Legen... wait-for-t... DARY!!!!!!!!!

And so the biggest title is back to Old Trafford!!

What a match!! Not edge of the seat action, I say... It was feet on the seat, standing up and jumping, action :-D

Went out to watch the match with Manan, Mahesh, Shubh, ATM & Tomar to a screening organized by the ManUtd Fan Club of Mumbai... and the experience was exhilarating!! http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=21798935844

Pics, videos, et al soon!

One special night!

As I head out to watch the match with members of the Manchester United Fan Club of Mumbai :-D, I shall risk making a prediction for tonight's match..

2-1 to ManU in normal time.

xx

A Speedy evening

Of all the millions of hours of cartoons that I've watched, I've not aggregated even a minute of the totally hopeless 'Speed Racer'. With the Chinese dude in the shady outfit and the cheesiest background score with the even cheesier tag-line of 'Go speed racer, go!', this has to be amongst the worst cartoon series ever shown on Cartoon Network... (but its a bittuva cult I'm told)

EVEN THEN, I could not miss the movie version of the cartoon, by The Wachowski Brothers (of The Matrix - God level - fame). So I trekked to local PVR Juhu on Saturday to watch the movie with ATM.

As I was waiting around in line for the tickets, an American dude walked up to me and said "Yo, wassup". I was rather taken aback by the familiarity assumed, but gave a smile and returned the greeting. And then, after staring at me for like 3 seconds, the guy says "You look very familiar". Now, this was getting kinda awkward. Still I managed to keep smiling and crack a silly joke saying "Who do I look like, John Cusack?". I don't quite know why I said that, maybe I was picturing myself in 1408 :-D

But then, came the whole point of the discussion.......

He asked me which movie I was watching.. I proudly said "Speed Racer!"
"Do you recognize me..?" (!!!) I was like what the hell is with this guy!?!
"Have you seen The Forbidden Kingdom", he quipped.
"Why of course!" I replied, having just caught the movie with Abhishek, the marketing dude, the weekend before.
"I was in that movie! You remember the first scene, the guy with the black t-shirt who Jackie Chan hits on the back..? I was him!"
I thought back.... Of course I didn't remember him, but I had to say "OFFF COURSEEE!! Man, it feels great to meet a star!!" The poor guy was beaming with pride now. Finally someone had recognized him it seemed. I looked around for a pen, for an autograph, but unfortunately there were none in sight, or I could have made him even happier!

Then we said our goodbyes, he headed for some bollywood flick and I bought our tickets for Speed Racer.

The movie was quite fun. Loaaads of action sequences as you can expect. Also a story woven around morality, staying true to yourself, etc., again expected from the Buddhist bros. The movie has this whole cartoon feel about it and looks really neat and colourful. Thankfully, the soundtrack from the cartoon itself is used very sparingly. The music for the car races is fantabulous! The movie's a tad long though, with the first break coming after 1 1/4 hour! Nevertheless, it was a good watch and I suggest you catch it if you have nothing else to do this weekend.

After the movie, we rounded off the evening with a sumptuous dinner at Mahesh Lunch Home (the best sea food in the city!! Must try!!) and some delectable ice-cream at Naturals.

Of Flying Condoms :-S

I came across this article in today's Times of India, and couldn't help but wonder - WHY, o WHY!?

UN to send 220,000 condoms to Burma

Bangkok: The UN will send nearly a quarter of a million condoms into cyclone-hit Myanmar to help needy survivors with no access to contraceptives, a UN official said on Tuesday.
So far the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) says it has sent 72 800 condoms to survivors struggling to maintain their family planning after the storm hit in early May. A total of 218,400 condoms will be delivered, UNFPA aid advisor Chaiyos Kunanusont said. Flights are also carrying reproductive health kits, which include razors for cutting umbilical cords, clean sheets for delivering babies and enough contraceptive pills and injections to last 3 390 women three months. AFP

I wonder if people would be even thinking about sex (let alone safe sex!) when there's no food to eat or a roof over their heads!?

The UN would probably (I sure hope so) have decided to send stuff to help pregnant women out, and also added a few condoms to kinda fill the package. But what gets highlighted in the media (with the 'catchy' headline) is that a quarter of a million condoms are flying out to Burma!

Who was she?

Gordon City. Orchard road.

It began as just another lazy Sunday afternoon. She had had a good sleep, and was eager to get going again soon. Ever the night owl, she looked forward to her day starting as soon as dusk approached. There was a rather queer calm around her though today. The wind was still and she could see clouds in the distance. And the street down below her abode was not exactly buzzing with activity. She wondered if she should really wake up from her slumber. Her next-door neighbour & best friend, also seemed fast asleep, lights out.

Almost as she let out that first yawn after you wake up & stretch along with, she noticed that her friend had also just awoken. It had become almost a ritual now, waking up at the same time as if their body clocks were controlled by an external agent. But she knew it was because they were such good friends, so attuned to each other's lives. So much so, that she felt that both of them were thinking the same things at the same time.As darkness wore in, she, her friend, and a couple of others decided, yet again, to hit the road. The clouds had seemed flow in from the horizon in the past few minutes, and it looked set to be a rainy night. But the air was still calm. They saw a lot of passers-by on the street. The lone walker, with his I-pod plugged in, oblivious to the world around him... The old man, without a walking stick, fighting to prove to himself that he was still young... The crazy-looking, young journalist, with his crew, reporting the 'latest developments' on the ground. He wasn't seen, often, but maybe there was something special to talk about there today. He was strangely dressed in a yellow raincoat.

Funny, coz it wasn't raining.

But just as she thought that to herself, a gust of wind flashed past her face. She looked up into the sky, and the clouds, were staring back at her. Thundering. Flashing. Threatening to cut loose. There was a loud crackle then, like God had clapped his hands, for the show to begin. Rain started filling the sky from out west. And as the cloud broke, she could see the rain approach her with a swift sizzle. And then, she felt it, the first drops of rain. It was magical. The cool drops on her bare face, the smell of the wet mud, and the wind brushing past her arms in a loving embrace.

The reporter meanwhile, seemed to have gotten excited by the rain's arrival, his yellow raincoat now fluttering in the wind. The walkers and joggers had disappeared. The odd car just whizzed by.The rain was heavier now. Or maybe she felt so. She didn't have a raincoat, of course, but not that she really cared. She felt herself strong enough not to be bothered by a petty shower.

But this was no petty shower. The clouds were low, seemingly just an arm's length away. The breeze had really picked up.

And then, a ghastly sight! A weak old tree was ripped out of its roots, flew past and slammed into the wall behind them with crushing force. She and her friends were shocked. They had never seen such a thing before. The excited reporter was now furiously speaking into his microphone, gesturing and pointing to the old tree which was now in the wall that was.

Just as she was about to think about a way out of this, this hellish storm, the unthinkable happened. A bolt of lightning screamed out of the sky and struck one of her friends, ripping her in half, right in front of their very eyes.

Panic gripped the others. They had no where to run now they thought. They froze, stuck to the ground. It was too late. She thought that maybe the reporter & his electrical crew would help. But they had already packed up and left right before their eyes. How could they!? Was this some nightmare?

Another one of her friends, tired by the incessant rain and strong wind, couldn't fight it anymore and just dropped to the ground, lifeless.

It was now only her, and her best friend. They were going to make it together, she prayed. As the rain and hail, now, pelted down, and objects the size of a cow were being hurled through the air, they sputtered for help. With power in their bodies waning, their once bright eyes now seemed like cold, cataract-stricken old ones.

Darkness.

She lay on the ground, beside her friend, like her, both twisted, mangled, dead. The storm had claimed its victims, not the least of whom was the first lamp-post, and the next three, on Orchard Road in Gordon City.

Wake up!

If it weren't for the amount of sports I watched and played, I could have safely been called a geek. An ardent fan of The National Geographic Channel & The Discovery Channel, I am often frowned upon by my "I love VH1 / MTV / Channel V" brother :-D

The NGC programming is fantastic. The well-written scripts, clear enunciation and breathtaking photography (and off late, digital imagery) make it a pleasurable experience. My favourite programs are nearly always ones which focus on some of the endangered species. I think such programmes deserve special attention from the government as they can go a long way in educating the masses about how grave the situation is. Maybe, it could offer some concessions to the channel for 'x' hours of such programming. There's a lot of stuff about dinosaurs and pre-historic creatures, which although thoroughly entertaining, doesn't fall under the purview of the 'special attention' I mentioned.

Take for example, the Siberian Tiger, the world's largest cat. Oh what I'd give to see it in the wild some day!! A most magnificent animal. I've seen several programmes dedicated to it, each one of them leaving me awestruck, but also sad. Sad, because there are only about 500 left in the wild today. There was a time when thousands of these beautiful creatures roamed the snowy forests of Russia and China. But a century of savage hunting & logging by irresponsible and selfish humans brought the population into double-digits! Its with the support & education by channels like the NGC that this figure is up to where it is today.

I was wondering how it would be to go on a tour to Siberia and its surrounding regions. A quick google search helped me to this link. Its an Australian Adventure Travel company and has a tour which sounds quite exciting.

Noticeably, I couldn't quickly find any Indian companies which seem to organize such exotic tours. Maybe they operate in a very niche market and are not really visible on the net. But this does look like a possible business opportunity. I know there have been b-plans presented with tours and tie-ups for such kind of places within the country, but there is a chance to build like a world-wide brand which does ONLY such kind of tours. If its sold well to the right people, maybe it could do well.

Coming to the Discovery Channel, unfortunately I lost interest once our cable operator started beaming only the Hindi version, which sucks, quite a bit. Earlier, the programmes on Health, Science and Technology were engaging and informative. I'd go to the extent of saying that I learnt more from the DC than from some of my text-books. Now, sadly, the channel seems to be veering towards sensationalist programming, like one of the several terrible news channels around... trying to make a suspense thriller out of some natural situation, complete with acting, props et al. But that's what the public seems to be demanding.

Look around the newspapers and you'll know what I'm talking about. The Times of India has been reduced to a newspaper with lots of sleazy pics, snippets of gore and some semblance of 'real news' in between. (And not to mention endless ads).

Check out the Pg.4 from today's TOI. This, apparently, is CITY 'news'. When is the world going to wake up!?!?

Flying high

It was a typical Bombay summer morning. Clear blue sky, the sun was out, the crows had started crattering, and a bunch of bright green parrots with even brighter red beaks flew by making their presence felt. A gentle sea breeze drifted into the house as if wishing everyone a good morning.

Suddenly a shrill shriek ripped through the apparent chaos. The crows were silenced for a moment. The parrots had flown off, far into the distance. Almost instantaneously, an excited young boy ran through to the window of his house and bared it open. There it stood, on the terrace of the next building, the queen of the Bombay skies, a magnificent bird, the Black Kite. Its sharp, piercing eyes looked straight at the boy for a moment. The boy was awestruck. And just as he thought he was the luckiest person alive to witness this majestic bird of prey, it gave out another cry. Reacting to it, the boy gave out his own imitation of the cry, almost like an extended, high-pitched, horse's neigh.

As if stunned by the sound and looking for its source, the bird frantically scanned the horizon, its head bobbing from side to side, its eyes searching. And then, as quickly as the whole episode had started, it came to an end. The bird unfolded its massive wings and glided off, riding the waves of breeze flowing in from the sea.

So continued the love-affair of the boy and the birds; flying high, birds of prey.

Sunday evening

Last Sunday, I think like for the first time in a long long time, I FORGOT about the F1 race!! All because of this silly, but rather engrossing, movie I was watching called '1408'.

I'm not so much a person for horror flicks, but I do like it when any movie transports me into another world. And this one does it quite well. Its got plenty of those moments that made my hair stand up, and my body thud back onto the chair... But now that I think of it, 3 days down the line, I can't remember too much else.

There was always a sense of what's going to happen next, but in the end it turned out to be a strictly okayish film. Though I must admit feeling quite satisfied that I'd managed to kill an hour and a half rather quickly :-P

The rest of the evening of course was devoted to switching between ESPN & Star Sports watching the finale of the EPL. A tense game at the JJB against Wigan, and a rather sloppy one at the Bridge rounded off a successful evening :-) The battle-royale is now set for Moscow on the 21st, and I'm looking for friends & a bar which'll show it through the night. Or else, the beer shall flow at home! Go ManU!

LMAO

For years, my Mum has been a regular reader of the Reader's Digest. Its generally quite a good read for anyone in the family with different articles to suit different tastes.

I've read it off and on, and my interest mostly gravitates to the Humour sections and some nifty word games. As I picked up this month's edition, I couldn't help but feel a sense of deja vu, with the same kind of cover page with articles on exercising, diabetes and saving the world. Nevertheless, I was determined to get to my serving of humour.

RD humour is light, intelligent and never fails to bring a grin on my face. One article/compilation of one-liners I read in this month's edition was just out of this world. Just thought I'd share my favourite quotes/one-liners from that article.

• How many people have telekinetic powers? Raise my hand. EMO PHILIPS

• I went into a McDonald's yesterday and said, "I'd like some fries." The girl at the counter said, "Would you like some fries with that?" :D JAY LENO

• I constantly walk into a room and I don't remember why. But for some reason, I think there's going to be a clue in the fridge. (How very true! Hahahaha!!) CAROLINE RHEA

• The ball missed the bat like a kiss in a Hindi movie. Who else but NAVJOT SINGH SIDHU

• What if... what if there were no hypothetical situations?? JOHN MENDOZA

• So they're showing me, on television, the detergents getting out bloodstains. I mean come on, you got a T-shirt with a blood-stain all over it. Maybe laundry isn't your biggest problem right now! The unbelievably awesome JERRY SEINFELD

• The problem is that God gives men a brain and a penis, and only enough blood to run one at a time. ROBIN WILLIAMS

• You don't get married to get sex. Getting married to get sex is like buying a 747 to get free peanuts. (This one totally had me in splits!!) JEFF FOXWORTHY

Good stuff that.

What us MBAs say

An old post on the 32 blog...

Just a coupla thoughts on what us MBA folks generally say... and don't say :)

Say (rather non-chalantly): I average about 4-5 hours of sleep a day
Don't say: I sleep for 3 hrs in class, which I conveniently forget to count

Say: I stay up till 5 in the morning doing assignments...
Don't say: I start working on my assignments around midnight (Thanks to Harsha Bhogle)

Say: We have to make regular presentations which require a lot of preparation...
Don't say: We believe in recycling... Who said we can't use stuff from one presentation in the other.. And of course, Google rocks!

Say: The days are always packed...
Don't say: They're also packed with AOE, GTA, Fifa, Quake III...

Say: The parties here ROCK!!
Don't say: If you don't drink, smoke or 'get high on dancing', you'd be bored to death.

What do you say?!

Sporting mantra

Which're the sports that have caught the attention of Indian urban youth in the past decade or so?

• Formula 1
• Soccer (EPL & Spanish leagues)
• Tennis
• Basketball/NBA (not so much now, but late 90s to early 2000s)

While these are sports which are anyways popular across the world, and have aggressively marketed themselves in the country, I think there's one factor which has made them so popular - Winners, challengers & the promise of a battle

Of course, you'd say that every sport has winners and challengers, what's so different about these sports. They have had huge, individual personalities who've single-handedly attracted viewership.

Take F1 - late 90s - the winners - Jacques Villeneuve & Mika Hakkinen. The perennial challenger - the cold, determined, German - Michael Schumacher. A lot of people started watching F1 when they heard about this great battle between a certain Villeneuve and a certain Schumacher. After Villeneuve's downfall, his 'supporters' switched loyalties to Mika (or in some extreme cases to Michael!). More people kept getting added to the fold. Some supporting Mika, some Michael. The battled raged on, and the viewers were loving it! Then, Michael started winning, and winning, and winning. The 'battle' was no longer a battle, people started getting bored. Had this situation occurred when the sport had just entered the country, one could have written its obituaries, at least for the next few years!

The English Premier League and Spanish La Liga have been broadcasted unwaveringly by ESPN-Star Sports. Again, people started getting really hooked when they saw winners & challengers - ManU winning the treble in '99 brought in a huge fan-base. David Beckham, Cole, Yorke, Scholes, Giggs, all individuals attracting youth to the sport. The great Barca-Madrid rivalry again getting thousands of new eyeballs!

Tennis - Sampras, Agassi, Federer... need I say more!?!

NBA - Jordan, Shaq, Kobe, Malone

The pattern I see is having outright winners to 'attract' new viewers to a sport. Then, have a coupla challengers thrown in to keep the interest going. Make sure that the winners are not winning too much, et voila, you have the perfect recipe for a hooked audience!

Sports like A1 GP I thought, lost the plot a bit here. There was never a clear winner, never one guy winning races all the time to make the headlines, and a promising concept fell by the wayside. Do I suggest, they should've 'manufactured' a winner, just to get in the audiences?! Well yes, and no. Yes, coz they couldve left a little more room for bigger money teams to build a touch better cars to consistently beat the field. But that again would've spoilt the concept itself? Its a far less individualist a sport compared to the likes of Tennis, where raw talent can make a winner.

For the ongoing IPL - the concept is fabulous - getting over with a cricket match in just 3 hours - but if the teams continue to be so close, I doubt if it'll see the success that its capable of. Only 15 countries or so ever really even think of cricket. To get the remaining 160 to watch, the IPL needs a clear winner. A team that blows past opposition almost every time it plays. Only this can get the world audience to sit up and take notice, and once that happens, the real games can begin.

Jimmy

October 6, 1996. My family got a new member. A cute little labrador+golden ret+cocker spaniel. Shyam (bro) and I were always fond of dogs.. memorizing the names, heights, food requirements, health issues & what not of several dozen breeds. Shyam was the one who always wanted one at home. I didn't mind, thought it'd a nice to have one around. We managed to convince everyone. And we got Jimmy.

Having a dog, is like having a baby in the house. They demand a lot of attention, care and their every move delights you!

Jim was an immediate hit with everyone. As his teeth started sprouting, he'd be chewing on just about anything, including our hands! But its one of the nicest things to experience, getting your hand chewed upon by a pup :-P (Later on in life, even with much a much bigger mouth and stronger teeth, Jim didn't mind chewing our hands, but somehow he always did it with the right amount of pressure, as if taking care not to hurt..!)

As he became more and more used to us, and we did to him, we found an ideal comfort zone... His daily routine was set and we knew exactly what he wanted when he wanted. He was a huge fan of Idlis, any South Indian dish, for that matter. And like a true brahmin, he was pure vegetarian! :-D Once when he was sick and the doc asked us to feed him some (non-vegetarian) dog food... he flatly refused to eat it (even though he was hungry, as he subsequently devoured like 5 Idlis)

I don't know how they do it, but dogs seem to know exactly what we're feeling at any time. I've read that its because of their acute sense of smell, sensing minute changes in our body odour..
He'd come and curl up to you when you're sad, and just giving him a nice petting would immediately make you feel better. Its one of those things that emphasizes how important 'touch' is to human beings. And dogs seem to have it all wired into them.

If you're looking for the meaning of 'true love', then you can't feel it easier than when you come home to your dog. The absolute joy which exploded from Jimmy when any one of us came home was the purest kind of love that one could see. As soon as I rang the bell, the barking would get louder as he ran from one corner of the house to the door. On opening the door, he'd want to be the first one to meet me. Jumping, baring his teeth, as if he were smiling ear-to-ear, vigorous tail-wagging, running around in circles. He would just be totally out of control! And every time, without fail, it had brought a smile to my face.

But, for all the joy and good times that he gave us, we always knew he'd not be with us forever. I wonder sometimes why they say 'All good things must come to an end'.. well that's part of life I guess, you need some bad times to really appreciate how good the good times were/are...

Last Saturday (3rd May), home went silent. After two months of hell, as Jim grappled with acute kidney failure, we had to take the incredibly difficult decision to put him down, out of his pain.

The last moments at the vet will forever be etched in my memory. He looked calm and peaceful, waiting to be poked for what would have seemed to be the millionth time. A few moments after the vet put in the injection, he closed his eyes... And he never opened them again

Goodbye Jim, you gem.

Miss you forever.