Books and Goals!

After a long spell of lethargy, i finally managed to revive my reading habit and as always it has resulted in me reading almost every day. Just finished reading two very fascinating books. The first one is titled Code Name God by Mani Bhaumik (apaprently the inventor of the technology behind the LASIK surgery). Mani's book examines the relationship between physics and consciousness and brilliantly describes how breakthroughs in quantum physics over the last century are proving without a doubt, the hand of God in the creation of the Universe. God here refers not to Ram, Jesus or Allah but to the collective consciousness of the universe, of the all pervading BRAHMAN that the Vedas talk about. 

For someone interested in spirituality and the mysticism of India, the book only reaffirms the wisdom of the sages and rishis of India. To think that they understood everything about creation thousands of years before we discovered quantum physics is mind numbing and sort of scary too! For anyone wanting to get their hands on a copy visit www.flipkart.com (for those in India). Speaking of Flipkart, I am totally bowled over by thier service. Absolutely awesome and they have a wide variety of books to choose from and last but not the least the shipping within India is free.Do we finally have our answer to Amazon?

The second book I just finished reading is How We Decide (got this one thru Flipkart) by Johnan Lehrer. The book describes the workings of the human brain in making choices and decisions. It is TOTALLY RECOMMENDED for anyone interested in knowing about evolution's crowning jewel - the human brain.

A copy of AJT Johnsingh's book has just arrived and judging by the size, I should be able to complete the book by the end of the evening.

I finally sat up and watched the semi final between Spain and Germany. Spain's midfield trio of Xavi, Xabi and Iniesta were totally mind blowing. The control and precision of the passing by the Spaniards did not give the Germany's any offensive room and the Die Mannschaft found itself doing defensive duties for most part of the match.I was sharing some thoughts on the match on Twitter and was surprised to see a lot of people lamenting about how 'boring' the game was. I thought the level of football played by both teams was pretty high and I admit that I did add a comment on Twitter suggesting that Spain be more attacking but given the quality of the German defence (the Germans were physically towering over the Spaniards, more like The Great Khali vs Hornswoggle. OK I was kidding!) Spain played a very tactically good game and a large part of the credit must go to Xavi and Iniesta - Generals in the Spanish Armada for sure. Credit should also be given to Vincente Del Bosque, who is known in footballing circles as being a master tactician and someone how puts a big emphasis of technical finesse, something amply demonstrated by Iniesta.

The finals against the Dutch will be an intriguing final and already Twitter is abound with thoughts of Mark van Bommel doing his best to get rid of Xavi :). Will be interesting to see how the Spanish defence handles Sneijder and Robben with Sergio Ramos almost never being inside his own half. Both teams have never won the Weltmeisterschaft so it will be more heart breaking for the loser. Paul, the Octopus seems to be the most sought after football pundit this world cup and I'm sure a lot of folks are waiting for the outcome of Pauls next decision. I, for one am rooting for Spain but may the best team win! (Yeah cliched I know)

Off for sappad now and the settling down to some more reading!

Weddings, Footie and Wimbledon

Taking advantage of the lull in work related activities, the missus and I headed to Trivandrum last week to attend the wedding of a close friend from Lovedale. Renju and I were neighbors four about 10 years at Lovedale and ended up spending half our time at each others' house. Renju is two years younger that me and his brother Shibu is 5 years younger and was part of the gang at Lovedale that used to be seen together at all times. I still vividly remember dad shaking is heading and telling me to stop playing with kids and go an mingle around with people my age. Somehow like most children, I never took his advice. The world that I shared with these folks was a happy one and I had no intentions of looking beyond this.

We took the train from Yeshwantpur to Kochuveli and arrived at Renjus place the following afternoon. I was meeting Renjus's dad and mom after almost 12 years. They haven't aged a bit! Is it something to do with all the protein rich diet that the mallus have I wonder. The wedding was a big family affair and I got to meet some old people from school and a couple of old laws based in Bangalore that I had bot met for ages. This was the first Christian wedding I attended since Fenny's (son of Mr. P.E. Thomas, an old school teacher at Lovedale) wedding way back in 1990 (or was it 1991?).

We managed to squeeze in sometime to visit the famous Padmanabhaswamy temple. The lord Vishnu lies in the Anananthasaina pose (sleeping ). The idol is simply massive (about 16 feet in length) and has to be viewed through 3 doors! The paintings around the temple are magnificent too and have been preserved well (atleast a part of them). As with all temples in Kerala, dress code is strict. The local mundu for men without a shirt and saree only for women. I was surprised to see the priests int he temple forcing you to take archana tokens and other items. Sad to see this in Kerala. The influence of money! Can't blame the priests too. They are looking at earning their livelihood too.

I managed to catch a few minutes of the match between Brazil and Holland. The Dutch to me looked the better team. Under Dunga, Brazil seem to play  more defensive driven football and maybe paid the price. Holland look favorites to reach the finals when they play Uruguay later today.  However the football the Dutch played has not been spectacular either. I was on the bus returning to Bangalore when the Germans played Argentina. Under Loew, Die Mannschaft seem to play a very attacking game relying of the speed of the young guns in the German team. Schweini  has blossomed in his role as the midfield general in place of Ballack. I will not be surprised if they kick Spain out in the semis though I am secretly hoping for Spain to reach the finals.

Rafa rules Wimbledon again! Although I was too nervous to watch the finals, I knew the title was in Rafa's back after he wont he second set. If those knees hold up, he should have a decent chance to crack the US Open. He should probably skip either the Rogers Masters in Toronto or the Masters event at Cincinnati to make sure he comes into the US Open relatively fresh. Federer is now No 3 in the rankings. Although I don't rule out a FedEx victory at the big apple, a lot of people are beginning to admit that the decline has begun. He will be 30 at next years Open and with the big hitting Berdych's, Soderling's and Cilic's still in their mid 20's, FedEx is going to find it increasingly hard to match their power game.

I can't wait for the semis but the challenge will be to stay awake! Vamos Espana!

Sports Mania!

June and July are totally action packed this year for the sports fan and for someone who loves sport, there is simply too much on TV these days but I am not complaining. House hunting yesterday meant that I could not watch the F-1 European Grand Prix but followed some highlights and read about the whole safety car incident and I endorse Ferrari's views on Hamilton not being penalized enough for overtaking the safety car. meanwhile Vettel to me looks like the next world champion. He is pure class behind the wheels of an F-1 car.

Speaking of class, Germany was all of it in yesterday's world cup match against England. Having said that England played like a bunch of grand daddy's on the field and if I was John Terry, I'd probably pack up my bags and go on a indefinite vacation. Thomas Mueller was fantastic as were the other young Germans. It was good old fashioned counter attacking football at its best! 

Argentina to me, look like the team to beat. Higuain and Tevez are looking solid and then you have the magician, Messi who makes even the best defenders look stupid. The game against Germany should be a cracker. 

Spain and Portugal clash in another classic encounter. I think Spain have just about enough fire-power to over come CR7 and his team. I din't like the way Brazil played against Portugal. Looked like a wrestling contest and I'm hoping Brazil play with their usual flair in their next game. For all footie fans, a visit to the website www.zonalmarking.net is a must. Splendid analysis of all on-going WC matches. They cover all the major football leagues as well. 

Dhoni and his men won the Asia Cup although I remain very skeptical about our chances in the World Cup next year.  We simply don't have a bowling punch to restrict teams that bat deep like Australia and England and I don't see a Zaheer Khan emerging for us over the next year. Nehra is always good when his rhythm is good and the conditions helpful but I don't think the pitches in India are going to favor him. And while I am on the topic of cricket, I must make a humble request to the morons from the BCCI who do all the cricket planning. No more Sri Lanka-India series please! At least for another 5 years! Speaking of the BCCI morons, the selectors have picked Yuvraj Singh for the test squad. Why was he dropped in the first place?  Does he have his form or fitness back so soon? Rohit Sharma merits a place instead but the wise men of Indian cricket always have it in them to make the such awful decisions. Must part of the the job description!

Valentino Rossi's chances of another world title are down the drain after his horror crash in Mugello. Good news however is that he plans to be back in action at the Czech Grand Prix in Bruno. I'm only hoping that the Doctor doesn't carry the mental scars of the crash with him to the race track.

Wimbledon season is here too and surprisingly both Federer and Nadal have struggled through to the round of 16 and the questions over Nadal's fitness are making the rounds once more after he received treatment in the last match. Soderling looks dangerous and the way Nadal's playing I dont give him much of a chance against Soderling. I'm praying that I'm wrong!

Nothing much happening at work. I am off to Trivandrum this week to attend a childhood friends wedding. Will be seeing his mom and dad after 12 or 14 years. Really looking forward to it! 

Meanwhile the hunt to buy a house continues and the a good property at a reasonable price continues to evade us. We came across a nice one yesterday but the vaastu of the place seems to be totally haywire and the family has rejected this. Let's see what the almighty has in store for us.

I am back to lingering between boredom and sleep at work. It's one of those phases you witness in a software company between two projects. So, in that way I don't feel bad being jobless and see others shaking their heads in disapproval when they see me go for a chai break every 15 minutes.

The last project at Cambodia was a success and the customer migrated to your system at approx 2220 CDT on May 21st. The customer and the bosses were pleased with work but as usual the hurrah's and great job, good work e-mails have not resulted in anything concrete. Which brings me to another point. Salary appraisal season is upon us but the joy or rather gleeful expectation was short-lived. The hike's not going to be great and that promotion I've been waiting for the last 2 years will have to probably wait till England wins the next world cup in football and we all know its probably never going to happen!

The hunt for a house goes on and nothing been finalized. The prices are totally off the roof. Am going to do some more house hunting this weekend. Fingers crossed, I get a good deal soon! The missus and I spent the weekend at Chennai attending some family functions and meeting my beloved aunt. The road to Chennai is totally awesome. Chennai continues to be the same shitty place it's always been and although we have so many loved ones there, we were only happy to get out from the place.

The footie WC has been a disappointment and so has Spain. I would have Fabregas starting but Del Bosque seems to have other plans. My MotoGP season is over with Valentino Rossi's crash and I am hoping the accident has not left any mental scars. With Vale gone, the title is for Lorenzo's taking. Wimbledon starts today and Rafa's got a pretty tough draw with a potential QF with Soderling. Not fair! I've been egging myself to doing some exercise but to no avail. The monstrous mental lethargy seems to be too difficult to beat and I find myself resigned to the fact that its not even worth a try. Need to find a way out soon! Thakkai and Laddu will be here tommorrow and I look forward to spending the week with them. Kids are always so much fun!

I finally bit the bullet and have bought a new notebook for the missus and mom. A Dell Inspiron for about 24K. Not a bad buy at all looking at the specs (2.2 GHz Processor, 4GB RAM, 320 GB HDD with Windows 7 installed). My brother-in-law also visits from the US next month and I look forward to that too. Task done for the day and I'm off home!

This is it...

This is the week that I have been waiting for. At the end of this week I will have completed my first end to end implementation at Sabre. This is by far the smallest implementation but this will be the most memorable one since I have managed the entire project. I am keeping my fingers crossed for an uneventful migration and I hope you pray for me too!

Had a couple of days off and most of the time was spent on the bed watching TV. I seemed to have pulled my back pretty badly and my movements are pretty limited right now. The back is getting better but the niggling pain in the lower back region remains and refuses to go.

A very eventful Monaco Grand Prix yesterday with the safety car being deployed four times! Mark Weber was the winnner and he thoroughly deserved victory yesterday. Despite the race car situations he manged to keep pulling away from the rest of the field. A testament to his driving capabilities and of course the Adrain Newey designed Red Bull which is currently unstoppable. That alas is the truth my friends although I am a Ferrari freak, I have to admit defeat..for now. Alonso drove brilliantly to get into 6th and I am happy that Schumacher has been given a penalty and gets no points. Hooray! The old hag tried to be sneaky (like Smeagol) and pass Alonso in the last lap just after the safety car had gone into the pits. He deserves the penalty.

England are the new T20 World Champions and have finally gotten the monkey off their backs and have won a cricket world cup. The team has looked pretty strong and will be contenders for the WC next year.

Real Madrid lost the Spanish title after drawing with Malaga yesterday. Sigh! But they played a pretty good season  but were outdone by the better team in the end. 99 points in a single year is not something you see everyday. So congrats Barca!

Despite telling myself that I won't put on any weight this trip, I find myself gorging desserts for lunch at the Deli. The desserts are totally awesome and the only thing I relish from a food perspective in Cambodia. Wonder what the missus and mom are going to say when they see me back in 2 weeks time.

The State of India's Infrastructure and Football

Revenge is so sweet! Barcelona are out of the Champions League! Although the match was pretty boring, I think Inter defended fantastically well and deserve to go to the finals although many football purists will be shaking their heads and saying Inter did not deserve to play in the final. So here we are, Champions League finals. Inter Milan versus Bayern Munich. None of the "big" names left in the competition. No Man Utd, no Barca, no Real, no Chelsea. I'm hoping Bayern go on to win the CL and lift the trophy again. All my friends in Munich will definitely be hoping for a Bayern victory.

Jose Mourinho is a brilliant tactician and I get the feeling that Real Madrid will make a move to grab him at the end of the season. I think he is just the right kind of person a team like Madrid needs. I've been a life long Madrid fan but they haven't given us too much joy over the last few years, Their Champions League performance over the last 9 years has been nothing short of pathetic. But Real haven't helped themselves with all that big spending and have never given their coaches enough time to settle in and make the team play as one solid unit. The last manager to server them for more than a year was probably Del Bosque.

I got a treadmill test done yesterday and the results are all normal. I have more or less completed a full round of medical check-ups and the body seems to be in good condition minus the cholesterol which seems to be a little high. No cause for alarm but I think it is a reminder to go easy on my diet.

The problems in Greece caused some panic in the markets yesterday but I was pleased to see that my portfolio has not taken too much of a hit.

I've been thinking about the infratructure sector in India and trying to figure out why we are in such poor shape when it comes to basic infrastructure like roads, ports and most importantly power. Living a metropolis like Bangalore we do not bear the brunt of power cuts but nevertheless we have power cuts of upto 2 or 3 hours a day. Rural areas are for most parts truly 'left in the dark' when it comes to power. 

It's been 19 years since we began our economic reforms and we are no better off than we were then when it comes to infrastructure. Yes we have begun to see much better roads thanks to initiatives like the Golden Quadrilateral but that covers only a small percentage of what needs to be done. Given that infrastructure projects typically have long gestation periods, I wonder why the government did not begin to take major decisions on improving infrastructure when we began reforms in 1991. The only answer I can seem to give is total lack of foresight. China over the last 20 years has built a highway system that is bigger than what the United States managed to build in 35 years after the war.  Cant our wise babus spend their time in parliament discussing such matters rather than trying to slit watch others throats over petty issues? Why can't we have people who put the country first ahead of their personal agendas rule this nation? Will India be just the elephant that never learned to run?