Additions

Another addition to my friendly blog. See the sidebar for the radio station link. It's from a site called last.fm, to which I was very kindly introduced by the Larger A.

This radio station plays classical music and is pretty good, even if I do know nothing about classical music...pretty good to work with, though.

The Weekend

Had a great weekend with the Larger A. Much eating and even a little bit of bad wining. This afternoon was terrible. We lost 1-0 to Real. Worse than that, we played poorly. The mood was greatly lifted by some wonderful news on the personal front.

X'mas trip starts early tomorrow morning. NYC-Boston-NYC-Toronto-NYC.
Blogging may be irregular.

Bis dann...season's greetings.

To the quicks

I don't usually like a cricket post, but I watched a little bit of the SA-WI Twenty20 game. It looks a one-sided affair - but Dale Steyn has just bowled an incredible spell and it deserves a mention.

The last time I remember being completely awestruck about this kind of fast bowling was Shoaib's spell (must have been 98-99) in an ODI against the Kiwis when Wasim was still captain. Shoaib, if I recall correctly, took 4 wickets in a 3 or 4 over spell in the middle of the innings - all of them bowled. Steyn has just taken 4 wickets in a 3 over spell - all of them bowled...

Hopefully he can stay away from injuries and give us some serious entertainment over the next few years. It's one of the things that excessive cricket over the past 10 years has deprived us of - Shoaib, Bond and a super-fast Lee.

Launder...it well

See here for a frightening piece in today's HT on the investment of funds by the Al-Qaeda and Taliban in our stock markets.

Galle Cricket Ground

This is a wonderful piece on Galle's curator, Jayanand Warnaweera and his struggle after the Tsunami of 2004.

Here's to Meditation

A wonderful piece sent to me by JG. Read on about the importance of meditation....in the judicial arena.

She's had to scan it...but trust me - a bit of neck craning and patience is worth it. It will put to rest any doubts you had about whether arbitration and meditation were the same thing!

When in doubt, sue?

Finally and perhaps inevitably, the fight goes to Court. See here and here for a couple of reports on the suo motu PIL to save the alma mater from ruination.

Is it the right move at this stage? Or ought the strategy have been to wait and fight it out without judicial intervention? I don't know and I don't have the time to analyse it today - this will have to wait a couple of days.

The General Returns

As BBC goes bonkers with its analysis of Capello taking over - here's my 2 paise worth. The best part of why I think the 'General' (or is it dictator? certain countries seem to confuse the situation!) will do well is that he's one of the few managers in the world who can deal with a 'superstar' team.

I still remember calling RK from Delhi in August this year feeling absolutely ecstatic and somewhat confused when Real sacked him. He's the only reason Barca lost the La Liga last season. Real were in disarray at the start of the season and Capello got that team together with all their ego issues.

He's got almost a year before England's schedule lifts off, so knowing - him he'll probably even learn English by then. I just have a gut feeling that the 3rd most under-performing national team (1st two being Spain and the Dutch, in that order) will do well.

And oh yeah - I think Beckham may get a look in now...

Settle for Nothing

Sometimes, nothing is better than a bad something. My morning cup of coffee sets the pace for the day. And despite my usual non-fussiness and general ability to cope with all kinds of food and drink of varying quality - the coffee is a basic standard which cannot be breached.

True to the generalisation at the top of this post, days without a cup of morning coffee tend to be better than days with a crap cup - pheeka.

This is a vent rant...I don't like the cup I'm drinking.

If we don't take action now
We settle for nothing later
Settle for nothing now
And we'll settle for nothing later

Settle for Nothing by RATM

God, you're served...

This piece of news turns out to be something that the Larger A has threatened to blackmail me with. Initially, it was merely because I seem to represent the legal community. But that's still a rebuttable presumption and provided me with a healthy escape hatch.

But read the piece and you will discover that the 'Believer' Court in question lies but an hour away from where the world had the privilege of first making my acquaintance. True to the average street-smartness of a lawyer, I managed to give the Larger A a little extra firepower by blurting out that little piece of information.

I think I may be in for a torrid time...

Do the Walk

There are certain things that are universal in this world, regardless of country, race, ethnicity etc etc. One of them, as those of you who have been following my GTalk status messages may know, is the slow torture that is examination time.

The second I have observed, and perhaps not as profound as the first yet undeniably critical to our lives, is the tendency of pedestrians the world over to ignore signals and walk when possible.

Flashback: I recall the Bombay Police trying very hard to get pedestrians (the huge swarms of them) to use the Churchgate subway during peak hours. It was horribly annoying because the subway is terribly under-ventilated, full of aromas (no sarcasm) and usually overcrowded. In fact, I would have absolutely nothing to do with the subway if it wasn't for the photo studio who got me a passport photo briskly in a time of need...and the Jumbo Vada Pav guy...and the sandwich and bhel guys all supplying sustenance...and the...uhmm - never mind the last one (congratulations to KSR on his job). The key was that people don't like being directed and told where to walk (or walk under). The moment the Police stopped wasting their manpower on stopping pedestrians from wandering across the road and disrupting traffic - back they came!! And that included me.

You can then understand my trepidation as I crossed the proverbial seas and moved from the land of the truly free (ala Bombay or even Delhi - mostly Bombay) to NY, having to contemplate waiting endlessly on one side of a zebra crossing in the hope that the traffic authorities have been considerate enough to plan a 30 second duration over a 3 minute one for the vehicular signals.

Then we switch. I come to the land of the allegedly free and as it turns out, the jaywalking clampdown curse goes the other way (or nearly - to Delhi, not Bombay. See here). I was happy to be corrected in my premise that the roads of NY would merely be for the allegedly free. It turns out that the average New Yorker is truly free and happy to cross a road as and when circumstances permit or the need arises, as the case may be.

This is not, however, true of the average Cambridge'ite (of MA fame - not the University) or Berkeley'ite (of the University fame) seeing as Anna, AD and I we hung around a signal on the banks of Charles for an eternity as we waited for the signals to switch. I am rarely seen waiting for the signals to change in NY as are few New Yorkers. One does tend to get bullied into these moments of inactivity, particularly by those of an advanced age.

To be perfectly honest, I must now transfer the title of the allegedly free city to London where, as I recall from my 'brief' visits there, one had to wait for the noisy pedestrian signals (visually challenged friendly - also the reason for the talking lifts. See this post for that reference) to commence their noise-making activities before accessing the opposite side of a zebra crossing.

Cant you see Im easily bothered by persistence
One step from lashing out at you
You want in to get under my skin
And call yourself a friend
I've got more friends like you
What do I do?

Is there no standard anymore?
What it takes, who I am, where I've been
Belong
You cant be something you're not
Be yourself, by yourself, stay away from me
A lesson learned in life
Known from the dawn of time

Respect, walk

-Walk by Pantera

Ignorance is like an exotic fruit....

An 18 year-old genius defending her amazing performance when answering why she thinks Americans can't locate the USA on a map.

Note her new answer where she vouches for the intelligence of her friends, acquaintances and just about anyone she's ever met.

Flake Lawyer

It's snowing like a _____. First real snow for NY.

Am contemplating going out for a walk. But then, a nice big mug of coffee alongwith some grub and my Corporations book seems so much more inviting.

Something's horribly wrong - despite waking up to 'Alive' this morning.

Earning his Keep

One of the best comments I've heard recently - Aamir Sohail on Ganguly's dismissal while trying to whack a Salman Butt (yes!) delivery over the top: Ganguly sacrificed his wicket. He holed out trying to satisfy the urges of his beloved home crowd.

If that's the way Sohail thinks players play, I just wonder...