to do those and I need not worry since the harness and safety gear are well taken care of. I was like yeah sure I am cool about it. Even if the thought of bungee jumping is exciting I am sure I won’t be doing it but I really think my mom will do it if given a chance. Aditi is also a mom by the way and a doctor, model and actor as well. Shailaja Bajpai, in her Indian Express column, says that the dares are nowhere near as shown in the original Fear Factor but I like what is being shown. If someone is attempting what I can’t, I would definitely see it. And what fun to see a pretty lady shrieking when a python slides over her belly or when an iguana licks her face. Sadistic? Maybe, but I say bring it on baby!

P.S.: I think Anita Hasnandani is the cutest of the lot though I don’t understand why she needs 2 names.

True Lies

We have heard and read so many tales (some true and some made-up) of professors having trouble with English grammar. The stories like "I have 2 daughters, both are girls" or "Ssshh! The principal has just passed away" when the principal was passing by the classroom, are a few of the famous ones. Today a guy from another team joined us for lunch and somehow the discussion went on to this English speaking ability. An anecdote shared by him…

During his engineering days a classmate of this guy wanted to go out so he faked illness and took permission from the professor to go home. Unfortunately for him the lady professor spotted him the very same evening roaming in the city. The next day the lady asked him to stand up in the class and said"Tell the whole class the truth that you were lying on me yesterday."

Like the class on that day, our canteen was roaring with laughter today.

Life is a dream

Streets we have never walked on
windows we have never opened
hands we have never held
dreams we shall never, never see again

lives we have never lived
hopes we have never realized
fires we have never lit
loves we shall never, never make again

sun in the earth, sunflower
bird in the air, rain
eye within eye, daybreak
i hear the strange whispers again

Baanwara mann dekhne chala ek sapna

A nice track from the movie Hazaaron Khwaahishen Aisi. It does take a lot courage, hard work and patience to achieve one’s dreams but I think it needs more courage just to dream. To dream what seems unachievable. Pushing yourself to the next level when you know you just can’t go any further. I am not sure who quoted this but a wonderful quote:

Dream is not what you see in sleep. It is the thing which does not let you sleep.

Baanwara or not keep on dreaming and keep faith that one day you will achieve them no matter what the entire universe advises you.

She & Me - Part V

I am back after a wonderful leave of one week. A little bit of rest and did some work back at home to help parents selecting a few things for the house. I am leaving in a while for the movie Kismat Konnection but before I make a move, leaving you with an (un)interesting story of the rather (un)interesting couple on this blog.


Place is the living room of Me’s home and the people sitting there making the room ‘living’ are Me with parents and She with parents.

Me: *looks at She*
She: *looks at Me*
Me: (through telepathy) Why are we sitting here?
She: (through telepathy) I am wondering the same and I am tensed.
Me’s parents: (to Me) We like She and her family.
She’s parents: (to She) We like Me and his family.
Me & She: (in unison) So?
Parents: So we think that you should be together… like forever.
She: But I don’t like Me.
Me: I also don’t like She.
Parents: WHAT??
Me & She: Yeah coz we love each other MUAHAHAHAHA!!

I am not sure what is going on but do keep watching this space for more updates. Have a nice weekend everyone! :-)

Just weight and watch!

Mom and Dad are coming back home today after one and half months of stay in Jabalpur. I bet the first thing my mom will be saying after seeing me will be Kitna dubla ho gaya hai!! (You have turned skinny). No matter how much fats or weight kids put on, mothers (in general) will always think that their kid is not having food probably :-). But seems that I really have put down weight ‘coz the pair of jeans which was perfect now looks like a low-waist jeans without a belt :D. I checked my weight at a recent blood donation and initially I was confused whether to feel happy or sad on losing 5 kgs. But then intelligence prevailed and I chose to be happy ;-). I fail to understand why losing weight is an achievement with the female species but when it comes to males we should be all bulging biceps and pumped up or have a beer belly. I never liked tole-shole and cannot imagine myself with a nice rotund belly. I might not have a perfect six pack set to flaunt on the Dard-e-disco song but I m happy with my flat stomach and lean (yet athletic I call it :p) frame. But someone is having an inferiority complex these days and constantly egging me to put on weight. I have now got quiet used to the Have you lost a lot of weight? question hurled at me and I patiently tell them that I am aiming for size zero after watching Tashan (I swear I did not see the movie, really) :D.

How to lose weight you ask? Well let me tell you a story before going on to answer. Yesterday evening I was heading home and while passing the hotel Radhika on F.C. Road I remembered Parag’s post that being in the U.S. he missed eating S.B.D.P. from this place. Somehow my bike read my mind (aliens, I tell you) and from the next signal she (the bike) took me to the hotel. So watching the rains I sat over steaming hot cups of espresso coffee, wonderful plate of S.B.D.P and an interesting conversation… I was not alone, she was also there (here she is not the bike, dumbo). I was feeling heavy on a heady conversation and the puri and dahi were as if acting like intoxicants. Reaching home I got engrossed in the book The Three Mistakes of My Life till a point where I noticed that around 20 pages were missing. Out came the newspaper in front of me as if it was waiting for this opportunity (again those damn aliens!). So I read Harsha Bhogle’s column and a few more articles and was skimming over pages when I realized I should have dinner since the SBDP was meant to be just a starter. Looking at the watch I was shocked to see the hour hand on 2 and minute hand on 12. That meant 2 a.m. IST. Sorry, I don’t know what that means in other time zones but here it means 2 a.m. I remember eating a packet of bakharwadis at around 3 a.m. while doing the submission work for the civil subject in the first year of engineering but apart from that I had never eaten something that late though I have been up many times way past midnight. The hunger pangs had really set in by now but blowing whistles (of the pressure cooker) at such an hour was not a good option as the neighbours still love our family. A drawer of the kitchen cabinet opened (not the aliens, I opened it) and two Maggi noodles packets were shining brightly in their yellow suits seducing me to rip their pretty suits apart and have a steamy hot dinner. Well I should confess that I find Maggi noodles as an aphrodisiac *ahem*. By 2:30 a.m. I was done with my dinner and feeling satiated with the events of the day I went to sleep thinking what to tell my mom the next day if she asked what I had for dinner. Hmmm I am still thinking. Oh sorry I totally forgot to answer your question. Well some other time ;-).

Have a nice weekend!

Life is a train

Eric Foreman says "Life is like a train. It's bearing down on you and guess what; its gonna hit you. So you can either start running when it is far off in a distance or you can pull up a chair, crack open a beer... and just watch it come."

I want to take a look in the future. Now, where did that stupid crystal ball roll away?

26 letters make an alphabet

Letter writing is an art but the timing of the letter to be written and delivered is more important. One who masters this, is a real artist.

The art of doing nothing!

How many times have you thought or dreamt of doing nothing and laze around like Garfield? I do that every day but yet don’t succeed in it. This Sunday I managed to do nothing at all :-). Well one always does something while doing nothing. I got up at about 12:30 when a friend called up to ask if I would accompany for a movie which I later politely declined. I wanted to go to bed again just to break my earlier sleeping record but then somehow dragged myself to brush and make a cup of coffee (with banana wafers and moong ki daal). Yes, I believe in healthy breakfast :D. Then I settled down again with a book in my hand ‘The 3 Mistakes of my Life’ and switched on the TV. Just 8 pages into the book I preferred to catch up a movie as Cameron Diaz was a beautiful option in the movie The Mask than the person who had tried committing suicide in the book. Plus it was dubbed in Hindi (though I don’t like dubbed movies) which actually made it hilarious with voice imitations of all Bollywood actors for Jim Carrey’s role. After that there was another in English starring Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas in which the guys are (separately) hired to kill someone. I don’t know the movie name and watched only about 30-35 minutes of it (Google says it might be Assassins). Then I switched on the computer and dragged a couple of oldies in the player and sang merrily along with he he. I hope the neighbours don’t complain when my parents are back home. Later decided to skip lunch and got myself a good shower. It is a wonderful feeling to know for sure that no one will bother you reminding to come out of the shower in time. This is one of the few differences between Calvin and me. After that I settled down again to solve the crossword in The Sunday Express. Dad called up and asked me to meet the kitchen trolley maker and tell him to complete the work by this weekend. So had to get up and visit the person who promised to complete it by this weekend. I think it was a fake promise and he will take one more week. While returning I decided to have pizza for dinner. Going by the trend of the day I should have ordered it but then thought of baking my own cake pizza and having it as well. So did some shopping for all ingredients and went home. Later, I watched (complete) Bunty aur Babli movie on TV while cutting the veggies for the pizza topping. Till date I had watched only the 'washing machine swindling' and 'Taj Mahal marriage procession' scenes from this movie. The pizzas did turn out good. I wonder how I forgot to get a pack of ice-cream to top up the fantastically spent day :-). I did have a sound sleep after such a hectic day :D.

It is not that we get such a day now and then, so one needs to think wisely in order to spend them ;-). One of my friends had this status line on messenger:

There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is in having lots to do and not doing it.

Life is a dilemma

The mystery gets solved. The dilemma is dealt with. The choice is made. Neo is happy. And then comes another crossing and another fear. The Oracle says life is always full of dilemmas and crossings, it is just that we concentrate on one or two, which we feel are the important ones out of the whole lot.

I was never ever tensed in my life as today. Pray for me.

Tee-Tee time

Updates from the company Table Tennis matches:

Lost Doubles in first round 11-6, 11-8
Won Singles first round 5-11, 11-6, 11-6

Lost in second round against a state champion he he... 21-8, 21-8

*sigh*

This is the tee design on the front side by our group. The backside reads 'All for one, one for all'. The theme we selected from the options was One World, One Culture. I will upload more pics soon; and lots of other pics pending to be uploaded as well.

Have a great weekend folks :-)

Amnesia

Nothing could be better on a rather dull day than to receive a mail from the cute HR girl declaring the company Table Tennis tournament this month and then me remembering the last post and the ensuing fracas on it and then having a nice laugh. O Navdy babes, where art thou? Memories and more memories! Don’t we live for such times? :-)

Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose - The Wonder Years

This year I have registered for the T-shirt painting competition as well. I wanted to take part in the singing one as well but these vocal cords in our entire family I tell you *sigh* :D

Yesterday it poured here heavily throughout the evening. Did I tell you I love rain and hate it as well? No? Ok then forget it. It is time for the colourful umbrellas and raincoats to put some colour on the city streets.

I completely forgot that this space completed 3 years of existence in January. Wishing It's MY Space a belated happy birthday. The first two anniversaries are here and here. The reason I remembered this was a post by a blogger completing 1 year in the blogsville. So thanks to that girl, who will probably never come here to read this. I have started loving her posts and I really look forward to them popping up on my reader. I also love the fact that she posts regularly. There was one time when I used to drop in here regularly. Did I mention memories?
Memory is what tells a man that his wife's birthday was yesterday - Mario Rocco

My blogger dashboard tells me that this is my 251st post.

Life is a circus

A tête-à-tête with a circus clown…

How is the circus life?
Tough! Less people are coming to watch the circus these days and survival is becoming a challenge every day.

Why did you become a clown?
I like to make people laugh. Seeing a smile on the faces of people is a wonderful thing.

But if your life is so tough how do you manage to be content by making people smile? And more importantly how do you manage to make them smile if your life is sad?
Hmm… interesting question. The people who come to watch a circus do not share the sorrows of their lives with me. But I am aware that they are here to forget all that and have a good time. A clown’s important task is to make them forget all the pain and keep them smiling from the moment they enter the circus tent till the moment they step out. You know sandalwood? When you rub a sandalwood piece it gives out a nice smell. We clowns remember this and even when our lives are not so happy we make sure to make our customers happy. At the end of the day, we neither know the suffering of people coming here nor we share any of our problems with them, so what really matters is the sharing of a few smiles which gives me a peaceful sleep at night. I think everyone should be like a clown in their lives – expect less and give more.

I walked out a bit wiser from that short conversation. A joker is important in a circus and a pack of cards as well. Are you a joker in your life?

Maa(r) ki bhasha

Move over reality shows; IPL is here to bring the TRPs’ down for the tear-jerky soaps and song-and-dance shows. But IPL is itself turning out to be a huge reality show; agreed it is ‘real’ but it is becoming more of a show these days. Where is cricket you ask? Well cricket is definitely there but the media attention is more on the stuff that sells in public and cricket for sure takes a backseat in this. Harbhajan’s tight slap to Sreesanth, the we-are-the-moral-police brigade hitting it out at the teeny-weeny costumes of cheerleaders, racism accusations within the cheer-girls squads, public spat between the team owners and team captains, ICC code-abuse with owners in players’ dressing rooms etc. IPL has been there, done that and seen all.

After watching a weeping Sreesanth on TV I really thought that he was crying ‘coz his team owner Preity Zinta had hugged Yuvraj and not him ha ha. But later the news trickled in through the news channels that Bhajji had hit him just after the match. How could Harbhajan Singh walk away with just… JUST… a 5 international matches ban? Yeah I agree he lost 3 crores for not playing in the remaining 11 matches for IPL but that was not enough for a person whom we all (probably all) supported during his racial-abuse allegation in Australia. After this incident I doubt whether I was right in showing my support to this guy who after the whole fracas stays calm and says to the media “It is a family matter please don’t interfere”. BCCI with all its money power had (definitely had) turned the Aussie incident in Bhajji’s favour and had set a very wrong precedent in doing so. After all the ‘we-are-still-brothers’ hugs and photo-ops I feel that 5 match ban was a very shoddy display by the BCCI… shoddier than the Bangalore and Hyderabad defeats. Harsha Bhogle had written a nice article in his Indian Express column, on this issue (will put up a link if I get it).

Initially when the IPL started off with a spectacular opening ceremony I checked the teams and was uninterested ‘coz it was hard to fight over national pride and root for a regional team especially when your favourite players are playing in different teams. But 2 days into IPL I was (and still am) rooting for Mumbai Indians. The basic concept of IPL (apart from the players and organizers drawing in huge moolah) is people rooting for their regional teams and not donning national colours for support. Such concept is more likeable by people akin to Raj Thakarey. Seems Yuvraj (captain of Mohali team) has not understood this when he complained that the Mumbai people were not supporting his team even when the team had our national team players. Aawww… I feel so sorry for this poor a$$hole. Especially when his team has advanced to semi-finals stage with the help of international players like Sangakarra, Pomersbach, Shaun Marsh etc. and he has not played well in any match so far. I feel happy that I never supported Mohali team (and I don’t like Preity Zinta as well); and even though Mumbai Indians didn’t reach the semi-finals stage I am glad I was rooting for a team which had players like Tendulkar, Jayasurya and Pollock who defied the T20-is-for-young-players tag and played well with all matches reaching a nail-biting finish. I should have supported Royal Challengers too for Katrina Kaif (latest Desktop Goddess) ;-), but then team owner Vijay Mallya, the beer baron, probably had all his players drunk before the matches and the team was defeated tamely on many occasions. Or else he did not get the Kingfisher models, we see on his calendar, out in the stadium to woo the other team players and distract them :D. One thing I don’t like about most of the teams is their dress colour… Jaipur team’s colours are the best I feel… easy on eyes.

IHL (Indian Hockey League) was a great attempt to revive the dying support for hockey and find budding players. IPL has outclassed IHL for mainly 2 reasons, loads of money involved and cricket being a more favourite sport than hockey. The national game might have gone for a toss but IPL is here to stay baby and it definitely is in. In case you might want to check the different sites of the teams...

Chennai Super Kings (Chennai)
Deccan Chargers (Hyderabad)
Delhi Daredevils (Delhi)
Kings XI Punjab (Mohali)
Kolkatta Knight Riders (Kolkatta)
Mumbai Indians (Mumbai)
Rajasthan Royals (Jaipur)

Royal Challengers (Bangalore)

Life is a fairytale

Saturday, 10th May 2008 will go down in the annals of history as freedom day. Probably!

Sir Teabing was responding to Sophie's query:
Meaning that history is always written by the winners. When two cultures clash, the loser is obliterated, and the winner writes the history books - books which glorify their own cause and disparage the conquered foe. As Napoleon once said, "What is history, but a fable agreed upon?"
It remains to be seen who will be the winner and loser; or will history just repeat itself?