A Yaaawn Fest!

The current test match being played between Sri Lanka and India has got to rank among the top 10 most boring matches ever played despite some excellent batting performances by Sanga, Mahela, Tendulkar, Sehwag and Raina. Neither team showed any urgency or plans to have a result at the end of the fifth day. The pitch of course hasn't helped either and is as firm as the tarmac on a German autobahn. But again, the ICC I am sure will not look seriously into this and there will be a few comments here and there, the experts will give their take on how boring the test was and how it's killing the longer version of the game, the purists will cringe, shake their heads and remember bygone days when test matches were an even contest between bat and ball. Then, after a few days everyone forgets about this one and moves on. Has been the story of how cricket has been run as a sport over the last couple of years especially in the sub continent. But a pitch that allows Ishant Sharma and Pragyan Ohja to bat for 30 odd overs against 2 spinners without having any trouble, calls for some action to be taken.

The master notched up his fifth double hundred and as usual his knock was a exhibition on occupying the crease, concentrating and grinding down the opposition. Raina looked as though he's been playing test cricket for ages and a hundred on debut was well deserved and I for one would be tempted to go in with Raina instead of Yuvraj for the next few tours (please note - Tours, not just the next few matches).

Watched a little bit of the match between England and Pakistan. Aamer looks very impressive and will be a handful for anyone under favorable conditions. However I have doubts as to whether his body an keep up with the pressures of almost non-stop cricket. England have unearthed a gem in Morgan. Cool, calm and collected and has every shot in the book. Impressive!

Ten Sports, can you please have someone replace Russel Arnold at the commentary box? The test match was boring enough and having to listen to Arnold's commentary was rubbing salt, pepper and hydrochloric acid to my wounded brain. Tony Grieg, who normally is good was pretty lack lusture too and seemed to suddenly have developed something against Tendulkar (not directly but there were comments here and there that suggested that he maybe is beginning to questions Tendulkar's place in the record books?). I wonder why channels like Ten Sports and Neo Cricket pay so much to get telecast rights and then mess it up with poor commentary teams. I thought the commentary team doing the current England-Pak test series is top class (Warnie, Bumble, Holding, Beefy!)

The house hunting has lead to a dead end. Seem to have a shortfall of ten grand and the plans are now in the back-burner. I will let the lords will play on this one for now.

I brought a copy of James Rollins' new book titled The Garden of Eden and ended up cursing myself for having spent 400 bucks on it. The Bangalore skies have opened up and looks like I'll be holed up at home for most of the weekend. Looking forward to the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Weeks Gone By

It took its time coming. Four and a half years to be exact. No big bang announcements, no hoopla, just the way I like it. The boss took me to a room, handed me over an envelope and finally spurted out the magic words."We've finally promoted you''. Strangely I felt no overwhelming feeling of joy when the words finally came out. Just acceptance of something I think was long overdue. But nevertheless it finally came and along with it came a raise in my salary which was surprising. I had been expecting a raise in single digits but it was a low double digit raise but I felt happy nonetheless.

Another pleasant surprise came on 19th July, when I received an SMS with my latest salary figure. Wow! It's taken me 10 years to reach the figure I've dreamt of and here it was! Conflicting feelings flew in the dark recess of the mind. Do I deserve this? But everything happens for a reason and I can only thank my father who seems to be conjuring miracles for his dear son. He has never left me and I can feel and see his blessings and magic work for me since he left me that eventful day (15th June 2008). The almighty too has been so kind to the family and once again has showered us with his love and blessings. Something I should eternally be grateful for.

Tutlam's grandmother passed away last week at Hyderabad. We were luckily there to see her before she breathed her last. The suffering that she endured the past couple of months ended on Wed, 21st June at 5:50 am and being the gentle and good soul that she was I am sure her spirit has headed straight for heaven. A place among the angels. The incident came as a big emotional shock to boo-boo since she was literally bought up my paati. I could sympathize with her but in such circumstances even physical and emotional comfort that I could give wouldn't be enough. Time can be the only healer.

Watched Inception the week before last and I thought it was a brilliant movie. I've now become a fan of Chistopher Nolan and its time to download some of his earlier movies. The ending was simply superb with most of us wondering if Di Caprio was still in a dream or whether he actually sees his kids for real. When can our cinema deliver something similar I wonder.

All of us a down with the a cold and the weather in Bangalore has been very strange. Feels more like Lovedale type of weather with the sun refusing to show itself to us for the past few days.

Spent yesterday morning shopping with Maruthi. He's had a wardrobe makeover and by the time we had finished with our 2 hour spree, he had clothes worth a 11 grand in his bag. I finally managed to shake off some of the lethargy that has engulfed me and did some cycling and a couple of stretches this morning.


In other sports news, India got their butts whipped last week. Out bowling attack is at best pathetic and I think we can kiss our hopes of winning a World Cup if we stick with the kind of attack we have today. Murali took his 800th wicket and got a stellar send off. I was tempted to dedicate a post to Murali but realized that I haven't seen too much of his bowling to be able to pass comments on a career that is unlikely to be matched in the future. Cricket has been left poorer with the retirement of the 3 bowling giants of the last 2 decades (Warne, Kumble and Murali) and I don't see any talent on the horizon that can pick up the baton and continue in their footsteps. Some suggest Bhajji can do it, but in my opinion Bhajji is better of playing only ODI's. His bowling at the test level has left much to be desired.

A scandal in Hockenheim

It's the old case of some people never wanting to learn from past mistakes and blunders. Ferrari once again proved their arrogance and disregard for rules and sportsmanship at the Hockenheimring yesterday in what clearly appeared to be team orders, allowing Alonso to pass Massa for the victory.

I am a Ferrari fan, but what the team did yesterday was shameful! Alonso was quicker and would have eventually passed Massa and the fans would have seen a real battle for victory. Instead, Ferrari chose the 'safer' and more cowardly route by asking Massa to back off. I feel sorry for Massa. He had a perfect start on the cleaner side of the track and while Vettel was busy defending his line with Alonso, Massa eased into the lead and did a mighty good job of staying in front. He even traded the fastest laps with Alonso for a good part of the race before having to make way. Massa is an all round nice guy and din't make an issue out of this incident. Wonder if Webber or Vettel would react the same way had this happened at Red Bull. Sometime I feel Massa is just being too nice and this has given Alonso, who is known to be aggressive license to stamp his authority at Scuderia. I am an Alonso fan but wasn't celebrating the victory.

I understand that F-1 is a team sport and the teams fortunes always comes first but when you professionals slugging it out for a victory, reminding one of your own drivers that he is a clear number 2 is not going to inspire any confidence and Massa was clearly a broken man at the podium. 

Ferrari have gotten away with a $100000 fine but deserve to be dealt with more severely and it's high time the FIA lead by Jean Todt show some backbone and ensure that such unsavory incidents don't happen again. This is a game of racing guys and let's please leave it at that!

In His Divine Presence

Although I have a strong belief in God, I have never quite been able to surrender completely to his divine will and this "faith" has eluded me so far. But my better half possess' immense faith in the almighty and I keep telling her that that is a secret brahmastra that she carries with her. One thin I do often when visiting temples is to look at other devotees praying and more often that not, I come across persons who are able to completely surrender themselves to god and this, to be honest makes me feel jealous. I wonder how much longer this 'complete and total faith' will elude me. Strange are ways of the lord indeed!

Coming to the lord the family is back from a fantastic trip to Tirumala, abode of Lord Venkateshwara. Once again the trip was made possible by my dear brother Maruthi who had tickets for the Thomala Seva and Archana on July 14th. We left Bangalore by my car on the 13th afternoon and it took us a good hour just to cross Whitefield. The construction of the bridge at Adugodi is still not over (another wonderful example of how pathetic our Project Management skills are especially with infrastructure building) and all light and heavy vehicular traffic has been diverted via the road that goes to Chikka Tirupathi. The journey to Tirumala took us about 6 hours (by the way, the four laning of the road from Bangalore to Mulbagal is still on-going but has been completed in certain stretches). 

We reached Tirumala at about 10 PM and after settling into the rooms, I went over to tonsure my head and luckily we did not have any lines this time around and I was back in bed by 12.  We got  ready by about 2:30am and were at the gates of the temple by 2:40. We had tickets for 6 of us but much to our chagrin, the arrogant guys at TTD refused to let the 6th person enter citing that the rules had changed and only 5 people were allowed for the darshan. Maruthi's mother opted to wait outside and I could only fold my hands in reverence to such a selfless soul. Since we were asked to stay back due to the confusion with the number of persons permitted to enter, we found ourselves at the end of the line when we reached the main compound.

Once again the grace of the almighty was abundant and one of Maruthi's neighbors in Tirupathi who handles security at TTD, got us in through a short cut and we found ourselves waiting right behind a group of VIP's! The darshan that followed, was the best I have had in my life. We spent a good 1 hour in front of Lord Venkateshwara and all I could do is pray for the well being of everyone. 

There is a an inexplicable energy that flows from the Lord and I am indeed a fortunate soul to have witnessed such a fantastic darshan, all made possible purely by his grace. I did feel very bad for Maruthi's mother and the only consolation I could think of is that maybe it just wasn't to be for her. The family, however is forever indebted to her for giving us a chance to witness such a darshan. Lord Vekateshwara has been very kind and generous to us through the years and never have we had to stand in line for hours to get a glimpse of him. He has always ensured that we get to spend at least 5 mins in front of his divine presence. There cannot be a better gift for someone like me who still has not been able to fully surrender to him. But maybe these are subtle ways through which he makes his point! We returned home on 15th night after visiting Alamelumangapuram and Srinivasamangapuram on the way. I had driven approx 600 kms in 24 hours and a good nights sleep was in order.

The missus' family is visiting us but the circumstances are not so great with her grandmother battling for her life. I however got to meet my brother-in-law and even took him out for a movie yesterday (Knight and Day - Total time pass!). The whole family is praying for her grandmother and the in-laws' visit has been cut short and they leave for Hyderabad tomorrow. The house will feel a little empty once again.

Hari Om Tat Sat!

Viva Espana!

Spain are the World Champions!

After all the build-up the FIFA 2010 final turned out to be a slugfest that had more of WWE in it and less of the 'beautiful game'. The Dutch in all honesty should take a large part of the blame for this. The intention from the outset was to stifle the Spanish midfield and make the passing game that Spain plays so well difficult. While I have no complaints about the strategy the Dutch opted for, the execution was crude and medieval in nature. None more so, than the blatant kung-fu kick from De Jong. That should have been a straight red card.

Holland were lucky to have all 11 men on the field till the second half of extra time. Van Bommel's tackle on Iniesta would have been a straight red too on most occasions. While the jury is out on the referee role yesterday (an astonishing 14 yellow cards were handed out by Howard Webb), I think the nature of the game played by the Dutch called for some punishment (OK maybe 14 yellow cards was a bit too much). 

Finally the better team won and Iniesta's goal  was a consolation for all football lovers who had, till then witnessed a pretty boring match. The Dutch wasted two golden opportunities and Spain will have to thank Iker Casillas for denying Robben, of what seemed the best chance for the Dutch to score.

The Dutch go home once again having lost the finals and they are to me in football what South Africa is in cricket. Never been able to win when it really mattered. I never understood the Dutch tactics. It wasn't that they were a team without talent. Their midfield duo of Snjeider and Robben were equally good if not better than Xavi and Iniesta and they had a good solid defence and could have played free flowing football too. That may have dramatically increased their chance of scoring and making the finals a really 'beautiful game'.

The 3rd place playoff between Germany and Uruguay clearly demonstrated the class of football that could have been played when teams are not under the pressure of playing a final. Sadly it wasn't to be. However as a Spanish supporter, I am overjoyed with Spain's victory and they have finally buried the tag of the best team not to have won the World Cup! 

The WC has once again demonstrated the virtue of humility and dedication to the game, traits exemplified by Xavi, Iniesta and Casillas. At the beginning of the championship, the talks and headlines were all about the Rooney's, Ronaldo's and Kaka's but in the end it was the humble Spaniards that had the last laugh.

A salute is in order for Paul the Octopus too! Wonder if the German government will use his services to predict which European country will be the next to default. Hopefully Paul doesn't favor Spain again!

I as happy to read that Tomas Mueller got the golden boot award. He is surely a superstar in the making. I'm hoping clubs don't fork out gazillions for his services and make him a multi-millionaire overnight. He is still very young and the last thing he needs is too much money working its magic in a wrong way.

Lady luck continues to elude Alonso and Ferrari. I think their hunt for the drivers and constructors championships is pretty much over. Red Bull and McLaren to me are the ones that will continue to slug it out although a big blow up at RBR seems apparent sometime soon.

Now with the world cup done with, attention turns to cricket and the series at Sri Lanka, but I'm not sure too many people are going to watch this series. India and SL have played each other enough number of times to last the next 50 years. I hope the morons at the BCCI realize this and bring in someone with common sense to schedule future series!

On the work front, happy news after 2 years! I finally got a promotion and was pleasantly surprised with the hike I received. My father is working miracles from heaven! A 3 week trip to Mexico beckons but I am in no mood to travel that far to help on a project that is going to get done by the end of next month. I am fervently praying that the plan gets canceled. Sreesanth is out of the series with another injury and I am beginning to think this is the end of the road for him.

A visit to Tirupathi is on the cards and the family leaves tomorrow and I am hoping that the almighty grants us another good darshan as he always has. A new hair style also beckons as I will be shaving my head! 

After months of deliberation we finally have a new sofa for the house and we made our choice pretty quickly yesterday. Suddenly the drawing room doesn't seem to be spacious anymore. But that has been compensated by the comfort that the sofa offers. Next on the agenda for mom is a new dining table.