Of demons and devils

Don't worry, I am not talking about any unworldly phenomenon...well, not in the way you might think.

Manchester United took on Blackburn Rovers in the EPL today. And at the half time, they were a goal down, had a critical injury to Nimanja Vidic and had too many shots on goal deflected away. It was, as one of the commentators said, as if there were demons in the goal preventing the ball to go in. So ManU went into the second half by a goal's margin against them.

And this is where the Red Devils showed exactly why they are the Premiership leaders by such authority. The second half was a blitzkreig of activity where United put so much pressure on the Rovers that it looked as if the game was being played almost exclusively in the Rovers' half. And in that pressure, they hit 4, yes FOUR, goals...all of them wonderful.

One was a wonderful move by - who else - twinkle toes himself! Ronaldo weaved through into the box and then crossed which came to a calm Michael Carrick who slotted it past the goalkeeper for the equalizer. Then came a brilliant piece of action from Paul Scholes as he moved across four defenders to put the second one in. Then a powerful free kick from Ronaldo again which rebounded off the hands of the goalkeeper right towards Ji Soong Park who put the third one in. And then, just to make it look so easy, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who came on as a substitute for the dying minutes of the match, put another one in the back of the battered Rovers' net.

Final score: 4 - 1 in utterly convincing fashion.

If you missed this match, you missed some great United football. Oh, and incidentally, Liverpool beat a ridiculous looking Arsenal by the same margin. Ha ha ha!

Deathly Hollows

So the final installment cometh!





The latest, and the last, book in the incredible Harry Potter series will be on sale starting 21st July. The book has already been on the Amazon (and other) retail sites when pre-order bookings started. The book will (not in all probability, but in certainty) be the highest selling book of all time.





Today, I got a mail from Borders saying that this

is what the cover of the book will look like.

Hmmm...

She continues to amaze me

Last night, as I walked into my house, I saw my daughter finishing with her dinner and I noticed some movie that was just ending. The credits were rolling and a familiar voice welcomed me home.

As I walked up to her, she said "Pappi, I was watching Brother Bear 2 and I think a lot of the songs in it were by Melissa". She of course was talking about Melissa Etheridge, probably my numero uno artist, who is almost always referred to at home by her first name only. And it was the same familiar voice which greeted me as I walked into the house.

So I knew that the last song was definately by her, but I checked just now and about half the songs on the Brother Bear 2 soundtrack are, in fact, performed by Melissa.

My daughter continues to astonish and pleasantly surprise me every day. I have not seen a child so attuned to music and so open to it. She does not discriminate, neither does she make her mind up before she's heard or seen something. She would listen to a song by Melissa or Pink Floyd or Tears for Fears or even Shakira (yeah, Hips dont lie is a big hit at home too).

And I am really glad she likes Melissa. Melissa has walked with me as I go though a lot. Everyday. Sometimes she sings about how I am feeling. Sometimes, she sings about how I want to feel. I really love her music and her lyrics. Of course, her voice is the perfect compliment to both of her talents.

I'm just glad my daughter has this amazing gift.

Schumi double whammi?

Michael Schumaker is rumoured to be in discussions with the Scuderia Toro Rosso team for a multi-million dollar buyout. It is also part of the same rumour that Ross Braun, ex-Ferrari technical boss, may team up with Schumi if this buyout happens.

Hmmm...that would definately be very interesting. I think Schumi would be a welcome sight at the F1 paddock, not behind the wheel this time, but as team boss. Sounds cool.

Another bit of news about my favourite F1 driver...

The Nurburgring track, where Schumi has won 5 of his mindnumbing 91 F1 wins, has decided to name a corner after him. The fast left-right switchback after the Dunlop hairpin will be renamed the 'Schumacher S' in a ceremony during the German GP in July. Schumi is obviously delighted and will be required to drive a lap of honour to mark the occasion.

If there is a driver in F1 history who desrves to have a corner named after him, it's him. Of course there are always drivers like Aryton Senna who are legends in their own right and already have chicanes named after them.

But there's no one quite like Schumi!

Shame, Shame, SHAME!!!

The madness is dead! Long live the madness...

As India crashed out of the cricket world cup, not even able to make it past the first round after losing two of its three group matches, one wondered why most of the money involved in cricket worldwide comes from India.

The players make more in terms of endorsements, are treated to demi-God status and are generally more influential than most hardworking people who happen to be good at what they do. Cricket fever in India is mostly a religion rather than a sport, with the team members as the part of the Pantheon of cricket.

But objectively, what is it that made them get there? What performance, what domination of the sport has caused this adulation? I can understand about certain individuals like Sachin Tendulkar who has distinguished himself as the greatest batsman of this generation and one of the all time greats (most all time greats agree with me on this one). But I cannot understand how some consistent non-performer like Virendra Sehwag or a selfish, pompous ass like Saurav Ganguly get the same adulation.

There are a lot of sports personalities who have been revered over the ages. Even in my generation, people like Michael Jordon, Michael Schumaker, Tiger Woods are respected for their achievements in their chosen sports. But this insanity called cricket in India is unfathomable.

One of the reasons I am not a keen follower of cricket is because it is boringly, painfully slow. And that's just the one day game. Don't even get me started on the test matches. But that is not the biggest reason.

The biggest reason to not follow cricket is because India manages to consistently underperform and break the hearts of the millions of people who hope when there is none. I have had my hopes dashed too many times to know that this team is not worth supporting. And since I will not support any other country, I refuse to support the sport. I withhold my participation, even as a spectator, from the sport that does not give anything back to me. I know I am in an extreme minority here, but this is my way of protesting. Not a single rupee of my earning will be spent to support the grossly inflated and hugely undeserved salaries and endorsement cheques of these people.

And to a large extent, I am not unhappy that India has crashed out of the world cup. I think the nation, and mainly the cricket team, needed this wake up call to face reality which suggests that we are not even a cricketing nation worth its salt to qualify beyond the first round of a world cup, much less winning it.

I know that the madness and frenzy surrounding cricket will not abate as easily, but I think it is high time Indians realized there are other sports where money invested can reap a much higher return. I think the people of India should seriously start thinking about considering to follow another sport. Just to shake things up.

And if that happens, then it is not impossible for a country of a billion people to have a football team worthy enough to qualify for another world cup, one that is a lot tougher and is more a test of your skill rather than how much money is thrown into the field.

I wait for that day.

I know what he must have felt like

In fact, every single person who has three putted a golf hole knows what it feels like to make that unnecessary third putt to put the dasterdly ball into the bottom of the cup. The walk from the green, after a three putt, ranks as one of the worst feelings a person can have.

After having a lot of touble with putts dropping when they should have, Sergio Garcia spat into the cup on the 13th green at the WGC tournament at Doral after making another three putt.

He had this to say after the round:

"Don't worry, it did go in the middle, and it wasn't going to affect anyone else. If it did, I would have wiped it off."

While I understand the frustrations of three putting, I would not exactly spit into the cup (even if I overwhelmingly felt like it). But then, Sergio is Spanish...and I'm not. Also, I think he is getting tired of his inconsistencies despite having a lot of talent and skill on the golf course.

Relax, mate. It happens to the best of us.

On to the next tee!

I think Tiger has a game plan

Tiger Woods, in what would be his worst 9 holes in a professional tournament's last round, played an 8-over 43 to finish tied in 22nd place. At a point in time where he was a stroke off the lead held by Vijay Singh (who eventually won), his back nine left him 11 strokes off.

Now a lot of people are wondering what happened to Tiger. A lot of speculation going on. You know what I think?

Tiger intentionally played certain shots that he thought he would need for The Masters!

There, I said it. I am not saying that his miserable back nine had all to do with playing the wrong shot for that hole. He might have made a few mistakes. But I refuse to believe that someone like Tiger will play bogey golf and shoot a higher 9-hole score than someone like me (since I shot a 39 a couple of days back).

I think he is planning very carefully for The Masters and I am quite certain you will see some seemingly erratic shots at his next tournament, the CA Championship at Doral, but all those will help him in his effort to play the shots that he thinks he will need at The Masters.

He has done that before. At that time, he won. So this time he didn't.

Big Deal!

Put me down for Tiger winning this year's Masters. Cause I think I see the preparation happening already. And Tiger likes to peak at the major tournaments rather than win all and sundry. He is as much a clever tactician as he is a great player.

Mark my words.

This is one of the best stand up shows I have seen

This is Bill Hicks' legendary "On Night Stand" stand up routine. And I realized (after seeing it, of course) why it is considered so legendary.

Just a suggestion...don't be judgemental when you watch the show. Try and listen to what he is trying to say. In the end, you will agree it was a good show.



Oh, the language in the show and the messages are definately not for everyone. So in case you feel offended, Don't Watch It!

And in case you aren't offended, feel free to enjoy it.

What a surprising weekend for sport

First, I shot a round of 84 (despite playing after 2 months as mentioned in my last post) which had an Eagle, then I saw Manchester United thump Bolton Wanderers 4-1, saw Kimi Raikkonen win from start to finish in his new Ferrari at the first race of the 2007 F1 season and then found out this morning that both India and Pakistan lost their Cricket World Cup matches to relative minnows.

First to my golf round (of course!). As I mentioned in my last post, I was really scared of how much my game would have gone bad due to lack of play for 8 weeks. Surprisingly, the only thing rotten about my game on Saturday was my putting, which has always been on the bad side.

I, along with an ex-collegue and a couple of her current collegues, went over to the Palm Springs course in Batam. I completely suprised myself by hitting the green in regulation on the very first hole, and then got over the surprise as I three putted from inside of 10 feet for bogey. Well, at least the swing was working.

After a par and bogey, I had a string of three consecutive pars and then a bogey and a double. I stood with five over par in 8 holes.

And then came the 9th on the Island course.

The 9th is an elevated tee around 300 yards from the green. It has a driving range to it's left and out of bounds on the right. If I want to reach the green, I would have to aim for the bunkers that line the left side of the fairway and fade the ball in towards the green.

And that is exactly what I did. The ball left on the line I was aiming and moved just the right amount to land directly on the green and then roll towards the flag.

A few moments later, I had putt in for Eagle! The third eagle in my golfing experience!

That put my nine hole score to 39, just one short of my lowest 9 hole score ever. On the back nine, I had a few pars, a few bogeys and a massive quadruple bogey where I pulled two tee shots out of bounds. So that was pathetic.

All in all, I shot 84 (with the eagle compensating for the quadruple...not completely, but I'll take it). I was pleasantly surprised with how much my game has stayed with me despite my neglect of it.

And so if I can shoot 84 after such a long hiatus, I can definately shoot a lot lower if I practice a lot more, mainly on my putting. So that's exactly what I am going to do from today. Practice my putting.

Now to football and ManU. We're still comfortable at the top of the Premiership table with the 6 point cushion intact over Chelsea.

Kimi Raikonnen demonstrated Ferrari's prowess and ran away with the race in Melbourne to win the first GP of the season. Only sad point in all of the race was the pre-race problem that Felipe Massa had with his Ferrari which stopped him from qualifying higher and so, with an engine replacement penalty, had to start from the back of the grid from where he managed a 6th place finish. Not a great start for him, but I'm sure he will do a lot better. The surprise package for the race was Lewis Hamilton of the McLaren team, who on his F1 debut, brought his car home in 3rd place and a very deserved podium finish. He led his team-mate Alonso for most of the race, but was overtaken after a great pit stop by Alonso's pit crew.

And then came the news of both India and Pakistan losing their respective matches to the smaller teams in the cricket world cup. As you might be aware, I am not much of a cricket buff. So obviously, I did not stay up late to watch any of the matches. But it was really surprising to note that Pakistan lost both it's first two group matches (first against hosts West Indies and later to minnows Ireland) to crash out of the world cup. Pakistan becomes the first casualty of this world cup.

The sad news was the Pakistan team coach, Bob Woolmer, died on the night of Pakistan's ouster from the world cup. Woolmer, the Pakistan coach since 2004, was found unconscious in his hotel room and was pronounced dead after three hours. As if the team did not have enough bad news to contend with.

India, meanwhile, lived up to it's reputation of making the most easiest of opposition look tough by losing to a young Bangladesh side. With this loss, India needs to win both it's matches (against Bermuda and Sri Lanka) to have any hopes of going into the next round. In case they lose to Sri Lanka, they, along with Pakistan, will be the most high profile casualties of this world cup. And that means a lot of lost revenue in cricket crazy India.

Let's see (only in the news, I am not staying up to watch them) how they do in the next matches. Personally, I think Indians should start playing other sports with as much enthusiasm as they watch cricket.

But then, that's just me.

A game after 8 weeks

Two months! 8 weeks! That's how long it's been since I last played golf. Well, the wait ends tomorrow (hopefully) and I will be heading off to Batam with a few people to play what will be a round of shame.

What else can I expect after ignoring the noble game for so long? Not that it was intentional. But still, it is unforgivable to not have played for so long and so I feel I can no longer be called a "golfer". I can at best be termed as a "social golfer". It's the term I used to use for people who are not serious about their game and just play to either entertain themselves or to make business discussion ("What? In the middle of a round?").

Alas, I have become something like these people (though I haven't stooped so low as to make conversation when people are playing a serious sport).

Tomorrow, I will have no clue where the ball is going to go. No idea what to hit and how far it will go. Sigh! I feel so depressed.

Only I know the game will teach me to respect it even more so that I will make the effort and play more. Unless I do that, my hope of getting to single digit and eventually to scratch will remain a pipe dream.

Tomorrow will tell me whether I still have my swing or whether I have lost all that I made so much effort to get to.

You will know on monday.

Way to go, Jeev!

Jeev Milkha Singh, one of the top Indian golfers, will be the first Indian to play at the hallowed grounds of Augusta National when the first golf major of the year, The Masters, kicks off next month.

The information was announce on the Masters official website which quotes this invitation entry as

"Jeev Milkha Singh (India) (16) Two-time winner on the PGA European Tour in 2006…victories included the season-ending Volvo event at Valderrama and the Volvo China Open…finished the year 16th on the Order of Merit…also claimed his maiden title in Japan at the Casio World Open…first Indian to play in the Masters and the first Indian golfer to qualify for the European Tour after earning his card in 1997…son of a former Olympic sprinter."

Keep flying the good flag high, Jeev. Make us proud (not that we are not proud of your achievements already)

You have to see this if you like Rowan Atkinson

This is a great video of Rowan Atkinson Live. Really really funny.

But you will probably only appreciate it if you like his kind of humour. All in all, I found it was hilarious!

A new project for the idle mind (mine)

I'm not sure if I told you guys this, but a long time back, I bought a Cobalt Qube 2. For all of you who don't know what that is, it's a tiny, compact server which was designed by Cobalt Computer, which later got bought over by Sun Microsystems.

The genius of this computer is that it is one of the easiest computers to setup, configure and use. It has a small LCD screen using which you can chose to do a lot of things. Like booting it up, configuring it's various services, changing it's IP address, shutting it down. Well, quite a few things that you would otherwise need to get into the system to do.


When I moved to Singapore, I mistakenly left this server with my folks back home. I hunted all over when we had unpacked and only then realized that the system was in India.


Well, this time I remember to get it back with me!


And after I got it back, I realized that it has been sitting idle for a lot longer than I thought. For one, the configuration reminded me of systems more than 10 years ago. I mean, 64MB of RAM and a 13GB disk with a 250Mhz MIPS variant processor? It looks like a computer from The Flintstones when I compare it with the hardware that I have at home.


So why am I bothering with it?


Cause it can still be a great server for keeping the family photographs, storing all our music and videos, a place for my Dad to upload other stuff and in general, it could behave as the family web server, with all the stuff the family wants to put up.


And it's cute as hell! Judge for yourself...



Don't you agree? Doesn't it really look awesome? It would look really great in my setup at home.


Now the only problem is that I need to make this server a bit more powerful which has a bit more capacity. A bigger hard disk here, a bit more memory there, a more modern operating system and Viola! It will be done.


Will let you know how that goes. For now, you can just drool at the sight of my beautiful Cobalt Qube.


Cheers!

Whoa! That is tough!

GolfDigest, in their latest installment, compiled a list of the 50 toughest courses in the US. And the #1 went to Kiawah Golf Course (photo by Stephen Szurlej of one of the holes on the course below)



Is that tough or what? Look at all the water and the hazards around. The course definately looks like murder, both on the game and on the nerves. I am shaking all over just looking at it.

I can't wait to play it!

It is a bit too tough for my liking, but then it's not the course that usually screws up my game. It's me. So this course cannot make me play any worse than what I am playing already.

Bring it on. Literally! Will try to make it there the next time I am in the US.

It's The Beatles these days

That's the music of choice for my daughter the last couple of weeks.

She listens to The Fab Four almost all the time. When she's playing, when she's reading, when she's about to sleep. Just about any time. It's not rare for me to walk into her room and have "She loves you...yeah, yeah, yeah" or "Love is all you need" or "Love me do" or some other classic hit me.

There's dual admiration here.

Firstly toward my daughter, for being able to recognize the great music and melody that The Beatles created more than a generation before her (let's face it, The Beatles broke up before I was born. So all those gorgeous songs are from my parent's generation). And I absolutely adore her for it. I've always said that she's got fantastic taste for music and she proves me right every single day.

Secondly, I have the utmost respect for The Beatles. The music they have created has endured for more than 40 years and has entertained more than three generations. They remain one of the greatest music group of all time and, according to the Rolling Stones compilation of the 500 all time greatest songs, The Beatles had the largest representation in the list with 23 songs. I grew up listening to and loving their songs and am thrilled to bits that my daughter is appreciting them as much (if not more) as I do.

She makes me feel better every single day.

Let the madness begin

The ICC Cricket World Cup kicked off last night in the Caribbean with the hosts playing Pakistan in the opening game (which they convincingly won).

This marks the beginning of the usual cricket fever that sweeps across India every four years. Not that there is not enough madness to go around. But Indians have a special gear for madness when it comes to cricket. It's probably the only sport which in India is considered more a religion than a game.

And for people like me who are not too inclined towards cricket, it's a wee bit concerning. Not to mention annoying to see cricket on every single sports channel available at almost all the time. If India is not playing against anyone, their earlier triumphs (rarely their losses) are being rerun on the tele.

Thankfully, this time, my being in Singapore is somewhat of a boon. I don't have to tolerate the cricket madness and the finging of statistics across every conversation. While the crazed state continues back home, I will be still enjoying the basic sport pleasures of the English Premier League, The F1 season and all the golf tournaments without once having to endure the sight of a cricket pitch.

I know this will sound strange to a lot of Indians ("What? You don't like cricket? Are you insane?"), but I think I would have liked cricket a lot more if it wasn't the only sport that people followed (most of the country, anyways). Had the country paid more attention to the likes of Hockey, Tennis, Football and other sports, I would not be as biased against cricket as I am now.

But even then, I would not be much of a cricket fan (though I still like to watch and India Vs Pakistan match...then it's not cricket, it's WAR). Personally, I think the game is too slow for my taste. It takes a whole day for the game to be played. And that's just the One Day format. Don't even get me started on the Test Matches.

It's not like Football where, in two hours, you're done. Or F1, where it's even lesser. You might argue that golf is slower. But if you look closely, the agerage PGA Tour professional gets his round in within 3 hours. So in the same time that my collegue would spend his entire night watching a single match, I could watch two Football matches (during the World Cup last year) and be fast asleep before he even gets a result in.

All in all, I am glad to not be in India when all the madness is on.

But I still want India to win. That's got nothing to do with cricket. I want India to win all the time.

Hips won't lie in Mumbai

Shakira, of the amazing booty fame, will be performing in Mumbai on the 25th of this month according to NDTV.

It should be a real treat to see the "Whenever, wherever" babe shake her you-know-what.

Too bad I will not be there to see it.

Two pages per minute

This weekend, my daughter and I sat side by side reading books. She reading her library book and I with the current book of the week (A Peace To End All Peace - David Fromkin). Almost every weekend, the two of us are at Borders on Orchard Road where she sits in the Kids section reading a wild assortment of books while I go around hunting for books on my list.

Today, I noticed that she was flipping pages quite quickly.

So I asked her if she intended to finish the book. When she said yes, I told her that I would time her to know how long she takes to read the rest of the book.

She had some 40 pages to go and she finished them in 19 minutes!

Even if I take into account that she is reading a kid's book with large fonts and larger line spacing, it's a stupendous effort! She read more than two pages in a minute. That's phenomenal for a girl who is just six years old!

So a little later, after we had played for a while and after I had read her a story (an Indian epic called The Mahabharat), she herself said that she wanted to read, this time The Faraway Tree collection of stories by Enid Blyton.

I told her I would time here again. Lo and behold, she did it again. This time the book had smaller print and a lot more content on each page (you know how Enid Blyton can write). She read more than 60 pages in just over half an hour.

You have no idea how thrilled I am and how proud I feel about my baby. She's developing the habit of reaching for a book when she's free and she is finding a book almost as interesting as playing by herself. Of course, a book cannot compete with playing with her friends (something that absolutely shouldn't happen), but at least whenever she's not, she is hopefully getting into a habit of grabbing at one when she's alone.

I personally like to read a lot. Even if it is for just a few minutes in the morning (before I leave for work) or after dinner (just before I sleep). She sees me read all the time, whenever I am free. She even asks me why I read so much.

So over the weekend, we talked about how someone, a long time ago, invented the wheel. And how everyone since then has used that first idea to make a wheel for themselves. How people after the first man did not have to go through the pains of experimentation to invent it, how they did not have to reinvent the wheel. How Thomas Edison made more than a thousand attempts to create the light bulb, but after he invented it, people could use his design and his learning. All of these discussions were to impress upon her that a lot of people are working on a lot of different things. It does not make sense for us to "reinvent the wheel" (She got the meaning of that immediately!). And therefore the need to read books. Where we learn more about people, their thoughts and their experiences.

Then she said, "I want to have a bookshelf as big as yours!"

"As long as you read every single one of them, sure you can" I said. Cause I've read almost every single one of the books that I've bought (exceptions being the ones that I have recently bought, which are now in the queue).

Judging by the expression on her face, she will make me buy her all the books and will have bookshelf way bigger than mine. And you know what?

Nothing will give me greater pleasure than to go book shopping for her!

Are you sure this is what I am?

In my general browsing (read useless meandering on the Net), I took this quiz on which science fiction author I most resemble.

And the answer is:

I am: Jules Verne The 19th century Frenchman who made science fiction into a successful commercial genre.

Which science fiction writer are you?

Since I was wasting my time doing these things, I thought I will take the other "silly ass quiz" that was also mentioned on the same site...one which would tell me which classical composer was a moron like me.

And?

I got bored halfway down the list and decided to forget about it. You, however, can go for it if you like.

Thank God she's fine

As I had mentioned in my last post, I was heading down to Sydney for vacation with my family. Sydney was really great. I will put in another post detailing what all we did in the land Down Under, but suffice to say, it was a fun trip.

What I did not expect was what happened after I got back from vacation. On saturday evening, we had the daily hour long video chat session over Skype with my folks. My mom complained about a little back ache, something she regularly gets because of her slip disk condition and the operation she underwent more than 25 years back. But from everything, it did not seem really bad.

The next day, I got a call from my sister saying that mom was unwell and that she was not waking up. My father, with the help of a few people, rushed her to the nearest hospital and all kinds of test were done, all of which turned out to be normal. But she still wouldn't regain consciousness.

I caught the next available flight to Mumbai and had my friends pick me up at the airport so that they could drive me to the hospital where she was being cared for.

After a couple of days, she finally came to and the story unfolds thus: She took a couple of painkillers with her regular medication (she has a heart condition) and the combination of the two was responsible for this state. After three days of sleeplessness, we were finally told that she's fine.

Thank God!

We then showed her to the best Neurophysician in Mumbai, Dr Mohit Bhat who recommended we see Dr Shekhar Bhojraj, who is the best Spine Surgeon in Mumbai. Dr Bhojraj felt that this was not a spinal condition and that the pain had more to do with the hip region.

A few more tests and MRIs later, it was deduced (correctly indicated by Dr Bhojraj) that the right hip joint was the problem. We were then asked to see Dr Rajesh Maniar, who is the best Joint Surgery expert in Mumbai.

He too confirmed that it was the hip and that it was relatively routine surgery to tackle the problem.

So with a huge sigh of relief, I left Mumbai with my mom in the care of my sister. We have a date for the hip operation and we will be taking care of the problem once and for all.

Thank God she is fine and Thank God we know exactly what the problem is and how to resolve it.

It's been the first few days in the last couple of weeks where I've felt a bit relaxed.