Archive for the ‘Real Life’ Category
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The second test between India and New Zealand just concluded at Hyderabad earlier this week and it was another boring draw. India, who were expected to roll New Zealand over considering the huge difference in the rankings have found this series pretty hard till now. With two draws in two games, the kiwis will be swelling with pride as none of the teams baring South Africa have gone away from India with a drawn series in recent times. The major problem for the home team has been the pitches and the lack of bite in the bowling department.
India has always been a tough place to tour for the western teams but in recent times with pitches getting flatter, teams have started to adapt much better. New Zealand has always done well in India as their previous tour was also a drawn series. Did the Indian team expect an easy series? Probably yes. Even though all the Indian players came in the media and claimed that they were not taking the Kiwis lightly, I am sure in their minds they thought it was going to be a piece of cake. The intensity was missing and the players seemed to go through the motions. It was just couple of brilliant innings from Harbajan which has helped India from trailing in this series.
So two draws in two games, which has been a very rare sight in the past year or so in India. Almost every series has produced a result and most of the games have been result oriented. So if we analyze closely, the problem is that both the teams have struggled to bowl out the opponents on flat pitches. Indians always have had issues with their bowling and it has shown through in this series. Harbajan has struggled to pick wickets, Sreesanth has been very inconsistent, and Ojha has been steady but doesn’t seem like someone who will run through sides. New Zealand again is a one man bowling team, in spite of an inspired spell by Martin in the first test; they still rely heavily on Vettori to pick wickets. Indian bowling though has been really disappointing, especially in the second test.
India was 122 runs in front of New Zealand with two days to go and you would expect the number 1 team in the world to win from that position. Indian bowling looked toothless and did not look like taking any wickets in the absence of Zaheer. Zaheer has been India’s stand out performer for Indian over the last 2 years and without him the bowling looks toothless. The below table shows the Indian bowling performances over the past couple of years:
Performance of Indian bowlers over the last 2 years
If you look at the list you will see that Zaheer has been exceptional, considering that India has played most of the games in the subcontinent. But the rest have been pretty ordinary. India’s premier spinner Harbajan averages little over 35 and the rest to put it mildly, have been mediocre. So how have India been winning games? Well the answer is pretty simple, the batting. Indian batsmen have been in supreme touch over the past couple of years and they have racked up huge scores. When India batted first they have scored big and even when they had to chase a big score they have matched the opponent or scored more than them. So the Indian bowlers have had the luxury of picking up wickets at an expensive average. So on an average the Indian bowling combination (Zaheer, Sreesanth/Ishant, Ojha and Harbajan) has to concede 374 runs for their 10 wickets going by their record over the last 2 years. It’s Hardly a mark of a top ranked test team.
India now needs to win the final game at Nagpur to win the series which is not the situation the team would have assumed at the start of the series. The team bowling combination has to be looked at seriously with an important series against the saffers looming large next month. The Indians would also be hoping that Zaheer is fit for the all important series as he has been our premier bowler over the last couple of years. I hope that we do better in the final game and win the series against New Zealand which will give us some confidence going into the next series against South Africa
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By now everyone knows the Randhiv no-ball incident, so I will directly cut down to the chase. Yes Randhiv bowled a no-ball and Sehwag was denied a hundred, so what? It has been happening for ages in cricket. I agree that the spirit of the game was breached but this is not an isolated incident. Even though the deliberate over stepping by Randhiv looks bad, the banning of him for a game is even worse.
If this is taken as a precedent then no international cricketer would be able to play two games in a row. Randhiv did not break any laws and spirit of cricket has always been a grey area in cricket. So what would you call a fielder kicking the ball over the boundary to keep a tail ender on strike? Isn’t that against the spirit of the game? Bowler appealing, perfectly knowing that the batsman is not out and Batsman standing his ground knowing that he has nicked the ball etc are examples where the spirit of the game is brought to disrepute. Players play the game hard and there are lots of scenarios where we can argue that the spirit of the game has been compromised. We can’t be banning people for such things.
It was absolutely ridiculous to ban the player for this; a simple warning would have sufficed. Randhiv apologized to Sehwag after the game and that should have been enough. Now by over-reacting on this one, the Sri Lankan board has set themselves a precedent which will be hard to follow. ICC has some rules defined and if any player breaches that code of conduct then it is a different scenario but this incident isn’t one of them.
Randhiv has been harshly dealt with and there was no necessity for him to have been imposed with such a punishment. Sehwag himself should not have tweeted that Randhiv apologized to him when SLC had told that they were going to probe the incident. Sangakkara was right on that count when he said that you cannot expect just one side making advances. Sehwag sensationalizing the issue was not the right thing to do. Overall the handling of the scenario was messy which should not have been an issue at all. Indian media is always happy when such things happen and their over the top reaction to any on field incident is a known fact. Bishen Singh Bedi never loses a chance to undermine modern cricketers. I know that he was a great bowler once but sometime he comes across as a very bitter person to me.
I hope that poor Randhiv is able to put this behind him and concentrates on his bowling. He is a wonderful young cricketer and has a bright future for Sri Lanka. I hope that he has learnt his lesson after this incident.
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“Hands Up” is a talk show on NDTV-Hindu hosted by Journalist and filmmaker Sudhish Kamath. The show’s concept is nothing new as it is another talk show involving famous film personalities from Tamil industry. The show though does it with little more fun and the questions asked by Sudhish Kamath is more interesting than the clichéd interviews we see on other Tamil channels.
Interviews on Tamil television involving film stars is rather boring most of the times as before even watching the show, you can guess what the anchor is going to ask. Koffee with Anu started well but now has become yet another run of the mill talk show. Tamil industry by itself is little conservative so we cannot expect the “in your face” interviews we see on Hindi channels but little bit spice can still be added. Most of the times Tamil channels are so worried about offending our superstars which makes their show pretty dull. The hero worship on such interviews is sometimes really hard to take.
Recently I got to see NDTV-Hands Up and I liked it. The interviews were fun and some questions asked were little bit open than the ones asked in a standard Tamil interview. The one interview I loved was Surya’s before his movie “Singam” hit the theatres. The actor was very open with his answers and also told that they went overboard with masala in his previous venture “Aadhavan”. He said that he had no intentions to carry on as a hero till he was 60 or something and will pick and choose roles which will suit his age.
He said that he is not that impressed with Masala movies but has to do such films due to market pressure. He also said that he has no issues with multi-starrers (Are the directors listening?) and would love to do such movies. So overall it was an interesting insight into the mind of an actor who has always been asked clichéd questions on other interviews. Surya was really modest when he said that he felt his brother was more talented than him and also mentioned that he still has a complex which makes him work that much harder on his movies.
So finally a word on the anchor Sudhish Kamath, he is doing an excellent job and asks questions without hurting the egos of our stars. I hope he continues in this vein and brings in more famous personalities in the future episodes.
Endhiran trailer rocks!!
Posted on: August 2, 2010
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Finally the long awaited Endhiran audio release took place in a grand manner in Malaysia yesterday. Lots of prominent Kollywood stars graced the occasion and the most important part of the evening was that the official Endhiran trailer was screened at the function. The trailer was breathtaking and the visuals in the trailers were amazing. Aishwarya Rai Bachan and Rajini combo was looking cool on screen. Aishwarya was looking much better than in Ravana/Ravanan.
It seems like a movie which will be different to the other Rajini movies and I am very much looking forward to its release. Our Super Star as the scientist was rocking and looks very young. Good news for us fans is that the movie will grace the theaters in September. I am sure that this movie will be a major hit and will be another feather in the cap of Rajini/Shankar/Rahman combination.
Cold weather is depressing
Posted on: July 30, 2010
- In: Chennai | Entertainment | General | General Lunch Time talk | Indian Cities | Real Life | Snow | Summer | Weather | Winter
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I live in Illinois, USA and it is summer here right now. Contrary to last year the summer this time has been pretty hot with temperatures touching 90 F almost every day. So recently when we were discussing about the weather over lunch one of my friends told me that he would rather prefer the winter in Illinois as the summer is too hot for him. When he said that I almost fell of the chair, this guy comes from same state as I do from India, Tamil Nadu, which except for few cities is not exactly known for its cold weather.
I would have agreed with him if we were in Bay Area, California or in Florida where the winter indeed is more pleasant than the hot summers but Illinois, you got to be kidding me. The winter here to put it plainly is downright “depressing”. How great can the weather be when at 4:00 PM you reach home and it’s already dark? Winter in Illinois is lots of snow, very low temperatures, Ice/sleet formations on roads and parking lot most of the times. It means not going out, lots of cleaning snow from your cars, feeling lazy, eating a lot and jumping up and down in joy when the temperature is 30 F. Thanks but no thanks.
I practically hate the winter here. Even though the summer has been hot, I would take this anytime over the winters here. I come from Chennai where the idea of winter is 60-70 F and 90-100 F during the rest of the year so naturally I am more inclined towards Florida sort of weather, but it’s not like the locals love winters here either, they complain all the time about the winter and would rather prefer the hot weather.
So basically I disagree with him big time as worrying for my life driving at 20 miles/hour on snow is not my cup of tea. Anyways the summer is almost over and winter is around the corner and I think my friend will be one of the very few who will rejoice the prospect of the same. As for the rest of us it will be a hard to say good bye to summer.
During my customary lunchtime conversation with my friends few months back I got to know the hatred people had for my home town Chennai. I was first a little bit perplexed and annoyed with their accusations but understood that most of their issues came about due to the language. I decided to do some research online and found lots of blogs and articles regarding the same issue.
To be frank I don’t understand what the big deal is. The major accusation against Tamil Nadu is that they don’t speak the “National Language” Hindi. Which itself is a false premise for the hatred as India as a country does not have a National Language. People fail to understand the same as they have been wrongly taught in schools as Hindi is our National language. Indian constitution does not mention a National Language for India. Hindi along with English is one of the official languages of the country and each state has their own official language along with English.
So this makes our country a linguistically free country, which means that anyone is free to talk their own language. No one is under pressure to speak or learn any language unless they want to out of interest. So this begs the question as to why people from other parts of India expect Chennaites to speak in Hindi. Why can’t they converse in English as it is the other official language of our constitution? My parents were bank employees and we have had our share of moving around the country and every time I am in a new place I would have to adapt myself according to the place I am in. Being a Tamilian I cannot go to Delhi and expect them to speak to me in Tamil. I have to learn Hindi to blend with them. People fail to realize that someone coming outside Tamil Nadu faces the same issues as the ones coming into it.
When I came to the US in 2003 one of my Tamil friends warned me about the Telugu friends in the college. He said that we are isolated and they don’t talk to us. I did not take any of that nonsense and I mingled with them and learned their language and smoothly slid into their circle. I now have great friends from college and I am still in touch with most of them. It just teaches one thing, people who are happy to change themselves and adapt themselves will always come out ahead. People who crib about anything and everything will always fall behind.
I now can speak Hindi, English and Tamil fluently and can understand and speak broken Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam which makes my life easier. For me cribbing is not an option in these scenarios. We are always competing in this world and it’s always survival of the fittest. No place is a bad place; every place has its own charm and culture. If you embrace it then you will be the winner. When we go to a new place the people there don’t change according to our needs, we have to change according to where we are.
I am not going to sit here and say that Chennai is the best place in the world, for that matter even in India but it’s not the worst either. Yes Chennai has its issues like language, Weather etc but has its advantages too. Every place in India is the same. For a Tamilian travelling to Delhi or Mumbai, the issues are the same but we try to adjust. There is no complaints on our part.
Chennai is a great place, I love being there but if I have to move to a different part of the country I will do it without a problem. If I have to learn Marathi, Gujarati or any other language to blend into the local crowd I will do that. That’s what makes life interesting isn’t it. We are moving towards new age India and it’s sad to see that we are still in the stone age of fighting over language and region. Just try to blend with the locals wherever you go and you will find that the place is not that bad after all.
In the last few months we have seen couple of major disasters claiming lots of lives in Haiti first and then in Chile. First let me pass on my deepest condolences to everyone who lost their near and dear ones. When these things happen it’s indeed saddening but also scary as you are helpless in these situations.
When I see such natural disasters I kind of wonder why we aren’t more in love with our existence. Why do we keep fighting with one another over petty things? Isn’t life extremely beautiful than to lose it over something not that important? Why can’t we just live and let live? When such a disaster happens the nature doesn’t differentiate doesn’t it? It does not care about your Nationality, Color, Religion, Race or any other differentiation which the human beings have discovered as a reason to fight over.
I come from India and my country itself is a land of diversity. We have different languages, religions, castes and various other reasons to fight with each other. Why do we need to have such a complicated life? Each one of us has our own faith and we follow the same but what is the reason for us to fight over that. If we realize that the world would be a much better place to live. I just feel that when these disasters happen, its nature’s way of reminding us who the boss is. I see that when these things happens the humanity inside us comes out and we try to help the affected ones in some way or the other. When we do that we don’t care about any of those differences I mentioned above but once that is done we are back practicing the same. Why can’t we just remain the same and treat humans as humans? Why do we need loss of lives to unite?
Life is precious and everyone has a right to live it to the fullest. There is no reason for anyone to fight over anything in this world. Every human being is different and has his own faith and belief’s and if we respect that there will be no issues. God made the world but humans created the differences and then created more and more to make human existence extremely complicated.
We don’t know what the future holds for us, so let’s enjoy the present to the fullest. Live and Let live!!
- In: Ajith Kumar | Cricket and Sports | Formula 2 | General | Motorsport | Movies | Real Life | Sports
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Armaan was brilliant again in Monza as he achieved his first top 5 finish
It was a brilliant weekend for the Indian contingent at Monza this weekend when we had 2 top 10 finishes by Armaan and Parthiva respectively. Armaan Ebrahim who is currently at 7th in the overall standings was unlucky to crash out of the race one after starting 7th on the grid. He more than made up for that with a brilliant 5th place finish after being 16th on the grid after the qualifying. This was Armaan’s best performance in F2 till date and he is getting closer to the podium finish which we have been waiting for.
Ajith and Parthiva at the autograph session after their brilliant show in Monza
Parthiva Sureshwaran also had a brilliant race where he achieved his first top 10 finish in F2. His race 1 was little disappointing as he finished on 15th but made impressive run in the race two to get his first top 10 finish and thereby grabbing his first points for the season. He will surely want to build on this confidence to climb up the rungs and aim for consistent top 10 finishes for the remainder of the season.
For Ajith Kumar though this was a weekend of another consistent performance as he finished 14th and 15th in the race 1 and 2 respectively in Monza. Considering that he qualified at 21 in both the races this was a brilliant achievement by the Tamil movie superstar. Ajith will be proud of finishing ahead of Parthiva in race 1 who is a more experienced racer than the star himself. Ajith seemed extremely happy with his performance and said that he was really proud of what he has achieved this season in the formula two championships,
Speaking after the race Ajith said,
“I feel proud and privileged to race amongst some of the best drivers in the championship, especially our own country’s Armaan Ebrahim and Parthiva Sureshwaran. I am thrilled to be racing on this excellent circuit in Monza, Italy and am happy that I have completed the race in 14th Position”
So a satisfying week for the Indian racers in F2 this weekend in Monza and this sets up the next race at Zolder brilliantly for the 3 of them. Let’s hope that we have another brilliant race at Zolder.
- In: Ajith Kumar | Cricket and Sports | Entertainment | Formula 2 | Formula one | General | Motorsport | Real Life | Sports
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Ajith speaks exclusively to Formulatwo.com
In an exclusive interview to Formula two website Ajith speaks about his goals for this season and also about the interest in motorsports in India. Ajith mainly talks about the current season and about his preparation for the next race in Morocco. He thanks his family for extending their support and for understanding his love for racing. He feels that it not always about winning or losing but it’s about living one’s dreams.
Please click here to read the entire interview from formula two official website.
Ajith back on (Race) track
Posted on: March 31, 2010
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Tamil Superstar Ajith Kumar (Thalai) to race in Formula 2 this year
Ajith has decided to give his passion of racing another go as he is competing in Formula 2 championship this year. We all know Ajith’s immense love for motorsports and Karun Chandhok’s entry to Formula 1 has inspired our “Thalai” to give his racing career another chance. Ajith though quickly dismissed any intentions of him trying for formula 1 and is much happier to be racing in Formula 2 right now.
He also says on his exclusive interview with Rediff that he is going to take racing career seriously this time. He said that he is going to concentrate on racing for the majority of this year and has plans to do just one movie with Gautham Menon later this year. Ajith has already raced in Formula Asia and Formula 3 before and he also had couple of podium finishes in the competitive British F3 championship.
Ajith was thrilled about his prospects with Formula two this season,
“I am really excited about racing in F2. I have a great regard for Jonathan Palmer – thanks to him and his efforts Formula Two is the next best thing to F1. Coming from India with a population of 2 billion, I want to take motor racing in this country to the common man. Right now, it is still a niche sport largely popular in the urban areas. Given my profile as a film star, I hope to use my status to popularise the sport in India.” he said
So best of luck to Ajith and I hope that he has a great season. It will be great to see our “Thalai” get couple of podium finishes this year.
You can follow Ajith’s progress this season at official formula 2 site. You can also get more information about his racing career at Ajith Kumar profile on the same website.
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