Of Situation

After what appeared to be a gentle reminder of the fact that I am no longer in NYC, this morning I logged onto everyone's favourite networking site and told the random part of the world that I am now in London.

As much as I'd like to analyse and read into how and what made me do so a mere 4 months after shifting to London, I suspect I may have better things to do with my Saturday. (Gasp if you must at its implausibility)

Instead, a little reminder from Chris Cornell for those of us going through not so happy times:

Even when you've paid enough, been put upon or been held up
With every single memory of the good or bad, faces of luck
Don't lose any sleep tonight, I'm sure everything will end up alright
You may win or lose

But to be yourself is all that you can do

Get out of my city...

Last year, we academically explored how distance (physical or otherwise) tends to magnify the perception and/or impact of human rights violations. Ironic...

Bless you, Bombay - don't give in...

Music Education - Class 3

I know I have been somewhat inconsistent with the timing of my classes. I do hope that 'madness, gallivanting and laziness' offer my students adequate chronological explanation for my failings!

Today's choice of song is Orion by Metallica off their 3rd album - Master of Puppets. The obvious choice of track from any one of Metallica's first 3 albums is usually the title track off Master, but in light of the fact that I'm hoping to educate those unused to blatant screaming, I use Orion.

Orion is one of the best metal instrumentals that I know of - up there with Transylvania (Iron Maiden), Call of Ktulu (Metallica) and the endless list of Steve Vai's guitar solos or even some of Dream Theater's stuff (although I know a lot less about the last). One of the great shames of the commercialisation / mainstream-isation of metal is that you no longer hear 8 and a half minute epics like Orion. Iron Maiden is one of the few bands which continues to write longer songs. I always feel that its a huge challenge to write a 7, 8, 9 minute song which keeps the listener interested. That becomes all the more difficult when you don't say anything through lyrics and its why good metal instrumentals are so rare.

Listen to Orion. When you're done, I'd advise listening to Call of Ktulu. Even my most soft-hearted (and soft-eared) readers will appreciate these.

By way of a history lesson, Metallica blew open the metal stage in the early 80's. They were basically nothing more than a bunch of kids jamming in a garage. No costumes (no spandex on stage!), no big pyrotechnics (not until later, anyhow) and lots of alcohol. There'a a great deal of debate on this, but I've always felt that their first 3 albums (Kill 'Em All, Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets) showcase their best as a band - true metal. If you have decent speakers / earphones - pay attention to the bass in Orion and how Cliff Burton, the bassist (who died after the first 3 albums) dictates the movements in the song to a large extent. That is conspicously missing in their later work. It also gives you a feel of how critical bass is to metal / hard rock.

As an exercise in scientific research - try and find a poor recording of an Iron Maiden concert where the bass is overpowering (or in the case of all you lucky ones, turn your mind back to their gigs). Compare that version to the studio version and you will see how much work Steve Harris actually does and how he dictates the melody patterns. If you don't know which song to look at - Run to the Hills is a good place to start. I'll try and do the needful if I can myself and post the links.

Until the next class...

Shocking...

The past couple of days have been odd. First, in view my stagnating skills, I had my first real session trying to learn to actually play the guitar again without much luck. As it turns out, the electrician in charge of wiring our beloved house, amongst various other eccentricities, also had an aversion to earthing lines. As a result, my guitar provided me with periodic surges of current whenever my hands brushed the bridge. Thankfully, news of Kiddo's latest foray into the musical world made up for that, even if she hasn't been regular with her blogging.

Second, I visited one of those overpriced movie theatres (again) to watch a Hindi movie for the second time this year. For fear of public ridicule, I shall not openly name either of the movies. Suffice it to say that whereas I survived one courtesy of consistent sarcastic comments between us, I survived the other thanks to amusing cameo roles, the odd well-portrayed minor character and above all, Bombay nostalgia.

Third, not for the first time in the life of the Sridhar boys, I have decided to try and catalogue our books. God bless my soon-to-be-asthmatic lung.

Of age and relative youth

You know you're getting old when:

1. Kids you call...well, 'kids', are worrying about employment rather than petty politics
2. Your idea of a good time is an hour on Marine Drive with good, bad or even no company
3. A drinking session with someone you call 'Sir' isn't that alarming
4. You've lost touch with that idealistic streak and have taken to a daily tallying of your finances and predicting your financials over the next year instead
5. A large proportion of conversations with people your age revolve around the date of, planning of or lack of a future marriage
6. You dive for cover everytime you see someone you need to make PC with, no matter how important the person can be to you
7. A relationship is just the same as one of those ridiculous figures like 1000 degrees centigrade or 1 million light years. You'd much rather curl up with a book and music rather than see what it really means
8. People ask you what you're up to now, rather than what your career plans are
9. You think about giving real money to College
10. As long as you have something useful to do during the day, 4 hours of sleep is enough

Au revoir Bombay...may I never feel the need to change my location on this blog.

Update...just an update

I dare say this post's a tad overdue. And while stories of my various adventures gallivanting across India might fill up a few pages, I'm not terribly keen on getting that down into type. So I find myself with writer's block - wondering when I might actually get some productive work(?) done this month.

On my summer to-do list were three simple things:
1. Exercise
2. Learn how to play the damn guitar
3. Write something

I'm a clear zero on all fronts this far. Unsurprisingly. What's truly worrying though, is the abject lack of counter-intertia. I like inertia. Usually moving inertia., but any will do. Right now I feel like a lump of clay. And quite honestly I'm beginning to look like one too. (well - if a cartoonist had to sketch me, anyhow).

Project for tomorrow is interesting and will hopefully take place. V1 has agreed to try and put together an easy chair made from corrugated cardboard. If it works, it may look very similar to my first easy chair in London.

Perhaps I will restart Music Education 101 tomorrow as well.

Get done Get done Get done

It's absolutely amazing how I can punch out a well drafted 3200 word answer to an exam in 5-6 hours and how an 8000 word paper has been stuck at its nascent stages for over 5-6 weeks. I've had it...I really have. I carry myself through these final 45 hours with the comforting knowledge that I will never again have to submit an academic paper on a deadline. Further comfort is found in the Elder One's similar writing block and yearning for practical work!

I promise

I promise I will never take another classroom course again...ever.
In return for this deed of immense generosity, o' kind world, grant me the B minus' I long for this term...just don't make me study anymore.

Give me a drink...a large, potent one

Barcelona 0 - 1 Man Utd
res ipsa...

Rant...literally

Another sporty post. What are the odds that I'm going to really worry about missing the Champions League Final on 21st May because its graduation day? The odds are not on whether I'm going to miss watching it (I am going to miss it), but whether it will mean anything. Lets take a look:

Barca have now won 1 of their last 7 league games. We beat Schalke unconvincingly in 2 legs of a CL quarter-final. We've lost to Athletico (badly), lost to Villareal (who are now favourites to take away 2nd place in the League), drawn with Almeria, lost to Betis (after going into half-time 2-0 up), drawn with Getafe and Recreativo (relegation team) and drawn the derby match with Espanyol.

ManU are in impeccable form. On their way to another Premiership crown. Destroyed Roma in the quarters. Injury free'ish.

I liked it better when we were struggling for a place in the UEFA Cup a few years back. This is promising the world and giving you that little island which is the 2nd furthest from the Intl Date-Line on the Eastern side and which no one really wants to visit... C'mon...C'MON....C'MOOOOOON - for god's sake this is a ridiculous turnaround in the season. Its just annoying....

Here endeth the rant...

Pull the Plug, will you?

I wish I had the inherent ability to BS. I'm in the middle of a dreadful drafting slump after the diarrhoea that ensured I got my previous paper out in time...

I'm hoping for at least 2000 words today.... please???

Tips are welcome...

Informed Worries

People who know me best will know that I have a severe institutional bias, particularly when I form a part of that institution. I came across two things that got me thinking about transparency in the system and the random janta's right to accessing information.

First, I logged onto Wikileaks for the first time. I had, of course, heard about the project previously but for some reason, had never really got on to take a look myself. After a quick browse, I got to the India page and found this, which it turns out is an MoU between Kingfisher Airlines and Airbus for the purchase of 60 aircrafts. Unfortunately, there is nothing on the document which indicates who the lawyers were, but I'd be sure that there are a few ulcers going around after seeing this document out in the public domain. (Unless it was deliberately released - unlikely, no?)

The second was this - which is a letter from the Editors' Guild to the IPL. Those with strong views on the BCCI's activities and other sundry concerns will now be pleased to know that they can bomb Lalit Modi and Sharad Pawar's personal inboxes.

When the Right to Information issue blew up in India, I was more fearful than excited. I have no sympathy for bureaucratic sloth and the RTI is a good way to keep a check on that, but at the same time it often becomes impossible to efficiently run an organisation (leave alone a country) where almost everything you do is open to the scrutiny of 'busybodies, wayside interlopers....' (can't remember the quote - awful). I know...I've been there. Even the best of motives always rub some people off the wrong way and that little curtain separating what you need to tell people and what you don't is often the critical difference between being able to achieve something or not.

For the record - I was excessively opaque...

Phew!!

The title of this post is uninspiring, but there is no other way to describe this afternoon's football.

After the rubbish against Betis and Getafe, one would have thought today's game would be a good way to get back into some sort of flow. Instead Barca ended up finding a new low. Horrible, atrocious, disastrous, unispiring, terrible, DIRTY(!!) football - both up front and at the back. ManU is going to be a pretty stern test if this nonsense keeps up.

Puyol misses the ManU game at the Camp after a stupid yellow and Milito and Marquez will have to step up, because Thuram was absolutely terrible as well - he looked lethargic and just coudn't keep up with the Schalke forwards. Zambrotta is going have to pick his game up if he's going to try and contain Ronaldo. And Marquez is going to have to do very well to get back to full fitness to keep Rooney out.

Henry and Eto'o were absolutely pathetic up front. I don't think Henry has quite adjusted to the huge pitch at the Nou Camp and the 3-man frontline. I think Rijkaard might do well to give him a run out as sole centre with Gio and Bojan flanking or even Eto'o on the left with Bojan on the right.

Despite all the support that Rijkaard is getting from Juan Laporta, I think the only way he's going to keep his job is by winning the C.League. The League is lost after squandering one chance after another to overtake Real and one bad game put us out of the Cup as well. I'd hate to see him go - I think he's done a super job building this team- but something's gotta give...

For the Animal Lovers

AT took Kiddo's concerns about hitting penguins to heart. He scoured the cyberspace high and low before he found this game and asked me at least 5 times over the course of 12 hours to post it here. I find that it tends to be less addictive than the penguin game because of the luck factor involving those springs everywhere.

Maiden Photos

I've been meaning to do this for a while - but I've just been tied up. After due pressure in the cyberspace from SM and a throughly unproductive day, here are some of the better shots from the Maiden gig. I'll blog about the whole thing when I get some time. The photos are in 'small' because it takes forever in any size larger (the problems with 6-7 megapixel cameras), but click on them and they'll blow up on your screen for a better look.

Iron Maiden - just before or after Eddie walked on

The Trooper with Mr. Dickinson playing jackrabbit and running all over the place dressed as an English soldier.

Iron Maiden - Eddie

2 shots during Rime of the Ancient Mariner - my favourite song for the evening.

An excessively excited me before the gig while we waited for the fateful bus (long story).

Footnote for this photo - remarks on the hair are best left unpublished...

Democracy - Is it time for Zim?

The little faith that I possess in a democratic system's ability to influence actual change was given a huge boost when Pakistan told Musharraf how it felt a couple of months ago. Zimbabwe now has a chance to do the same, with far more to gain in the process. Can it's people do it for their TPLAC (Yes Minister joke!).

Also, how likely is Mugabe to allow a fair election?

Tibet

There's a petition on avaaz.org up to be signed. Click here to sign it.
In other news, motherly presence coupled with pending papers has restrained a detailed blog about the Maiden gig (there is quite a story). Photos and a post shall follow as and when possible.

MAAAAAIDEEEEEEEEN

The countdown has been removed. There are 5 hours and some 20 minutes to the start of the gig. Probably another hour and a half after that to 'Aces High'...

Happy birthday to the kidoo!!

Ericsson ad

I found this classic ad which I don't think anyone has forgotten even after all these years.

Its amazing to think that in 1996 the phone she's using was 'tiny'!

Music Education Class 2 (Part 2)

This is one of the 3 songs Iron Maiden first recorded back in 1979'ish and was also on their first album (titled Iron Maiden).

For those of you with some experience in Maiden songs, you may notice the voice doesn't sound quite the same. That's because this is Paul Di'anno, the vocalist who preceded Bruce Dickinson. This song - Prowler - is best with him singing.

I would ordinarily put up live videos of Maiden. But unfortunately, the only video with Di'anno singing (Live at the Ruskin Arms in 1980) is very poor quality and therefore, this studio version must suffice.

Music Education - Class 2 (Part 1)

After the initial introduction of possible things to come last week, I revert to my promise of gradual progress. Today's featured song is a classic. Written in the late 1960s / early 70s, Paranoid was one of the songs that propelled Black Sabbath to metal legends status. Even the more ignorant of my readers will have heard of Ozzy Osbourne - he was (still is) Sabbath's frontman.

To truly appreciate this song, picture yourself as a teenager, about a year after you first heard 'I'd like to be, under the sea, in an Octupus' Garden with you'. Along comes Sabbath with frighteningly noir lyrics, and using distortion pedals to actually sound 'heavy'.

For the reader with problems watching the video - you don't have to. This is pretty much the first time I've watched these videos as well. I include a couple of links (these are optional for the course, but highly recommended) below:
1. Megadeth's version of Paranoid - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0ISjWmkUnI
2. Ironman by Black Sabbath (another classic - lyrics on the info part of the video) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S524O_XNoLM

For Paranoid and Ironman - notice the wonderful riffs - how they're so catchy...especially when they're sped up (and made even heavier), ala the Megadeth version.

Before I give you the lyrics to Paranoid - the more perceptive of you will notice that this is only Part 1 of today's class. The reason for this is that thanks to upcoming events, I feel compelled to include an Iron Maiden song on today's class. That forms Part 2 of today's class.

Paranoid lyrics:

Finished with my woman cause she couldn't help me with my mind.
people think i'm insane because I am frowning all the time!

All day long I think of things
but nothing seems to satisfy
Think I'll lose my mind
if I don't find something to pacify

Can you help me, occupy my brain?
Oh yeah!

I need someone to show me
the things in life that I can't find
I can't see the things that make true
happiness, I must be blind

Make a joke and I will sigh
and you will laugh and I will cry
Happiness I cannot feel
and love to me is so unreal

And so as you hear these words
telling you now of my state
I tell you to enjoy life
I wish I could but it's too late

Escort me, wont you?

I found this some time back. I think I mentioned it a couple of weeks ago to AT , who is also a regular user of the TOI e-paper.

I don't know what to make of it... any thoughts?

Music Education Announcement

Due to You Tube's inefficiency, I have managed to lose to the depths of cyberspace Class 2 of the Course. Such losses cannot be tolerated. From now on, therefore, I shall only provide links to the You Tube page where the video can be viewed and post from my friendly dashboard.

Unfortunately, due to time constraints, this cannot be done this weekend and I shall post the next installment (again!) sometime early next week, but before the countdown clock to the right of your screen turns to 0.

Bad News

Messi is out for 6 weeks with a thigh / hamstring tear. There is obviously something wrong with his physical training / amount of rest. This is what - the 3rd? 4th? time that it's happened to him in the past year and a bit. I hope they keep him on the bench for the better part of the remaining 3 odd months of the season, which will give him a good 4 and a half month rest going into the next season.

I don't deny that there is an obvious spark about Barca when he's playing, but its not very useful if he keeps limping off every other month. I think Henry, Ronaldinho, Eto'o, Eidur and Gio as the front-line options are formidable enough to get Barca the treble this year...

Forca Barca

Barca are through, convincingly beating Celtic at the Camp. Keeps the high spirits up after this morning's cricket. The only downside was Arsenal beating Milan. If there's one team I like watching in the Champions League, its Milan and thanks really to Maldini. This is the end of his C.League career. I suppose most knew that last year would probably be the last time we see him lift that trophy. All in all, it would have still been wonderful to see him play Barca in the final and pick up a runners-up medal!

Looks like he will have to be content with his incredible tally of 5 cups and 3 runners-up medals.

Well done India!

I'm sorry - but this is a deserved cricket post. It's been a while since I've watched an Indian team which has kept me so interested in the game. The last I can remember is the 2003-04 test series Down Under. I suppose the fact that its Australia made this tour all the more watch-able.

So we've just won the 2nd final a few hours back, which has resulted in my sleep patterns being completely destroyed for the 2nd time in 3 days. And I know there's enough talk about this, but here are some of the kids who delivered:
1. Rohit Sharma - who?
2. Praveen Kumar - who?
3. Piyush Chawla - who?
4. Ishant Sharma - who?

It's astonishing how these guys have come out of nowhere and exploded on to Australia. I'm incredibly excited about India's pace attack when it gets back to full strength - Zaheer, RP, Ishant, Sreesanth, Pathan, Praveen, Munaf(will he get a spot?), VRV (?). That's just amazing for an Indian team. Kudos to Venky for his work.

I was especially impressed with Piyush's bowling in the first final (and he wasn't bad in the 2nd). He bowled 60 balls. No wides. No short balls. 33 runs. That is incredible control for a leggie. I still thinks he needs a few more tricks to get wickets in Tests. And hopefully he'll be there by the time Kumble decides it's time.

I think Praveen might have a look-in for the Test side if there's a seaming pitch. I'm not so sure he'll be very good on a flattish track. I think the ideal Test bowling make up would be Zaheer, Ishant, Kumble, Bhajji and/or RP / Pathan. We need a good opening bat to step up, though. Jaffer has glitches in his technique and was found out and Sehwag will never be the anchor. Dravid is too good a No. 3 to open with. Rohit Sharma looks good enough to get a test call up - not to open though. Gambhir has arguably the worst technique for a No.3 in world cricket. I suppose what we really need is a Test all-rounder. Pathan isn't quite there, not to mention the nightmare he had with the ball in the finals (barring the final over).

In other random bits of observations on the finals:

• it was great to see Praveen acting like a kid and running away from the rest of the team to avoid saying anything after he won the MoM. He doesn't speak English - and that'll do nicely if he keeps it up against the Proteas.

• It was nice to see Mark Taylor having to shut up the Indian section of the crowd during the presentation. When he realised his mic wasn't going to drown out a 1000 inebriated Indian fans - he asked for a loud cheer for both teams! That section then went on to chant 'Boring boring' when Ponting was speaking (which was nice to see, especially in Australia). But equally they shut up when Gilchrist spoke and he deserves that. I think he's pushed this a series too far - you could see his relexes and batting skills are nowhere close to what they used to be. Maybe its just the mental weight of knowing this was his last series...

• I'm surprised Hogg has retired. He's fitter than our 25 year olds and is getting so good with the ball. No one except Sachin is picking him out of the hand, which is worrying from India's perspective. Also considering Aus isn't playing India for a bit after this, he might have gone on a tad longer. For some reason, Sachin thinks he doesn't deserve anything less than 10 runs from Hogg's bowling. It was weird to see him charging Hogg in the first final with the required rate at 3.5! He kept up his word and didn't get out to him after the last time in Baroda(?).

• Australia has a lot of problems. They have an under-par side, batting wise and are a quality spinner short. I suppose they'll be happy their next assignment is the Windies, who should be very useful to help blood some youngsters and get everyone back into form.

• For India - good times ahead. Loads of kids coming through. Despite my overwhelming adoration for him, I still think there's a place in the ODI side for Ganguly. He brings a lot to the table and India are struggling a bit in the middle order. He'll be useful when we play 4 bowlers.

This can go on forever. But class beckons....

Hope

Russia's new President-elect is 5'4", a lawyer (almost an academic) and has risen from basically being a political nothing to President in a little over 8 years. I find it absolutely incredible (particularly the part about him being a lawyer - these are all random facts gleaned from Wikipedia during a horribly boring weekly class).

It does give me some hope, though. But then India might have to move towards a psuedo-dictatorship pretty soon...and one of the A's (or someone equally well known to me) might have to be the first President.
Hope is a wonderful thing...

The Penguin Game

One of those simple, annoying and horrribly addictive online games. I was kindly introduced to it by AT and am now cursing him for that. See here.

Stats Question

India needs 11 more to win. I'm just wondering - does anyone recall how many times / the last time Tendulkar hit the winning runs in an ODI or was NO at the end?

Music Education - Class 1

I have decided (in the interests of keeping the blog going during lean patches) to begin educating my many many readers in the music I listen to. I will post a song once every week (usually on Friday afternoons).

Course Requirements:
You WILL listen to the song. While most songs are short I do not rule out exposure to 13 minute epics such as the Rime of the Ancient Mariner etc.

We will progress gradually, but you may, from time to time, be required to make a leap for a week. You will not be graded on these difficult songs.

For my introductory class, I have chosen Machine Head by Bush. The lyrics are below. The part of the song to especially note is the riff (the intro sequence of notes) and in particular how it's used midway during the first verse in the background to build up to the chorus. The lyrics aren't bad either. Enjoy!

Breathe in, breathe out
Breathe in, breathe out
Breathe in

Breathe in, breathe out
Breathe in, breathe out
Breathe in

Tied to a wheel fingers got to feel
Bleedin' through a turniquet smile
I spin on a whim I slide to the right
I felt you like electric light
For our love
For our fear
For our rise against the years and years and years

Got a machinehead better than the rest
Green to red machinehead
Got a machinehead better than the rest
Green to red
And I walk from my machine
I walk from my machine

Breathe in, breathe out
Breathe in, breathe out
Breathe in

Deaf, dumb, and thirty
Starting to deserve this
Leaning on my conscience wall
Blood is like wine
Unconscious all the time
If I had it all again
I'd change it all

Got a machinehead better than the rest
Green to red machinehead
Got a machinehead better than the rest
Green to red
And I walk from my machine
I walk from my machine

Breathe in, breathe out
Breathe in, breathe out
Breathe in
Breathe in
Breathe in

Got a machinehead better than the rest
Green to red machinehead
Got a machinehead better than the rest
Green to red
Better than the rest
Better than the rest
Machinehead

And I walk from my machine
I walk from my machine

Another TOI bashing

I have for sometime now been using the TOI e-paper (see here) to keep me abreast of events in Bombay. Unfortunately (or perhaps, fortunately), I do not utilise it to do the same as regards sporting news. Yesterday, I did. The result is the discovery of a new section (it must be new - I can't recollect ever noticing it previously) amongst the sports pages titled 'Graffiti'.

Here is an excerpt from yesterday's edition of Graffiti that no doubt every discerning parent will want their precocious 5-yr olds to begin the day with. After all, the sports pages (now web-pages) are the place we all did (I still do) most of my news reading.

ANDERSON SCORES IN THE TOILET!
Manchester United ace Anderson scored with a model in a Travelodge toilet after chatting her up with those three little words: "F***, f***, f***." The Manchester United midfielder, who is Brazilian and cannot speak English, demonstrated his low-league seduction techniques on a night out with team-mate Patrice Evra. Firstly he tried to bed Leah Houghton, 20, in front of her pals and Evra in a hotel bedroom. Then, he led her to the bathroom while their friends waited outside. A pal of Leah said: "Anderson couldn't talk to her because he is from Brazil and only speaks Portuguese.

"So he took his top off, stripped to his boxers and socks and pushed Leah on to the bed in front of everyone. "She asked, What are you doing?' Evra translated for Anderson, who told Leah, F**k, f**k, f**k.' Then he dragged her to the bathroom. "He ripped off her grey pencil skirt and knickers, and they had sex on the toilet while we and Evra sat in the bedroom watching the TV.

PS to Hayden Post

Hindustan Times has managed to find the audio of the now infamous Hayden interview. See here. (Firefox users may need to use IE to get it to run) It is, to say the least, shocking.

I cannot believe the ICC is going to let this pass with a simple reprimand from Cricket Australia.

Note especially Hayden's response to 'why are they (the Indians) so sensitive'? This from the Team which has complained to the umpires every time an Indian has said something to an Aussie player.

'You obnoxious little weed'

But Matt Hayden's 'intentions were never to denigrate cricket or anyone.'
Which led me to try and figure out what denigrate means. Here it is (courtesy dictionary.com):

Denigrate: 'to speak damagingly of; criticize in a derogatory manner; sully; defame'

The Aussies are not known to be the most academically oriented bunch (AT tends to refer to them as radiya's), but its a little hard to see how calling Harbhajan an 'obnoxious weed' does anything but 'denigrate'.

My next pet peeve about Hayden's delightfully obnoxious buccal weed (my intentions are not to denigrate). Here referring to Ishant: "He is just young. I have said to him many times, 'You are 19, take it easy'. ... He is 19, why doesn't he just worry about his bowling for a while? I like the idea of actually getting into the ring (with him). I like that, bring it on."

2 things: first, Ishant seems to be concentrating more than enough on his bowling. Certainly enough to regularly get Ponting ('the world's best batsman') out through the summer. Second, are you seriously asking for a match-up in a boxing ring? WHO DOES THAT? The only people I recall are slightly obnoxious boxers (my intentions are not to denigrate) and for them, its sort of their job.

So to you Mr. Hayden - keep that tongue inside the mouth and score some runs if you can. If you can't, I'd recommend you concentrate on your own batting rather than telling 19 year-old's to worry about their bowling.

And women's cricket should be encouraged, eh?

From the BBC:

South Africa women took just four balls to sweep to a 10-wicket win after bowling out Bermuda for just 13.

South African bowler Sunette Loubser finished with 6-3, with 10 of Bermuda's 13 runs coming from extras.

South Africa's score of 15 for 0 was also made up of ten extras - nine wides and a no-ball.

Bermuda's embarrassing defeat will not be recorded in official statistics because they are ranked outside the world's top ten countries.

Sporty post...read on

After 6 months in this wretched country with no cricket, a few of us decided that enough was enough. We (Roomie, AT and I) took out my squash racquet and a foam ball and started playing in the hallways of my dorm. Before long, one of the staff seemed to think we were upto some mischief, because at least one of us was jumping up and down appealing for a caught behind when he emerged through the elevator. Luckily the other two delinquents had become adept at hiding the racquet and ball as soon as the elevator opens.

In the urge to find a larger arena as well as to avoid any sort of disciplinary action (which we were quite happy to invite, mind you), we moved to the vacant indoor tennis courts in our Sports Centre. There we began what would become a 45-minute game(s) of rounders with the foam ball swinging like a TT Ball and where the task of hurtling the ball in a legal manner towards the batsman proved rather tiring. So much so that Roomie even ended up using the bhatta route in one instance before the remaining players vehemently protested this blasphemous use of the elbow.

Americans, I have noticed, tend be fascinated with things they don't understand. (this is incidentally my explanation for why bizarre theories in academic papers make super-geniuses out of academicians here) So too with cricket. While a couple, to their tremendous credit, recognised the game (although they may have been european), the others stood watching in awe until their respective games of racquetball and squash beckoned.

Plans are now afoot to bring together a large pack of Indians to appropriately utilise the wide open spaces that NYU has provided within the confines of the warm indoor complex.

In other sporty news, we came 2nd in our division in TT this semester, famously upsetting Columbia. Unfortunately (as is so often the case in these things), my worst form coincided with this happy occurence and so while I won all but one match (the one I lost being non-crucial since we had already lost the tie), I found myself in terrible form and playing a series of under-quality matches. But then...the overall result is good enough for me! Hopefully these kids will pull it off again next year and make it to the Nationals...

Great...or is just good?

Unfortunately, the Readers are to be subject to another cricket-related post, despite my usual reluctance to blog about anything cricket related. India has just pulled off a deserved victory at the WACA. Meanwhile, at the other end of the Australian mainland, Federer has been pushed all the way, missing a bunch (about 15?) of break points on his way to beating Tipsarevic 10-8 in the 5th.

But this is, as I said, a cricket-post. It does not have to do with the controversies of Sydney 10 days ago, nor does it have to do with the victory at Perth. Rather, it has to do with this absurd notion of how great this (and indeed, Steve Waugh's) Australian team is. Lets take an objective look at the two 16-test runs, shall we?

Waugh:
1-0 v. Zim in Zim
3-0 v. Pak in Aus
3-0 v. Ind in Aus
3-0 v. NZ in NZ
5-0 v. WI in Aus
1-0 v. Ind in Ind

Ponting:
2-0 v. SA in Aus
3-0 v. SA in SA
2-0 v. Ban in Ban
5-0 v. Eng in Aus
2-0 v. SL in Aus
2-0 v. Ind in Aus

Notice a common thread? The abject lack of any wins in alien conditions. Discard NZ and SA - the conditions there are pretty much Aussie-esque conditions. Do I see any wins on the sub-continent? 1 for Waugh at Bombay in the first test of the 2001 series. We all know how that turned out, right? Ponting? 2 wins in Bangladesh. One of them courtesy a double century from Jason Gillespie. Go figure. Do I even see any wins in seaming English conditions?

Don't get me wrong. This is a good team which forces results and wins. Plain stats tell you that teams don't go around winning all their tests over a 3 year period. But besides Ponting's 2 wins in Bangladesh and Waugh's Bombay win - the Aussies haven't had to adapt to different and difficult conditions. Throw in the series in SA if you must - although the SA team of present leave a lot to be desired in the Test arena. India had a pretty good series there in Dec 2006.

They're a good team, but I'll only be convinced once they go play Pak in Pak, Eng in Eng, Ind in Ind, SL in SL and even the WI in WI, and come out trumps. Until then, one can only hope that India wins the Adelaide test, considering we should have been 2-1 up at this stage after the rubbish at Sydney.