Run Forrest! Run!

Forrest Gump: "That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little run."

If you read through the links that I posted below about the Ultramarathon Man, Dean Karnazes, you might have come across him talking about the runner's high. It exists...I don't know how to define it. According to Dean the amount of running he does the running high sometimes lasts 3 weeks. I don't know about that long but when I come back from my long runs it hurts, it hurts real bad sometimes. But it feels really good. When I stop my run whether it is after 10 or 12 kms or sometimes just after about 30 minutes there is something good in the air at that point. Something that makes me feel...happy. Its a kind of invincible, good invincible, feeling. The head is just clear at that point. I know this can be medically explained with the hormones and adrenelin flowing through your viens but it is there and it does happen.

Once you get your mechanics sorted out and find your equilbrium speed, there is something about running! Maybe it is that feeling that you have left your troubles behind...maybe it is the insulation that it gives you from life's chatter and clutter...maybe it is the peace of mind that it gives...maybe its just the view of the road passing beneath your feet...maybe it is that solace you've been searching for...maybe it is just about getting somewhere... maybe it is about you proving something to yourself...maybe its the wind on your face and its hum in your ears...maybe this, maybe that, maybe, maybe, maybe....arrrrrrrrrgh! :)

Just take it that it exists. Don't run as if it is a race, run for yourself. Find an area that you like and keep your head up because you will notice things that will open your eyes. Put on your favorite music and just run. Run till you know it is going to hurt tomorrow and then just wait when the pain comes...you will be smiling :)

PS:
As an after thought, I actually wore the wrong shoes when I was running back at home during the Diwali vacation and I came back with the inside area of my shins hurting in a nagging kind of way. I was quite miserable but it didn't stop me from enjoying my runs. Don't get me wrong I know how long distance running can be damaging to the body. My friend 'U' has done that to himself so I did pay attention to my pains and bought myself a great pair of shiny New Balance running shoes ;-)

There was a beautiful sunset across from my balcony today...


The crescent moon...

Antioxidants

Antioxidants are chemicals that reduce the rate of oxidation. Oxidation is what happens in our bodies (in our cells) all the time, its called aging :)

Researchers have found a high correlation between oxidative damage and the occurrence of disease.

Research suggests that consumption of antioxidant-rich foods reduces damage to cells and biochemicals from free radicals. This may slow down, prevent, or even reverse certain diseases that result from cellular damage, and perhaps even slow down the natural aging process. This is the basis for the free-radical theory of aging.

Some studies suggest that by destroying free radicals and reducing cellular damage, antioxidants in the diet can have positive health effects, such as preventing macular degeneration (studied in the Age-Related Eye Disease Study); maintaining the immune system; potentially preventing neurodegeneration due to oxidative stress; preventing DNA damage; and lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease.

So its important to keep a good amount of antioxidants in our diets, especially when:

• You probably eat outside a lot and are not able to incorporated enough of the right and fresh things in your diet.
• You exercise a lot. Whenever you do endurance exercise like running long distance or weight training you are increasing the cell damage in your body.

Just by paying attention to what you eat and adding a few really simple things in your diet, antioxidant intake can be increased. It will help keep diseases away, improve your general health condition including your skin. Read on...

Physical exercise
During exercise, oxygen consumption can temporarily increase by a factor of more than 10. This leads to a temporary large increase in the production of oxygen free radicals, resulting in increased cell damage contributing to muscular fatigue during and after exercise. The body uses antioxidants to reduce the amount of such damage. The inflammatory response that occurs after strenuous exercise is also associated with increased occurrence of free radicals, especially during the 24 hours after an exercise session. In this phase too, antioxidants in the body reduce the damage.

Here are some good food sources of the four most studied antioxidants.
Vitamin C -- Important sources include citrus fruits, green peppers, broccoli, green leafy vegetables, strawberries, raw cabbage and potatoes.
Vitamin E -- Important sources include wheat germ, nuts, seeds, whole grains, green leafy vegetables, vegetable oil and fish-liver oil.
Beta-carotene -- Carrots, squash, broccoli, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, kale, collards, cantaloupe, peaches and apricots are particularly rich sources of beta-carotene.
Selenium -- Good food sources include fish, shellfish, red meat, grains, eggs, chicken and garlic.

Green Tea: Health benefits:

• Preventing the degradation of cell membranes by neutralizing the spread of free radicals (which occurs during the process of oxidation).
• Increases fat oxidation (helps the body use fat as an energy source) and raises metabolism.
• Lowering LDL cholesterol (in high doses in lab tests)

The benefits from green tea are pretty amazing, read it again...

Most of the data here is collected from the wikipedia page on Antioxidants.

Kite Runner

I totally forgot to write about the book "Kite Runner" that I finished reading almost 2 months back now.

“Kite Runner” (by Khaled Hosseni) is a really powerful book with a very touching and heartening story. It is quite traumatic in parts and will have a complete grip on you.

The story traces the life of an Afghan boy, Amir, from when he was a kid in Afghanistan to him becoming a young man, married and now living in California. The book starts with a phone call after which Amir must now return to his native land to seek redemption for what happened one winter season. As a kid Amir lived a privileged life and his best friend, Hassan, is the household servant's son. They grow up flying kites, reading books, telling stories and do everything together. But everything changes on a fateful winter day. On a day when Amir and Hassan have just won the town's prestigious kite flying championship, an unspeakable incident, starting with Hassan's haunting words for Amir "For you, a thousand times over...” changes everything in their relationship.

This book also opens your eyes to the turmoil and misery in the lives of the normal people in Afghanistan, and how different it is from the stereotypical view the world holds of that country and its people.

An extremely well written book from which you can pick numerous memorable passages. The opening para itself is quite striking. Here is a part of it:
"...it's wrong what they say about the past, I've learnt, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out."

Tadiyanmol Trek...
...a picture I took on the trek...


Stimulated by this I did a pencil sketch, while sitting on my desk :)
...a dark scan of that sketch...


...a lighter scan of that sketch...

Sniff Sniff...Grrrrrrr...

PS: I took...

PS: I didn't...took!

Ok one more...pbs10, cut his hair short and now sports new glasses...geek!

Further Farther

Sitting in one of my favorite (not!) meeting, the "operations staff", someone remarked "We are farther ahead today." Immediately my mind digressed, that happens a lot when I am in this meeting by the way, but I digress again now ;-)
Anyway, I started thinking about the movie "Finding Forrester". In that movie a very snobbish English professor passes a snide remark at a student saying "Perhaps your skills do extend a bit farther than basketball." This kid is pretty smart and takes up the professor’s challenge.
He says, "Further. You said my skills extend 'farther' than the basketball court. 'Farther' relates to distance. 'Further' is a definition of degree. You should have said 'further'.

Anyway a very cool scene that one, but by the time I thought all this, only about 15 seconds had passed instead of the 15 minutes I had hoped for ;)

Multi-Touch Interfacing

This is a pretty amazing multi-touch sensing touch screen technology. You can actually use all your ten fingers (and your nose if ten fingers are not enough) at the same time. Another cool thing is the pressure sensing ability of the screen and the applications that can be built around it. In one of the applications in this demo you'll see pressure on the screen injecting heat into a lava lamp application and heating up the wax.

In another application you'll see that you can use your thumb and index finger to form an axis and then apply pressure from the other hand to tilt the display in 3-D around that axis, like while viewing 3-D maps etc.

Those features, the two finger gesture to zoom in and out and the ability for people to build applications and define their own gestures can really revolutionize the way we interface with computers today. The way we interface with computers today looks so outdated compared to this type of multi touch interfacing...Very Very Cool!!!

p.s: Click the image below once, that'll enable the window then press the play button on the bottom left hand corner of the image to view the video.

Ultramarathon Man

What if I told you that you had to run 50 marathons in 50 days? A marathon is about 42kms or 26 miles. Well that’s not all, after you have run these 50 marathons you have to run more? 3000 miles actually, back to your home...your reaction???

Now, would you believe me if I told you that there is a man on this planet who is already doing exactly all that I mentioned just now? He has finished his 50 marathons in 50 consecutive days, the New York marathon on November 5^th was his 50th consecutive marathon, and now he currently running back from New York to his home in San Francisco. Oh and he has already covered about 540 miles in 12 days.

Name: Dean Karnazes - http://www.ultramarathonman.com/flash/
His daily blog including the 50 marathons in 50 days: ENDURANCE IS
Where is he today running from NY to SF? Here...
His book: Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

Quotes:
"There is magic in misery."

"To me life is a struggle. If I'm not pushing myself, then I'm not happy," he says. "People think if we had every damn comfort available to us - if we removed all the struggle - we'd be happy. I think there's a lot of miserable people out there, and one of the reasons is, there's no struggle. They're taken care of every day. But I think there's a lot of happiness in suffering."

Mooru Plays

Saw these 3 plays at the Rangashankara theater…I must say that this theater is just wonderful and I am ever so thankful that it exists.

Art
This play was performed by a Chennai based troupe called Evam.

This one has a very interesting story line…It’s a story about three close buddies who start to fall apart after one of them spends a fortune buying a painting of white lines drawn on white background. There is a bit of technical talk about art but that part I didn’t catch much. But primarily the play explores the interrelationships of the 3 characters as they start measuring their friendship and existence with respect to each other. All this starts with one of them buying the painting, the second guy calling it “shit!” and the third friend somewhat innocent and diplomatic getting horribly caught in between. The piece of art divides the three friends at various angles through out the play as they align and realign amongst themselves. Tempers flare with intensity and they say the bitterest of things to each other but slowly confessions pour out and the dust finally settles.

Overall it was a good performance by all the three characters. I found the characters quite identifiable and the play to be really close to real life situations. There is some extra energy that flows through when you can associate with the situations being portrayed. These were friends just fighting, deliberately saying hurtful and bitter things, falling apart and finally trying to find their friendship again.

Woza Albert!
This play was performed by a troupe called Rafiki. The story is based in South Africa and deals with Apartheid (Woza means rise and Albert is the name of an assassinated leader of South Africa).

Despite the subject it deals with, the play is a comedy (a dark comedy maybe) and it starts with the rumor spreading that God (Jesus/Morena) is coming to South Africa. The rest of the play carries us through vignettes of various emotions that people from all walks of life in South Africa go through. There are two actors in this play and they play numerous characters one after the other showing a range of emotions starting with euphoria and disbelief. Seeing that this news is empowering the black population, the white government starts to clamp down. There are scenes of God meeting common folk and the expectations of these folks ranging from absurd to reality. The ending is again amusing but the message of the play is still serious and dark.

The acting was really energetic and in strange kind of way extremely intense. One of the actors had an extremely expressive face which he thoroughly exploited. He was funny as hell and kept me thoroughly engrossed. There were a couple of scenes depicting the two characters traveling in a train and even flying a helicopter! They did all the sound affects themselves and were really good at it. But the highlight of the play for me was the first 5 minutes where the lights slowly increase and the actors sing an absolutely beautiful folksy kind of song with one of them drumming on a wooden box as the only accompaniment.

Bikhre Bimb
This is a play written by Girish Karnad and Arundhati Nag is the lead actress. Need I say more?!?

The play is a solo act and I saw the Hindi version. The story starts with an author who has written only in Kannada until now suddenly writing an English “upanyas” and becoming a worldwide success. She gives a TV interview where she tells the public story of how she wrote her story, her reaction to the success and answers her critics. The story she has written is about a paraplegic girl and she says the story was inspired by the life of her younger sister who died recently and was also paralyzed since birth. With the interview done, as she is about to leave the studio an image of her appears on the TV and calls her back. What follows is the discussion delving into her family, consisting of her husband and her sister, and the various levels of her own consciousness. The lady and inquisitive TV image carry on conversing revealing a thorny story and a relationship of a dark nature consisting of love, hate and jealousy.

The acting was just superb, as you can imagine talking to a taped person the timing, delivery and placement of the actress had to be spot on for the whole duration.

Perumazhakkalam (When it rains hard)

This is the Malayalam movie from where Nagesh Kuknoor borrowed the story for Dor. He did officially buy the story from the writer and gives the writer due credit in the credits section of Dor. The Indo-German film festival screened this movie and all that this movie shares with Dor is the overall plot. The filming and handling of the two movies are totally different and both are originals in their own rights.

The story here is the same, in a fight between two Indian roommates in the Saudi, one guy “accidentally” kills the other. And the wife of murderer takes a journey to seek a signature from the wife of the murdered guy to pardon her husband. This movie is much more grounded and closer to real life. If such a thing actually happened then the story in real life will closely resemble this movie rather than Dor.

In this movie the wife doesn’t take a daring independent journey not knowing where to find the other lady. She knows exactly where the other lady lives and she sets out with her father accompanying her. Upon reaching the village, right from the first meeting she sees the other lady and begs her to sign the papers but the family members intrude and throw her and her father out. This repeats every time she makes an effort to convince her to sign. The wife of the murdered man is aptly shown, right from the beginning, lost in what to do. Finally on the last day despite knowing the consequences from her family will be dire she takes a priest’s help and makes the reverse journey to go and sign the papers. Then she returns to her house to face the brunt of the family...

The big downside of this movie is the songs. They are totally misplaced and useless. Also in the first half an hour the director seems confused as to what kind of a movie he is making, a commercial movie or an off-beat movie. The director isn't able to bring out the significance of the title in a very powerful way. For the first half the cinematography actually is very confused (other than the opening scene) but things settle down and the rest of the movie is well directed and shot. Overall if you, as I have, manage to blank out the songs then it is a really good movie, in fact better than Dor at certain places.

Mehr Filme

The Indo-German film festival is going on here in Bangalore…

Oktoberfest
This movie shows the amalgam of life on the last day of Oktoberfest, the two week beer festival held yearly in Munich. There are several stories running in parallel that are loosely linked here and there. The stories are about best friends, about relationships falling apart, coming together and about parents and children with the central theme sort of being love. None of the stories in the movie are intense as such and it just shows day to day people. The director himself said that if you really stand in Oktoberfest and take notice you will see all the things in his movie. What I really liked in this movie is that none of the stories as such reach a conclusion. There are left as loose knots that you can make up your mind as to where they will go next.

To me the story of the wheelchair guy pretending to be handicapped was really good. Twenty odd years ago there was a bomb blast at Oktoberfest and this guy keeps harassing the fest police over the phone by asking them questions like “Could it have been prevented?” In the middle he meets a girl who runs one of the rides at the fest. They obviously like each other and spend some time getting to know each other but in the end the cops catch up to the guy and arrest him. She is totally betrayed when she finds that he is actually not handicapped. At the police station he finally explains to the chief, who was patrolling the day of the bomb blast, that his father lost his legs in that blast. He was kid then and had made a big fuss about an Oktoberfest t-shirt. His dad had gone back to the fest area to get it for him and had got caught in the blast. Finally the next day he comes back to meet the girl but the scene fades there, you are left to think about what she says to him and where they go from there…

Overall the music is really very nice and had me tapping my feet time and time again. The movie is well shot given that it is almost completely oudoor and was made in the actual Oktoberfest.

Off-Beat
This is a story about kind of a reclusive guy who as a kid survived a serious car accident in which his parents were killed. After the crash, apart from the trauma, he has some medical complications for some years but now he has grown up and works as a paramedic where his nickname is “Crash”. He continues to have flashes and nightmares about his past life including the accident and it is through these flashes his story is told. His grandmother raises him and there is a beautiful scene in which she tells him about strength and courage. She says you can forget about everything else but there are only two things you can do in tough situations “inhale and exhale”.

Crash is kind of a loner but a workaholic who keeps helping all kinds of low lives on the streets. The tag line of the movie is “probes the soul of a troubled young man who rescues others but is desperately in need of rescue himself.” In his dreams he sees a woman who he actually doesn’t know. Finally one day he does meet her, the situation is complicated (I won’t explain much why it is complicated, but believe me it is nothing like a typical love triangle complicated) and they do fall in love but at the end of the movie life repeats itself in a horrible way. The scene where Crash is pulled between life and death has been shown is one of the most unique ways. So many movies show people dying but finally making it back to life due to a touch or a tear drop, this movie does the same but adds a very nice twist to it. To me the whole movie is worth watching just for that scene.

The movie also touches one of my favorite animal stories. A very touching story about a really brave and faithful mongoose, written by Rudyard Kipling: “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi”. In the ambulance when the girl tells Crash “I feel sorry for you” dealing with death, blood etc “and you always arrive late”. Crash replies with “My grandmother told me this and I believe in what Rikki-Tikki-Tavi said ‘There is reward in every good deed’.” And with that they burst out laughing.

Overall the story is pretty good and the movie is well made but it is very graphic since he is a paramedic, people with a weak stomach will have trouble.

Dry Spell

I don’t know about you but in terms of blogging the past 2-3 weeks have been dry spell. Strange and funny thing is that a bunch of blogs that I read, mostly all of them by my friends, also have suddenly hit the same dry spell. Other than Mr A posting some video links :-) from YouTube and Google videos there were basically no postings. Anyway…

The Departed
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Martin Sheen, Mark Wahlberg, Alec Baldwin

Awesome movie, a gripping mob flick with plenty of violence, bloodshed and twists and turns that has lots of people going “Scorsese is back!” Although probably not as good as Scorsese’s own “Goodfellas” but it comes really very close. Personally I thought it was a little long but apart from that the story and the acting are pretty good. Jack Nicholson as the mob boss is flawless. Almost everyone in the acting department is...

The story is about the mob and the cops infiltrating each other, sending their people under cover. Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) the boss of an Irish mob systematically puts his youngest and brightest man (Matt Damon) to infiltrate the police and rise in their ranks. At the same time two good cops (Martin Sheen and Mark Wahlberg) send their brightest cadet (Leonardo DiCaprio) to infiltrate the Irish mob. Both the undercover men do well as a cop and a gangster and quickly rise to the top, all the while passing critical information back to their people. Slowly both sides become painfully aware of the rats and then to make it worse become aware that there isn't just one rat in their group, that is when the movie picks up pace. Watching the rat become a thorn in the side of Jack Nicholson is really riveting. The cops and the mob spin circles around each other through their informants and find themselves frustrated time and time again. On the side both young men thrown in the fray find themselves struggling to tell apart the lies from the truth and at the same time having internal struggles with trust and loyalty.

Memorable quotes:
Dignam (Mark Wahlberg): Who am I? I'm the guy that does his ^$%#in' job! You must be the other guy!

by Frank Costello:
“One of us had to die. With me, it tends to be the other guy.”
“When I was growing up, they would say you could become cops or criminals. But what I'm saying is this...when you're facing a loaded gun, what's the difference?”
“I don't wanna be a product of my environment, I want my environment to be a product of me.”
This last one is very similar to the quote by George Bernard Shaw that goes “all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” So looks like whether you are a mob boss or a software engineer or anything else, to get ahead in life the same principle applies ;-)

Here are the reviews of some of the movies I saw over the past couple of weeks...

No Man’s Land
A war story set in an open field with the Serbian line on one side, the Bosnian line on the other and two soldiers, one from each side, caught bang in the middle in No Man's Land. The story depicts the idleness, confusion and blind hatred of any war. It shows how clueless sometimes the sides involved and even the UN are in these civil wars.
A tragic story bringing out the hopelessness of the whole situation. I really liked the movie since it was really very simplistic. Made in one open field with trenches, a few guns and vehicles but the situation is what is very interesting that leaves you thinking.
This movie won the 2001 Oscar for the Best Foreign Film (Country: Belgium; Director: Danis Tanovic).

All About My Mother
A very moving story about a mother but women in general. This movie is very progressive, blunt and sexually explicit so not everyone may be able appreciate the film but the overall story is quite nice. It revolves around a single mother who loses her beloved son in a freak accident and then makes a journey back to face the demons from her past that she had left behind twenty years back. A Pedro Almodóvar movie that definitely stirs up controversy.
This movie won the 1999 Oscar for the Best Foreign Film (Country: Spain; Director: Pedro Almodóvar).

Munich
This movie captures what Israel did in the aftermath of the 1972 Olympics where 11 of their athletes were brutally murdered by Palestinian terrorists. A group of Mossad agents led by Avner (Eric Bana) are recruited to hunt and kill the people responsible. Eric Bana does a really good job of portraying an assassin who is serving his country but at the same time a family man. Avner's struggles indicate how difficult it is to kill anyone doesn’t matter who they are. He and the team constantly find themselves at odds with the mission and to make it worse they soon realize that they themselves are being hunted.
A good Steven Spielberg movie which definitely communicates the darkness of the subject and the struggles involved in the world of secret agents and assassins.

O Brother Where Art Thou
A movie by the Coen brothers (Fargo is by them too) which at its center has the escaped convict Everett (George Clooney) trying to catch a break in life. He has two accomplices and together they bumble onwards trying to reach a treasure. Everett is a smooth talker and these guys get into the weirdest of situations including a KKK rally. They even end up being a big musical hit by the name of “Soggy Bottom Boys” and their song catches on in the whole state. One of the funniest scenes is when Pete, one of the convicts, questions Everett’s leadership and then they proceed to vote on who should be the leader. Everett and Pete vote for themselves and the third guy, Delmar, who has the deciding vote cluelessly says “Okay, I am with you fellas.”
An awesome movie with tons of smart alec dialogues, great acting, good music and with a very catch story all along. The song “I am a man of constant sorrow” from the movie aptly describes the situation of Everett and his buddies.

Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
The follow up to one of my favorite animation movies Ice Age, this movie is a continuation of the adventures of the 3 characters: Manny the Mammoth, Diego the Saber-toothed Tiger and the outrageous Sid the Sloth. A very enjoyable movie where the 3 friends are now facing the end of the Ice Age and the rise of water levels. At the same time Manny is facing the possibility of being the last Mammoth alive until he meets a female Mammoth named Ellie but incidentally she has been raised by possums and thinks that she is one too.
Just like in the first part the oblivious squirrel continues to retrieve and store its beloved walnut in the weirdest of situations.

Small Time Crooks
A typical Woody Allen comedy with other comics like Jon Lovitz and Hugh Grant. Woody Allen is a bumbling con who keeps hatching get rich quick plans. This particular time he finds that his wife, who was acting as the front selling cookies, is actually making a much bigger fortune than his plan. They build a big empire selling the cookies and this sudden fortune finds them rolling in high society. Then they try to fit in by hiring Hugh Grant to teach them to be sophisticated but he has his owns plans to get rich.
One really funny scene is when Woody Allen says his nickname in the jail was “The Brain” and Jon Lovitz points out that the name was meant in a sarcastic way but Woody Allen does not realize this and continues to believe himself to be a genius. Good time pass watch…

I have slept some 20 hours in the last two days...Why? Because I am on a $%#$ vacation ;-)

Diwali is here and I am lounging at home for the past two days. I got about 10 movies to watch during this week and already have finished 4...should have got more of them...

Went for a run early in the morning around 7am. It is so damn hot here that early morning is about the only time suitable for running. Getting down here from the flight at 11 in the night the temperature was 29 deg C, day time it must be 34-35. Anyway the run was really good, ran next to lake and then all the way to the departments and by my school. School starts really early now and I saw the kids go in...felt really nostalgic and my attire was almost exactly like their uniforms navy blue shorts, white t-shirt and black shoes. Maybe I should have gone inside and antagonized the teachers again, just for old times sake :)

Straight to the point...fast!

I happened to attend one of the most inspiring and open & direct presentations a couple of days back. This was by one of our vice presidents in the organization where I work and man am I glad this guy works for us.

He is as straight a shooter as one can get, this person is pretty foul mouth but is just so damn inspiring. He didn't mince his words one bit. He openly shredded some of our internal practices and policies. He took the HR people sitting on the front row on a ride a few times. I am sure they were shivering in their pants as to what he may say next but we didn't mind, we were too stirred up.

He took two sessions, one on Leadership and another on Intellectual Honesty. We came back all fired up from his session. Here are some of the quotes from him (assume a little hyper but serious guy is telling this to you and at a fast pace):

He started with this: "Everyone raise your right hand, up high, put it in your pocket...now take out that bloody cell phone and switch it off"

"Today we will have a exchange of ideas. It means you will come in with yours and leave with mine."

"BKMs suck" (BKMs = best known methods; its an acronym we use almost everywhere in our org)

"Consensus is the source of all evil"

"If you think the meeting is a waste of time then just stand up and say "It's bull $%@#"." (People in my group are itching to use this!)

"I love chaos, I love arguments. I love to participate and see people arguing in meetings." He said with a twinkle in his eye.

"Someone said attack the issue and not the person. So I asked them back "Ummm...then can I say that the issue is a son of a @#$%^?" What do you mean don't attack the person???"

In his presentation he quoted George Bernard Shaw "The resonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
Our group came back and on the pretext of being unreasonable decided to be the biggest jerks and pain in the you know what around ;-)

Another thing he said that our organization should do is "Always challenge status quo...without fear." And "Can Do!"

How these threads of life weave us together...

In our trek through life how when we are blindsided but still end up taking the leap of faith and in return find something in someone or with someone that is so unforeseen but yet so meaningful that it is difficult even to fathom, is what the movie Dor is about...

Ok about the movie (other than too much about the story obviously)...

Dor is close to be being almost flawless. Nagesh Kuknoor has struck the ball out of the stadium. The movie is just spectacular in its direction and cinematography. Just when you think that the movie will fall apart by becoming melodramatic or "filmy" the reigns are pulled by the director and the actors. It sticks to its course beautifully. Speaking of beauty, the locations shot in Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan from where the two women around whose "Dor" the movie is based on come from, just take your breath away. Especially the beauty that comes through from the shots of the deserts and life in Rajasthan are incredible.

The acting by everyone (other than by Kuknoor himself in his short role, but he is forgiven :)) is just exact. Apart from the two women who just shine through and through, Shreyas Talpade as a behroopiya, Girish Kannad, the grandmother and others all give great performances.

Gul Panag who plays Zeenat and Ayesha Takia who plays Meera, the women in question in this movie, deliver stunning performances. It is their lives that intertwine. The forces than bring them together and the bonds they form about love, goodness and more importantly freedom liberate them both in their own way. Many scenes will stand out, the scene where Behroopiya drunk goes and "proposes" to Zeenat in his own unique way is pretty funny but I actually found it quite touching. Such scenes will speak to you make sure you make them yours. Another one I really liked is when Meera asks the grandmother "Aap mere saath itna kathor kyon thi."

The songs and music are just right and well suited but "Yeh Honsla" stands out. It is an extremely beautiful poem and song...

You just cannot miss this movie...and make sure you watch it first in a theater.

As good as it gets...

I have been writing this post for some time and had left it as a draft for probably a month now. Anyway just decided to post it today in whatever state it was...

I am sure that if you have had friends who went or go through tough times or a crisis, you have egged them on by saying "look at the bright side, you still have your family or health or job" or whatever else the case might have been. But now what happens if that person goes on to lose someone from their family or lose their health in a really serious way say cancer. What if some of their decisions backfire on them...

This is what someone narrated to me that had happened to them. What do you say to that? Now that you have been made to eat your words how do you comfort them?

…What if this is as good as it gets...

This line is from the movie "As good as it gets" and Jack Nicholson delivers this line in his usual flamboyant style.

What if that this is as good as it'll get. This hopelessness that faces you is as good as it'll get. Forget god, higher force or anybody else coming and saving you, not going to happen. Pick a path, work for yourself with fervor and conviction and definitely live...

Oh I just found that my Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex is probably damaged! :) This I found while reading "Blink" by Malcom Gladwell the author of The Tipping Point. The tag line of this book is "The power of thinking without thinking"...

Anyway in this book there is a mention about the Implicit Association Test (IAT) developed at Harvard. I would encourage you to go and take a few of them. The tests are available at: implicit.harvard.edu/implicit

What these tests measure is our attitude towards things at an unconscious level. Varied subjects like racism, religion, computer operating system preference etc. We are probably not even aware that we have such an attitude. This attitude is the first thing that comes out even before we have had a chance to think when we are faced with a particular situation or circumstance.

The book says "The disturbing thing about the test is that it shows our unconscious attitudes may be utterly incompatible with our stated conscious values". I didn't find too many discrepancies in mine but in case if you do find that, for example you have a racist implicit attitude then there is a way to deal with such things. What you do is to increase familiarization with what you have an negative attitude against. Spend time in the environment in which you have developed a bias against. Learn about the good things of that aspect because it is the bad things that you have absorbed from the evironment around you and hence developed the implicit preference...

There are some tests related to India also at: implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/india/

It is bandh time again here in Bangalore. This time some issue with Belgaum. Cable tv is blacked out including even English/Hindi news channels. So after sending the WFH (working from home) mail there was nothing much to do ;-) other than chat with folks and write a couple of blogs. No! Not this particular post but a couple that I'll post shortly. But for now the pace needs to seriously pick up so gonna toss a coin and choose between two Brad Pitt movies Fight Club or Snatch... ... ... ... ... ...Snatch it is! "Stealin' Stones and Breakin' Bones!!!"

Do you find yourself atrophying? Then try the documentaries posted at PBS Frontline. On this page visit the Previous Reports link, it has archives from previous years.

The first one "The Dark Side" is really good and gives a deep insight on how manipulative the "War on Terror" has been. I watched it one morning when I was preparing a presentation at the absolute last minute but due to my expertise in powerpoint ;-) it got done in the about half the time and I had all this time to spare :-)

One song that helped me through my run last Sunday was Pearl Jam's "Release". It goes:

I'll ride the wave where it takes me
I'll hold the pain...Release me...

I guess if you have heard the way Eddie Vedder sings these lines you may understand why these lines had such an influence...

42.2kms

It took me 6 hours to finish the Bangalore marathon. Not a very great time as I had aimed to finish in five and a half hours but still I managed to overcome my body screaming at me "STOP!" "STOP!" for 42 kilometers...

I had decent pace for the first half, completing 10 kilometers in just over an hour and then getting half way by about two and half hours. But at about 26 kilometers I had run my last for this race. I walked the rest of the way to the finish, taking about three hours to cover the last 16 kilometers.

Almost every part of my body below my waist hurt. The groin area, knees, calfs, ankles, feet (heel and sole) and each one of the 10 toes. Pains in each these areas would come and then dull away giving way to something more painful...
Plus I developed a condition in my upper body which is very common among amateur male long distance runners but a little embarrassing to describe here. I had taken some precaution but it didn't work and the roaming medical team had to help me. I soon forgot about it but I spent some anxious 10 kilometers...

The race was very badly organized but I don't want to go into those things here as I am too busy nursing my sweet and nasty aches and pains...ow! ow! ow! ouch!

Huh?!?!?
...There is a deluge in the deserts of Rajasthan (villagers expect the water to recede only after 3-4 months!)...
...The ice Shiv Lingam in Amarnath didn't form this year (it formed later under some controversy that it was done artificially)...
...Cherrapunji, the place we were mesmerized with in school as the wettest place on earth, has received almost nothing in monsoon rainfall...

Crikey! - You will be missed...

Bush Defends War Strategy

Quoting repeatedly from Osama bin Laden, President Bush said Tuesday that pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq would fulfill the terrorist leader`s wishes and propel him into a more powerful global threat in the mold of Adolf Hitler.

WTF...how?

Adieu to the kid from Las Vegas

Ander Agassi retired yesterday after a stellar career of 21 years. He bid a tearful farewell to tennis after losing in the 3rd round of the US open.

I remember the day when my brother got this huge poster of Agassi to put in his room and I was looking at this guy with long hair and wearing multi coloured neon clothing and now today Agassi at the age of 36, bald and in nearly all white attire retired as one the greatest players of the game. Agassi had the sweetest return of serve ever and his ability to take on the big servers from two feet inside the baseline had never been done and still never has in way he did it.

He won all four Grand Slam singles events during his career plus the Masters, the Davis Cup, and an Olympic gold medal. He is one of the only 5 players to win all the grand slams. One of the things that stand out about his career is in 1997 dropping from being ranked number 1 in the world to number 141 and then coming back. He never quit upon reaching 141. He went and played tournaments where even ball boys were not there and finally was number 1 again in 1999. He will remain one of my favorite players ever even more than Sampras.

On Sunday he was clearly in a lot of pain because of this chronic back problem and many times just stood straight letting the balls whiz by. His back had seized up completely after the match with Baghdatis in the 2nd round but with the help of some non-steroidal injections he managed to show up for this match.

Here is what he had to say at the end...

"The scoreboard said I lost today, but what the scoreboard didn't say is what it is I have found," Agassi said speaking to the crowd "You have pulled for me on the court and also in life. . . . You have willed me to succeed sometimes even in my lowest moments. . . . You have given me your shoulders to stand on, to reach for my dreams -- dreams I could have never reached without you. Over the last 21 years, I have found you, and I will take you, and the memory of you, with me for the rest of my life."

On thinking about quitting while playing through a lot of pain.

"If I wanted to quit, I would have done that a long time ago. I didn't come here to quit."

"I didn't want it to be tainted with a lack of desire or preparation, for me, it was never about winning and stopping. It was always about getting the most out of myself for as long as possible."

Billy Elliot
I watched this movie again over the weekend. It is about a kid living in a poor northern England town and how he takes to dancing ballet. Billy discovers dancing is what interests him rather than boxing which his father wants him to take up. He really doesn't know why and in the process he gets badly beaten by his father and teased by his brothers who are miners and going through tough times themselves but Billy gets support from his teacher and they develop a close bond.

The movie is really funny and has this sharp edge to it. Especially the scenes when Billy just dances free form in the streets of his town to awesome background music and like when Billy figures out his best friend likes to dress up as a girl (Billy’s expression is priceless). Then there is his grandmother always passing loopy statements in middle of serious situations. Also the conversation between Billy and his teacher when Billy asks her “Miss, you don’t fancy me, do you?” and then tells her “All right, don’t blow your blob (head)”.

Lots of touching scenes like when Billy reads his mother's letter and when his father comes around to suport him. The acting by Billy and his father are what stand out in this movie especially near the end by his father. The movie has a great soundtrack with really well placed songs and music. You almost feel like dancing with Billy at times. It is a really nice feel good, kind of simplistic movie about friendship, family and following one’s dreams…

This really funny ad is coming on TV these days. It has this kid brother with curly hair asking his older sister, who is doing yoga, tons and tons of questions…
“Kya kar rahi ho? (Yoga) Isse tum palti ho jaogi? Tu fir chocolate kyon khati ho?”
“Arrey tum ulti kyon ho gayi, khana bahar nikal aaya tu?” "Mai ulta dikh raha hoon" "Isse kya hoga?"
Then when the sis is watching some bearded baba on tv and continuing her Yoga…“Yeh dadi wala kon hai? Isse tumhari dadi nikal aayi tu?”

The thing is that the ad doesn't relate to the life insurance product it is trying to sell but by itself it is quite amusing and cool…

AGASSI AGASSI AGASSI...Fight On!!!

India
Over some drinks, last week, someone remarked how in some communities parents want their daughters to be married only to someone settled in the US. Now along those lines there were some other comments like "I will never go there", "And I am proud to be an Indian" and "I never felt at home there or could never somehow call that place my home". Anyway that apart, Fahrenheit 9/11 was coming on TV and there is one segment where they show how on a regular basis the US have invaded countries. That got me thinking...

In 1998 the US bombed a far away country and destroyed a primary school and an Asprin like drug making factory. They never helped Rwanda but they happily went and flattened Iraq twice. They gave Osama 3 billion to spend and god knows how much more to Saddam to fight against Iran. They have assassinated probably half a dozen presidents and leaders in South American countries throwing these countries in chaos and sending them spiraling into further poverty and then installing puppet dictators.

What I am getting at is my country has never done that. We have never invaded anyone. Despite having one of the worst neighbours ever possible we have never been the aggressor against even them. We have the worst corrupt politicians but still we have never bombed a primary school. We have never bred hate and violence in such blatant forms to satisfy the greed of the elite rich and the so called "corporations". I can safely say that our collective conscience is clear in this matter. This makes a big difference in my mind, proud of that record...

Che Guevara
The second thing that I quickly wanted to write, came to me while watching Motorcycle Diaries. The movie is about Che Guevara. While living in Los Angeles I had read and known about him but hadn't seen the movie as yet. The movie covers Ernesto Guevara and his friend taking a road trip on a rickety motorcycle across South America. Something changed in him during this trip. He saw the economic disparity in the countries he traveled through and that changed him to become one of the most influential leaders who fought for the weak and poor. His photo (below) is among the most recognized pictures in the world. Che, which became his famous nickname meaning "man" or "pal", is the symbol in the fight against inequality and injustice all around the world.

But what sort of popped in my head was a song that AC/DC plays in their live shows called Bonny. Angus Young, one of my all time favorite guitarists, plays a very soulful version of this song. Anyway the song goes:

I`ll take the high road
And you`ll take the low road
And I`ll be in Scotland afore ye

So did Che Guevara take the high road or the low road? I am not sure. Don't get me wrong, there is no doubt his intentions were righteous and I find what he accomplished very admirable and inspiring. But was it the high road? Now let me ask you if Gandhiji's road was the high one or the low one??? I have no doubt as to which road it was...

Apparently Che was inspired by Gandhiji and claimed armed conflict was never his first option but looks like finally revolución was the only option he was left with...

Never Let Me Go

I recently picked a book by Kazuo Ishiguro called Never let me go. While generally reading the back cover I found that Remains of the day was also written by Ishiguro. I hadn’t read “Remains of the day” but had seen the movie. Anthony Hopkins delivers a brilliant performance in the movie portraying the butler. So anyway, based on the jacket of the book, it was also a finalist for the 2005 Booker prize, I thought it was a very readable book and bought it…

I will definitely recommend this book to all. You can read this blog further, don’t worry nothing here will spoil your reading...

The book is a story being told by a 31 year old girl named Kathy. She walks you through her life experiences, up from childhood, largely with her two best friends Ruth and Tommy. I found myself a little lost at the beginning not able to understand what was special about them and what are “donors” and “carers”. But things clearl up as you progress. Anyway, despite that Ishiguro’s style will keep you involved. The portrayal of Kathy’s life is really heart felt and you will be able to associate with some of the things. Things like fighting with best friends over things both big and small, not being able express feelings freely due to circumstances, quiet but desperate separation etc…

The third and final part of the book is a punch to the gut, gentle though. Everything unravels in the final part. I found myself choking up many times as the characters near their fate. The story and theme are fiction, as you will realize, but the human feelings and situations described and portrayed are just so genuine and true. It is in this part that you start seeing through each of the characters, understanding them and the love they have always shared, although not openly, for each other.

As one of the reviews says the book is a “…a tour de force of knotted tension and buried anguish…”. Just like “Remains of the day” while reading this book you will many times feel as to why the characters don’t just bring out everything in the open. Kathy even thinks back that during one situation maybe the best thing to have done was to just go give Tommy a big hug. But you will realize, that is not how things work in life and sometimes feelings have to be left suppressed…

A very simple and warm story, told in a very different and novel way, that will leave a lasting impression on you...

This was lunch a couple of weeks back...All by hand... :)

Ahhhh!!! Finally a long weekend has arrived. We are having a long weekend after nearly 4 months and the team in office is going into a comatose :)

I recently bought some 30 movies. Actually 4 of us together bought 57 movies and my share was 30. Been meaning to rebuild my collection and finally got down to it this week. But you know what after buying these 30 movies the "to get" list has already grown back to another 30 odd movies... :)

Here are some of the movies I bought...

Fight club
To kill a mocking bird
Motorcycle Diaries
Gandhi
Bitter moon
Adaptation
American Beauty
Usual Suspects
Black hawk down
Capote
Crash
Finding Nemo + Ice age

Now just need find time in office to finish watching them ;-)

Have the time of your life...

Was listening to this acoustic song by Green Day (watch it here) that conveys a simple but vital message about life, "hope you had the time of your life". I see people around me, including myself, in misery struggling with life’s decisions, rights and wrongs, yes, no and maybes but as this song conveys that is just how it is (it being life) and in end it is all right (as in correct), so don’t forget to have a time of your life…

Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go
So make the best of this test, and don't ask why
It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time

My interpretation of this is that don’t question things too much, don’t struggle with things too much, these decisions are not questions that you absolutely have to and must answer in one way or the other. These are just circumstances, just make up your mind to go ahead either way and if required learn the lesson that is there in it. And if you have to just keep learning all the time, so f’ing what!?!

Here is the chorus…

It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

Really life is unpredictable, plan it but don’t harp on it too much because finally it is unpredictable. And you know what, yesterday, today, now and in the end whatever you do it is all right. Just don’t forget to have a time of your life. Not meaning go out on a binge all the time or go around hurting people but you know what, stop worrying about things. Circumstances will never go away they will teach you lessons till kingdom come. Listen to this song, maybe it will have some effect...

Go ahead, have the time of your life because in the end it's right...

Floyd Landis has failed a drug test. Of the two samples that he gave on the day of his spectacular rebound on a tough mountain stage, one sample has excessive levels of Testosterone.

What is wrong with professional sport, this drug thing is so widespread, take football, cycling, athletics, baseball all these professional sports and many others have strict drug tests but at regular intervals people get caught.

Floyd's performance was so good, people were impressed and talking about him, the Discovery team wanted him, he had gained respect the hard way but looks like it wasn't...

Does that make me crazy...

Oh, I found a really cool song, maybe because it hits so close to home for me :)

Check out Crazy by Gnarls Barkley. Right from the first 4 beats the song just has this really cool vibe. You can't help rocking to it. The song has a really groovy, smooth flow to it with the bass in the background, it'll have you humming the tune. Be careful though because if you hum "Does that make me crazy" people are going to nod and say "oh ya for sure" :)

The video (watch it here) is extremely creative too, caught it on VH1. It has those weird blotted shapes that psychiatrist use. Those shapes keep showing up and somewhere the singer's head will be there. Really gave me a kick...

But maybe I'm crazy
Maybe you're crazy
Maybe we're crazy
...Probably...

Floyd wins it!!!

Floyd Landis with a really amazing performance on the mountain stage 17 and with a fairly strong performance in the individual time trail on stage 19 won the tour de France. He won over second placed Oscar Pireiro by 57 seconds and over 3rd placed Andreas Kloden by a minute and 29 seconds. Carlos Sastre was relegated to 4th.

Kloden also had a really good time trail and pushed Sastre down to 4th place to take the podium finish. But Oscar Pereiro gave a performance of a lifetime to cling on to second place. It looked as if Kloden would end up 2nd but Pereiro held on.

Overall a good tour because it remained open ended for so long and so many new people had a chance to shine. But since people like Lance Armstrong, Jan Ulrich and Ivan Basso were missing the whole tour lacked in experience and acted as school kids on certain stages. Take the fact of Oscar Pereiro gaining 30 minutes in one stage and then Floyd Landis losing 10 minutes on one day and gaining 8 of them back on the next! The Peloton lacked leadership in such situations and acted a little immaturely in letting these things happen. If the big guns had been there they would have never let such things happen...

In closing, Floyd (who hails from San Diego and has an Amish upbringing) completed Le Tour '06 in 89 hours 39 minutes and 30 seconds covering 3657.1 kilometers (including two mountain ranges, the Pyrenees and the Alps) at an average speed of 40.784!!!

TDF 2006

The tour has crossed the Alps and in those 3 days the race turned upside over its head and then came back straight up again!

On Tuesday on the legendary L'Alpe-D'Huez climb the top contenders separated themselves. All of them made it through without much damage and Floyd Landis regained his overall lead. But on the next day on Wednesday Floyd Landis cracked. On the La Toussuire climb Floyd gave up 10 minutes. And Oscar Pereiro had the yellow jersey. Floyd and his team Phonak will be ruing the day when they let Oscar Pereiro, who was 28 minutes behind at one point, gain 30 minutes on a flat stage. The 10 minute loss put Floyd roughly about 8 minutes back from Pereiro.

In any case on the next mountain stage Floyd redeemed himself. He broke out around the 50 kilometer mark and rode all by himself through about 5 climbs and about 150 kilometers. He won the stage and pulled off one of the most amazing rides. He showed real courage and managed to pull back almost all of the 8 minutes. Floyd had managed to do the unthinkable.

Now only the individual time trial (TT) remains (on Saturday) as a stage where the lead can change. Going into the time trial the podium places are almost decided. Only Andreas Kloden who is about 2 and a half minutes behind has an outside chance to upset the top 3 riders who are: Oscar Pereiro (leader), Carlos Sastre (12 seconds behind) and Floyd Landis (30 seconds behind).

Floyd is good at TTs. The other 2 are not that great but on that day anything might happen. It is going to be a very exciting day...

This tour has been really topsy turvy. There have been 7 wears of the Maillot Jaune (means the yellow jersey, 'my-oh jhohn') and it has all been terribly exciting :)

Tell me baby...

...what's your story.
Where you come from,
And where you wanna go this time...

I caught the video of this funky song "Tell me baby" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers on VH1. In tune with the lyrics pasted above, the video has everyday people just dancing without a care, playing the band's instruments and generally freaking out. I want to be in this video it looks like a lot of fun! :)

23 Days In July

That’s how long the tour de France lasts. I am reading the book "23 Days in July" these days while the tour is going on. The book outlines Lance Armstrong's 2004 tour win and it has been fun reading it alongside the current tour.

So stage 11 through the Pyrenees did throw up a clear winner, Floyd Landis (Phonak). Floyd became the overall leader of the tour leading the other contenders by more than a minute. Such a lead would have been enough for Lance Armstrong to win the whole tour but Floyd's team Phonak allowed a lesser known rider who was some 28 minutes behind Floyd to make up 30 minutes on Stage 13. This allowed Oscar Pereiro (Illes Balears) to take the overall lead by about a minute and a half.

Pereiro is expected to relinquish the lead in the mountains but still it’s so dangerous to give up 30 minutes to anyone. Lance describes how once an unknown rider gave him a real scare like this once. The thing is that when you are the overall leader and wear the yellow jersey it is really hard on the team. The team of the wearer of the yellow jersey has to do the entire pace setting defend against attacks and lead from the front, I think Phonak was just preserving its riders but 30 minutes is huge...Every Second Counts!!!

Today is a rest day before the tour now heads for the Alps...really grueling stages coming up including the famous L'Alpe-D'Huez stage which ends with a 13.8 kilometer climb to the finish at a gradient of 7.9% (category H climb)...

Le Tour

The Tour de France has one of its toughest stages today. 5 HUGE climbs, one category H (!!) and 4 category 1 (!!!!!!!) climbs. Today is stage 11.

Km 75 - Col du Tourmalet - 18.3 km climb to 7.7 % - H Category
Km 105 - Col d'Aspin - 13.0 km climb to 5 % - 1 Category
Km 136 - Col e Peyresourde - 9.7 km climb to 6.8 % - 1 Category
Km 161 - Col du Portillon - 7.9 km climb to 7.9 % - 1 Category
Km 204.5 - Puerto de Beret - 13.0 km climb to 5.5 % - 1 Category

The tour is really open this time because Lance Armstrong retired and the top 3 riders were disqualified because their names came up in a doping allegation and their respective teams had to pull them out. 10 stages are done and still there is no clear contender. The current overall leader is Cyril Dessel from the AG2R team.

Yesterday was the first tough mountain stage (nothing like today's though) and still it did not throw up any clear contenders. The contenders Floyd Landis (Phonak), Andreas Kloden (T-Mobile), Christophe Moreau (AG2R) and some others are still there off the leader by 3-4 minutes. The biggest casualty so far is probably Iban Mayo (Euskatel - Euskadi) who is down and out sitting in 153rd position 24 minutes away from the leader.

George Hincapie who was by Lance Armstrong's side through all his 7 Tour wins is surprisingly 6 minutes down from the leader. The discovery team does not have a clear leader and that is a little scary.

But after today's stage I expect the picture to clear up significantly. Not only should it bring the contenders for the tour to the top, it will probably also decide the respective team leaders for teams like Discovery and T-Mobile who have a few riders near the top but not a clear team leader...

allofmp3

All of MP3

This is the site I have been using for about a year for downloading legal mp3s. It was recommended to me and I have been hooked. This site is a pay site and a legal way of downloading mp3s. The site is run out of Russia where they have local contracts with the Russian offices of the big music labels.

I uploaded 10$s in my account using my local Citibank Visa credit card. No fraud has happened, no overcharging, the deductions for the songs I have downloaded have been very fair and accurate. No complaints till now.

The site charges about 2 cents per MB of download. So for a 5 minute song it will cost you about 9-10 cents => 4 to 5 Rupees. This is if you encode the mp3 at 128kbps. Higher encoding bit rates (all the way up to 320kbps) are available and since that increases the file size the cost of the song also goes up...

Their collection is huge. They almost always have all the latest album releases in all genres including soundtracks, western classical etc etc. And the best part is it is legal. They allow you to sample the first 90 seconds of all their songs...

A full album assuming it is 80 minutes (not many are, btw, but just taking a max of what will fit on an audio cd) through this website will cost you about 1.5$s at 128kbs. 60-65 bucks, not bad, right!. At 192kbps the full 80 minute album will cost you a little more than 2$s, say 100Rs...

I have been using it mainly to replace songs that I have lost over the years. You can also use it to find songs that you heard somewhere and keep nagging you but never found it anywhere. The site is also good if you want only a few songs and don't really care for the rest of the album. Another example, :) I heard a couple of good tunes in a movie Hotel Rwanda, I searched the movie on their site sampled the album, found out which ones they were and just added them to my basket. Download rates (speed) are pretty good (4-5MB will take a little more than a minute)...

So now the world cup is over. There were these low, stupid and disgusting moments. There were these moments when all of us, great couch coaches that we are, were left scratching our heads as to what was going on the field with the players and coaches. We can argue how players play so well for their clubs but fail for their countries. BTW that to me is obvious given that they play for their club and the teammates there all year round, day in and day out but only start really getting ready for the world cup finals maybe only a month before. Some playing for foreign clubs return to their country only for that month. So let's not debate that. Actually I agree the bad moments in this world cup were probably in the majority but forget all that, this world cup did have its gems, it had a great changing of guards and it had its brilliant moments. I for one am going to look at what went well and not at how some of the players, coaches and teams, well, sucked and screwed up. You expected them to do well given their caliber and club record and past performance??? Well, too bad they dashed your hopes :)

This world cup as usual threw up its hard working and dedicated players like Pirlo (ITA), Gerrard (ENG), Cannavaro (ITA), Kaka (BRA), Cafu (BRA) etc who turn up to play every match for the love of the game and not worry about the money from the club vs the country. Zidane played well in the 2nd phase but his name is sadly missing due to the head butting incident but ya, he was good. It has thrown up loads of new talented players like Lahm (GER), obviously Messi (ARG), Tevez (ARG), Schweinsteiger (GER), Rebery (FRA), Podolski (GER), Van Persie (NED) etc. These are the players that I will follow and look forward to seeing them in action. Who cares about the C. Ronaldos etc etc. Not interested in them! :)

The names I listed above are not complete, there were players from less powerful football-ing nations who showed lot of speed, talent and grit. Maybe they played so well because they had nothing to lose, but yes lots of them were really good...

Now on to the Le Tour. You want a sport where everyone gives 100% all the time and that too, most of the times, for someone else? Go see the Tour de France...
Do you know who was the most popular sports figure in Germany in 2003? Michael Schumacher? Nope...Jan Ulrich, the leader of the T-Mobile cycling team. Sad that he was pulled out just before the start of this tour due to a doping allegation. Hope he clears his name...

The Azzurri win the world cup!!!
It was a hard fought game with Italy dominating the first half and the French coming back strongly in the second.

In the first half France got an early penalty and from what I saw it clearly looked like simulation. Malouda went down in the Italian penalty box and really there was no contact. The referee was a little far away and probably didn't see. Zidane took the cheekiest of penalties and scored with the ball luckily deflecting in after hitting the cross bar...
Italy struck back, Materazzi got redemption 13 minutes later as he headed in a perfect curving corner kick from Pirlo for a deserved goal. Materazzi had brought down Malouda earlier and conceded that penalty and maybe that’s why after scoring the goal he had both his hands raised and fingers pointed towards the heavens as a thank you gesture...

In the second half it was Buffon's two awesome saves, one off Zidane's powerful header and one off a lighting quick strike by Henry that kept Italy in the game.

Going into extra time the now infamous head gore incident happened. Zidane just lost it. It was totally uncalled for and very unsportsmanlike. He made full contact and knocked the player down. He was obviously sent off... At what point do you go from playing a sport to acting like a deranged person and assaulting a fellow player??? Sad ending to his illustrious international career…

Going into penalties, players from both the sides were inch perfect in their shots and both the goalkeepers couldn't get to anything. The only miss came from Trezeguet's, who had earlier replaced Henry for France, penalty which hit the cross bar and bounced out. So it ended 5-4 in Italy's favour. In my opinion Cannavaro was the man of the match. He tirelessly defended for the whole 120 minutes hardly putting a foot wrong and kept Zidane, Henry and Rebery at bay. Awesome effort and display…

Then the celebrations started and it included Camoranesi getting his long hair chopped to half its length probably due to a bet/wager...

I felt it was a deserving win for Italy for the way they played this whole world cup...

Italy vs France final hmmm...

The second semi-final between Portugal vs France just got over. France won 1-0 getting a goal through a penalty but Portugal played really well and had some really good chances. The best chance came from the free kick by C. Ronaldo. it was one of the best I have ever seen, the vertical dip the ball took was some sight, Barthez in the French goal had no idea and he just couldn't handle it. The ball bounced just off his chest and Figo had a free header from the rebound off Barthez but ended up heading it high.
Portugal kept trying and had a lot of near chances but failed to convert any. The commentators kept saying that they needed two forwards but Scolari never added the additional striker. In the dying minutes Portugal including their goalkeeper came up all the way into the French penalty box and there were quite a few nervous moments especially those final 2 corners. I felt Portugal deserved a goal but they lacked the finishing...

None of my 4 top teams made it to the final...at least Italy who was in the second list has made it :) France has peaked at the right time in this tournament. Zidane has taken opposing players to school on the field in the last 3 matches but my pick is still Italy to beat them in the finals. The only concern is the lack of a world class striker up front for the Italians...

Everything has its ups and downs and the football WC'06 had its major down yesterday.
The much awaited match between Portugal and Netherlands was expected to be a nail biting affair expected to go all the way to the penalties. A matchup of two teams so equal that almost everyone was having trouble picking the winner. Unfortunately the match turned out to be "bruiser" with regular fights breaking out. 16 yellow cards 4 players sent off, Luis Figo the captain and senior player of Portugal head butting a Dutch player. Any time there was a foul there would be a huddle with heated arguments between players and then suddenly players would fly out of the huddle...

Portual won 1-0 but they paid a heavy price and may be without their top 3 playes Figo, Deco and C Ronaldo when they meet England (#$%@#$ England have really gotten lucky) next. At full strength Portugal would have beaten England fairly easily but now England have the upper hand...

I played football :)))
God knows after how long I stepped on to a proper playing field (not court, mind you) and played for nearly 2 hours with a fairly serious set of players :)))

German Engineering...
That's how I would describe Germany's 3-nil victory over Ecuador. Engineered as well as their Mercs or BMWs...
Obviously with this result I take away the "Dark Horse" label from Ecuador...

Couple of funny incidents:
- During the Croatia vs Japan match, Croatia's player Srna who had already missed a penalty and in the 4-5 corner kicks he had taken he had stupidly curled 3-4 of them over the side lines (rendering them "out" from the time he had kicked them), so at the 6th or so corner the commentator goes dryly "Mr Srna, if you want to have a professional career after the world cup, you better not curl this one over side line". :)))

- In the England vs Sweden match, after England had made about 10 or so dry, and harmless passes in the backfield the Swedish crowd started boo'ing them and the commentator goes "The Swedish crowd boo'ing England. England maybe think they are Argentina" obviously referencing to the fabulous 24 pass goal by Argentina. :)))

Here is how I think the teams are stacking up...

The top 4 (in descending order):
- Argentina
- Germany
- Brazil
- Spain

Teams that are waiting at the front gate:
- Netherlands
- Italy

Teams that are knocking on the back door (trying to sneak in when everyone is looking away):
- Portugal

Raauuuuul!!!

Thats the sound of the pressure being released from the pressure cooker situation in the Spain vs Tunisia match when Raul scored a goal to equalize 1-1. Tunisia scored early in the 8th minute and it took until the 71st minute of the match for Spain to strike back. Spain played an amazingly controlled and patient game never deviating from their style and kept bulding the pressure until it all paid off with Raul's goal...

Since then they have scored again and are now winning 2-1...

This is the 32nd match of the 2006 world cup. Half the world cup is over :(((

In vein with the Da Vinci Code here is a riddle...

The orb that can't be handled by anyone except by one in the rear and was used to escape to victory

Got it??

It’s a football!!! Escape to Victory

So after watching endless hours of the 2006 football world cup matches here are some thoughts…

- Argentina is my pick to win the whole thing and it is the only team that can challenge the Brazilian team. Messi is all that he is made out to be and he is still 18 (till 24th June).

- Czech Republic who I thought would make to the last 4 have done themselves in with their performance against Ghana. Kudos to Ghana. Their group "The group of death" (Italy, Ghana, USA and Czech) is down to the wire on 22nd June. Do not miss those matches. Italy vs Czech and Ghana vs USA.

- Asian teams will probably not shine like the last world cup. Rooting for Korea, they will have to play really well to beat France next. Saudi Arabia really lucked out against Tunisia.

Awesome matches
- Australia vs Japan. 3-1. Australia score 3 goals in the last 8 minutes after being down 0-1.

- Argentina vs Serbia & Montenegro. 6-0. School is in session :)

- Czech vs USA. 3-0. Total football by Nedved and Rosicky.

Bad matches
- Anything with England :). Seriously.

- Italy vs USA. The players are not to blame the referee just got it all wrong. The 2 red cards to the USA were totally out of whack.

Dark horses
- Ecuador

More later...

Rwanda Rwanda...

...can anybody hear our cries, can't you hear us calling you...Wyclef Jean sings in "Million Voices" from the movie "Hotel Rwanda".

Over the weekend I got some "education" on the genocide that took place in Rwanda in 1994. A friend gave me the movie "Hotel Rwanda" and a documentary called "Ghosts of Rwanda" with a warning "Hey they are disturbing". I had had some exposure to various civil wars in Africa and the horror of their killing methods. Wilbur Smith in his books describes some of the horrific ways in which people are killed in these African wars. In the mid 90's I also remember the news of the tens of thousands bodies floating over a lake into neighbouring African countries. Anyway, so I watched the movies...

In about hundred days following the assassination of Rawandan President on April 6th 1994 about 800,000 to 1,000,000 Tutsis and Hutus were slaughtered by militant Hutu groups. One of the groups called themselves the Interahamwe ("coming together") and Machetes were used as the main weapon for the ethnic cleansing.

Despite pre warnings sent by both the Red Cross and the UN peacekeepers the world didn't react until it was too late. No one in the world, the UN, the powerful countries, no one reacted. Everyone just sat and watched about a million people being hacked to death.

UN had a decent sized peace keeping force but at the start itself Belgium pulled out most of its troops and the commander of the UN peacekeepers Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire was then left with some 450 ill equipped troops to guard the whole country. He had requested for only about 2000 peacekeepers to handle the situation. 80 countries in the UN were approached but none of them agreed to lend any troops. And to think a few thousand troops could have saved maybe half a million human beings. It was a gut wrenching ordeal to see Dallaire as an individual take full responsibility and say:

"I was the commander and my mission failed and hundreds of thousands of people died and that I can't find any solace in statements like "I did my best". A commander can't use that as a reference in any operation. He succedes or he fails and then he stands by...to be accused of and to be held accountable for...and my mission failed".

The UN tied Dallaire's hands by telling him that he should not take any pre-emptive action and "avoid armed conflict". Before the killings started he had requested Kofi Annan, who was the heading the peace keeping department at that time, for a strike at the arms cache of the militia and was told not to do so saying "you do not have enough data".

The Clinton administration still suffering from the setbacks of peacekeeping at Mogadishu, Somalia also did not do anything to prevent or control this tragedy. (On a quick side note "Black Hawk Down" is an awesome movie about the Mogadishu incident, one of my favorites). The Clinton administration made excuses and played with words like "We don't know yet if this is a Genocide. Genocide has a legal meaning to it and we don't know if we can say that". Only later in 2003 Bill Clinton would accept that "...I will always regret about the Rwandan thing...".

Here are some Wikipedia links:
Rwandan Genocide
Genocide
Genocide in history
Rwanda