Watched Rang De Basanti Finally watched Rang De Basanti.

Like the movie? yeah, loved it.

Good movie? Hell yeah, great movie.

So? I dont know. The movie left me with a few questions for myself. I for sure dont have the answers today, may not have the answers tomorrow. It may take years to say whether I found the answers, if I still blog at that time I will post my answers then.  ¶ 3:20 PM 0 comments

  Draft NFL draft has started, in a super twist this past week the Houston Texans struck a deal with the NC State Defensive End Mario Williams. It seemed like a forgone conclusion that they will draft Reggie Bush. In a couple of years we will know how the entire thing worked out.

As far as my school is concerened, I am expecting the following players to get drafted.

1) Our senior Wide Receiver 2nd - 3rd round. Whoever drafts him will get a steal.
2) Line Backer 1 4th - 5th round. Make no mistake I couldnt see much of difference between him A.J.Hawk. In a couple of years he will be a solid contributor to whichever team that selects him.
3) Line Backer 2 6th-7th round. Good player, with some good luck he will have a good run in the league
4) Offensive Lineman - 7th round or Free Agent. Another steal kind of a guy. Super smart and talented.
5) Wide receiver 2 - Free Agent. He used to be our deep threat. Had an unfortunate injury where he tore is MCL
6) Tight End/ Full Back - Free Agent. Another team player. Has got good size to play in the next level. I am sure he will make the roster come fall.

Good luck all you guys.

You can track the entire draft here or in ESPN :)  ¶ 11:29 AM 0 comments

  Mr. Jackson, you will be missed Keith Jackson, the 77 year old Hall of Fame broadcaster, said he is retiring from broadcasting for good. I am listening to his play-by-play only for the last 3 years but he has created a lasting impression on me, like with millions of other college football fans. I could only imagine how good he would have sounded during his glory years.

Everyone could see that his age is playing tricks with him when he calls the wrong names of players, coaches and teams, but his jolly good way of calling the game and a voice made for capturing the adventure in the arena, made us all over look the shortcomings of his age. Listening to his play-by-play along with Dan Fouts's color analysis used to take the game viewing experience to a whole different level. There is no doubt that college football broadcasting and Keith Jackson will be synonmyous to one another.

Mr.Jackson, you will be missed.  ¶ 9:55 PM 0 comments

  Guru Gregg's advice on how to spend the off-season Gregg Easterbrook writes this popular column Tuesday Morning Quarter Back for NFL.com. At the end of each football season he suggests football fans to spend the offseason in a constructive way to justify being football crazy during the fall. Here is an excerpt from last years signoff column.


Tuesday Morning Quarterback suggests you use the cold, lonely NFL offseason to engage in spiritual and emotional growth. Take long walks through scenic nature preserves and try not to think about mega-babes or ultra-hunks. Attend cultural events such as the Shaw Festival, where The Constant Wife by Somerset Maugham is the next play up, and tickets may be purchased using Canadian funny-money. Do deep-breathing exercises; studies show that five minutes per day of slow, deliberate breathing, combined with quiet meditation, can reduce blood pressure. Improve your diet -- eat smaller portions of freshly cooked foods, avoiding fats. Each day, replace one cup of coffee with a cup of decaf herbal tea. Each day, replace one sweet with a piece of fruit.

Attend worship services of any faith or denomination: You have obligations to your Maker and your fellow men and women, and it is best not to lose sight of that. Turn off the television one hour earlier each night and see if your life doesn't improve.

Read one book per month from among all those books you always meant to read. Given the death of Arthur Miller, TMQ suggests reading his plays All My Sons and The Price, not as well known as his famous works but writing of great importance. Reader Michael Thum of Dallas asks my offseason recommendations for newly released books. In fiction, TMQ recommends Gilead by Marilynne Robinson and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. In nonfiction, I recommend American Dream by Jason DeParle and The Progress Paradox by yours truly. In history, I recommend The Friar and the Cipher by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone. In biography, I recommend John Paul Jones by Evan Thomas and Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson. In humor, I recommend Molvania by Santo Cilauro.

Engage in spiritual growth, perform community service, read books, attend theater and dance and concerts, reconnect with friends and family -- then you will feel justified in racing back to the couch, the remote, the swimsuit calendars and the microbrews when the artificial-universe insanity of the NFL resumes in September.

Full article here

Guru asks us to read a lot of books, I will try Sir. Other suggestions seems ok :)  ¶ 8:30 PM 0 comments

  Mama I'm coming home Was listening to Ozzy's "Mama I am coming home" on the radio on my way back home. Liked the way Ozzie sung it, real good. Some how it reminded me of mom* songs by Illayaraja :)

* - Many say Mama refers to Ozzy’s wife Sharon.  ¶ 11:12 PM 0 comments

  OBO Couple of weeks back I placed an ad in Craigslist to sell my old cell phone. I upgraded to a new cell phone six months back and the old one was sitting idly in the apt. I got all smart and wanted to make some money by getting rid of it. So I posted the ad saying that I have a used cell phone for sale at $X price or OBO (Or Best Offer). There were no offers for two weeks since I placed the ad. On Friday I got an email from this guy asking whether I still have the phone. I was all happy that I finally got some one to sell the phone and replied that I still have it.

Today I got another email from the same person asking where to meet me to get the phone. Looked like he was traveling from the other part of the town just for my old phone. In this age of free, flashy cell phones this seemed odd to me. I asked him to meet me at a gas station around lunch time, which was convenient for him too. I gave my phone number in the mail that I sent him before. A friend of his called me and said that he is on his way and should meet in about 45 minutes. I asked how to identify him and she said that he drives a Green Frontier that got T-boned. That was good enough for me.

By the time I drove to the gas station I saw the T-boned Frontier and a guy standing in front of the store. It seemed he was waiting for me for quite sometime.I figured that it was him and waved at him from my car. I parked, got out of the car and we shook hands. He was wearing jeans, a white collarless t-shirt, hat and a lot of tattoos on his hands. He should be in his 30’s, a typical blue-collar dude. He is the kind of a person that you establish an immediate rapport with and I did feel that. He said how he uses his cell phone for all his work, what happened to his cell phone ( He said it got shot !) and how the service provider said that it will take 4 days to send him a new phone. I showed him the equipment, the charger, the user-manual and the box that came with it. I was happy that I am giving him a very good product. He was happy too.

So, just before we exchanged the phone and the money he asked whether the price is $X, in a tone expecting a reduction in price. At that time I totally I forgot that I wrote OBO in the ad and said that is the final price.

I could have easily reduced the price or better yet, given him the phone for free. He is a blue collar dude with whom I could easily identify myself. It also looked like he needed the phone bad. I didn’t realize it then but after I left the place I felt bad and continue to feel bad as I write this. I should have given some sort of a price reduction, damn me.

There is no chance he will be reading this but by writing this I think I can some how let this out of me. Also I want to say this to him

“Sorry brother I should have given the phone at a reduced prize and god bless"  ¶ 6:01 PM 0 comments

  Exhilarating




  ¶ 2:05 AM 0 comments

  Billion Dollar Franchise The New York Yankees became the firs MLB team to be valued at 1 billion dollars. Everyone loves to hate the Yankees but it looks like they are the ones that contribute significantly to the league and act as the engine that drives the MLB. Oh well, we can call them the necessary evil.

With the ever increasing value of the franchises my pipe dream of owning a Pro team someday is becoming tougher and tougher :)  ¶ 6:28 PM 0 comments

  Long week Woooooof, what a long week and it is only Thursday. It blowed at work and I have one more day to go. Am going to get killed for sure tomorrow afternoon mountain biking under the 90 degree sun :(. Ok, no complaints.  ¶ 4:20 PM 0 comments

  Spring Game Write up coming up. These are some of the videos that I shot with my Cellphone

Orange is not our School color. They are the "No Hit" jerseys worn by our Quarter Backs


Running Back
Our Sophomore Running Back talking to the media


Quarter Backs
Our two Quarter Backs after the Spring game. The one that is standing in the video is our starting QB, a Senior.

The one that is kneeling and signing autographs is the Redshirt sophomore who came in and replaced the injured starting QB last season and lit it up.


Quarter Back (Senior)

That is our starting QB talking to the media. Very competitive and fiery guy. You can hear him saying "Ofcourse its on me" when asked whether it is on him to lead the team this season

  ¶ 11:20 AM 0 comments

  The Da Vinci Code The Da Vinci Code movie releases on 05/19/06. Good, one less book to read :)  ¶ 6:56 AM 3 comments

  Spring practice, Inside Man - Dil Se, and Phil slam This past Saturday I went to scrimmage no:2 of the spring practice. This is the last scrimmage before the Spring game. Usually the scrimmages used to be at the practice fields but this time around it was moved to our football stadium. On a lazy Saturday afternoon I went to the campus, parked near the stadium, verified my name at the security desk and walked inside the stadium. Sat on the west side at the 50 yard line, which during the regular season games will be a tad difficult to get.

I couldn’t help but admire how magnificent our stadium is. It is a little old but is very beautiful and has got a lot of history and character to it. By the time I went there the team was on the field and was going through the position drills. After about 15 minutes the scrimmage stared.

Now, the scrimmage is different from a regular game in the sense the coaches will go through a series of pre scripted game situations in addition to the regular game format. It helps them run various plays, evaluate players and tweak things around. Our players seemed to have a lot of fun out there and that was good to see. In scrimmage no:1, offense had their way but it was pay back time for the defense. They simply stifled our much heralded offense. The inexperience at the receiving corps was visible but I am confident they will come through. The tight ends were as advertised. Our running backs did well too. I saw our big back show some good moves and speed.

Coming to the defensive side of the ball, it was good to see one of our defensive ends on the offensive back field all the time. If he could replicate the same in a game then we all will be happy. The line played well and the increased quality depth there will only take us up. The young line-backing core played real well but they are a little inexperienced too.

The defensive secondary is riddled with injuries, so a lot of experimentation is going on there. One of the best players in the team made the switch from WR/RB to Corner Back this season. We could see that he is still learning the nuances of that position. Given his talent and a heart as big as anyone else I have no doubt he will pick it up and be real good at it.

The scrimmage’s scary moment was during a running play. Our running back while getting tackled was upended and the safety came in and cleaned him up. Boy that was a big hit. Had it been a regular game and the hit was on the opponent I would have rejoiced wildly (it was a clean hit). Here both the sides are our boys and it was a scary to see him get hit like that. But he got up immediately and ran to the sidelines. On the brighter side it is good to see the players with such intensity during the scrimmage.

All in all it was a good scrimmage. Spring game is up next and will give us an idea about the state of the team during this off-season. Here’s to a great 2006-07 campaign.

Later that night went to Inside Man. This time Spike Lee has come up with a thriller. I am not going to discuss any story lines or other things in the movie for that would be a spoiler of some sort or other. Denzel Washington played his part very well, no surprise there. But the performance of Clive Owen with his limited “face time” impressed me the most in the movie. Did Jodie Foster even act in this flick :)

The start of the movie startled me, not because of the story but because Chaiya Chaiya track from Dil se was played in the background when they ran the credits. It was no modified version or anything like that, it’s a plain and straight Chaiya Chaiya from Dil Se. I am not sure how this works because I didn’t see ARR given credit for this. Another thing to mention here is the use of Bombay movie theme music in Lord of War movie.

Music buffs out there, please explain what is going on here.

Hellboy’s verdict: Worth more than the $9.50 you pay at the box office

And Phil Mickelson coasted to his 3rd victory in the last nine majors and he is half way to the Phil Slam. I will keep my fingers crossed and hope to see him complete the Phil Slam.  ¶ 4:45 PM 4 comments

  Speak of the Devil I wanted to see Phil Mickelson win The Masters again and boy he did, pretty comfortably :)  ¶ 4:30 PM 0 comments

  I want to see this again Two years back one fine spring day, I walked past this guy in campus as I was thinking about my upcoming thesis defense and life after that. He was talking on the cell phone to somebody and I heard this as we walked away from one another “The Masters tees of today”. Amidst all the other things this bit of info got registered in my mind as well.

The next four days I was checking the leader board and saw Phil Mickelson make a charge on the third day towards his elusive Major. I was a little skeptical knowing how he has squandered many an opportunity in the past to win a Major. I didn’t even want to follow the rest of the leader board for fear of seeing him let go another opportunity. But that was the year he was going to get his first major, The Masters at that, and shed the unfair title given to him “ The best player not to win a Major”. He did exactly that by winning The Masters on Sunday against a fast setting Sun. Legions of his fans across the globe, including yours truly, were happy for the dude. Finally he got his due and it is always good to see someone receive something they truly deserve. Phil’s Masters was one such thing.

He followed it up with the PGA championship last year, two down two to go :)

It starts all over again today, Tiger Woods heads to the tournament as the strong favorite, when he isn’t? I want to see Phil win The Masters again. Go Lefty, go get it.  ¶ 9:21 AM 2 comments

  Just in time... Phil Mickelson is leading by 8 shots going into the final day of Bell South Classic. Its really good with Masters Tournament coming up next week.

Tournament update: Pretty one sided affairs in both the matches today. For a while I was wondering whether two football schools (Florida and LSU) from a football conference (SEC) will go to the finals. That would have been really weird :).UCLA in the finals will help them return to their old glory. Good for them.  ¶ 9:22 PM 0 comments