A Devil's Discourse

Ok, it is official

2006-07-29T09:21:00.000-07:00

Blogging is not for me :) Reading blogs is totally different from writing them. I have to call it quits because

1) Not much to talk about from my side, except sports
2) I couldnt write to save my life. Its a whole different animal and involves a lot of creative thinking which really hurts my brain.
3) Not enough patience to sit and write
4) Blogging time could be used for more living :)

Its good that I tried this and found that I am no blogger. Having tried this, I have nothing but respect for all other bloggers out there. How you guys do it anyway? After each post I feel as if I just finished talking to myself, which really freaks me out :)

I will continue to read blogs and leave comments. And that would be it. Sweet... :)

India takes Bronze medal in Azlan Shah tournament and Beavers go home with CWS

2006-06-26T20:47:00.000-07:00

India took the bronze medal in the Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament. We defeated New Zealand 3-2 for the third place.

The Oregon State Beavers won the College World Series baseball after defeating the North Carolina Tar Heels 3-2 in the decider. Congrats Beavers...

Picture Courtesy: AP Photo

CWS Championship series

2006-06-24T07:42:00.000-07:00

North Carolina and Oregon State face each other in the best of three Championship series of the College World Series. I know who I will be rooting for, Go Beavers....

wooh hooh... thats what i am talkin about

2006-06-19T08:12:00.000-07:00

India takes out Malaysia 5-2 in the second match of Azlan Shah Tournament.

Heart break at Winged Foot and Time Coverstory

2006-06-18T20:30:00.000-07:00

After a superb recovery on the 17th hole, Phil Mickelson's ran into tough luck in the 18th. Colin Montgomery, who shared the lead with Phil going into the 18th completed his round and was +6. Phil was the sole leader going into the 18th followed by Geoff Ogilvy who was trailing by 1. All Mickelson had to do is to get a par to wrap up his I U.S. Open, third Major on his way to Phil Slam and half way through a real Grand Slam.

Unfortunatley he drove the shot infront of the club house and far away from the green. A similar situation like on the 17th. I was hoping that he will put the ball in the green in the 2nd shot and finish it off with a par. Even if things go wrong he could shoot a bogey and go for a playoff tomorrow.

The second shot on 18th found a tree and came back to the exact same spot where he started. I was still hopeful that a bogey is a real possiblity. The third shot put the ball in the bunker. The fifth shot, where I was hoping for a miracle, just teased the hole and went passed it. Tough, tough watching that. A double bogey and Phil handed over the U.S. Open to Geoff Ogilvy who was watching this on the TV. It happened so fast, no one could even comprehend what just happened. It will take some time for the enormity of the result to sink in.

This U.S. Open will be known for Phil giving it away than Geoff Ogilvy winning it. I am not taking anything away from Ogilvy but thats how it will be known in history. After the Massacre in Winged Foot, this years open will be The Murder at Winged Foot. It happens... I hope he gets over this quick and goes to the British Open on top of his game.

This weeks Time coverstory is about the Bombay Boom. Alex Perry writes how Bombay represents the sweeping changes going across the country and where we are headed as a nation. Thes story is primarily intended for an American/International audience and doesnt tell anything that we (Indians) dont know already. A good read.

Picture Courtesy : www.time.com

ah...well, this sucks

2006-06-18T14:15:00.000-07:00

India went down to Australia 4-1 in the Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament. S.Thyagarajan in The Hindu says it is more because of our listless play than Aussies dominance. Hope we regroup soon and win out the rest of the games.

Happy Father's Day

2006-06-18T13:23:00.000-07:00

Wish you all a very happy fathers day.

College World Series update and Mickelmania

2006-06-17T10:24:00.000-07:00

The CWS is underway in Omaha. We made an early exit in the regionals. Neverthless, as I said ours is young team and we will be back next year.

Clemson, Oregon State, North Carolina, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Rice, Cal-State Fullerton, Miami made it to the final eight. The SEC sent in as many as 7 teams to the regionals and only Georgia made it to the CWS. ACC took half the available spots. The double elimination round will go on till June 22nd.

Phil Mickelson made a steady start on his campaign in the U.S. Open. He is very much in the hunt going into the third day. There was a feature in ESPN on how the fans at U.S. Open is having a Mickelmania. Click on the related videos link on the right.

I may get back to watching NBA again

2006-06-15T19:15:00.000-07:00

The Charlotte Bobcats just became my favorite team :)

Its U.S. Open time

2006-06-14T22:27:00.000-07:00

It feels just like yesterday The Masters got over. The picture of Phil Mickelson and Fred Couples walking to the 18th like a couple of buds playing a round of golf in a public course is still fresh in my memory. We go again now with The U.S. Open starting tomorrow.

Tiger Woods will be the emotional favorite coming off the demise of his father. As they say, it would be a really great story if he wins the championship on Father's day. But I never can ever root against Phil Mickelson. Hope everything falls in place and he takes one more major home.

Thought of writing a detailed post of how I emailed the sports show host of the local radio station defending Phil Mickelson and the host's lame reply to that. If Phil wins the U.S Open I will post it on Sunday else I will try to write it before The British Open.

In the mean time go ahead and read this sweet story about Phil's childhood, family and golf.

The power of Sports

2006-06-13T07:23:00.000-07:00

A good story in ESPN about Joey Cheek, the olympic gold medal speedskater, and his work in Zambia.

World Day against Child Labor

2006-06-12T18:01:00.000-07:00

Today is World Day against Child Labor. I came across this news article in Dinamani that says the number of Child Laborers are in decline in Tamilnadu. The statistics are encouraging. Hopefully those numbers reflect the ground reality and not a random government number that props up its own achievement.

Ironically there is this article in Hindu that talks about "The skill of matchstick making" by kids as young as 4 years. I hope the author wrote the article to mark the World Day against Child Labor and not actually came away impressed with their "skill".

Edit:- The writer of the Hindu article, Ramya Kannan, has posted this in her blog. An impressive story. Good job Ramya.

Manlaws and Desilaws

2006-06-10T20:55:00.000-07:00

I chanced upon this Sports Law article in ESPN. The article starts with something like "Manlaws", Burt Reynolds and Square Table. I was wondering what that was and googled. Turns out Wojciechowski (I copied and pasted his name) wrote the article based on "Manlaws", Miller Lite commerical. Long story short, Miller lite has come up with this series called Manlaws much like Budweisers "Real Men of Genius" ( I dont watch TV any more you see).

A bunch of guys, including Burt Reynolds, Jerome Bettis and others, sit around a square table and discuss various situations that men face and enact laws on how each men should (re)act in that situation.

The website also allows visitiors to write their own manlaws and add it to the website. Some of the laws are funny (how long do you wait before asking out the girl your best friend dumped) , some are real useful (Buffer Zone when two men go to movie) and some others are goofy (No true men watch, participate or enjoy soccer) . A nice effort from the funny side.

Well, this got me thinking and I thought about something like Desilaws. Laws that Desis in US should follow. Some of my laws are given below. Please feel free to fire away your Desilaw. Remeber, you read (heard) about Desilaws here first :)

1) You dont talk loudly in restaurants, unless it is a desi restaurant.

2) You dont fake an accent all of sudden when you meet an American or another new desi or in 1 - 800 number calls.

3) Just because you brought one traditional dress from India, doesnt mean that you absolutley have to wear it to ISA* events.

4) It is perfectly ok to wear Jeans and T-Shirt to ISA events

5)You dont automatically become a "Cool Desi" just by driving a Mustang. Even stick shift Mustangs dont count.

6) Use of non-stop profanity doesnt make you a "Rebel Desi"

7) You can support teams and drivers named other than Ferrari and M.Schumaker.

8) You dont act like a maniac and run around crazy in theatres showing southern superstar movies (Rajnikanth, Chiranjeevi) unless you can do the same for hollywood stars in Harkins theartres.

9) Your favorite NFL team should not be the team that won the Superbowl the year you started watching American Football. Same goes for NBA and MLB.

10) When in school no more than two desi roommates go to grocery shopping at any given time.

11) If you are buying 1% or 2% reduced fat milk then you can as well just buy whole milk.

12) If you cant see your toes without bending forward then skin tight shirts and T-shirts are a strict no, no.

* ISA - Indian Student Association

A rundown of 2006 NCAA champions

2006-06-07T21:35:00.000-07:00

University of Georgia Women's Gymnastics team - 2006 NCAA Champions.

SI.com has got this superb photo feature of the 2006 NCAA champions. Look at those faces, if that is not pure, unadultered joy then you tell me what else is. Congrats all you NCAA champions. I hope we squeeze in a championship or two next year.

Picture Courtesy: AP Photo

How about this for a nail biter

2006-06-06T19:15:00.000-07:00

What a great exhibtion for test cricket. It mighty sucks not getting a favorable result but again that is what test cricket is all about. Hope our boys go and win the rest of the matches.

Way to go Wasim

2006-06-05T19:42:00.000-07:00

With our back against the wall and facing a rejuvenated Windies, Wasim Jaffer played the innings of his life guiding India to a secure position in the I test. This performance is especially commendable considering Jaffer was dismissed for 1 in the first innings. In almost all of sports it is confidence that keeps you going. When you are confident, your ordinary day will become a career day. It is no ordinary feat to come up big facing a 131 run deficit, in an away game and having been dismissed for 1 in your first innings.

Some good hitting towards the end of the day by Yuvi and Dhoni puts us in a position to force a win or if they start scoring, settle for a draw. This is why I love test cricket. One day you are staring at an insurmountable situation, only to be led from a position of defeat to trouncing the opponents by an unlikely hero. Now lets go and show them we can clean up 10 wickets in a day.

College world series

2006-06-02T07:01:00.000-07:00

College baseball post season starts today with regionals starting at 16 different sites across the country. The post season starts with 64 teams that follows a double elimination format. 32 teams will proceed to the Super Regionals at 8 different sites. Winner of each Super Regional will go on to the College World Series played in Omaha, Nebraska.

The College World Series (CWS) is one of the exciting events in the NCAA calendar. Our school starts every season with the objective of making it to the CWS. Anything shorter than a trip to Omaha is considered a disappointment among our fan base. Last year we made a spectacular run in the post season and came one game shy of making it to the Championship game. Game after game we came through the clutch that made us the darlings and the dare devils of last years series. I was in India at that time on vacation and was checking the scores from the browsing centers of Chennai. Got a few weird looks from the people around me when I pumped my fist (a little vigorously) after learning we were one game away from the championship.

We have a young team this time and I am planning to take game by game this postseason. If we make it to Omaha, baseball gods willing, I will be there in person to watch yet another run at the title.

Additional resources:

www.cwsomaha.com
www.http://www.ncaasports.com/baseball/mens

Da Vinci Code

2006-05-30T20:58:00.000-07:00

Ok, I thought the movie will be a substitute for the book. I was wrong, the movie made me read the book. I checked it out of the library and finished over the long weekend. Hey, any award for being the last person to read the book? :)

Though I watched the movie, the book kept me occupied. I would say the movie stayed true to the book and didnt deviate much, except for the way how it ended. It pretty much covered everything the book has to say. While reading I was googling constantly about various terms in the book, that took me to very interesting links. I was also using Google Earth to get a birds eye view of the locations mentioned in the book. You can very well say that I am the latest one to be bit by the Holy Grail bug. I just want to read more :)

While reading about the various brotherhoods like the Priory of Sions, I came across the Free Masons Society. I even managed to find the local chapter of this society which is 3 miles from where I stay. They have a dinner get together next month and it is open to everyone. I may drop by and see what exactly is going on :)

Couple of thing struck me hard in that invitation

1) It is on June the 13th , 13th
2) There is a Mona Lisa picture in the page where they have the invitation.

Go Figure ...

Finger crossing time

2006-05-25T10:23:00.000-07:00

NFM

Edit:- Crossed finger didnt work. Yesterday, one of my School's team went into the 3rd day of NCAA championship with a chance to secure the championship. Unfortunatley we had a bad day yesterday and slipped down. Though we played good today we couldnt close the gap and win it. It is tough to see a NCAA championship that was in our grasp go away :(

WriterSujatha.com

2006-05-24T22:45:00.000-07:00

WriterSujatha.com is being developed as an one stop shop for all of Sujatha's works. It is Thalaivar Sujatha's suggestion that a site be developed where all his writings will be available. The site is coming up pretty good. Right now his short stories are available for a modest subscription of $3. I would say it is a killer deal and all his fans should should sign up.

Desikan at Desikan.com is manintaing a Sujatha Pakkam where you can find some of his writings and more about Sujatha himself. Desikan is considered an autority on Sujatha's writings. Sujatha himself mentioned in Katrathum Petrathum about Desikan and how surprised he was when he brought him some of his published stories which he thought was long last.

Someday I would like to start and complete collecting the entire body of Sujatha's works. Till that time I think this website would be a great place for me to read his writings.

Record setting opening for The Da Vinci Code

2006-05-22T18:12:00.000-07:00

The Da Vinci Code opened with the second biggest ever collection for a movie. It raked in $224 millions in the opening weekend, which is second only to Star Wars : III Revenge of the Sith, released last year.

Tom Hanks movies already collected over $ 4 billion at the box office. Yeah, you read that correct, Tom Hanks is responsible for $4 billion in collection through his movies. You now can add the $224 million to it. And I did contribute my $9.50 towards the $224 million this past weekend :)

Ps:

Saran in the comments section asked what I think about the movie. My reply turned out to be a little long (a mini blog of sorts:)) . So I am posting about the movie here. No spoilers, go ahead read it.

I didnt read the book yet. I wasn't having any more information than what i saw in the movie. So, I really liked it :)

Having said that I am not completley sold on the Da Vinci Code. The premise upon which the entire claim is based is pretty weak ( I am avoiding details for fear of letting out spoilers). May be the book has more information than the movie.

I was reading about the "Priory of Sions" the "Opus Dei" , "The Knights of Templar" and other related information immediatley after watching the movie. Came back from the movie at 1:00 am and started reading, slept only at 3:30 am. Have to read the book soon :)

TN High School (+2) results

2006-05-21T22:55:00.000-07:00

Tamilnadu High School results were announced today. Here is a rundown of this years result.

1) 74.5 % of those appeared, cleared the exam (71.7 % boys and 77.1 % girls).
2)Bharathram from Nanganallur topped this years class securing 1180/1200.
3)Santha Prakash and Vivek Sandeep, both from Chennai, checked in at the second spot with a score of 1179/1200.
4)Bhanupriya from Voothankarai rounded of the top three with a score of 1177/1200
5) Number of students that scored a full 200/200 in individual subjects.
Physics - 17
Chemistry -119
Biology - 87
Botony - 55
Zoology - 35
Maths - 850
Accountancy - 314
Commerce -529.

The results can be seen online at High School results

Maniratnam's Guru

2006-05-19T20:42:00.000-07:00

Ok, I knew that Mani is working on his next project Guru but didnt know anything about the cast or the crew and obviously the storyline. I was reading Rajeev Menon's interview in this weeks Vikatan and there was a question about the movie Guru, for which Rajeev is the cameraman. The interviewer asked whether Guru is based on the life of Late Dhirubhai Ambani. This got me excited because I would love to watch Dhirubhai's life story as a Maniratnam movie.

Rajeev just about evaded the question but did tell that Bachan Jr plays a gas station attendant and the movie occurs from 1950 -1980. This strongly resembles Dhiruji's life itself. He also started his career as a gas station attendant in Yemen. It would be great if Guru is indeed based on Dhirubhai's life. We all can expect another Nayagan like movie that told us Varadaraja Mudaliar's story.

Life without TV

2006-05-18T20:12:00.000-07:00

Just when I went to swtich on the TV to watch My name is Earl, I realized something. My TV watching hours /week has come down dramatically. Its not that I was encompassed with work or anything. It just happened. Ever since the NCAA basketball championship, I am not turning the TV on as often. For the past month or so I watch less than 4 hours/week of TV. The 8:00 to 9:00th hour of NBC Thursdays, a Scrubs here, a Colbert report there and that would be it. I watch quite a bit of TV, so this is something. Ofcourse the lack of my favorite sporting events also factored in the reduced hours (NBA?, wake me up... when the season ENDS... :))

It kind of feels good and I hope to continue this way of watching 4 hours or less TV every week.

Ps: There is no My name is Earl today, thats a bummer

Lance Armstrong's billion dollar mission

2006-05-17T06:56:00.000-07:00

Lance Armstrong is more busy these days with his fight against cancer. Couple of weeks back I was reading the SI story on Lance's work for cancer treatment. He intends to raise awarness, as much money and resources as possible for this cause. Too bad the full article that appeared online a couple of weeks back is no longer available. You can still read it in Sports Illustrated magazine.The article by Austin Murphy is this weeks cover story.

SI.com do have another small article by Austin Murphy. You can read it here