Acacia & Ants -- A complex story

I am a great admirer of the biological world and nothing fascinates me more than the interaction between the various elements that make up the biological world. I came across this news sometime back but never got the time to blog on this. It is almost unbelievable to think about the complexities of nature. To consider that some plants start dying soon when they are kept in a protected environment is indeed amazing. The nature of nature is so unpredictable that this mysterious nature seems to be the prime reason to be so much attracted towards it.

On a related philosophical note, are humans also similar to this? Will they become ineffective & wither away if the challenges that are posed to them are removed? Are problems and complexities that we face in our life someway related to our sustained growth?

Eating My Words!!!

It is one of the most unpleasant things that can happen to you: to be forced to eat your words! Tendulkar has just proven me and my predictions wrong. He has performed extraordinarily well in England and is making me look real bad. I have no qualms in accepting that I have been proved wrong by the greatness of Tendulkar. The fact that Tendulkar is batting so well is good news for India and the Indian fans. India were able to escape from the jaws of defeat at Lords and now they have won the test at Nottingham. With the animosity in the ground increasing between the teams, the third and final test at Oval is poised for a great finish. Add to the fact that a draw would mean that this would be the first defeat of England at home after their defeat at the hands of Aussies in 2001.

Paruthi Veeran -- Revisited

A couple of months back, I was discussing with my friend (A movie freak) about the present state of tamil movies. The discussion veered to the movie "Paruthi Veeran" and I expressed my pleasure about such unique attempts. I had described the movie as a decent attempt for 'Tamil' standards and my friend (He has not watched this movie) did not sound happy about the fact that the movie is just meeting the 'Tamil' standards and not the 'International' standards. The news that this movie has won two awards in the Osian's cinefan festival is very heartening. The movie won awards in the best film and best actress (Priya Mani) category. I do not know how much 'Global' this film festival is or what kind of movies were screened in this festival.

The thing that needs to be noted is that this movie has silently made its way into this festival without much fanfare. The sad thing about the whole thing is that there seems to be very less news coverage about this in the state. I only can hope that this blog does its small bit about spreading the news.

Tendulkar is GREAT but.....

Every aging sports icon has to go through a cruel phase of introspection where he has to answer to himself & his millions of fans on his impending retirement. The icon has to decide to call it quits when the question is still "Why retire now?" and before the question turns into "Why not retire now?" One of the persons who did this to perfection is 'Pistol' Pete Sampras. When the sports fraternity had started writing him off, he showed the world what he is made up of by winning the US Open championship and his record 14th grand slam tournament. Then he coolly bid farewell to the game when at the top of his game. He did not pick up a racquet for close to 3 years and when he finally did pick up a racquet for a seniors tournament, no less a person than John McEnroe wants him to return to his famous hunting ground of Wimbledon.

A similar problem seems to be haunting Sachin Tendulkar these days. Anyone who watched him play Bangladesh even for 10 minutes could clearly tell that there is something terribly wrong with him and his cricket. It is not that I don't recognize the contribution Sachin has made to Indian cricket but to still continue playing when his mind is not there in the game is doing injustice to a prospective younger player aiming for his batting slot. More than injustice to a player, it is a great injustice to the public in a cricket loving nation like India. It is unfair on my part to suggest this but the facts seem to point to only this: Sachin is still playing only for the huge amount of endorsements that he has signed for. When you think that Sachin is worth a staggering $4.6 million annual endorsement money it is easily fathomable to understand the motive behind Sachin wanting to continue playing internationally. Will Sachin prove me wrong in England and make me eat my words? I would be more than happy to do that but the chances of that happening are very slim though right now.

Tim Duncan -- Team Man Extraordinaire

What does it take to be considered as one of the greatest NBA player of the present generation and still be away from the glaring spotlight and frenzy of the media? A humility & humbleness beyond anything that the NBA watching American crowd has ever known to exist. Tim Duncan personifies the word 'Team Player' and even raises the grid a few levels for this term in his own nonchalant way. When flashing dunks and looping throws are the norm of the day, here is a man who plays a selfless game with the disposition of a Buddhist monk. He might (and he is) be considered too boring a player that not many of the Spurs fan buy & wear his numbered jersey. And he doesn't seem to care about it a lot. He is a leader from whom the likes of Kobe, Shaq and others should take tutorials from on a regular basis. As the management gurus would tell, "Point out a mistake and he would look at himself in the mirror. Praise him and he would point out through the windows".

(Right hand corner caption captures the essence perfectly)

And why did I suddenly go raving about Duncan? I found two articles pertaining to Duncan here and here & couldn't help but thinking about his greatness. The chances of the Spurs becoming the champions this year are very high and even higher are the chances that Tim Duncan will be the finals MVP. Mark my words: if that happens, the chances of Duncan talking about how great his team is, his coach Popovich is are really high. And do I expect him to talk about his contributions for the victory? Not a chance. Duncan is beyond all that!!

Ooops.......... Traffic Jam

No graphics here in the adjacent photo. It is just that a Boeing 737 flight that was being taken for aviation academy got stranded midway in the busy Chembur area of Mumbai. It seems it has been lying there for the last 5 days. Now the process of dismantling it & selling the parts has started. It would indeed be a sight to watch a 'Stranded' aircraft in the busy roads of Mumbai. If only I were in Mumbai, I would have surely paid it a visit!!!

You can read more about this news here. I was also able to get a much bigger photo of the aircraft. Check it out as well.

Remember Woolmer , ICC?

It has been 40 (Yes, it is indeed FORTY) days since Bob Woolmer was found murdered in his hotel room and still there is no news about who the killer(s) might be. Are you kidding me, ICC? With the body of Woolmer allowed to be flown to his country this sunday only, there is a strong suspicion that the arms of the Jamaican police have been twisted by the ICC to not reveal the "Significant developments" till the world cup gets over. The conspiracy theorists have been working overtime coming up with possible & plausible reasons for getting Woolmer eliminated.

Theory #1: The Westindies vs Pakistan world cup match was a 'Fixed' one with Pakistan losing to Westindies being the final outcome that was expected. The unexpected twist in this story happened when Pakistan lost to Ireland. Obviously, no one included Ireland in the 'Betting' game. They are, after all, minnows in the game of betting! Pakistan lost its chance to make it to the 'Super 8' stage and all hell broke loose with the coach coming to know of the conspirators.

Theory #2: The book that Woolmer was writing was too revealing & had too many names. This made the 'Betting' powers unhappy and they decide to eliminate the coach. The fact that the transcript of the book is missing adds the necessary authenticity to this story. The only flaw in this 'proposed' theory is that the they could have got to Woolmer anytime before or after the world cup campaign of Pakistan. No sane thinking murderer (Oops!) would try such a stupid thing in the middle of a world cup.

With the CCTV footage revealing the likely suspect, the chances of the murderer getting exposed real soon has dramatically increased. One word of caution: Do not be surprised if the Jamaican police or the ICC come up with the theory that the likely suspect in the CCTV footage is Bob Woolmer himself and that he might have murdered himself!

The only thing that we can do is to pray for the soul of Woolmer to rest in peace and hope that justice prevails.

A new kind of body armor!!!

A new kind of body armor has been discovered(Ohh yes, it is indeed a discovery). And it has the capability to store videos, songs and a 40 GB hard disk to shoot!!! It is one of the latest innovations of the great "Apple Computers" and is called as the iPod. You would be pardoned if you had started thinking about the possibility of me coming up with yet another 'innovative' baloney. According to this site, it is indeed a fact and a terrific news. The authenticity of the news is anybody's guess though..............

Cricket World Cup 2007

With just 16 days to go for the world cup, it is proving highly irresistible for me to not blog something about cricket. Who has the best chance to win this world cup? Will the Aussies do what the Windies of the 70's were not able to achieve? Will the Aussies be able to prove everyone who has been shouting hoarse that their glory days are over wrong? Will Lara or Tendulkar help their team (And themselves, by the way) win the greatest one-day prize? Is the present England team capable of breaking their jinx of never winning a world cup this time? Which of the teams among Sri Lanka or New Zealand the dark horse of this tournament capable of producing some great upsets? Is any other team apart from the 8 top teams capable of making an impact/upset in the tournament? Does the present South African team have the mental edge to go all the way? What should be the expectation from the Indian team with the top order clicking and peaking at the right time?

Whatever the outcome of this tournament, it is going to be a great entertainer. So, lets enjoy the show!

Ohhh....... What a score

Just happened to see the scoreboard of the Mumbai (vs) Baroda ranji trophy semifinal match. What interested me in this news is the fact that the score card read 5-0 during Mumbai's second innings. Anyone who follows cricket would understand that it is normal to have a score of five for no loss at the beginning of an innings. The interesting part is that it is actually zero for five wickets. The top 5 batsmen of Mumbai scored a duck!!!! The other fascinating thing is that Mumbai went on to win this match. Is it that the ranji matches have become so competitive or is it because the standards have fallen so much? Knowledgeable folks, please help me out.

Flintoff on Ganguly

Just completed the book "Being Freddie -- by Andrew Flintoff" and he has some really harsh comments on Ganguly. The exact text on how Flintoff feels about Ganguly is given below. (I have removed stuff that were more of a general observation & just quoted the lines pertaining to Ganguly)

After that one day series I returned to Lancashire where it was clear Ganguly was not settling in at Old Trafford....... Ganguly just didn't work out at all. You can accept a player not playing well, because we all have our ups & downs in our career, but he just didn't want to get involved. He wasn't interested in the other players and it became a situation where it was ten players & Ganguly in the team. He turned up as if he was royalty - it was like having Prince Charles on your side. There were rumors he was asking people to carry his coffin (The cricket kit) for him, although he never asked me...........

His first game was at Kent and he got out first ball lbw to Mark Ealham. He came in not looking that bothered and we heard that Paul Nixon, the Kent wicket-keeper, had said something to him along the lines of 'hard luck, first ball and all that'. Ganguly turned around and told him, 'I'm not going to waste my runs on these games. I'll save them for when it matters'. That's fine if he wants to be like that, but then why bother coming to Lancashire - he doesn't need the money......... I don't dislike the bloke, but it's a struggle with him.

The rather surprising thing for me is that "The Hindu" has this article but has blissfully ignored the comments made by Ganguly to Ealham probably for the fear of inciting the public.

To be fair to Ganguly, here is an article saying the exact opposite of what Flintoff had to say. I guess it is up to each one of us to believe what we 'want' to believe!!!

Ganguly Revisited

Ohh well............ Eating my own words is not something that I really fancy doing but I am left with no other choice. With Ganguly turning out to be the 'Highest' run getter and proving his worth (On his commitment, the jury is still out), I am forced to take back my previous comments on his inclusion to the test side.


The debate would invariably now start on having Ganguly for the one-dayers & especially for the world cup. At the risk of having to eat my own words at a later point of time, I do not want him in the side. Assuming that Yuvraj singh would be back in the squad & Kaif also 'Re-discovering' his form soon, I am not able to fit Ganguly in the scheme of things for the world cup & beyond.

I have one another reason for not having him in the side for the world cup. It is the rather sad fact that India doesn't have a realistic chance of winning the coveted trophy this time around. I would be happily surprised if we even make it to the semifinals. Having said that, it would be wise on the part of the selectors to start grooming the side for the future. With the future world cup's in mind, the selectors can start picking up people who can make use of this world cup as a learning experience.

India, Way to GO.................

Thank God. I was following the cricket score on cricinfo & luckily was not watching the match in TV. Irrespective of whether we win the 3rd test or not against South Africa, there are quite a few points that did leave me wondering whether we are good enough to win this series (Whether SA is good enough is another story altogether!!!)

1. The rationale behind sending Sehwag to open the innings with Jaffer. If Dravid & Co. thought that Sehwag had regained his 'form' because of his first innings score, how mistaken they were. It shouldn't be forgotten that when Sehwag was batting, the ball was not new & he could easily score his runs
2. If the rationale for the above was that of playing 'Positive' cricket, what was it all about with Dravid & Sachin playing as though they were playing to save the side from a irrecoverable defeat. Beats my thinking
3. Run-out in a test match is considered a crime. And 2 run-outs in an innings is simply blasphemous
   

Here is someone who has captured my 'feelings' in a much much better way. And yeah, I still hope that 'Jumbo' Kumble would come up with 'The' spell of his lifetime and take India to an improbable victory. So much for my 'Positive' attitude.

Rights for Robots!!!!!

I did see this coming but never expected this to happen by the year 2056. In a report coming out of U.K, robots are expected to be given the same rights as humans sometime in the next 50 years.

The development in artificial intelligence in the coming years and hence the ability of the robots to think independently would act as a major factor in going the above said way. I am not in a position to think whether this is needed or not for I have still not recovered from the 'creepy' feeling that I had on learning that we have succeeded in producing robots that have the ability to 'learn' about itself. Let me not post anything improper on this report of giving rights to robot & pave way for a robot suing me at a later point of time!!!!

Integrity -- How far would you go?

(Photo by: Ashok Krishnan)

Have been following the Jessica Lall case for some time now & the judgment has been provided in the case a few days back. The accused Manu Sharma has been found guilty by the High Court & has been meted out with life imprisonment. One of the main reasons for the verdict is the statement given in the court by the key witness Bina Ramani. She had earlier turned hostile & that had caused a lower court to acquit Manu Sharma. It seems that she was threated to not provide any statements in the court. It is indeed a courageous thing to come out to the court & act as a prime witness in spite of the threats.

Reading the news about her courage led to a question arising in my mind. Would I have done the same thing if I were to be present in a crime scene? Would I show the courage & the integrity (Of which I speak about all the time..........) to act as a witness & testify before the court if I were threatened? With all honesty, I don't think I would have done that. When you are threatened with dire consequences not just for yourself but for your near & dear, I don't think I have 'enough' integrity to stand and fight for justice. It is indeed shameful on my part but that is what it all came down to when I thought deeply about it.I believe I still have a long way to go before I could call myself a person of integrity. Sad but true..........

Humans -- Are we all knowing????

I found two articles (Coincidentally, adjacent to each other) in the science and technology section of Google news that made me think a lot about the 'Power' of human beings.

One of the articles talked about the invention of a robot that can 'learn' on its own. I got a very creepy feeling on learning that we humans have 'Matured' to develop a robot that can learn by itself. Do we really understand the consequences of such an invention? Are we talking about giving the robots a 'brain' to think on its own?Are we trying to play God here?

The other article talked about the discovery of close to 150 new species of animals in places "We humans" thought as uninhabitable. Various fishes & other animals were found in places like under hot thermal vent, in darkest & deepest of regions of sea. We had believed all these days that no living being can survive in these harsh conditions but we were proved wrong. The first thing that came to my mind is about the book 'God's Debris'. In one of the chapters, the protagonist makes fun about the fallacy in human thinking that makes us think that humans are the only "Intelligent" species on earth.

Are humans the 'Most' intelligent? Are humans "All knowing"?

Too many questions. So little answers...........

Check This Out

This is one interesting transcript between Steve Jobs & the Universal Music's CEO. A brilliantly written piece. Have fun reading it!!!!!

Interesting News: 05/Nov/06 -- 12/Nov/06

Take #1: A herd of elephants drank 'Intoxicated' brew and caused some rampage around villages. My doubt is, how much does an elephant need to get a 'HIGH'????

Take #2: An artificial Gut has been modeled by a team of scientists in britain. The great thing about this model gut is that it can even 'Vomit'!!!!!

Take #3: This is actually not from last week but from the week before that. You will be pardoned if you think that this is a photo from a hollywood movie. It is actually the scene from Netherland where close to a 100 horses were stranded in a small hill near the beach & the water started raising. Close to 15 horses died before the rest could be saved. A sad thing indeed

Trial by Media -- Vindicated

My previous post about the 'Trial by Media' gains more credibility with a similar article appearing in the editorial of "The Hindu". You can find the link to that article here. It seems a good omen to me that there are still people in the 'media' itself who think that the public is taken for a ride in the name of 'Public Opinion'. Let sanity be restored.

Trial by Media

I was watching NDTV channel the other night & there was an interesting debate that was going on about the 'Role of the Media'. The specific reason for NDTV taking up that topic was that the Chief Justice of India, Mr. Y.K.Sabharwal had made the following comment in one of his speeches: "Judges are confused because the media has already given a verdict. I have asked judges to go by evidence before them". Why did he talk about this all of a sudden? The reason that I could perceive is the media's 'Interest' in the Jessica Lal case and it's involvement in the Priyadarshini Mattoo case.

Let me make this very clear here. I am a person who believes in the freedom of the press & also understand the great power it holds in a democratic society. But the 'Active' role that the media is playing in the 'Jessica Lal' murder trial is a case of the media losing its bearing & walking down an untrodden path of no return. Does the freedom of press entitle the media to label someone as 'Guilty' even before the judges of our court do? Does it entitle the media to 'Stop' the lawyer who is taking up the case for the defendant? (Incidentally, the lawyer happens to be none other than the mercurial Mr. Ram Jethmalani. Check out the interview & the transcript of the interview he gave to CNN-IBN here) I seriously don't think the media has those rights. Has the media forgotten the difference between the 'Accused' & the 'Guilty'? I would be really happy to support the media if it makes an honest effort in bringing up some solid evidence to prove that the accused is indeed guilty. Let it not resort to cheap tactics like 'Moral Black mailing' of the lawyer who has decided to appear for the defendant.

To sign off, I am just reminded of a beautiful line from the movie 'Spiderman'. "With great power comes great responsiblity". Let the media understand its power & its responsibilty.