Now Tigers...

Early numbers from the ongoing Tiger census being done by the Wildlife Institute of India indicate that there is a decline of 65% in the Tiger population in Madhya Pradesh, which has the largest population of Tigers in India. Also indications are that the other areas in the country will see the same or increased rate of decline. In 2001 and 2002 a Tiger census had estimated about 3700 Tigers left in the country.
Looks like while the Tigers, an endangered species, have done well in the conservation and reservation areas, they are pretty much getting wiped out from the outside areas. Poaching is the main culprit for this dramatic decline but the key thing that Wildlife Institute of India suggests is "effective tiger conservation would only become a reality if reserves are connected to one another so tigers have a larger population and area to breed and hunt." But this is not the reality today and "habitat destruction and human encroachment were leading to declining numbers."
This is just real depressing news, the final census number is likely to be anywhere between as little as several hundred to a maximum of just about 2000.

Delta and Dawn

Delta and Dawn are the two humpback mother and calf whales that lost their way while migrating from probably somewhere near Oregon on the US west coast on their way to Mexico. The mother and her calf appear injured and the mother has a deep gash which probably came after being hurt by a ship's propeller. This may have caused the mother to go off course and swim up a river. They have been swimming upstream for nearly 2 weeks now somewhere around Sacramento. The theory is that the mother may have brought the calf up to safe water to help the calf recover.

There have been rescue efforts involving scientists going on to return the whales back towards the ocean. They are nearly 90 miles up the river and returning all the way back to the ocean is a long and arduous journey that will probably end when they swim under the Golden Gate Bridge into the Pacific. Currently the whales had been successfully made to head towards the ocean but they turned back up river and returned about 3 miles. They are now about 65 miles from the ocean.

Humpback whales are an endangered species that were ravaged by unrestricted whale hunting and their population reduced by nearly 90% at one point and were almost brought to the brink of extinction. Humpbacks are famous for their 'Whale Song' which has been an area of research for long. Although whales cannot survive long in fresh water, the mother and calf are looking healthy. I really hope they make it back safe to the ocean...

21.1kms

After doing the full marathon, 42.2kms, at the Bangalore Marathon last year, I decided to do the half marathon, 21.1kms, in this year's marathon which happened to be a midnight one. This time the objective was to train right, perform strong and hit a target time.

The Bangalore Midnight Marathon was organized on 19th May. The organizers claimed that we were creating history by running the first ever midnight marathon. My main aim was to have a much stronger run this time and since it was a night marathon which meant much lower temperatures, really focus on getting a good time in. I set myself a target of at least 2 hours 30 minutes, otherwise I find myself a lake or something and go jump in it, and at the same time I was dreaming of a sub 2 hour run. Seriously I only dreamt of sub 2 hours, awake I knew it just wouldn't happen ;-). Anyway I finished the run in 2 hours 15 minutes. The official time is awaited but my stopwatch indicated 2:15. Wall Street and Dalal Street would have been so happy, I gave an outlook forecast of 2:30 to 2:00 and hit it bang in the middle :D

The course was fairly tough one, for me. It was a circuit of about 5 kilometers and you had to run around 4 times to complete the half marathon. It consisted of 5 uphill sections and about 3 flat and downhill sections each, making it a fairly tough course. Couple of the climbs were pretty treacherous, anyway loaded with carbs throughout the day and appropriately rested to remain fresh at the start, the race started. I made a mistake on the first round itself, in that I carried a full one liter water bottle with me, long story forget that but I shouldn't have done it. That took a lot out of me. In my practice runs I had usually covered the first 5kms in about 26 to 28 minutes and so while I was expecting to cover the first round in 28 minutes or so, this time round it took me nearly 32 minutes. I finally chucked the bottle and from then on the second round roughly took me another 32 minutes, the third round about 34 minutes and the fourth round about 37 minutes.

The fourth round, what can I say, "I" missed it! ;-)
My mind was there, my body was there but "I" wasn't! Those two kept arguing about they should stop and walk, no they shouldn't but in any case I was somewhere else. Don't know where, somewhere floating around I guess. So during the last round the mind kept winning and the body tagged along like that faithful Pug dog in that Hutch ad for quite a while but at the steepest climb of the course the mind finally relented to the body's demand to walk that section. But at the top of that climb as soon as the mind saw someone overtake them, the mind booted the body in the behind and they were both up and running. They immediately overtook the overtaker and from there on they ran all the way to the finish line including the last uphill finish. Thanks guys!!!

How do you ensure that your US consulate visa interview lasts only about a minute? Make sure that the person interviewing you is an ex-employee of your company! Well that's what happened to me. The guy was an ex-Intel guy working for foreign services now, I guess. We joked around a little about what acronym addicts we are before he added "You'll get your visa in a couple of days" and that was that! ;-)

Parkour

Have you seen the latest 007 movie, Casino Royale? No? Then first go down to the end of the post and click on the Casino Royale movie link and watch the initial 5 minute chase clipping. Ok now if you have seen the movie then you probably remember the chase right at the beginning of the movie. In this sequence Bond is chasing some bomb maker type of suspect through a building construction site having those typical tall cranes and heavy machinery. Bond chases the suspect at full speed and they both jump around like crazy from heights and through holes so small that it almost seems impossible. Well that is Parkour or free running. And the black guy Bond is chasing is Sébastien Foucan, one of the founders of free running/Parkour.

Parkour (l'art du déplacement) is defined as the aim to move from point A to point B as efficiently as possible, using the abilities of your human body to the limit. Also known as Free Running, it is doesn't need an obstacle course, an arena or any specialized equipment as such, it is basically meant to be done in your surrounding environment, where you live, work, play, etc. In articles it is not recognized as a sport but more of an art which combines martial arts, gymnastics and self defense. The idea is to use dexterity and physical strength of your body to efficiently escape or simply get from point A to point B. It could be done while climbing down stairs or just while going somewhere.

I recently saw a feature on Parkour on Nation Geographic and man did it look exciting. The techniques, the roll after the jump, the balancing, etc, looked extremely exciting. I like running and this, on the face of it, just seemed like a new way of running. But obviously Parkour is extremely tough and requires super strong upper bodies to pull yourself up from any hanging or inclined position and powerful legs so that you have balance after jumping and even in awkward positions. Strong abdominal muscles are probably key too with all the twisting and bending. Finally, agility and flexibility are definitely required. So roughly speaking it requires a super fit and super flexible body…ha! :-)

In many cases effective Parkour techniques depend upon rapid redistribution of body weight and by utilizing momentum to perform seemingly impossible or difficult body maneuvers. Absorption and redistribution of energy is also an important factor. Example, the body rolls when landing which reduces impact forces on the legs and spinal column, allowing a jump from greater heights than those often considered sensible...

Search for Parkour on YouTube, it has a ton of videos showing amazing maneuvers and tricks from all round the world…
Casino Royale sequence
Parkour – Wiki
Parkour/Free Running video

Hey! Did they just show some cricket?

Steve Waugh watched some of the world cup matches in India and looks like we left an impression on him. Here is what he had to say "[The telecast] is annoying, ridiculous and an insult to the game to see an advertisement being squeezed in just because the bowler has not reached the top of his run-up. The telecast in India is unwatchable." Luckily he was watching from some bar so he probably didn't catch the commentary by some of the 'greats'.

Anyway, I can't agree more with Iceman. I am sure he used his famous 'Iceman' skills to survive the telecast because it was just so hard to watch a match this world cup without flinging the choicest of abuses at everyone involved in the coverage.

The telecast was laughable, if something happened on the last ball of the over like a four or an lbw appeal then kiss goodbye to the replay. Before you could say "howzzat!" or "wow!" the ads would have started and you would be left wondering "wha? how? huh?" And suppose if the telecast got back from the ads and the bowler was still in the process, with his captain, in setting the field then bang! You were back to watching some of same ads all over again. Also I just hated the ads that occupied the bottom portion of the screen destroying the scale/aspect ratio of the cricket portion of the screen. The coverage was very disrespectful towards cricket and the people watching it. I hope Set Max never ever gets to telecast any more cricket and am just waiting for ESPN/Star Sports to telecast some matches...

I really like the way how ads with cricketers have disappeared off the TV these days. Only poor Irfan Pathan's that Indian Oil ad keeps coming.
BTW the Appy fizz ad where the Parsi family is watching cricket with Appy Fizz is pretty hilarious. The Parsi lady shouts "money grows on trees or what", a really stinging poke at the other sponsors and companies that spent bundles of money on the Indian team and on this world cup. Watch it here: Appy Fizz Ad

UEFA Champions League

Liverpool and AC Milan despite losing the first leg of their respective semi final matches came up with much better performances to win their second leg matches and make it through to the finals. The match up of Liverpool and Milan in the finals, which is the repeat of the 2005 finals, is the best I could have hoped for. In 2005 Liverpool beat AC Milan in penalties, this time I want and also think AC Milan to and will win. You have to look at Milan's matches with Manchester United to see why...

Liverpool had lost 0-1 to Chelsea in the first leg but won the 2nd leg 1-0. Being tied at an aggregate score of 1-1 the teams headed for penalties where Liverpool's goalkeeper pulled off two magnificent saves. He guessed right twice and saved two low and hard drives to send Liverpool into the finals. I saw the first leg and Chelsea looked better and I felt Chelsea would win the second leg too. But, I missed the second leg, from the reports I read Chelsea played with a very bad defensive strategy. They thought they would sit on the one goal lead but Liverpool made them pay. From the highlights Liverpool did look as the better team.

Now in the other semi final match up, AC Milan in the first leg, despite a stunning performance by Kaká had lost 2-3 to Manchester United. Dida, Milan's goalkeeper, had a very poor performance where he committed two bad mistakes that had resulted in goals. Dida's performance was so frustrating that one Milan fan had put Dida up on sale on eBay and just before eBay pulled out the auction item the best bid for the goalkeeper was just 96$s! Dida's second mistake was in the 91st minute deep in extra time that resulted in Milan going into the second leg down 2-3.
In the second leg Milan just outclassed ManU, winning 3-0 and thus going through on aggregate 5-3. I saw both the matches and ManU was a shadow of its own self in the second leg. They gave the ball away 21 times and C. Ronaldo was responsible for many of those. Kaká and Seedorf executed a perfect script to embarrass ManU. Milan used the home field advantage thoroughly, the San Siro crowd cheering every Kaká move and jeering every C. Ronaldo slip up.
Here is what one report had to say “Certainly, C Ronaldo owes his manager a performance after last night, so too Wayne Rooney, both of whom only needed to look to Kaká and Clarence Seedorf to know how true winners respond.”

During the first leg the commentators had gotten into an argument about who is better Kaká or C. Ronaldo. And obviously one English commentator picked C. Ronaldo and went on and on about his pace and brilliance. But the two matches showed how people should not even be mentioning C. Ronaldo along with Kaká. Kaká scored 3 goals in the two matches and two of them in the first leg were just his own sheer brilliance. C. Ronaldo had so much possession and took so many free kicks all amounting to nothing. But anytime Kaká had possession he was breathtakingly fluid with sublime control. He created opportunities all round and just ripped the ManU midfield and defense. After these two matches there is no doubt in my mind who I consider to be currently the best footballer in the world.

Highlights from the the first leg of the Milan vs ManU match, just keep your eyes on Kaká:

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The Democratic party controlled House of Representatives in the US today passed the Iraq pullout bill. Obviously Bush has threatened to veto this bill as soon as he gets it and now the house and the president are headed for a showdown. The house just like the rest of the country is totally polarized. The republicans and conservatives are still adamant about the war.
The civil war in Iraq is beyond the US armed forces and the troops are hopelessly caught in the middle. The US is now erecting a wall to divide the people of someone else's country. Read this story: Building a wall in Baghdad instead of policy in Iraq

This just indicates how Bush and his folks have no idea what they are doing in Iraq. The justifications for this war have changed year to year ever since it started and all of them have been artificially manufactured. Being an outside observer I hope this bill passes because this US occupation in Iraq right from day one has been nothing but stupidity commited to cover up for some totally different failure.

These were some of the pro-pullout comments in the debate in the house...
"Our troops are mired in a civil war with no clear enemy and no clear strategy for success," said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.
"How many more terrorists will President Bush's foreign policy breed before he focuses a new strategy, a real strategy? This bill says enough is enough."
"He was wrong then. And he's wrong now. It's the will of one nation versus the stubbornness of one man."

Now the other side. I am just surprised people are saying these senseless things. Politicians are the same everywhere man. So power hungry that they'll join any two sentences with no logical connection just to defend their claim.
"[By pulling out] We will embolden our enemies and it's our kids and their kids who will pay a very, very steep price,"
Can't even comment on this. Makes no sense...
"We have a solemn obligation to the American people to finish the job we started."
The job was wrong to begin with and is still wrong to date. What obligation, do they even remember what it was originally after the Sept 11 attacks?
"Al-Qaida will view this as the day the House of Representatives threw in the towel,"
This is just some bravado...

Some articles covering the bill:

U.S. House approves Iraq pullout date, despite likely veto
House OKs Iraq Pullout

Blue Mountains...

Visited the Nilgiri mountain ranges a couple of weeks back, this area is really ‘wild’ with the Mudumalai and Bandipur national forests at the base of these mountains. But in terms of wildlife the trip was fairly disappointing because the national forests were closed due to the danger of forest fires.

It was really dry all around. Check out how parched everything was…


Also in terms of trekking/hiking it was disappointing because we could do neither. But among the good things on this trip, one good thing was the weather on the mountains. Once you made your way up the mountains crisp cool breeze, clear skies and fresh air greeted you.
Oh by the way the drive up the mountains was extremely picturesque and challenging. The Zen performed beautifully, compared to some of the other bigger cars that kept getting into trouble on the steep climbs. The car was in first or second gear almost throughout, same thing coming down. The beauty around made it tough for me to keep my eyes on those 30 odd hair pin bends. My rubbernecking (rubberneck: To look about or survey with unsophisticated wonderment or curiosity) definitely gave some heartburn to the co-passengers, whose brunt I soon faced ;-)
Anyway once on top, taking all that fresh air in at the higher altitudes, you felt really rejuvenated. At night you could see about a gazillion stars in the sky. Spectacular show, it was...

Two incidents that happened were, one, seeing two porcupines darting across our jeep headlights in the middle of the night. I thought they were chickens but then I saw the spikes! Beautiful spikes with white streaks! These two porcupines looked as if they had just raided some food store in the middle of the night and were scooting away with the loot atop their heads.
The second incident was going to an animal watering hole in the middle of the night and just waiting...waiting in pitch dark, in silence. I had read somewhere that when one of our senses is deprived then the brain compensates by making the others more sensitive. This was definitely the case as we couldn't see much at all but our hearing was working overtime. There were 3 or 4 owls in the area each hooting away to glory in their own tone and rhythm. And then suddenly there was a small growl followed by a rustle and a soft sound of water trickling. It came from the opposite bank, just once, but we couldn’t spot anything or make anything out…

Here is the panoramic shot of the valley…

Students for Bhopal

Students for Bhopal is a group that is trying to get justice to the people of Bhopal who suffered (and continue to suffer) in the toxic chemical leak from Union Carbide's pesticide plant during the very early hours of 3rd December 1984. This incident is now widely acknowledged as the worst industrial disaster ever. Union Carbide is a US based chemical company which cut corners and due to it's blatant negligence, methyl isocyanate and other deadly gases leaked into the atmosphere. Other than killing thousands (8,000) on that night the leak left nearly 150,000 people severely disabled for life. A total of 22,000 people have died since that tragic day.

Union Carbide is still killing people of Bhopal because it left without cleaning up chemicals which continue to daily seep into drinking water sources around the factory. Dow Chemical has since acquired Union Carbide and refuses to clean up the contamination and compensate people who have suffered due to this poisoning.

Some hard facts:

• More than 27 tons of methyl isocyanate and other deadly gases turned Bhopal into a gas chamber. None of the six safety systems at the plant were functional, and Union Carbide’s own documents prove the company designed the plant with “unproven” and “untested” technology, and cut corners on safety and maintenance in order to save money.
• Today, more than twenty years after the Bhopal disaster, at least 50,000 people are too sick to work for a living, and a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association confirmed that the children of gas-affected parents are themselves afflicted by Carbide’s poison.
• Testing published in a 2002 report revealed poisons such as 1,3,5 trichlorobenzene, dichloromethane, chloroform, lead and mercury in the breast milk of nursing women living near the factory.
• Yet when the Independent speaks of "rape", the Guardian of "disgrace" and Jon Snow of "a crime against humanity", they are not talking about THAT NIGHT - but of what has happened since to those who survived it. Today, more than 20 years after the disaster, Bhopal remains a humanitarian disaster.
• Union Carbide left without cleaning it up. Tanks full of toxic chemicals have corroded and burst, dumping their contents onto the ground. Worst of all, twenty monsoons (three months of heavy rain each year) have washed the toxins Carbide left behind deep into the soil, poisoning the drinking water of the same people Carbide gassed 20 years ago.

Links that you can read up on this tragedy:

• Students for Bhopal
• What Happened
• BBC articles and videos on Bhopal - watch the video 'One Night in Bhopal'
• Bhopal Disaster - Wiki - a lot of research links on this page
• Bhopal - The world's worst industrial disaster - Greenpeace

I would like to urge you all to sign up on the Students for Bhopal web site, subscribe to their newsletters/mails and try to participate in some of their initiatives like calling government officials in Madhya Pradesh...spread the word...

Audioslave - Revelations

In music videos I usually prefer 'band' videos. As in videos in which the band just performs, not in some outlandish setting or a live concert but something like a studio or a fixed set sort of place. Videos in which the band members just play the song as they actually would at any other time...anyway I just like such videos.

Audioslave made such a video for their song 'Revelations' that I really liked and found to be amazingly cool. There is another video that I like, 'Sweet Child O' Mine' by Guns N' Roses. The GnR one has a little too much glam in it than the Revelations one. You can watch both of them below for yourselves...

My spirit doesn't feel like sleeping tonite...

We have been having terrible weather in B'lore over the past month or so. It has been hot and stagnant...but it rained today and the mercury dipped south!

Now the curtains are fluttering in an ever so light cool breeze...the water has 'chilled'. There is that wet earth smell in the air...there is an invigorating pleasantness and freshness all around. I am sure B'loreans will revel in this weather tomorrow but spare a thought for the unfortunate and unlucky ones who have no or inadequate shelter...

Superman spins a web?!?

Could you take my picture...
Cause I won't remember...

It was a very strange coincidence that about a week back when lazy dude, geek guy and I were more than a little 'elevated' and this song (Take a Picture by Filter) was playing in the car. Coincidence because we were in a state where quite possibly the next day we wouldn't remember what all had happened ;-)

It was after quite a long time that the 'Tools Team' decided to de-stress, unwind and chill out. After a very disappointing stint at 'Legends of Rock' things went into high gear when we hit the '13th floor'. Once there we had an Intel strategy meeting, a team strategy meeting and many other strategy meetings. Believe me not all the strategy meetings revolved around work! I only wish someone had taken minutes, ha! It sounds boring cause it looks like we were discussing work but you had to be there to see what we were up to. Plus we were having a tough time keeping our concentration because of you know, the 'surroundings' ;-). Once we stumbled out of 13th floor, Lazy Dude in fact acted contrary to his name, put in some extra effort and went back to wave g'nite to someone! One more funny incident was when Lazy Dude in his 'elevated' state remarked "Ha! What does Superman do. He just shoots something from his wrist, what is that he does na?" That's Spiderman, man!

Later at around 11 or 11:30 we were infact not even allowed to eat at one of the Coffee Day outlets. After looking at the 3 of us they politely made a lame excuse that they were only allowing to take away food. So we did take away the food and ate it on the bonnet of my car in total Bombay ishtyle...

Mangalore Coast Trip

(Rough and better late than never)
Days: 3 days, 2 nights
Total distance driven: 1150kms
Places visited: Mangalore, Ullal Beach (base), Suratkal Beach, Udipi, St Mary's Isles, Maravanthe Beach, Shri Mookambika Temple @ Kollur.
Gripe: Weather didn't cooperate.
High points:
- 'Shark Tooth' on the beach under starry skies
- B'fast at a quaint place in Udipi
- Maravanthe
- 30km drive through the mountains to the Mookambika temple


Sunrise behind the lighthouse @ Suratkal beach

Aaila! Tendulkar!

Tendulkar should consider quitting - Ian Chappell

I don't agree with the conclusion of this article but some of the points being brought up are correct. First off, I don't believe Tendu is playing for the sake of statistics.
One of the biggest problems is that Tendu does not have a role in the team. Give him a role and ask him to perform in that role and I believe he will get it done. Anyway here is the article...
ps: Navjot Singh Sidhu is the biggest ass on all of cricket TV today. This guy never talks logically and only uses clichés that make no sense. He doesn’t give other people a chance to talk at all, cutting them with some dumb lines that only he thinks are smart. He is so irritating that given a choice I would pick to even watch Mandira Bedi over him.

(via CricInfo)
Ian Chappell
In the fallout from India's early demise at the World Cup one of the major decisions will concern the future of Sachin Tendulkar.
Before anybody else makes a decision on what will happen to Tendulkar the player himself has to have a good long look in the mirror and decide what he's trying to achieve in the game. At the moment he looks like a player trying to eke out a career; build on a glittering array of statistics. If he really is playing for that reason and not to help win as many matches as he can for India then he is wasting his time and should retire immediately.
When you think that for a decade Brian Lara and Tendulkar went head to head in a wonderful battle of stroke play to establish who was the best batsman in the world, they are now worlds apart in effectiveness.
Lara's quick-footed tip toe through a terrific innings against a good Australian bowling attack when the rest of the West Indies top order succumbed easily was in direct contrast to Tendulkar's stumbling effort in the crucial Sri Lanka match. The amazing thing about Lara's brilliant career is the fact that he hasn't changed his style at all over seventeen years. This is a credit to his technique and mental strength, as the aging process generally makes a player more progressively conservative.
Tendulkar hasn't worn as well; his last three or four years have been a shadow of his former self. His double century at the SCG in January 2004 was a classic case of a great player really struggling. He came to the crease out of form and despite amassing all those runs and batting for in excess of ten hours he was no closer to recapturing his best touch than he was when he started out. It was a tribute to his determination but it was a sad sight to see; there are enough average players around that you don't won't to see a class one reduced to that level.
Tendulkar hasn't been as lucky as Lara; the Indian batsman has suffered a lot of injuries in this period where his play has deteriorated and there is nothing that melts your mental approach quicker than physical handicaps. Lara has been relatively free from injury and he certainly doesn't have the weight of numbers riding on his shoulders that Tendulkar does.
However, the population of the Caribbean might be small but they are extremely demanding. Despite all the fuss and the odd controversy that has surrounded Lara's career he has remained himself; this is my game and that is how I play. For whatever reason Tendulkar hasn't been able to maintain his extremely high standards for the last few years and unless he can find a way to recapture this mental approach he's not doing his team or himself any favours.
If Tendulkar had found an honest mirror three years ago and asked the question; "Mirror, mirror on the wall who is the best batsman of all?" It would've answered; "Brian Charles Lara." If he asked that same mirror right now; "Mirror, mirror on the wall should I retire?" The answer would be; "Yes."