Sporting extravaganza

Soccer in Germany, Tennis in France, cricket in the Carribean and England, and basketball at home. What to see? How to see? How to make sure not a single goal is missed, every single wicket seen, all slam dunks appreciated, and all those powerful Nadal backhands are cheered?

I am kinda handicapped by the fact that I do not have a TV here. A TV here costs less than cable charges, and in my opinion.. that is absolutely ridiculous. Spending about 40 bucks every month to get a few news channels and watch some crazy talk shows is not my idea of a wise investment, and if I want to watch all these aforementioned events, the cost would treble. Unless my co gives me an entertainment allowance, watching TV comes into the extravagance category.

But then, being a sports freak that I am, it is difficult to stay away from all these. Just checking the websites and reading reports is like drinking only one glass of beer. You are getting the drink, but not the kick. So, I resorted to M/s Page and Brin. Cricket live webcast, Cricket online telecast, World cup Soccer live, French open webcast, India West Indies Streaming blah blah were the phrases I lived with for almost 2 weeks. I visited umpteen forums, got bucketloads of links and downloaded so many applications, that my laptop started giving me electric shocks when I touched it at one point of time.

But, as they say, mehnat ka phal hamesha meetha hota hai. I got links to watch not only these sporting events, but also Hindi channels, English movie channels, Tamil movie channels, Friends, Tom and Jerry and some unwanted Chinese/Japanese/Korean/German/Spanish/Italian channels, which I don't watch often, but sometimes its fun to see something you dont understand. :). All this for free (of course, I have to pay my internet charges to M/s Warner)

Now for the clincher. Since there is no TV involved, there is no reason to "switch" between channels. Mr Gates and co ensured that their OS is capable of running multiple applications at the same time. M/s Warner dont care how much of data I use as long as I pay my 30 bucks a month, and therefore, I can simultaneously watch the different games, if the timings overlap. I can watch Didier Drogba's incisive runs into the goal with L.Sivaramakrishnan and Jeffrey Dujon talking about how Kumble is a great leg spinner. Or I can watch Federer hit a scorching forehand in one window and Beckham goofing up on yet another free kick in another. The image shows what I was watching this afternoon. I have now ensured that, unless I am in office, I do not have to miss any major sporting event happening in the world.

PS: BTW, yes, I am blogging after a long time. I have been plain lazy, and as usual, enthu/time never come together, and yes, I shall keep this page alive now.

Go Spurs Go!!!

The first time I heard of this San Antonio, was in early 2004, when a friend of mine came to me with all enthu, told me that the Spurs had won the NBA. Now, I ain't a fan of NBA, or for that matter, any of the crazy Amru games. The only Spurs I knew, at that time, were a football club from Tottenham UK, and I was kinda confused as to why and how would they play the NBA and the EPL at the same time.

After further prodding, I gathered that the Spurs were a team from San Antonio in Texas, and they had recently started ascending great heights in the basketball world. So, I got to know about the term San Antonio Spurs. Now, I was more familiar with that term, so when my manager informed that I have to be at San Antonio, I could not make the connection. I thought I now not only knew one more place in the US, but the place was gonna become blessed enough to play host to me. Only when I got here, and I saw all the paraphernalia regarding the Spurs, did the nickel drop in.

In the office where I am, every alternate desk has a Spurs logo popping out. There have been instances of 3-4 official documents, where I have seen a footer saying "Go Spurs Go!!". So, all this has me in intrigue, and during my stay here, I have decided to go and watch a home game sometime, even if my understanding and knowledge of basketball doesn't go anymore than terms like slam-dunk, 3-pointer and pom-poms!! :)

Life here is okish. For the first time, I am left at the mercy of the elements and I have to take care of meself(and my room mate too, at times). It is an interesting experience, trying to decide what is going to be my next meal, and how bad its going to be. So far, I have made dal, sambar, deep fried potatoes and Rajma in the increasing order of favourable taste-bud reactions.

Food apart, I have had some irritating and good experiences, but it would take a long time to publish all of them here at one go. So let me use the next few blogs to go through all of them.

By the way, anyone care to explain this "tag" thingie to me?

Team India: The coach that ran into the captain

The last time I blogged, was the last time the Indians played a reasonably good game of cricket. The Pakis were downed at the Eden Gardens, and I was generally pissed as I could not watch the winning moments. Since then, Indian cricket has gone spiralling down. If the bookies used to bet on an Indian win then, they are now afraid to bet on how low can the team go. Everytime I watch a game, I am convinced that Team India has touched rock-bottom, and things cannot go any worse than this. But to their credit, they keep re-defining levels of mediocrity after every passing game.

I won't comment on the big war happening between the coach and the captain, but the coach would sure want to eat his Chappal after the incident. I don't blame him though. He was after all having the team's improvement in his mind, but he never bargained on running into a loud and loose mouthed captain. Taking bold steps has never been an Indian trait, and it kinda reflects on foreigners associated with India too. Nevertheless, lets hope the seeds that have been sown over the last 1 week grow into a wonderful harvest, despite the woeful fertilizers(BCCI) and big-headed and useless remains of last years crop(You-know-who)

Marriage functions

Today, Indians won a scintillating test match against the arch enemies Pakistan. I almost missed the victory courtesy a marriage function I had to attend. I tried to avoid the function, but for sentimental reasons I could not. This just goes on to prove that, as usual, the heavens were against me. The stars had to come into correct alignment for this couple just when there were far more important things for me to do.
Marriages are made in, they say. They are even scheduled by the heavens, and this heavenly scheduling is the only criterion(except in places like Chennai, where availability of a roof over the marriage altar is the primary criterion). In my opinion, on top of all this, there should be another factor that goes into this scheduling viz., consultation with the BCCI. This consultation should be done even before the priest comes into the picture. Therefore, the marriage date shall be fixed on a day when

1) There is no cricket match
2) The hall is available
3) The axis of the stars form the correct angle or waddever the heavenly criteria are.

in that order.

This ensures that events like marriages are more memorable for people like me. It also ensures that I can try enjoying the food rather than having the score as the uppermost thing in my mind.
Anyways, I made a quick exit as soon as formalities(read lunch) were over and just about made it back to see the last coupla wickets falling.

Gubernatorial mathematics

If there are 3 cows, and 2 of them are allied with each other, the third represents the majority!

This is a basic axiom of what I call Gubernatorial Mathematics.

It is generally well-known that most of the politicians in India are illiterate. I have often wondered how these apparently illiterate people become very learned, when it comes to calculating number of seats required for a majority.

Now, these politicians have to make sure that they "don't" get the majority. It calls for a thorough understanding the gubernatorial math. With that as a base, parties have to ensure that they finish second, and have an alliance with the Congress(not for the numbers, but for the clout of Congresspeople over Raj Bhavan occupants).

Kids aspiring to become politicians one day, could well be trained in this new branch of mathematics as a tool for realization of their aspirations.

Saare Jahaan se Achcha
Ganitshaastra hamara!! :P

Ads

Ever since young Mohammed Kaif got into the Indian team, fitness levels rose up big time. The whole team has upped its fitness by several notches. Since then, in tribute to Kaif's contribution, the team anthem became:

Kaif boy hai jahan, tandurusti hai wahan!! KAIF BOYYYY!!!!

Sprite's new ad: Model says "Ye dil maange more!!!". Immediately Maneka Gandhi comes in along with the police and arrests the model. "Peacock is our national bird and its endangered too, so you are under arrest for demanding a peacock for a drink!!!"
Dikhave pe mat Jao, apni Akal lagao!!

Anu Malik endorsing Sprite: Original pe mat jao, apni nakal lagao!!

Dude with his girlfriend in the middle of some really deep forest. Things get romantic, and dude and dudette about to share an intimate moment, when his phone starts ringing. Voice heard "Sir, I am from Townbank, do you want to avail of home loan??". Cut to dude and dudette stranded in a remote island. Again they are about to share an intimate moment when phone rings: "Sir, we have this great offer of a free for life credit card, are you interested??"
In the background: Wherever you go, our network follows!!

Baaki.. break ke baad!!

Budget 2005

PC presented his second Budget of this century. There are some really cool implications of some of his policies:

A customer will think twice before entering a bank to get shelter from rain, he may have to pay tax for that.
A new short-cut to be provided for the figure 9900 in ATM's.
ATM's will always be crowded around midnight. The same person will be seen entering the ATM either side of midnight.
An employee may have to be careful before sending a peon for an errand. Benefits and Service tax may be charged.
After indulging in lots of physical activities during a company sponsored picnic, an employee will be right in more ways than one when he says that the day was "taxing".
Reimbursement may just remain a word in the dictionary, maybe it could be the first word to disppear altogether!!

Any other implications?? Please lemme know!!

What is worse?? Hydrochloric Acid or HCL??

3 weeks since I have stepped into HCL Tech. One thing I realised here is that the name for the company, HCL, is very appropriate mainly because, considering what I have gone through so far, I am sure employees suffer a quick burnout.

Let me give you a brief synopsis of my day here:
Between 8a.m and 9:30 am
1) Wake up
2) Call taxi
3) Have breakfast
4) Embark on journey to Tidel Park

9:30 am to 1:00pm
1) Go to training room
2) Check if comp is booting up (it doesn't)
3) Search for technician (he is never there)
4) Go to library
5) Use comp there.. (Check mails, score, news, score, mails: Infact i can give u the correct co-ordinates of the refresh folder list link in our webmail client)
6) If enthu.exists(true), then go through the HCL Intranet (Sometimes there is something interesting there, in a forum called Masala Board)
7) Go to food court.

1:00pm to 5:30pm
For points 1-6 please refer to the points 1-6 in the 9:30pm to 1:00pm section
7) Call cab.
8) Head home

I am sure, the HCL at the base of my esophagus has more fun than I have in HCL!! :(