An absolute thriller.. fitting climax!!

I'm writing this just a few minutes after watching India lift the Twenty20 Cup

India beating Pakistan at the finals of Cricket's first ever big game of the shorter version. None can ask for a better climax to the hugely entertaining tournament. A dream final with twists and turns and that ending in India's favor. It was a edge of the seat thriller till the finish with either team having the chances to snatch the Cup. Ultimately it was a billion hope that prevailed over a hundred million in the first ever Twenty20 World Cup .

I watched this match amidst a crowd of over 100 people at a packed Indian restaurant late in the night here in Kuala Lumpur. I have personally not felt this kind of excitement watching Cricket in the last 8 years. A sudden sharp feeling of excitement ran over my nerves when Sreeshant shattered the stumps. I got up the chair and started moving around frantically during the last over of the match. I got goose bumps watching the Indian team go around the ground with the tri-color after winning. The crowd of Indian supporters started shouting for all the dot balls India bowled. A few Pakistanis present there never attempted to make the slightest noise even when their country batsmen smacked over the ropes in the final overs as a frenzy Indian mob totally outnumbered them. A Malay-Indian friend of mine told me that he read somewhere that India's patriotism feeling is at its best during an India-Pakistan match than even on its Independence Day. I think thats absolutely true. Matches like these get the true patriotism out of Indians. I think I didn't get lucky like those who were sitting on the sands of Marina watching this match in Chennai. The crowd makes the difference.

The newer version of the game has taken the major teams by surprise. Proteas unexpected exit from the tournament; Kiwis and Oz surprise losses; The Tigers shaking the confidence of many top class teams; All South Asian final. The uncertainty in the game is what has made Twenty20 so popular. The match can swing any side within a few balls. Twenty20 has all the elements to make it entertaining like football. Who said Cricket is long and boring?

This is India's most successful performance since the 1983 World Cup final. Dhoni has made the Dev-il act in his first ever assignment as a Captain. Our neighbours didn't get a chance to relive the 1992 World Cup moment. Being an ardent cricket fan since 1992 my greatest moment in cricket is to watch India lift the world cup. I think I got to see it in this life time. Not sure when again I would get to see this. Who knows maybe after 20 years I might mutter "when are we going to see another Dhoni's marvel.. why don't you guys learn from mistakes?"

For me this was the first time I got so involved in a match after Azharudhin left the game. My interest in the game was completely lost when Azhar was convicted for match fixing. This tournament has only revived it after seeing many promising talents rising to the occasion. But I have always felt Indian team and consistency is synonymous with peace and Kashmir. I think this present team can prove it all wrong. Hopefully the perks that they are now going to get, back home, shouldn't spoil their burning spirit to win. Dhoni has already been named for one of the most prestigious award in Jharkhand. Quoting MSN "The Board has announced USD 3 million for the team and Rs 15 lakh each for the support staff while Yuvraj Singh will get Rs 1 crore for hitting six sixes in one over." Another important thing to watch out for is the transformation from window breaking mob to cheering supporters.. that's Indian cricket crowd for you!

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Originally uploaded by Jay Krishna

Trial

I'm back... Unsuccessfully

The mission was unaccomplished. I have decided to give up (for a while) owing to various social factors. When I decided going into seclusion I never thought of the repocations it would have. First of all it was a complete self destruction physically. Most of the time I spent the whole day without food or with just one meal a day. Try in vain to sleep until 4am and then somehow dose off only to wake up late in the morning. And because of this I continuously came up with a new lie everyday at work with teammates for going late. Room was dirty overall and sometimes I slept on the floor amidst the dirt and filth. Light had fused and I didn't bother to replace it. Wore unwashed and unpressed clothes. I know I looked sick with unshaven or untrimmed beard for over 3 weeks!! Mom and dad starting worrying as I stopped calling them. Same as the case with friends. I started to realize that it was just not me who's affected but also many others around me. So finally I decided to get into what others call it a 'normal life'.


Some of the things that crossed my thoughts were

Expectations: Man's greatest weapon and weakness. "Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed". Maybe that's true. But this is what I believe when the expectation is high the target to achieve is also high which yields higher reward. With all the failures and disappointment along the way I still like to dream.. and that too big. Vision without action becomes illusion. This is what I have understood.

Women: Symbol of pleasure. Pleasure seems a strong word and to cut your imagination short let me tell you what I tried to mean: 'Amusement'; 'Diversion; 'The gratification of the mind'; 'Something good and delightful that brings happiness'. All this can also be the biggest source of diversion from the usual work you are required to perform day in and day out. There can be no women in your life who can been a source of unrelenting love and affection except for your mom for she is the symbol of sacrifice.

If success has a percentage equal to 100 then 80 - 85% of it is your effort. The remaining 15 - 20% depends on external influences. Some like to call it GOD... some call it FATE/DESTINY... and some call it LUCK. Whatever name you give it you cannot change that part of it as in most cases you will have no or very little control over them. All that can be done is to improvise on 85%.. simply maximize your effort towards succeeding you goal. As long as you have faith in our own cause and an unshakable will to win, victory will not be denied.

In life we get burdens only strong enough to handle. When they fall on you its test for you to understand that this is a symbol that life knows you have the strength to endure them. Its a test of limits.

Maybe the first attempt was a partial failure. Nevertheless, I consider this as an eye opener. I think I'm just waking up to the truth.. the truth of where I am in this rat race for love, fame and money.

Out on a Mission.. Soul Searching

I'm sorry again for this silence.. I've moved away from the world and people. This time I'm out on a mission and its something I wont be able to discuss or talk about. Recent happenings in life has led me to a doubt if life will ever have a brighter side. I have not realised the beauty of what I had until I've started losing it now.. every day by day. I failed to keep it with me when I could have. Life is teaching me lessons the hard way now. I need some time to spend with myself to question and examine my own beliefs and motives. I need to understand what I want in life. All emails and scraps will be replied soon..

Crystal pillars - Man made marvel!!

Last Saturday evening I decided to try a bit of photography with my new FujiFilm S5700. I have always found KLCC gardens that has Petronas twin towers in the backdrop to be the perfect training ground for any amateur photographer. I chose to go there in the evening because of the lighting. As my house owner and her daughter were busy shopping at KLCC I slipped away to the gardens. It was the first time I used a tripod. To set it and get the right angle and elevation took a lot of time. I need a lot of practice on that. I havent used any softwares to retouch the pictures. This is just the raw output from my camera.

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Originally uploaded by Jay Krishna target="_blank"

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Originally uploaded by Jay Krishna

182 days completed!

Is it only me that's feeling this or do you feel the same too.. time flies! I feel like every phase in life passes very quickly, often so quickly that I'm surprised. It seems to me like it was only a few days back I packed my clothes and left Chennai though now its 6 months already. I have completed 182 days of stay in Malaysia... without family.. without friends with who I grew up.. without the very essence of Chennai.

For many who thought I cant be away from the above three this is definitely a jaw dropper! I was one of them to think like that initially when I accepted the job offer. Living has definitely not been easy since then and I have come to realise thats how life is going to be henceforth.

For me completing this 182 days within Malaysia means a lot. I'm now a tax-resident in Malaysia. This is not to be confused with a Permanent Resident. The status gives me the eligibility to claim the excess tax money I have paid, which is 25% of my monthly earnings, so far. Now I have to go through a long and tiring process of claiming it back. Also I do not owe anything to my employer incase I quit now.. A sigh of relief.. hehe! Home is always on my mind. This is the first time I have stayed so long away from home. The last time I did it was 25 days. In March 2006 I decided to rent a place somewhere in Chennai and stay away from home for sometime. Took a place at Valasaravakam and as each day passed staying there alone was literally getting me mad. The street dogs too were totally unfriendly. On the 25th day I said enough of this garbage and left the place for good. This time I made up mind of not planning to run away like that. I have learnt a few things that my mom always wished I knew.. washing my clothes and keeping my place tidy... Though cooking is still a challenge. Whatever I get here can never match the comfort I had in Chennai!

Back to work after vacations..

It just seemed like it started but now its all over. The 10 day vacation leave is now over and I'm back to work unwillingly. The vacation was like a beautiful rainbow that seemed to have disappeared within the blink of an eye.

I tagged along with the group of 3 guys and 2 girls who came from India. A few in the group came to squander the bonus money the company has paid them. Ofcourse those lucky ones work at top notch IT MNCs. Off the lot I just knew Arun who went to college with me and the rest came together through like a link leading to another. Arun and Divya work together. Divya's roomie is Sangeetha. Sangeetha's ex-colleagues and friends were Shobin and Sriram. Thats how we all met at Kuala Lumpur. I came across quite a few interesting characters about whom I will detail in this blog later.

Not everything went as per the plan. Unfortunately I was not able to make it to Singapore because of time constraints. In the next few blogs I Will write a detailed summary of my travel experience. I'm also consolidating the pictures that we took and will update them on this blog by Wednesday or Thursday. Before that there are a lot of pending work at office which I need to complete atleast by this week.

Tour De Malaysia et Singapore!!

I'm now all set for this tour. We have been planning this for the last 45 days and I can't wait to see it unfold tomorrow morning! I'm going on a 10 day vacation to tour Malaysia and Singapore. I'll be joining a group from India in which I have a friend with whom I went to college. Though I have been to many cities and states in Malaysia this one is a major outing for me in Malaysia in one strech and that has gone through a lot of planning. The plan is 3 days at Taman Negara, a virgin tropical forest, 3 days at Langkawi one of the world famous Island and Beach & the place where they shot DON, Sharukh Khan starrer, and for 2 days at Singapore. Will also be spending a couple of days at Kuala Lumpur to experience the Asian cosmopolitan life style.

Theres a lot of work at office thats pending which I thought I will complete before the vacation but couldnt complete it now. Will take care of the consequences on 19th when I'm back to work!! Time to leave... bye bye

Ice.. Coffee and Me

You would hardly call me a coffee drinker untill the beginning of this year. Though I was haunted by the smell and flavour of coffee I had resisted the temptation for 24yrs. Not after the beginnening of this year. My affair with coffee started when I started taking frequent breaks after I put in my papers in the previous company. From milk my liking drifted to coffee. On seeing me the guy at the pantry would instantly know I'd ask for 'Coffee... with extra sugar!!' The affair is only getting more intimate in Kuala Lumpur. I started tasting different blends of coffee here. Having tried almost everything from Cappuccino to Espresso on the office vending machine list, I'm experimenting my own coffee making for the last few weeks. In addition to the vending machine, which gives instant coffee of different flavours, we have separate containers or tins of creamer, sugar and coffee for people to make their own coffee to suit their taste. So far I have been thinking it was heat that was needed to transfer the flavour of coffee to water. I think it is a wrong assumption. I found that when I tried preparing cold coffee at office. I just loved what I made today. First I made a normal hot coffee with my usuall recipe. I think it was just about perfect!! I decided to try something more with this. A cold Coffee!! It was geniunly the best coffee I have ever had so far! I'm sharing the recipe.

1. Add 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons of dark-roasted ground coffee. Anything more in my opinion would make the coffee to taste bitter.
2. Add 5 tablespoons of creamer (milk powder). This is a substituion to milk. The amount of creamer determines taste. This is not recommended for black coffee drinkers.
3. Add 4 to 5 tablespoons of sugar (Unfortunately I like all things sweeter and coffee is no exception to this. If you find it too sweet to handle then you can add sugar according to your preference)
4. Stir the mixture well. This will make all the three ingredients to mix well.
5. Add water of extremly high temperature (90 - 95 c) to this mixture.
6. The mixture would dissolve well in hot water. You might find lumps of creamer and coffee floating. Use a stirrer dissolve them.
5. Finally add 3 tablespoons of liquid creamer (eg. Nestle MilkMaid).
6. Fill another plastic/ paper cup with ice cubes and pour the hot coffee over them. I found adding ice cubes will dilute the coffee so refrigeration for 30 min would be a better choice.

Cold coffee can be enjoyed especially if the climate is hot. Coffee in general helps in keeping you alert and overcome fatigue instantly. Its heady flavour can easily get you addicted to it. A cup a day wouldn't do much harm I guess.

First Sunday in August.. Whats so special?!

Most Indians would say 'Friendship Day'. Yes in India the first Sunday in August is celebrated as a day for friendship. Interestingly in Malaysia its on the 1st of Aug. For the last one week you might have recieved ecards and forwarded emails with some touching wordings on it to say that you are their best friends. Some mails end with a terrible note If you dont send that card to 10 people you would loose all the good friends you have. What the &*$%@##!! Blindly sending e-mails that have been heavily forwarded, and worse, stating benifits and consequenses is infuriating!! By following the leader as a "mindless forwarder", one may lose friends!

The most popular among the younger generations are Friendship day and Valentines day. If I may ask a question "Do you know when is mothers day?" The number of 'No's will out number 'Yes's. I remember when I studied in 8th Std we were so excited about Valentines Day. It was an age where we knew nothing about having and maintaining a girl friend in real would mean. There was another strange thing I noticed. The boys and girls exchanged roses and cards on Valentines Day. The same group would exchange Friendship cards on Friendship Day. The worst comes when the same group celebrates Raksha Bandhan a day for brother sister love. In my opinion all these are three different relationship and it cannot be shared with the same person. I never understood what was the kind of relationship they had. All these were the effect of rampant consumerism by consumer market bigwigs targeted at youngsters urging them to spend. Gift marketers run an extensive campaign to lure people to buy cards and gifts for their friends. You dont need a special day to say appreciation for their friendship to good friends.. and sometimes somethings are nicer when unsaid!!

27th July 07 - MCDBA... 2 Yrs dream now a reality

This was one of the things I wanted to achieve professionally when I joined Sify. It has taken me two years to finish it. The exam was zapper. Aced thro 45 questions in about 90 min where in the total time for the exam was 240min. As I finished each question I knew the effort and money was not going to go waste. I knew I was inching towards the reality which had been so far only been a dream. As clicked End Exam the screen went blank.. it was completely white. Wild thoughts started to cross my mind.. has the system hung??!! That was the last thing I would have wanted here. I couldnt sustain the anxiety. I stormed out to call the lady incharge for the exams. She said this was normal and came to have a look... She was right. When I saw the screen now the image had changed. Only two words caught my sight.

Successfully......................... 928.

I didnt have to bother about the rest of words. I'm now an MCDBA!

Since then I've been having fun.. had an office dinner party and bowling session on Friday night.. (just after my exam) On Saturday couple of friends had come down from Singapore so spent the whole weekend with them.. was totally tied up as I was trying to show them around KL almost everything thats possible to be covered in 1 and a half days. Just had time to breath!!

There are reason for choosing this date for the exam. It was on this day three years back that I made my first constructive step towards making a career in IT. Cant forget that date as it also happens to be my only bro's birthday! I registered for the exam with Informatics. It was what that taught me to operate a mouse back in 1997. A group of guys were invited from our school to experiment with the new multimedia PCs that they then had.

Though Microsoft support for SQL Server 2000 might end in April next year I wanted to get this done. To me its a personal achievement. This was the first thing that was asked of me by my manager when I started working in databases as a novice. Now its time to market this certificate in greener pastures!

Preparing for the Final Assault

Its almost near and I cant wait to accomplish it. Its just two days away. On Friday I'd be giving my final exam for MCDBA. Its on Win 2003 Server. The two years wait will come to an end. The last three weeks I have been busy craming for this exam... browsing pdf, dumps, test simulators.. anything I can get my hands on to make sure things go my way on the exam day. I joined forums for quick help but they only fill my inbox with junk. No quality content!!

I have been through these kind of International Ceritifications for 5 times for 2 different brands, Microsoft and Oralce, in two years before this one. But each time I have always felt like taking the exam for the first time. Theres always this uneasiness and apprehension, as about future uncertainties. The money, rewards and peer attention are the driving forces for me to prepare well. So far no hiccups and I wanna get through this one too!! 27th July date was primarily choosen because of the sentiment factor I have with numbers and combinations. The history of this dates back to 3 years. Forget it.. no time to talk about it.

This has been the primary reason for me not replying to your emails, scraps or offlines. I will catch up on these after 27th July 2007. Got to go..

Free International Calls - Phone to Phone

I haven't used Skype before but found this ones cool. Its a Phone to Phone calling service. Tokiva is the service that enables you to make inexpensive international long distance calls on your mobile phone immaterial of where in the world you are. After you sign up with your mobile number you get a credit balance of 50 free.. With this I called my home (To India From Malaysia) and was able to speak for 5 min and 10 sec for free. The voice clarity is not that good the time I called but for a few friends of mine who used it say it was quite clear. I shouldn't be asking more for the free service! Tokiva also have schemes where you buy credit and use it to call. Use the link below to sign up.


Click Here to Register

An Inspiring Message

Looks like the Presidential Election in India is just around the corner and President Abdul Kalam has opted out of the race. The message below is claimed by many websites and email forwards that its by President Abdul Kalam but when I did a quick search in Kalam's official website I didn't find anything like this. I do not have proof to say that this was his message nevertheless its a worthy read for every Indian. Indians who have stepped foreign land will easily be able to relate to this message. I remember reading this sometime last year as an Email forward and it was truly inspiring. This is a very long message so read only when you are free. The bottom line is don't crib but act!

Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam's Speech: A Must Read

I have three visions for India. In 3000 years of our history people from all over the world have come and invaded us, captured our lands, conquered our minds. From Alexander onwards. The Greeks, the Turks, the Moguls, the Portuguese, the British, the French, the Dutch, all of them came and looted us, took over what was ours. Yet we have not done this to any other nation. We have not conquered anyone. We have not grabbed their land, their culture, their history and tried to enforce our way of life on them. Why? Because we respect the freedom of others. That is why my first vision is that of FREEDOM. I believe that India got its first vision of this in 1857, when we started the war of independence. It is this freedom that we must protect and nurture and build on. If we are not free, no one will respect us.

My second vision for India is DEVELOPMENT. For fifty years we have been a developing nation. It is time we see ourselves as a developed nation. We are among top 5 nations of the world in terms of GDP. We have 10 percent growth rate in most areas. Our poverty levels are falling. Our achievements are being globally recognized today. Yet we lack the self-confidence to see ourselves as a developed nation, self-reliant and self-assured. Isn't this incorrect?

I have a THIRD vision. India must stand up to the world. Because I believe that unless India stands up to the world, no one will respect us. Only strength respects strength. We must be strong not only as a military power but also as an economic power. Both must go hand-in-hand. My good fortune was to have worked with three great minds. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai of the Dept. of space, Professor Satish Dhawan, who succeeded him and Dr. Brahm Prakash, father of nuclear material. I was lucky to have worked with all three of them closely and consider this the great opportunity of my life.

I see four milestones in my career: ONE: Twenty years I spent in ISRO. I was given the opportunity to be the project director for India's first satellite launch vehicle, SLV3. The one that launched Rohini. These years played a very important role in my life of Scientist.
TWO: After my ISRO years, I joined DRDO and got a chance to be the part of India's missile program. It was my second bliss when Agni met its mission requirements in 1994.
THREE: The Dept. of Atomic Energy and DRDO had this tremendous partnership in the recent nuclear tests, on May 11 and 13. This was the third bliss. The joy of participating with my team in these nuclear tests and proving to the world that India can make it, that we are no longer a developing nation but one of them. It made me feel very proud as an Indian. The fact that we have now developed for Agni a re-entry structure, for which we have developed this new material. A Very light material called carbon-carbon.
FOUR: One day an orthopedic surgeon from Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences visited my laboratory. He lifted the material and found it so light that he took me to his hospital and showed me his patients. There were these little girls and boys with heavy metallic calipers weighing over three kg. each, dragging their feet around. He said to me: Please remove the pain of my patients. In three weeks, we made these Floor reaction Orthosis 300 gram calipers and took them to the orthopedic centre. The children didn't believe their eyes. From dragging around a three kg. load on their legs, they could now move around! Their parents had tears in their eyes. That was my fourth bliss!

Why is the media here so negative? Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths, our achievements? We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse to acknowledge them. Why? We are the first in milk production. We are number one in Remote sensing satellites. We are the second largest producer of wheat. We are the second largest producer of rice. Look at Dr. Sudarshan, he has transferred the tribal village into a self-sustaining, self-driving unit. There are millions of such achievements but our media is only obsessed in the bad news and failures and disasters.
I was in Tel Aviv once and I was reading the Israeli newspaper. It was the day after a lot of attacks and bombardments and deaths had taken place. The Hamas had struck. But the front page of the newspaper had the picture of a Jewish gentleman who in five years had transformed his desert land into an orchid and a granary. It was this inspiring picture that everyone woke up to. The gory details of killings, bombardments, deaths, were inside in the newspaper, buried among other news. In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime. Why are we so NEGATIVE? Another question: Why are we, as a nation so obsessed with foreign things? We want foreign TVs, we want foreign shirts. We want foreign technology. Why this obsession with everything imported. Do we not realize that self-respect comes with self-reliance?

I was in Hyderabad giving this lecture, when a 14 year old girl asked me for my autograph. I asked her what her goal in life is: She replied: I want to live in a developed India. For her, you and I will have to build this developed India. You must proclaim. India is not an under-developed nation; it is a highly developed nation.

Allow me to come back with vengeance. Got 10 minutes for your country?
YOU say that our government is inefficient. YOU say that our laws are too old. YOU say that the municipality does not pick up the garbage. YOU say that the phones don't work, the railways are a joke, the airline is the worst in the world, mails never reach their destination. YOU say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is the absolute pits. YOU say, say and say.
What do YOU do about it? Take a person on his way to Singapore. Give him a name - YOURS. Give him a face - YOURS. YOU walk out of the airport and you are at your International best. In Singapore you don't throw cigarette butts on the roads or eat in the stores. YOU are as proud of their Underground Links as they are. You pay $5 (approx. Rs. 60) to drive through Orchard Road (equivalent of Mahim Causeway or Pedder Road) between 5 PM and 8 PM.
YOU comeback to the parking lot to punch your parking ticket if you have over stayed in a restaurant or a shopping mall irrespective of your status identity. In Singapore you don't say anything, DO YOU? YOU wouldn't dare to eat in public during Ramadan, in Dubai. YOU would not dare to go out without your head covered in Jeddah. YOU would not dare to buy an employee of the telephone exchange in London at 10 pounds (Rs. 650) a month to, "see to it that my STD and ISD calls are billed to someone else." YOU would not dare to speed beyond 55 mph (88 kph) in Washington and then tell the traffic cop, "Jaanta hai sala main kaun hoon (Do you know who I am?). I am so and so's son. Take your two bucks and get lost." YOU wouldn't chuck an empty coconut shell anywhere other than the garbage pail on the beaches in Australia and New Zealand. Why don't YOU spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo? Why don't YOU use examination jockeys or buy fake certificates in Boston? We are still talking of the same YOU. YOU who can respect and conform to a foreign system in other countries but cannot in your own. You who will throw papers and cigarettes on the road the moment you touch Indian ground. If you can be an involved and appreciative citizen in an alien country why cannot you be the same here in India. Once in an interview, the famous Ex-municipal commissioner of Bombay Mr.Tinaikar had a point to make. "Rich people's dogs are walked on the streets to leave their affluent droppings all over the place," he said. "And then the same people turn around to criticize and blame the authorities for inefficiency and dirty pavements. What do they expect the officers to do? Go down with a broom every time their dog feels the pressure in his bowels? In America every dog owner has to clean up after his pet has done the job. Same in Japan. Will the Indian citizen do that here?" He's right. We go to the polls to choose a government and after that forfeit all responsibility. We sit back wanting to be pampered and expect the government to do everything for us whilst our contribution is totally negative. We expect the government to clean up but we are not going to stop chucking garbage all over the place nor are we going to stop to pick a up a stray piece of paper and throw it in the bin. We expect the railways to provide clean bathrooms but we are not going to learn the proper use of bathrooms. We want Indian Airlines and Air India to provide the best of food and toiletries but we are not going to stop pilfering at the least opportunity. This applies even to the staff who is known not to pass on the service to the public. When it comes to burning social issues like those related to women, dowry, girl child and others, we make loud drawing room protestations and continue to do the reverse at home. Our excuse? "It's the whole system which has to change, how will it matter if I alone forego my sons' rights to a dowry." So who's going to change the system? What does a system consist of? Very conveniently for us it consists of our neighbors, other households, other cities, other communities and the government. But definitely not me and YOU. When it comes to us actually making a positive contribution to the system we lock ourselves along with our families into a safe cocoon and look into the distance at countries far away and wait for a Mr. Clean to come along & work miracles for us with a majestic sweep of his hand. Or we leave the country and run away. Like lazy cowards hounded by our fears we run to America to bask in their glory and praise their system. When New York becomes insecure we run to England. When England experiences unemployment, we take the next flight out to the Gulf. When the Gulf is war struck, we demand to be rescued and brought home by the Indian government. Everybody is out to abuse and rape the country. Nobody thinks of feeding the system. Our conscience is mortgaged to money.

Dear Indians, The article is highly thought inductive, calls for a great deal of introspection and pricks one's conscience too....I am echoing J.F. Kennedy's words to his fellow Americans to relate to Indians.....

"ASK WHAT WE CAN DO FOR INDIA AND DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE TO MAKE INDIA WHAT AMERICA AND OTHER WESTERN COUNTRIES ARE TODAY"

Lets do what India needs from us.

The story so far...

Let me first thank all those who had a chance to visit this page. Special thanks to those who managed to write an email with compliments. I'd be glad if you could give some suggestions too.

Living in Malaysia has been a challenge for me in many ways. For the last 25 yrs I had never stayed away from my family. Life seemed so easy in Chennai. I had been "spoilt with comfort" back home. There was always someone to do things for me. I didn't worry or think about the efforts that go behind a wonderful meal or clean washed shirt. Not until I started washing them myself. The first time I did it I was thrilled to see the collar with no sweat marks... wow its magic I thought!! It looked like an achievement. Thanks to the intelligence of the Panasonic fully automatic washing machine because I didn't have to bother too much about the washing powder quantity or the water level. Nothing can beat home food.. unfortunately I cant have it now. But being a meat eater I could cope up with the cooking of the local night joints. Cleaning the room is still a pain in the neck as the cleaning lady comes only once a week. Room would look wrecked by the time she comes the next time to clean. Security is another matter of concern. All kinds of illegal activities happen here though the law calls for capital punishment for drug crimes. Bike snatchers and robbing at knife point are common. Prostitution is two streets away from the place I stay. You name it you have it at Brickfeilds.

But Malaysia is a beautiful place. Most of the cities are well planned with natural beauty. Kuala Lumpur especially has state of art infrastructure keeping intact the natural beauty of the country. You see big roads with green rocky slopes on the sides while going to work. I wonder if those slopes were drilled to lay roads. All kinds of popular cars are seen here. Nissan, Merc and BMW are a common site. In India I have seen only bikes being modified but here its cars... wheels brought out on the sides... the body lifted up.. flashy neon lights.. high sound engines. These vehicles command respect on the road! The temperature here is almost like India.. swings between 29 to 32. Interestingly it rains almost daily and of course no water logging. In a day you can see almost all the climate. Morning its cold after snowing as the Sun comes out only by 7:15am. It gets warmer as the day progresses and then rains during late afternoon or evening. The night is pleasant and that's when most Malays get active. KL Tower and Petronas Twin Tower are the unique standing structures of Kuala Lumpur which is visible from almost any part of the city. Interestingly when it rains the clouds cover the tall structures making them to go hidden... its a great sight. The pretty city is well connected with transport services like Monorail (unmanned elevated tube trains), KTM Komuter and Rapid KL (Bus Services). Taxi's are also cheap compared to the comfort you get. All the above are air conditioned. The place where I stay (KL Sentral) is the center point for all of these where people switch trains or buses.

When I first came here I stayed at one of the posh Condominiums at Brickfields sharing a room with a colleague. It had high profile Gym and Swimming pool, a mini theatre hall where every weekends there are movie screening, library and a Squash Court. Villa Scott also happens to be the guest house for many corporates. But I was rigid in my preference of not sharing a room with someone for many reasons. I decided to come out of that place in a month and now I'm staying at a not so clean localities nearby called Palm Court. I came here because most of the Indian office mates stay here. I feel like being in Chennai because anytime I come out I see a familiar face smiling and waiting to talk. I'm currently sharing the apartment with a South Indian mami and another Indian-Malay lady. Being the only male in the house I find it quite uncomfortable to move around. No cooking and no TV so Laptop, flood lit badminton matches and after dinner talks are the ways to spend time. But the apartment is quite clean and silent unlike other guys room. I realised that everything has their own advantages and disadvantages.

Other than the weekend window shopping at popular malls the places I have been here so far are

1. Malaysian Grand Prix 2007 at Sepang
2. Malacca (claimed to be a historical city)
3. Penang Islands
4. Kanching Falls
5. Port Dickson (Beach)
6. Genting Highlands (Theme Park & World class Casino)

There are more places to see here which I'm scheduled to visit in August. An old college buddy is coming from Bangalore with his gang of friends for vacation to Malaysia. Malaysia is celebrating its 50th year of Independence this year.

07 - 07 - 07 Grand Opening... Everyone's Invited!!

Yes its officially public now. It was just a while ago I messaged friends to let them know I too have a blog. I've always wanted to have one for myself after being inspired by a lot of people. Writing has always been a passion for me but I don't know what took me so long to say this to the world. Maybe sheer laziness.. in spite of having almost the entire day with high speed Internet and unlimited access to information I was not regular to blogging. Over the last 15 days I had used most my office time... I mean my free time... to change the appearance of the default page to make it looks like this. In the course of time I learned a bit of HTML and CSS styling also. Blogger's new design is a lot better than the old one. Its easy to edit and customize. I have taken a lot of help from other regular bloggers to redesign my existing template. I will be featuring their blogs on this page in the course of time. It has been a tiring but interesting experience.

So far what has been written is experimental. Now after making it public I'm committed to a regular and good content posting. Man lives on hopes and I have mine too.. I started this blog with a dream of making myself widely read and linked and this is the first step towards that. Laziness and complacency are some of the many factors that is going to affect my writing.. but with enthusiasm and ambition I hope to curb it. In fact it started bad... internet connection was cut off from my apartment by the Condo management for some stupid reason since today morning. Tried for the last 2 hrs fixing the broken line. A boy next door helped me a lot but those efforts didn't bear fruit. Finally decided to walk down to the near by Internet Cafe. This blog will contain ideas, views, memoirs, my musical compositions or anything interesting thats worth sharing, reading, listening or viewing.

I'm obsessed with numbers and their combinations and that is the reason for choosing this day to say post my first public post. 07-07-07 is numerically perfect date with triple appearance of the number 7. 7 hills of the Roman Empire, 7 wonders of the world, 7 lives, 7 notes in Music, 7 seas of the world, 7 days in the week, 7 dwarves, 7 sins... the list can go on to say 7 is magical. No.. I'm not superstitious. Just that this combination looks fancy!

The next few blogs will contain my experiences in Malaysia so far and about my life in general... Things that interested me and things I enjoyed in Malaysia, places I visited here, the reason for me sporting a beard, the only girl/lady who made me cry in life and more. Now none will deny that my life is an open book. Well for sometime this space will be mine and only mine. And till I figure out ways to refine comments I'm disabling the comment section. If you have anything to say you may mail me for the time being.

This is a trail to see if audio files can be added to blogger.

Cricket - An Explanation

This was from one of those junk(forwarded) mail that I received from a friend of mine... some one has really thought to write a crap like this...!!

You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out. When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out.

When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who stay out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the men have been out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game.

Astrology in Cricket

Fusion is common in todays lifestyle. Kurthas go with Jeans.. Dosa and Pizza for dinner... my new find in Malaysia.. Chindans (born to an Indian and Chinese)!! Then why not Cricket and Astrology? Thats perfectly what one of the popular astrology site has thought and did. It has combined astrology with cricket. The site has an interesting analysis of all the World Cup matches based on planetary position on the match day and their effects on playing countries and their players.

The site quotes "The GaneshaSpeaks Team presents a multidimensional analysis of the Cricket World Cup 2007. Considering the depth of the analysis, we can safely claim that this has never been attempted before." I'm quite sure that most of us may have never come across something like this before! It gives predictions from the toss to match result along with the crucial overs of the game. The site also claims that so far its match predictions are 77.6% accurate.

But as browsing through the site it will be amusing to see certain predictions. For example these ones..

• India's Fate for Super Eight Matches
  India's fate will heavily depend on the 4th game of the super eight matches. Toss will become very important and to chose bating/ balling will have strong impact over the game's outcome.
• West Indies might be the Dark Horse to win World Cup 2007.

This is the best one..!!

• If Australia reaches final they might not able to win.

With the way Australia is currently playing it might seem funny to read a prediction like that about the cricketing genuine.

All in the game

What can be more shameful to team that was contended to win the cup, than being knocked out on first round of the game's most prestigious tournament.

Men is Blue (MIB).. Beaten Black and Blue.. Wow.. it rhymes too!!

Indian cricket team is out of World Cup 2007 after terrible performances against SriLanka and dark horse Bangladesh. In their first match India put up just 191 to which Bangladesh responded with grit and went on to cause the first major upset. India then produced a record breaking win over Bermuda building hopes of many. India had to beat Sri Lanka, one other favoured contenders for the World Cup, to move to the next round of the tournament. The Indian bowling began well with quick wickets, but soon lost steam and the Sri Lankan batsmen reached a total of 254 steadily. The Indian chase was lackluster. Except for the stand between Sehwag and Dravid, the Indian side failed to reach even 200 runs. With this defeat the Indian team was out of the tournament. The team that was hyped so much to repeat Kapil Dev-il's feat in 1983 is now back home after loosing two matches out of the three qualifying matches. In more than two decades this must be India's worst World Cup performance.

In India when it comes to Cricket everybody has an opinion. We are all good at numbers. We like to see analysis, head to heads and all new graphical statistics to make a projection that India is the favorite of the game. Numbers and analysis projected many things but now they are proved hypothetical. When it comes to actual game all that matters is sheer performance on that day. Experiences of many senior players couldn’t rescue the team from the disaster. All those ex/senior players jabber on news channels about strategies and game plans. Why can’t they form a committee to discuss and do something about the fateful state of Indian cricket?

Cricket is taken very seriously in India. No other sport is given so much importance. Players are treated as celebrities on par with top movie stars, paid big money to endorse major commercial brands. Some even get a chance to act in movies. Its a religion in India with the cricketers enjoying a demi-god status. There have been innovative marketing strategies with top-notch corporate houses making a beeline to be associated with the Indian cricket team, the players laughing all the way to the bank. I happen to read in websites that hundreds of angry cricket fans took to the streets burning effigies, defacing posters and held mock funeral processions of the national team after the defeat. Maybe that’s acceptable means to vent supporters anger. They even went on to attack houses of many cricketers. What wrong did the inmates of the houses do? How can one hold the relatives of cricketers responsible for teams bad performance? The best way to repay the team that has sinked a billion hopes is to stop giving them all this importance. Do not waste your time at office looking at desktop score boards. Stop watching them on TV with the hope that they work magic. Then they will have no major brands to endorse and maybe more time to devote for practice. We are in need of fresh genuine talents. Its time to bid farewell to players who once performed and have made their mark in the annals of the game. It’s their time to go and make room for freshmen. Australia has done it and when we compare ourselves to them on the game I think we need a change. There are many Tendulkars and Dhonis whos talents have gone unnoticed because they do not get the right kind of platform to showcase it. In Nov 2006 two 13 yr olds from Hyderabad created history when they made a world-record 721 runs in 40 overs to break the 664-run stand between Tendulkar and Kambli set in 1988. I personally know of a few people who have given up their primary education in order to prove a point in the game. BCCI must take steps to look for these people and train them.

I remember what my Grandmother told me when I was a school kid watching cricket. There was this ad where a top cricketer takes an unrealistic diving catch near the boundary. She said.. "Intha pasanga ithula matum thaan pudipanga" (These boys will take catches only in ads).

In a country of a billion people are we not able to choose a combination of just 14 players who can perform at times when it needs the most?? Only the BCCI selection committee will have an answer.