Thursday, November 22, 2007

Can't help it

I can't help it. I deliberately do not want to write on cricket as my blog will look full of cricket posts. But Indian cricket board and its management committee think otherwise. And hence, here I am ranting about our cricket board. And as for the title, I did not want the reader to know that it is a post on cricket from the title. Thats' it.
Indian team for the tests came as a big shocker to me. How could they leave out a player like Yuvraj Singh who is in the form of his life. After a series winning performances in the T20 world cup and the Pakistan series where he dominated in all games, how could one leave him out of the test side ? Some argue that he is not a "Test Player". My question to them is why do you brand players? Everyone is playing cricket and it is just about adapting to the situation whether it be tests, one days or T20s. There are moments in test cricket where you need to go out and attack the opponent and there are times when you play literally on back foot in a one day game. Then why this branding like Test player and one day player. The next argument I want to put is we all admire Aussies as champions ( leaving out the sledging and stuff) . If you want to be champions we should start thinking like one first. They don't brand their players like one day players and test players and as a result they have got a match winning batsman in Adam Gilchrist who is equally good in all the forms of game. According to me Yuvraj is better than Gilchrist as a " test batsman" . Then why not give him a chance.
One side they showed signs of "moving ahead" by dropping Dravid ( Though I was not in favor of that as well) and the other side they are taking a step back by choosing a so called typical test team. Hope they show some consistency in their errors at least.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

muziboo.com: Music everywhere

Have you ever felt like making people listen to your composition? But could not find people who give honest feedback on it. Here is a site muziboo.com where you can share your music, rather upload it for users to listen to it and comment on it. There are groups,bands of common interests . To upload music all you need is a login account which takes 15 to 30 seconds depending on your name length and your typing speed to create. Once you are done with this, you are all set to harass people with your compositions. The look vise, a rather plain and sober pretext for such a musical site, but you won't complain as it is really fast to load. Song quality also is good. I listened to couple of songs and to tell you what, they were not at all bad. Good going guys!!

So next time you have to show up your music talent you know where to hit.

My experiements with BCB5

BCB5 didn't come to me as a surprise as did BCB4. I knew its date and venue details much ahead in time and I did register also well in advance. Saturday, the way it began I thought we would have a blast. Me(without my camera),Vijesh,Raghu,Prem,Ambuj all met up at Sony world signal and set off to be joined by Suresh in IIM-B. With audi not booked no formal announcements. It was nice innovation to have mattresses and bedsheets for "discussion" based collectives. As volunteers we helped them finish some of the chores. No card hanging around your neck this time. It were stickers. " Cheaper doesn't necessarily mean worse, Natraj". The collective which attracted me from the very time I registered, XP collective, thats where we spent our first half of Saturday. Interesting session on Agile methodology with healthy arguments from all skeptics of the model. Post lunch spent some time (though did not understand) on Ruby collective and then went on to attend the quiz screening teaming up with Raghu. Then there was an interesting arguement going on " Myths and facts about generic girls and boys". After participating in it passively we headed home. Hey! I forgot to mention, we got the T-shirts on Saturday itself. And this proved out to be a mistake on the part of organizers. Sunday morning wore a deserted look. Prem, Ambuj and Raghu from our group did not turn up. First half went for a session on Indic languages and how to use them for various purposes on computer. Though I don't or plan to use it in near future, it was a good session. And hey, were wait listed for quiz finals.Afternoon attended a session on a news site taazza.com, a nice news site which localizes your news contents . After that we did participate in quiz finals.(Raghu came all the way for this). Lets not discuss the results of it here. Then headed back home.
If compared with BCB4, personally i learnt more or rather it evoked the thirst for knowing a lot of things in me, but overall I think the absence of audi and the absence of crowd on Sunday proved out to be spoilsports.

Friday, November 16, 2007

Bangalore Traffic and Diwali

I have experienced it for 3 years. The mad rush of Bangalore traffic on the eve of diwali to reach majestic/station (both are adjacent to each other in case you do not know). This year it began as a different experience for me. First and foremost, no rush in 171 bus from Koramangala stop. So here I was seated comfortably in the bus. Surprise no.1 : Shanti nagar depot having some buses going out to various places. Instant reaction from my brain: Good! They have done their home work well. Surprise no.2: Not much of traffic after corporation circle. Usually this is the place where the whole thing comes to a stop and people walk to bus stand/station during diwali break.
Surprise no.3: I reached majestic in 1 hour time which is a normal duration for Bangalore. Surprise no.4 : By the time I reached my bus platform my bus number was already marked on the list. I was very happy and elated on all this. Thinking that Bangalore has found an answer for the mad rush. The next surprise, told me the truth. Conductor was shouting "Chennai ,Chennai." Thats when I realised, seats in the bus were vacant. Which meant today was not the diwali eve which Bangalore is famous for. Diwali had begun one day earlier for me. And hence without a traffic blast.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Om Shanti Om can be missed

What happens when you buy a cheap canvas and in your efforts to show it as beautiful you paint it all with the most expensive colours of the world? The result is a movie like Om Shanti Om. The colors added are reincarnation , story of a ghost, a half baked love story,mother sentiment blah bhah blah. But, the basic problem of Om Shanti Om is it has nothing new to offer. No story. Funny moments here and there can't compensate for the story. Roping in all the stars of bollywood also can't.
Shahrukh Khan hams all the way in the movie like never before. Deepika is ok. Shreyas Talpade is wasted. I wonder what he saw in this movie. Arjun Rampal is the only performance which stands out. It claims to be a humorous movie. If that is the kind of humor one wants, one can rather watch MTV spoofs on movies. It is no different than that.
Music comes as a saving grace for the film which is well shot as well.
Watch it only if you are a hardcore Shahrukh fan .