That's it...WE WON!!!

I can barely define the shape of this moment in time...
-- Pink Floyd

We won't get bullied again... :)

If you saw the India vs Australia match, you'll know what I am trying to say. I have not screamed so much during a cricket match in a long time. The commentator said it right, the big teams like South Africa and the Aussies have tried to bully India off the field but our guys have stood there and took every punch thrown at them. And how we've hurt them back, first sending the hosts SA and now the Aussies packing home with one the most amazing string of victories...

The match against the Aussies was such a hard fought battle. Batting first, India had a slow start but lost two quick wickets. At this point the Indian team of the past with all its so called 'senior' players would have been expected to crumble like a house of cards, but no! Like in the previous matches, the team stood strong. Yuvraj swung back in style and strung two critical partnerships with Uthappa and Dhoni.
Then while India was bowling Australia again tried to intimidate us. Again the young guns of India stood their ground. Time and time again Australia would send one bowler packing for 15 odd runs in an over but instead of losing heart and standing at the boundary, Dhoni made changes and brought the bowlers back with amazing results.
Australia was literally home needing only 30 runs from 3 overs with 6 wickets in hand, that's when we turned the tables on them. We tightened the screws so much that it was Australia, just like South Africa, that crumbled like a house of cards...

Australia has defeated India so many times in world cup matches. They've thrashed us before, but the way this young Indian team gave it back to them, was a sight to see. We gave them back what they deserved...what a victory!!!

T20

I have been sucked into watching cricket all over again. The way India has been playing in this shorter form of cricket, not ODIs, even shorter, Twenty Twenty, has been really invigorating. Except for the match against New Zealand, we have played 3 awesome matches. The players are playing with purpose, grit and determination. Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly not coming to this tournament was a great idea, these young bunch of kids are really worth watching. Something I have never ever seen before in Indian cricket...
In the last match Dhoni injured his back so he was fielding at the boundary instead of wicketkeeping. At one point the ball came towards him and it was easily going to beat him to the ropes but he flung himself flat towards the ball, it still was a four but the effort was worth watching. And this has been going all around, they are throwing their bodies everywhere to stop the ball. The catch by Dinesh Karthik to dismiss Graeme Smith was stunning…

Our bowling is weak and strong at the same time. RP Singh and Pathan have been bowling superbly. On the other hand Sreesanth and Agarkar have been horrible. Harbhajan is trying hard, he got hit for 15 runs in the first over but came back real strong in the next two overs, so he doing ok. But that is still leaving us nearly 2 bowlers short and that is a real worry...

We threw the NZ match, with an awesome start chasing 191 to win, we finally lost by 10 runs. In that match I didn't see even 1 wicket earned by NZ, our batsmen gave away all their wickets, terrible performance. But the other three matches, defending 140 against Pakistan, 218 against England and 153 against South Africa have totally worth watching. Maybe defending is the key, should we defend against Australia? Maybe, given that we have won 3 matches defending and lost 1 chasing…

So let's see how we play against Australia today in the semi finals. But for me as long as there is effort on the field like they have been putting in this tournament, cricket is worth watching all over again...

Sucker Train Blues

That's the name of Velvet Revolver song, anyway...New template!!! Used one of my own pictures...

Blue because we live on a blue planet and trees because we need them so badly...

Cheers!

...gone, going, gone...

Greenland's ice cap is melting at a frighteningly fast rate

...The vast ice cap that covers Greenland nearly three miles thick is melting faster than ever before on record, and the pace is speeding year by year...Greenland's ice is melting at a rate three times faster than it was only five years ago...

...If the Greenland ice cap ever melted completely -- a highly unlikely event, at least in the foreseeable future -- the scientists estimate it would raise world's sea level by an average of 6.5 meters, or about 21 feet, more than enough to drown all the world's low-lying islands and even some entire nations, like Holland...

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/08/11/MELTING.TMP&type=science

Not so skrood...We won!!! The batting had to click today and it did! The start by Sachin and Saurav was like old times. And the finish by Robin Uthappa...wow! Heart stopping stuff after a long time and it feels good to come out on top ;-)

Cricket: skrood again!

How do you let an opposition team go from 228 in 43 overs to 316 in 50 overs? Well if you have a bowler like Agarkar it is not too difficult. Dravid also helped, he gave the 50th over to Yuvraj instead of Powar who had 1 over remaining and Yuvraj in the process got hit for 5 consecutive sixes in that over. But what happened before that is key...

India played with 3 specialist bowlers and Agarkar as the 4th specialist, if you can call him that. So what does Agarkar that a-hole do? Read this…
At 228 for 5 in 43 overs Agarkar comes in and gives up 14 runs in the 44th over. Zaheer who had just given only 2 runs in the 43rd over, comes again and bowls another beauty of an over giving up only 3 runs. Then that jhakki Agarkar comes in again and merrily gives up another 13 runs in the 46th over. Again Zaheer comes and gives up only 7 runs in the 47th over. That too because off the 2nd ball the batsman played a cheeky shot for a 4 but Zaheer still managed to come back strong to bowl 2 dot balls. Now Dravid had no option to bring in Yuvraj and Tendulkar to bowl overs 48 and 49. They did whatever they could but then Dravid gave the 50th over to Yuvraj again instead of Powar and so 5 consecutive sixes were hit off Yuvraj. And this magical moment can all be attributed to our so called 4th specialist bowler Agarkar (63 runs in 8 overs), f$#$er...

The commentator said “Agarkar looks like a bowler who doesn’t know where to bowl…he is running in with fear…fear of where the next ball will be hit!” Can someone explain how can that a-hole Agarkar, a mediocre bowler even by domestic cricket standards, have such a long career with our team? He keeps making a comeback into the team, on what basis does he get selected again and again???

Earth's Environment

There is a day coming up next month sometime, when everyone around the world will blog about one topic, the environment. A good move to increase awareness...let me, start now.

First off, to the uninitiated, go see the movie 'An Inconvenient Truth'. A good movie but it is just on the surface of the whole thing. What this movie should do to you is to incite you to dig deeper for yourself. Take the environment issue personally and become aware of what is happening. Because if you don't then all the hard work you are doing, all that you are spending on yourself, saving up for a rainy day trying to ensure your future, your children's future and so on is of no use…in the next 50 years something's got to give. The environment and the Earth cannot keep taking the pressure we put on it. The amount of carbon gases we have already put into our atmosphere is enough to melt everything, remember we live in a greenhouse. It is not enough to just stop the emissions but also there is a serious need to somehow remove these greenhouse gases. In theory the Earth can enter an ice age very easily and the signs are all there. Not early signs...grave signs. Wake up and smell well errr...see the melting of the polar and Greenland ice caps. Also it is not just the melting, when temperatures rise things expand, so even the existing water in our oceans is going to expand and water levels are going to rise.

So do something about the environment, see it as an investment and it is the best one you can make today...

Took this picture from a flight that was just about to land in Jaipur.

The reason I post this is because it is so representative of India. The hundreds of fragmented farms in just maybe 10 square kilometers is so typical and can be found all over. These small farms are the backbone of the country, they probably cover 90% of our country, can you imagine the sheer number of these farms?!?!

Things just came rushing to me...

I was listening to the song 'Perfect Blue Buildings' by Counting Crows and that had the following lines:
...Down on Virginia and La Loma
Where I got friends who care for me...

Great song by the way but for some reason I went to Yahoo maps and put in 'Virginia and La Loma, Berkeley, CA' and there it was, the place showed up. Why did I put Berkeley? I think subconsciously I remembered that Counting Crows is a Berkeley based band and there was this other thing. I have lived on Virginia St. in Berkeley. My brother used to stay just a block away from Virginia and La Loma.

I checked it out and Adam Duritz the vocalist for Counting Crows is from Berkeley and the band started there. I have spent a lot of time in that area and have plenty of memories of Berkeley...things just came rushing to me...

Infinitesimal things...

[12:28 PM]:
i did coding today
wrote a quick test application of 49 lines in some 10 mins
testing took another 3 mins
felt good when it worked in the first shot

[12:29 PM]:
i need cold water

Little Miss Sunshine...

Oh this movie is one of the most enjoyable movies I have ever seen, right from the name of the little girl 'Olive' to her older brother's antics of taking a vow of silence and using a scribble pad.
The story is about the Hoover family taking a cross country trip in their VW bus to fulfill the deepest desire of 7 year old Olive to participate in a beauty pageant. Olive, a small girl with a big heart, big dreams and big spectacles, under the tutelage of her beloved grandpa wants to win the Little Miss Sunshine pageant. The family with its internal wrangling needs to pull through and deliver for this girl.

The cast really makes this movie work. All the central characters of the Hoover family do an awesome job on the acting front. And Olive is the best, her smiles bright enough to light up the whole sky. Olive’s gay uncle Frank (played by Steve Carell from the sitcom ‘Office’ where he plays an annoying boss) is another character that stands out in the movie. Frank is a recovering from a suicide attempt of slitting his wrists after falling in love with one of his grad students who didn’t love him back. Olive’s reaction to that is ‘That’s silly.”
Very good comebacks and slick dialogues delivered very appropriately by the actors are scattered throughout the movie. For me this particular aspect was what made the movie so engaging. One of the most memorable parts of the movie for me is when Olive's brother finds out that he is colourblind and that crushes his passionate dream.

The photography of this movie is really good too. A simple movie which probably doesn't allow for too much of computer graphics or spectacular visuals, it is full of interesting and heart warming picturization. I still remember the low angle shot of the VW family bus passing under those symmetrical freeway flyovers of a big city. The music throughout is really appropriate and good.

A really warm movie with a very human story involving very lovable characters. A definite must watch for those who haven’t already, certainly deserves a place in any movie collection. It’s already there in mine…

Don't give a damp!

How do you like my new blog template? :) It reflects the weather here these days...

The template needs a little tweaking 'cause as of now there are a few empty spaces around...need to utilize them.

Cheers!

Tempo Run

I have been running at the same capacity, speed and stamina level for quite some time now. I have been unable to improve my stamina, capacity and times. Even if there have been improvements they are too slow and too little. This is mostly due to the lack of time. Work, travel and lastly my own laziness have been major factors. Lack of good training resources and plans have also led to the stagnation.

So recently I bought two running magazines 'Running Times' and 'Runner's World' that contained lots of training tips and plans. After devouring them front to end, something caught my eye that read 'This "Comfortably Hard" run is key to running your fastest'.

This was an article on 'Tempo Running.' Basic definition of a Tempo Run is that the effort should be "comfortably hard." As in something that is really hard in effort but still do-able and not over the top hard. And it is obviously not something that is comfortable in effort, along the lines of 'comfortably numb' ;-)

Tempo running improves our metabolic fitness. Tempo runs teach the body on how to use the oxygen reaching the muscles more efficiently for metabolism. LT or Lactate Threshold is the level at which the body fatigues. Tempo runs aim to push the threshold higher thus making your muscles better at using the acidic by-products of metabolism. The result is less acidic muscles letting you run farther and faster...

"A classic tempo or lactate threshold run is a sustained, comfortably hard effort." In a tempo run you start with an easy warm up and end with an easy warm down. In the middle you run at a speed that is higher than your average running speed but is a sustainable speed and not your top speed. At this speed you should not end up panting or feel the need to walk in these middle sections. The magazine had a very simple plan that I have started following.
Week 1: 5x3 minutes at tempo pace, 60 second easy jog between each one.
Week 2: 5x4 minutes at tempo pace, 60 second easy jog recovery
Week 3: 4x5 minutes at tempo pace, 90 second easy jog recovery
Week 4: 20 minutes steady tempo pace.

Run!

More Bheja Fry...

In the last panel Hobbes is sort of equal to Ranjeet Thadani and actually even to all of us and Calvin is like Bharat Bhushan...