One more post on IPL!

I was there in Stadium to watch the match live! Chennai Vs Mumbai. The match was slated to start at 8 pm IST. I and my friends, we were all in at 6 pm itself. The crowd was swinging to Hariharan’s songs. He ended with his ‘Krishna nee…’ from Colonial Cousins album. Then came the ambassador for Chennai Super Kings, Actor Vijay. He was received with a standing ovation.

Then there was a half an hour show of drumming. Who else can drum than ‘Sivamani’. He was rocking. We danced to his tunes! It was a nice show. After this the match started. Hayden and Raina slammed the balls for fours and sixes. It was raining scores in Chennai. For each four and between overs, Sivamani had his drums on and had the cheer leaders dancing. It was great to watch the match live among the crowd. The crowds started the Mexican wave as usual, cheering the players.

Nayanthara was missing as usual. Very close as Mumbai finished 6 runs short of the target. Altogether it was a nice experience

Once there was a guy, enjoying life, doing whatever he wanted to. He was most interested in computers and wanted to make a challenging career in the field of computers. He was doing his 11th class then. If there is a guy, then there should be a girl. That is what all kollywood movies have taught us. And it happened that this girl was living in the house opposite the guy’s. She was studying 8th class.

As always the guy had not known about here existence till then! What is interesting if the guy and the girl don’t meet! So be it. Days passed and the guy now in first year of his college and the girl in 11th class decide to join a computer course. Also the girl’s sister (in her 5th class joins the class). It happens that the guy talks to the younger sister and by some way after a long … long… time, the guy speaks with the girl. They remain so as friends.

One fine day, the girl calls the guy over phone (not a cellphone), says that she is in love with the guy. The guy (hey! he is an aspiring lad), rejects the offer advising the girl that this is not the age to fall in love or to make a decision about life. Then the time cycle spins rapidly (imagine a bullock cart wheel spinning faster in MGR movies).

After 7 years, now the guy is a software engineer in a good company. He had long forgotten about the girl and the proposal. One day in a friend’s marriage function, the guy and the girl meet. The girl then meets the guy in person and expresses her love for the guy had remained intact. The guy is stunned. He is in a dilemma now! Whether to accept or reject the girl’s hand in marriage! Whether he loves the girl or not!

What can be the ending to this story! (Can you get some realistic ending rather than a cinematic ending! )

IPL. If you are in India, you should have recognized this word by now. Everyone speaks about it. It has been the headlines for a week now. What is so special about IPL? Let me try to figure it out.

• In IPL, the players are not playing for the country. So there is no must-win situtation.
• Cricket is being seen as a game, entertainment sport rather than as a war between the teams.
• It is the shortest version of the game. Must similar to street cricket to which each and every kid in India can associate to.
• It provides a place where you can see Ponting (Australia) providing tips to Ishant (India) on how to bowl.
• It crosses all boundaries and lifts the spirit of the game.
• It has also brought Sharukh, Preity, Karan and all into the game to add value.
• It has provided BCCI, the stadiums, the local cricket board, ad-sponsers with more revenue.

What more can one ask for a complete entertainment. Enjoy watching cricket! Enjoy the stars!

The big gala event of Cricket started yesterday in Bangalore. Lalit Modi (Chairman IPL) and Vijay Mallya (RCB Owner, UB group) must have been happy with how the crowd responded. There was a grand cultural extravaganza before the actual ‘Karmayudh’ started.

Surely, there was glamour, high decibel scream brought in by the dancing girls, acrobatics, Shankar Mahadevan, bollywood stars and King Khan himself. The crowd should have enjoyed a lot.

IPL had a theme for each team. Bangalore was all Red (Why doubt, KingFisher man), and my favourite team for this IPL, Kolkatta were truely attired as Kinght Riders in Black and Gold. Even the helmet was Golden colour. After all the cultural openings faded, the match started.

Ganguly collapsed for 10 and Ponting for 20. Then came McCollum. He made a massive 158* runs consuming just 78 balls. An innings expected out of Twenty20. There was great cheering for each six he sent out to the gathering. What more could Sharukh ask for.

Then came the RCB innings, though the local crowd expected a lot, the first blow itself showed what was in store. Ishant Sharma took the first wicket of Dravid in his very first ball. Deadly! and the story continued. Nice game play by KKR and the match was theirs.

Every news channel, screams the head lines. IPL, IPL, IPL. Just tune in now, you could read something on any news channel about IPL, exclusive interviews …. Indeed Cricket is India’s National Game. We have it in our mind and in our blood.

I had read a lot of books since childhood. In this post, I would recommend some of the nice titles that I had found interesting.

Disclaimer: I had read most of the books when I was in the class 6th to 10th. So it may not be interesting to all audiences.

Following are the list of book, in no order of importance

• Sherlock Holmes, Complete 4 novels and 52 short stories

  My most adored character in all the books I have ever read. His intelligence, sense, analytical skill all impress me.

• The Black Tulip – Alexander Dumas

  One of the good and short books I have read long back. I don’t remember much about the book. But it was an interesting read.

• The Scarlet Pimpernal

  A nice book to read. A superb storyline.

• Enid Blyton’s – Mystery Series

  Stories for children. The Five Found Outers. This is one of my favourite series of children novels.

• Five Point Someone

  A nice and wonderful book to read and have a nice time. It might take you to your college days.

• One night @ a call center

  Again from the author of Five point someone. This book made me think.

• Why Men can’t listen and women can’t read maps

  A good book.

• Code Name God – Mani Bhaumik

  A definite book that will change your outlook on life.

• The Da Vinci Code

  Superb, racy, fast and interesting. You can’t put the book down once you have started reading.

• Angels and Demons – Dan Brown

  Another interesting title. Wonderful, fast paced. Takes one through a complete journey of Rome. Must read.

• Deception Point – Dan Brown

  Not so good as the previous two but okay.

• Tao of Physics – Frijtof Copra

  Still reading.

• Phantom

  A complete series of Phantom adventures from Rani comics

Happy reading!

My first PC was a P II @266MHz system, with 8 GB HDD and a whooping 32 MB SDRAM. It was by and large a nice configuration then I could easily accommodate Windows 98 in 1 GB and the remaining space was for me to load songs, NFS, games and all goodies.

I used to read a lot of computer magazines, Digit topping the list. In my 11 th standard, along with Developer IQ magazine they shippped a CD containing Mandrake Linux 8.1 (in association with Deep Root Linux in India). Rather adventurous, I wanted to try this new operating system. I had not seen any other OS than the dominant Win 98 and Win 95 in my school PCs. So trying out a new OS was something thrilling.

If I remember correct, it was my summer holidays. So I had all the day to myself. I put the Mandrake CD into the CD-ROM and waited for it to start installation. I was not familiar with the installation procedures, and I was too lazy to read through the installation instructions in the book. I chose the automatic partitioning, defaulted to all the setup options and in the screen wherein Linux configures hardware, I was stuck up with the monitor not getting detected. I started my first line of defence, the ubiquitous (Ctrl + Alt + Del) combination. It dropped me to the command line and told me that system was going for a restart.

Then on restart, it brought the LILO boot screen and halted. I booted into DOS prompt using a boot CD and
tried to see what had happened to my windows data using FDISK. DOS recognized the partition as NON-DOS partition. I cursed myself for ruining a nicely running machine. So I took the second line of defense, reinstalling Linux (this I tried so that I could recover my windows partitions, since the partition manager in the installer of linux was graphical, it was easier.) I installed Linux again. This time I read through each and every screen, that is when I noticed that we had option to dual boot into Windows, choose the boot loader etc. The install was fine till the monitor setup. I chose the Generic Monitor setup this time and it seemed to work. The system was re-booted, and at last I saw dawn. I had booted into a new OS. Mandrake Linux.

KDE was the desktop environment provided. I came to know about the different options available only much later. I was new and everything needed me to go into Root mode and install or update (RPM was available then. I tried installing Java into the system, that is when I found out, it was easier to use shell in Linux than use the graphical tool. I missed my Windows very much. So I popped in my Win 98 CD and started installing it. After install only did I realize that the boot loader was re-written by Windows and I had lost the option of booting into Linux. I didn’t feel for the loss of Linux, as I had my safer, usable and friendly Windows on hand.

PS: Now I can use Linux more effectively. I learnt it the harder way.

I have the habit of saying, I am going to do this, I am going to do that! But really I start it very late or never. So the problem with me is beginning. If I start, then I will complete. Also If I have to do something, then I will surely do it.

Well begun is half done

Though it conveys a wonderful meaning, and something I need to keep in mind, it fails to impress me. As I was travelling home yesterday, I noticed a hoarding on Mount Road which read To begin, begin. And that is an inspiring quote.

It directs one to start or begin. I am beginning today.