Someone egged...

I read about this news on the web.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was recently forced to duck for cover under a barrage of (three) eggs during a speech he was giving at a Hungarian University. Apparently, the disgruntled egg-tosser was angry with Ballmer for "stealing billions in Hungarian taxpayer money," which he demanded that Ballmer give back "right now".

The video is below:



Unlike his team-mate, Bill Gates, who was smashed with a cream pie on his face, a decade ago, Ballmer was attacked with eggs when addressing a group of business and technology students at Budapest's Corvinus University. I am not judging this incident from a civic behaviour lens, or display of in-appropriate mannerism for the CEO of one of the world's biggest firms. That's for the various judges to do.

My analysis giving due respect to both the attacker and the attacked is as follows.

To the attacker: Man, don't you know that today the world is overcast by food crisis and you wasted two or three eggs.

guys i think hungarian university should conduct the target throwing tests he missed badly at short distance with more than two throws how sad.

In this regard, I have two options for you to improve your accuracy in hitting the target.

a. Join, the on the field net practise sessions with the Australian and South African cricket teams and even if you throw something from say 80 metres, you would still hit the bull's eye. You know that a game of dart, won't help you in this case because the distance is less.

b. I repeat again, loss of two/three eggs meant someone in some part of the world was deprived of a fluffy omelette. Instead other options worth exploring could have been throwing chairs, microphones and other items. The attacked in that scenario would either hide under desks or escape from the scene for protection. If you feel this is blithering, do check the live action in the video below.



To the attacked: Full points to you for standing for the firm, Microsoft of which you are the CEO. I break up the word Microsoft into two components: 'micro' and 'soft'. I strongly believe that, Ballmer you really epitomise and typify the two broken up words. Note that I am just breaking the word, nothing more nothing less.

Don't you think the physiological reaction of Ballmer to the stimulus within a 'micro' second was a sooper dooper example of micro-split-second-reflex. Someone attacks a person and the attacked takes a 'micro' second to find a safe shelter behind a table.


Fine then things settle in a while, then the attacked displays the 'soft' corner of his/her personality even after the assault. That's something brilliant.

Ballmer says, "Well, that was a friendly interruption" at the end of it, and within a few seconds is back to his speech.

From what I even learnt from my news reading, later in the day, he also accepted an honorary fellowship from the university. This exhibits the 'softer' side of his persona.

Do you agree with me or you don't?

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Sunfeast World 10K Run...run maadi run...

For a moment forget the regular kvetching that one hears in various sources of news and media regarding Bangalore's woeful infrastructure issues. Keeping aside all these daily resentments, everyone rushed to the Kanteerva Stadium on a bright Sunday morning.



But what for? To be a part of the Sunfeast World 10K run, this is an international annual event, and was organized in India for the first time. The Sunfeast World 10k was touted as the richest 10k runs with total prize money of 150,000 USD up for grabs.



The event comprised of six races: World 10K Elite Men, World 10K Elite Women, Senior Citizens run (4 KM), Wheelchair event (4 KM), Open 10K Run and Majja Run (5.7 KM). Since the event was slotted between 6AM and 10:30AM, the city police authorities had made punctilious plans for minimal diversion of traffic during the four-hour marathon which saw active participation of around 20,000 people.



When I reached the spot around 7:30AM, preparations were in full swing for the Senior Citizens run which saw an impressive crowd of 700 plus participants. Most of senior citizens were aged above 60 but the energy and the exuberance that they displayed, quashed the roar of helicopters circling the stadium. Harmony, an NGO organized the senior citizens run. Each of the participants was given a T-shirt by Harmony and once they were dressed, there was a wave of uniformity at the starting point, very similar to a sight when children assemble in schools for morning prayer before classes commence. The highlight of this race was the high energy level of the senior citizens making them feel as if they were still in their teens. Jokes were cracked, few laughs were shared and there was an infectious air of camaraderie among these people who came not only from Bangalore but also from different parts of India.



Oprah Winfrey once said running is the greatest metaphor for life, because you get out of it what you put into it. This was the kind of perseverance exhibited by a group of steel-willed people. Braving the heat and the dust, the handicapped persons maneuvered their wheel chairs, reflecting the true spirit of participation.



Suddenly the action shifted to inside the stadium because the World 10K Elite Men/Women had entered the final stage. In a closely contested run, Zersenay Tadese of Eritrea bagged the 1,50,000 US Dollar Sunfeast World 10K title by completing the marathon in 27:51 seconds just three seconds ahead of his rival Moses Kipsiro of Uganda. The women’s section witnessed the rarest of rare photo finishes in any 10k run, with both Grace Momanyi of Kenya and Elevan Abeylegesse of Turkey, declared joint winners. The complete results can be seen here..



There was cut throat competition in the Open 10K run which had large groups of amateur runners, trying their level best to live up to their own expectations. Few ran, few jogged and rest others just walked in the spirit of sport.



Everyone was indeed up and running. It was a place where the east met the west while running.



The most delightful aspect was to see each one run irrespective of caste, creed, color, religion, sex, age, language, region, etc.



There was one single motive to be a part of the excitement and ebullience.



The Majja Run as the name signifies (majja means fun) merriment was the epicenter of frolic and liveliness. Though the distance to be covered for this particular race was only 5.7 kms, what separated this one from the others were the variety and the diversity. There were runners turning up in varied costumes with powerful messages, banners and placards.



Few celebrities like Dino Morea, Rahul Bose, Charu Sharma and Vijay Amritraj had the crowd screeching as they made their appearance for the Majja Run. Everything here resembled a mini-carnival and fancy dress competition. Girls with different attention-getting dresses very much like the Indianized version of IPL cheerleaders attire.



Someone even put on special clothes to appear princely, like the mighty Tipu Sultan.



The one that surpassed every other costume in terms of ingenuity and colorations was the Ravana attire. Like a bee gets attracted towards nectar, participants were pulled in towards this individual dressed as Ravana to take a few snaps in the midst of the race.



There were lots of groups and voluntary associations such as Parikrma, Harmony and others who all came under one umbrella 'Bangalore Cares'. This aggroup participated in the race for a number of causes such as children welfare, greener and pollution free Bangalore, togetherness, etc.





How can an event of such extensive magnitude and variety happen without the support from corporate and business sponsors and advertisers? Well of course there were some sponsors from a wide spectrum. DHL was the logistics partner and it participated in big numbers, with few of the team members having flown from Mumbai. To name a few, Nike was the running partner, Kingfisher, the airline partner, Radio Mirchi as the radio partner, Manipal Cure and Care, as the medical and health partner, etc who passionately supported the cause and diversity of the World 10K experience. CNBC-TV18 was media partner and it brought the event live to millions of Indians on that day, to the television sets from 7AM onwards, along with a potpourri of other coverages and programmes related to this the event.





All is all it was a well organized event that got equally receptive reactions from all those who participated for this run. This race put Bangalore in the map of conducting with dynamism and zings a global marathon. More so, it was a testimony to the fact that multiple goals can be achieved through sports and citizen's active participation and above all how sports are a social leveler.



In this huge ocean of human beings, I could see some human faces which pulled my attention like a magnet pulls pieces of iron. There was this elderly woman selling ground nuts who was a bit perplexed to see a sea of people just running, a very new site from what sees in her day to day life.



This man was also confused to see this sudden wave of sneaker lovers on an otherwise traffic struck road.



But one of the most satisfying moment in this entire event running with my camera was to capture this bubbly toddler, who had come with her dad and brother (if you can see, the young brother is just hidden from the father) to be a part of this race. She was giving poses which to me meant, 'Daddy isn't allowing me to run or crawl this year, well next year I would be there to tip toe with other people'. That's a smart and emotionally charged expression, so I and my fellow Bangaloreans would wait for you, sunshine girl, till we meet again.



The rest of the pictures are in this album. Naama Bengaluru rocks as always.

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Who was she?...

Was Sa happy or was he chasing the rat race? Run, run and run and the road keeps extending. He doesn’t have a definite answer to this query but all he could say is that he was following a pattern, a pre-set societal blueprint. Every morning when he woke up, he used to think about the milestone that he had planned to reach, and late at night when he hit the bed, he used to do a catharsis of how close or how far he was from that destination.

Now if some sensible person asked Sa what he was after, he would struggle for a befitting reply, but all that mattered at that moment, clear like a crystal was to make it big, real big in life. He felt this 'real big' word was a bit deceptive. 'Real big' is like a mirage, the more nearer one goes, the farther the view range extends. Still there is a stage in life, when all these dichotomies just don’t matter much and there is one thing creeping in the mind. That one thing is some goal about which he knew but then again he didn't know.

Time passed by and the so did, Sa in his journey. He worked very hard, learned every trick in the trade. Soon he was walking, talking and behaving like one of those in the business circles, the 'in', 'with it' crowd. Everything he did was always pointed towards getting what he wanted, measured, calculated and assessed. It's not that success was his partner all the time, even the numerous lessons in failure alongside, made him worked harder. His career needle was accelerating northwards, with muddiness still sitting like a couch potato within him. He made lots of friends, who were always there in times of celebration and festivity but couldn't count on any when there was dark cloud over his ceiling.

The badges and emblems of worldly success were slowly getting into his bag. Everyday at around midnight, when he opened the door of the apartment, he was sure that he was getting one step closer to his target. He was not afraid of the loneliness that awaited him as he knew it was only for half a night, and then as morning drew close, he felt energized hoping that in a few hours he would be in his kingdom, with his rules of governance.

And then she came, to use a cliché, like a breath of fresh air after long gap. She was everything that he was not, she stood for everything that he did not, she believed in everything that he did not, she did everything that he did not.

She reminded Sa of the senior professor, who had assigned him with a bagful of responsibilities about a decade ago while he was an intern. Polite, poised, well-behaved, never loosing temper, accommodating, in short humility personified. These are a few commonalities that they shared, but there was a lot more to this remarkable woman. It was kind of a scenario in which one feels overloaded with words to express but you just can’t express. Heart in heart, there is a sudden flood of phrases, similar to the kind when water gushes when the dam gates are opened. She seemed too good to be real. Did he mention she was good? Maybe he was using that word because he was short of words as to how to describe her. Yes, she was good in the sense that she was good in what she believed in, stood for or did. And perhaps that was what made him like her, though he often found her beliefs unearthly, her attitudes and values outdated. Sa could not but admire the way she stood for them and acted on them and, yes, she was really good in that. She stood for 'what you preach is what you practice'.

Sa having come across a host of personalities in his work-circle somehow found her to be unreal. She did not behave like the people he interacted with or dealt with in his day-to-day life, and that really made him comfortable on the surface and uncomfortable in the interior.

She made all his years of bookish experience and knowledge feel like useless, though that was never her intention. That’s how Sa felt it, all acquired skills were just bi-sected and looked upon in a different angle. He was trained to always read between the lines, to study the body language, to know what a person really meant. He always tried to study the expression in the eyes, as they normally did not lie. He also developed the skill that enabled him to see through the veils of words spoken and signals sent. He was trained to differentiate between a genuine smile and a fake one. He learnt to gauge the degree of warmth in a person.

Did any book teach him that, nah nah never.

Everybody around Sa was an actor. Yes, they did show emotions, but everything was calculative. Every smile was calculated every tear was accounted for, every hug executed to enhance relationships, every handshake to convey messages. He was with everyone, but did not belong to anyone. Every relationship had its own value and place in the larger scheme of things and served some purpose or the other and always acted as a mean. Sa was not apologetic about this because everybody did it. That’s the way, life is modeled after in today’s age. Rather, that’s the only way Sa had seen the world so far.

And as Sa said at the very beginning, was he happy? Still no clues about that.

But, she changed all that. He tried to read between the lines, study the body language and always noticed for the eye movements; few were positive hits but every time he failed, he failed miserably. This irritated him, frustrated and angered him; Sa felt he was losing the edge, the ability to get through the veils of people, and that really was a scary thought. So, he tried harder since he never accepted defeat, he was not a loser. But, he failed time and again. But there are times in life, when even the taste of defeat brings comfort.

Her actions always matched the words she spoke, her smile was always genuine, and her hug was always full of warmth. But, how could this be true? How could a person live without pretending or shamming?

From the day she started living with him, his world turned upside down. He returned home early, yes it had become a home, it was not a house bordered by concrete walls anymore. Now, when he inserted the key, he knew there was someone to attend to him. He knew she genuinely cared for him. Her relationship was free flowing, because Sa was the end as well as the starting point for her. Her love for him was unconditional and unselfish and it did not have any ulterior motive, she loved him for what he was.

She cooked all his favorite dishes; she knew what he wants, when. She nurses him when he is ill, she takes him in her arms when he wants to cry (most often in the railway stations and airports before the final departure call) so that Sa feels secure. After so many years, he can laugh and cry when he wants to, not when others expect him to.

Sa is no longer a restless soul anymore. He doesn’t wake up everyday to run and remain ahead of the crowd. Yes, he still enjoys his work, but it is no more the centre point of his existence. There is a big world to explore, just that someone needs to provide one with the right lens to checkout the right colors. He does no longer want to achieve 'it' or reach 'there'. And yes, he is very happy, and this happiness is not a superficial, non-penetrating and deep, vacant feeling like it was earlier. Now his happiness does not need a measuring rod, is not linked to the things Sa is doing or achieving. This makes his new found happiness, complete, composite, stress-free and devoid of any pressure or worries. Yes, it is for real.

And, this has become possible because of her. Sa wonders how he managed all these years without her, after he left for his graduation school. He regrets not having her with him for so long. But, he is glad that he has her now and he wants to make up for all the lost time. He wants to tell her how much he loves her, how essential and integral she is to his existence, how meaningful she has made his life, and Sa wants to thank her for all the things she has done and keeps doing for him, for all the love she has given him, for the care and concern she has shown him and, most importantly, for always being there for him whenever he needs her.

That night after dinner, when she came and sat beside Sa, all he could do was look into her eyes and say, 'Maa, I love you.'

She took him in her arms, patted his back and said, 'Stupid, you need not say that. I know you love me.'
Happy Mother's Day.


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(Note: The pic in this post is by David Zimmerly, an anthropologist and world traveler.)

Learnt this and still more to learn...

Let's go back a bit to the +2 days when solving problems in physics was something that was really interesting and challenging at the same time. Cracking problems from books in Physics by Halliday-Resnick-Walker and Sears-Zemansky was absorbing and engrossing. For instance, solving problems on topics such as velocity, acceleration, momentum was fascinating but when it came to relative velocity, I have seen many students get a bit jittery. Reason for this is that both my subject and object of reference are in motion. Even initially, I used to have problems, but once I grasped the concepts well, I realized that its nothing difficult but an extension of the solving problems related to velocity.

But why am I talking about relative velocity out of the blues?

Though the link is not that straight forward, I scribbled the above part to draw an analogy.

Think when was the last time, you took an awesome picture using a camera. I can smell something here. When the composition was still, you managed to capture the frame, pretty decently to your personal satisfaction. Now when you tried to photograph any moving subject, you were disappointed with your results. Either the picture was blurred or something was faulty that you didn't like.

Can motion pictures be clicked with ease? I feel, yes.

All one needs to do is to understand the shutter speed and aperture adjustment in the camera. I know of a simple technique called panning, which I learnt recently and with this, you can accurately get the output as the one you would have conceived in your mind.

Without getting into too much of technicals, I would say that the aperture adjustment would control the amount of light entering the camera and the shutter speed would control the duration of time the light is exposed. For panning, I would need a slow speed, may be 1/15 second or slower. To take pics of moving subjects, you may opt for a fast shutter speed to freeze the subject. If the selected shutter speed happens to be faster than the subject speed, the final output that you would get would be static and the pictorial element of motion would be missing.

A recommended technique is to select a slower speed and follow the subject along as you take the photograph. This is essentially what panning is all about. There is no rocket science in this and all it needs is a bit of creativity and imagination and then your pictures are just perfect.



In panning outputs, the main subject is sharp against a blurred background. The idea is very simple, just follow the subject when it passes in front of you and keep continuing doing that as you press the click button on your camera and then even after the shot is taken. It's like the inertia.



How do I do it? Just keep your feet firm and still, and then rotate the top half of your body as you chase your subject. Before doing that, you should have pre-focused your camera, with all the necessary settings at a reference point where your subject will pass through. A darker background is always preferred and adds to the output. Like the relative velocity analogy, in this case, once you are comfortable with the shutter speed and apertures in the camera settings, and add to it a pinch of one's imagination, panning becomes an easy nut to crack.



In all the three pics that you see above, the shutter speed was set at about 1/15 seconds.

More on panning here. Try this and it's really addictive, don't you feel so? Hey, and don't forget to share your pictures, so that even I can learn more.

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Lost in the Woods @ Parambikulam...

Two days and the distance that I had to cover was close to 50 kms, trekking thorough one of the best biodiversity hotspots in India. Can I do this or I can't, a cloud of incertitude eclipsed my mind. With this dubiety kicking in mind, I boarded the bus a late Friday night after the day’s work hoping that the weekend would end up with some exciting experiences.

The next day morning, I woke up as the bus stopped in search of the correct route when we reached Pollachi. While we were motoring along the road planked on both sides by trees, I could see big billboards of Jayalalita and Karunanidhi which confirmed my curiosity that we were in Tamil Nadu.

But we were going for trek in the forests of Parambikulam which is in Kerala. The puzzle got resolved when I learnt that the only entrance to this wildlife sanctuary is through the Anamalai Wildlife sanctuary which is in Tamil Nadu. We paid all the necessary fees at the check post to get into the sanctuary and the sky appeared a bit cloudy that day.



Along with few others, I was going to start my trek which is commonly known by the name 'Tramway Trek'. There is a little bit of history to this which says...

The tramway was set up in 1905 under the visionary of Maharaja of Cochin Sri. Rama Varma to transport Cochin teak from Parambikulam to Chalakkudy. From there it could be exported to the rest of the world thorough the Cochin Harbour. The total stretch of this tramway is close to 49.5 miles running through the thick forest, crossing many rivers and the time taken to cover this distance was 9 hours. It was around 1953 that this tramway was stopped for a number of reasons.

All that remains today are the remnants in the form of rails, bridges, wagons, etc. A couple of years back as a befitting tribute to the centenary of the Cochin State Forest Tramway, an eco-friendly trekking plan was launched along the tumbled down tramway route. The foot trail along this rail trail will give an opportunity to see the remainders of bygone days of the transport system, besides seeing hundreds of birds and animals including tiger, elephant, sambhar, spotted deer, sloth bear, porcupine etc.

This is one of the best managed wildlife sanctuaries in India.



The bus took all the trekkers near the gate of the Parambikulam Dam, which was the starting point of our trek. From the bus, what we saw were a pleasure to eyes, peacocks dancing in the woods and spotted deer milling around.



The route offered some fresh sites that made me indulge in fantasy as if someone was using the river water bed as a mirror to teach the basics of reflection.



The trek started at around 10AM and by now the sun was shining bright and smart. The entire trek course was along the river and it was amazingly beautiful.



Since, the initial trek path is flat and regular, I was looking for some excitement and it was just the right time that our guide showed us a herd of elephants near the river bank. After drinking water and cleaning themselves, the elephants moved towards the trek route and this was an ultimate moment of excitement. These colossal creatures were just 60 meters away from the group. We were all lying on the forest’s leaves carpeted floor like soldiers in a war field and I positioned my camera lying down to get a perfect composition. People wearing white shirts and caps immediately put on something non-white because elephants react aggressively to white color. We were resting on the forest floor with pin drop silence, except for the sound of the birds chirping in the woods and the crackling sound that one gets when walking over a bed of dry leaves till the gang of elephants and calves (total number was around 15) passed by.



It was 11:30 AM by then. Our guide told us that, we could catch some more wild actions since this was the time when a bunch of tigers would plunge into the river for some coolness. Hope ran high, but we couldn’t trace them. But we spotted few crews of deer and sambhar, but these species being a sensitive lot, vanished when they encountered a foreign element in their territory.

The gang reached a small tribal colony in the midst of the forest at around 1:30 in the noon for a small break after having trekked for around 10kms. The entranceway to the tribal colony was a bridge across the Kuriakutty River. The bridge though not in operation, still stands intact and the rail line snakes through some thrilling landscape.



Lunch was served to us by the tribal people, which comprised of simple rice, sambar and cabbage fry dished out in dry leaf plates. The food provided the much needed energy and the journey started again. The dry forest was slowly given way to dense evergreen forests.



En route, we traced many birds such as grey hornbills, the great pied hornbills, etc. Also I found some snake's outer skin, hanging from the branch of a tree.



As I was trekking through this abode of greenery, a lot of emotions swam through my mind. And one needs to be in such a secluded place to feel vulnerable to the wild, exhilarated, beatified, commoved, expectant, anticipative, disappointed and happy at the same time. There was exquisite greenery all around with no presence of human beings and I was walking alone with music on my ears courtesy my iPod. It just appeared that the road ahead was never ending.



It was around 5 PM in that we reached the endpoint of day one trekking. The night stay was in an anti poaching camp at Muthuvarachal right next to the flowing river at an elevated altitude. Just imagine the excitement, when someone is there in the dense forest, with the only source of light as either the moon-light or the candle light. Insects creaking and mosquitos' bombinating to attack were the only sounds that one could hear. Even though this camp was at a raised tract, surrounded by trenches, there were still chances of tracing some wild animals in the pitch dark.



We had dinner, which was boiled rice and legumes again courtesy, our tribal friends. We woke early in the morning the next day at around 6 AM and set out for a walk. The jungle was fresh with the earthy smells of the morning. Strolling through the luxuriant vegetation, we saw some pugmarks of a leopard and marks left when the prey was dragged over the dampish soul.



We returned from our morning jaunt and had our breakfast at around 9AM. Then we started for our return journey which lacked verve and we planned to trek till lunch time. As I trekked I could see lots of 'manchans' (tree-top houses) but the most interesting finding was a bird studying center in the heart of the forest. This unit is built in the honor of late Dr. Salim Ali, a renowned ornithologist who had found more than 100 species of birds, traveling on the tram way route.

I saw a wide variety of insects, frogs and other creatures during my return journey. It was around 2PM that, we all had lunch in the same tribal colony, where we had food the previous day. Since we were drained out of energy, our guide asked us to take the Tempo traveler else it wouldn't have been possible for us to leave the forest by 6PM.

As the vehicle was traversing through the bends and the curves of Western Ghats, the scene of the Parambikulam dam was breathtaking from a higher altitude. The next break point was to see the largest and the oldest (as it is close to 450 years now) teak tree in the world, Kannimara Teak. Parambikulam was once home to some of South India’s finest stands of teak but most of these are now replaced by teak plantations, which cover around 9000 hectares of forest land.



We saw a couple of monkeys, lion-tailed macaques, Indian Gaurs too from the Tempo traveler. By now it was 6PM and the return journey to Bangalore started. We made a couple of stops on the way back for dinner and for having tea from road side stalls and before we could realize, we were back in the concrete jungle by 4:30 AM.

Since I was tired, I took some rest before the grumbling and groaning Monday work started, unwilling to let go of the endearing and striking Sunday. Monday, I had a business meeting in the Taj Hotel at Bangalore, and then when I was having lunch there in the neatly manicured gardens, it just reminded me, how life changes suddenly. Just 24 hours ago, I was in the woods having food in a tribal colony and now I am in a restaurant, with a great assortment of cuisines.

Well that's how life is. Take it as it comes.

The remaining pictures of the trek are here in this album.

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One of the costliest slap...

If MTV gives viewers 'One Tight Slap', someone else gives that in a cricket field. By now a lot of hysteria has been generated over a match between Mumbai Indians vs. Kings XI Punjab in the on-going IPL season. The latest I read yesterday was that the inflammation is sorted now and things are back to normal and entertainment continues. Back to sixes, fours, and not to forget the cheerleaders dancing.

After the angry slap incident, a panel investigated on this foolhardy behavior of Harbhajan on the field which amounts to level 4.2 offence under the ICC Code of Conduct. Level 4.2 relates to physically assaulting a fellow player, match official or spectators. The final verdict related to this issue was rendered by the IPL match referee and former Test stumper, Farokh Engineer. Bhajji was slapped a 11 match ban and he can't play in the remaining IPL matches.

But these brought to my mind few points.

1. This one is purely related to the economics part of it. This slap will go down in history as one of the costliest slap ever. In this case, both Harbhajan and Sreesanth would be immortalized with the former as the conferrer and the later as the recipient of the most high-priced slap. Harbhajan was auctioned for a whopping $8,50,000 (approximately Rs 3.4 crore), the buyer being Reliance Industries.

Just simple mathematics shows close to what Harbhajan earns and what he losses in this opera. Assuming that there are 14 matches he is going to play for IPL.

Gain = (3/14)*3.4 = .73 crores INR.
Loss = (11/14)*3.4 = 2.67 crores INR.

Bhajji, 'yeh thapad tujhe baahut mAhAnga paada dost.'

2. This is kind of a googly for me. Is Harbhajan that unfledged, a school kid, or is he a professinal who has played for India for close to 10 years in the test and one day format of the game ? Does he not know that his heroics and skirmishes will have ripple effect later. He knew what happened in Australia a couple of months back, was that sequence not enough to ring alarm bells ? Is caution the key for him or his short temper attitude? I guess Bhajji knows what's the best answer is for him.

3. I feel like laughing to see poor Sreesanth, crying like a kid after the slapping incident. I personally feel that Sreesanth's weeping was more of drama and role-playing than reality. The entire crowd and TV viewers know how he makes faces, good, bad, ugly on the field. I can equate his act to that of Italy's Marco Materazzi, who re-acted as if a missile had pierced his heart, when he was head butted by Zidane. Man, c'mon in the practice sessions in football, they are trained for more severe physical onslaughts. Anyways, after lot of brassy news over the cheerleaders, this incident added a new twist to IPL and made for some interesting news.

4. Everyone knows, at least I consider this, if I put it the right way, Mumbai is the Mecca of cricket in India. Bhajji donned the captaincy hat because Sachin was injured. So didn't he not realize that, he had a whole lot of more responsibilities and obligations as he was replacement for someone, who is one of the biggest legends of cricket, Sachin Tendulkar. The way Bhajji behaved, displayed it was a smacking not only on Indian cricket, but also on the city that breathes cricket and is passionate about it to the core. Think of Sachin Tendulkar, how many times in his career he has been haunted and tormented by the media and others during his rough patches, when marked by under-performance. How many times, has he raised his voice even while replying in the press, forget being aggressive with the reporters. He uses his bat and keeps cricket lovers stunning with the passing years, his bat does the speechmaking and not his histrionics.

Also, everyone knows that IPL is all about cricket with oodles of entertainment, glamour, money, etc involved in it. Come to think of it's sheer business, barons and tycoons have pumped in tremendous amounts of money, so each of the teams would try to outshine the others. But that doesn't mean that with a loss, someone is going to behave irrationally. Fine, agreed that Mumbai team had lost all its initial matches, but that doesn't mean the team lacks talent. It's just that this is a different fast-food format of cricket, and there is whole lot of new experimentations (ex: player X from Y region is not playing for Y region but for Z region.). Also many people forget that Mumbai has the maximum number of Ranji Trophy Titles (a pure and original format of cricket sans the showbiz), i.e. 37 which as far as I know is the highest number won by any team. So what if they are little behind in this new phaata phaat generation cricket.

Bhajji, was this too much of gyan for you?

Keep reading and remain connected.

Green Earth Day...

Someone calls it the 'Earth Day', someone calls it the 'Green Day'. Do we need to shudder and get scary with tomes of news on global warming? Some basic questions come to our mind, Is the world really heating up? Are all the takes on greenhouse gas emissions just void talk or is something really happening? Or is there concrete statistics to augment the catastrophes and tragedies that may occur because of global warming, the world's greatest environmental threat, ...right now?

One school of researchers and analysts, feel that the greatest global threat is neither environmental nor scientific, but a self-created political fiasco.

The problem here is not that of climate change per se, but rather that of the sophisticated scientific brainwashing that has been inflicted on the public, bureaucrats and politicians alike. Governments generally choose not to receive policy advice on climate from independent scientists. Rather, they seek guidance from their own self-interested science bureaucracies and senior advisers, or from the IPCC itself. No matter how accurate it may be, cautious and politically non-correct science advice is not welcomed in Westminster, and nor is it widely reported.

But the other school the covers the rest majority feels that, 'Yes' there is a change in the world: climatic, environmental, societal, ecological and in other related domains.

Let's not get into the complex web of questions and the mesh of answers that would spring up. Let's tackle or talk about something that is very basic and affects our life in someway or the other.

How does it feel for someone who resides in Bangalore, to drive back home in the late evenings or in the afternoon? Has the summer temperature risen? Do you feel the same as you used to feel in the night, say ten years back in the city of Bangalore, incase of a power failure? Lets not delve into metrological data to find a reply to these questions. We experience this everyday and even one need not be educated in basics of science to understand the underlying causes. Each one of us knows that there are some external factors, few man-made and few natural, that are acting in a devious way to cause this state of suffocation.

Can we avoid this?

Yes, we can avoid this. Avoid not by indulging in big talks and sessions, like take the case of the US President, Bush. This chap goes around the world stating that we need to do this, we need to do that, the fast growing Asian economy is the biggest chimney for the disaster. Contrary to this, the US adds more pollutants and toxins to the atmosphere and environment than any other nation in the world. Let me not digress here and stick to the pivotal point, that is each one of us as a responsible citizen can make a difference.

There is a lady in Bangalore, Janet who has planted more than 650 trees so far in the city which today witnesses ruthless mowing down of trees for broadening of roads and adding new physical infrastructure to meet the needs of a growing economy.

I also know of an interesting initiative, spearheaded by a team of nature lovers, that has gathered momentum in the city of Mysore. The team is known as FORT (Friends Of Roadside Trees) and to know more you can check its site here.

Even the IT and technology firms have taken proactive actions to contribute towards this endeavor in their own smart ways. A couple of days back, I read an article that states how Google partially powers its huge data centers with solar power, using the energy derived from the solar photovoltaic panels.

Recently Yahoo! launched a magnificent information portal that is a one stop center to gather info about climate change and environmental news. The Yahoo! Green website page has a number of tabs, each catering to a specific topic, Global Warming, hints to lead a Green Lifestyle, etc. Two of the biggest internet giants, with their game plans for a greener world and this tickles, Michael Arrington from Techcrunch with a curious question: Google vs. Yahoo, who cares most about the environment?

Last weekend, I was in IIMB for the Barcamp and there was an interactive session on 'innovation'. The intention of introducing the word 'excogitation' or 'innovation' is to highlight the fact that with a little bit of out of the box thinking, we can recycle and reuse for a greener planet.

It's simple, just ride a special type of tricycle to a local water source, fill water to a small tank in the back of the tricycle. Pedal back home and by the time you reach home, you get a tank of 20 gallons of filtered water and also in the process you didn’t add any pollutants or toxins to the atmosphere. Add to this, you even did physical exercise while cycling.

Watch the video to see how it works.



Keep reading and remain connected.

Today one word 'reading' in my usual blog signature 'Keep reading and remain connected.' triggered a debatable question. To me reading (other than news and blogs) is synonymous with having my own hard copy of the books. This corresponds to a simple equation, books need pages, pages need paper, paper need trees to be felled. So am I responsible? or Should I turn fast to be an e-book lover? I am confused now.