Kolaveri-veri

The Process of "Why this Kolaveri Kolaveri Kolaveri Di" Addiction:

1. You hear this tune for the first time from your neighbour's room.
2. You D/L the video yourself and listen to it.
3. You Google Shruti Haasan (If you are on BITSNet, while it googles, see the vid again)
4. Now that you know everything Wiki knows about her, see it again a few more times.
5. Now you can even hum a few words of the song and you think you know a Tamil song even though it's almost completely in English.
6. Now you check if she is on twitter. (Again, if BITSNet, then Video->Play).

7. You Temporarily change your Windows 7 desktop wallpaper theme to a bunch of recently d/l Shruti Haasan pics.
8. Now you scan the net (StumbleUpon, FunnyJunk, Blogs etc.) for any article, write-up, comic, funny pics etc. on the song. This is about when you actually bother to ask what exactly is a Soup Boy. You learn the stuff while playing the vid on loop.
9. You realize you've identified enough stages to make a blog post. You play the vid a few more times.

WARNING: This picture induces an irresistible need to use Google.

The Final Showdown

The last three slots for the Barclays ATP World Tour Final were finally decided after Tomas Berdych's victory over Janko Tipsarevic at Bercy. And now, with the field completely set, the tournament is building a great buzz amongst all tennis fans.

And why not! The amount of talent on display is unbelievable. Almost all styles of tennis that can exist are on show at the magnificent O2 Arena in London, a spectacular venue for the season ending showdown. You have the phenomenal Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the hard hitting duo, debutante Mardy Fish and second time-qualifier Tomas Berdych, local favourite Andy Murray, the Spanish armada of David Ferrer and Rafael Nadal, the Swiss finesse of Roger Federer and the first man to qualify for the tournament, the tennis player of the year, Novak Djokovic.

The eight contenders are drawn into two groups. Group A will feature US, Wimbledon and Australian Open champ Djokovic. His main rival in the group will be Andy Murray. The last time the two played (in the finals of the Cincinnati Masters) Murray was up a set and a break before the World No. 1 was forced to retire with a troublesome shoulder. English fans will be certainly not be wrong to hope for a good win given the Scot's current form and the Serb's recent spate of illnesses. However, Murray should be cautious about Tomas Berdych who only last week, defeated him in the QF at Bercy. And if there is a man who can spoil a party, it is David Ferrer. The 2007 runner-up will most certainly be looking to make inroads into the top 4 and will look to go deep in conditions that may just suit him. A tricky group indeed, but the higher seeds will probably make it through.

The last time these two played in London, it was a historic first in the career on one of them. Roger Federer's five set loss to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga marked the first occasion when the 16-Slam champ had lost a match in a Grand Slam after going two sets to love up. Tsonga followed that with a remarkable demolition in the run-up to the US Open. Not surprisingly, Federer restored the balance by winning in straight sets the next two times they played. The second of those was only two days ago in Bercy, where Federer ran away with a 5-0 lead before Tsonga could even disturb the score board. To make things tougher for both these players, they are drawn with Rafael Nadal and Tomas Berdych. Berdych will be looking for a good end to the season and to carry some momentum into the next one.
Federer and Nadal will surely add one more match to their storied rivalry, albeit in the unfamiliar territory of the group stage. Unlike most of their matches, it probably would not be a winner takes all situation and therefore, we may see some different styles of tennis from what we know these two can play. This group will be the toughest to predict and certainly more exciting as well.

Looks like 2011 will end with a bang!
The Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, 20th to 27th November, 2011. Dont miss it!

I don't know what title to give to this...this thing...

First there is the weird. [Paul Adams]
Then there is the extraordinary. [South Africa's chase of 434]
Over all this is the bizarre. [Symonds dismissal of Clarke's pad, see here]
And even then, there is the Newlands Test match.

It had all the bearings of a typical test match to begin with. A struggling Australian batting line-up against the highly rated pace bowling duo of Steyn and Morkel. There were the usual start-stops, the "wickets in a bunch" and the sparkling counter-attack from the skipper (Michael Clarke, 151 out of a team total of 280). Clarke's innings was of high merit. It was aggressive and furious, yet it was sensible. When the guarantee of your partner staying put at the other end was pretty much minimal, every run would be vital and getting them quickly was what you need to do, and that was precisely what that knock did. So you end your first innings with a decent total of 280 and gloriously press-box away about how you are still in the match.

When Shane Watson was given the cherry by Clarke to resume proceedings after lunch on day two, not even the wildest of minds or the most eccentric of the fellows could have anticipated what was to come. In the next 30 overs, one of the most bizarre days of test cricket unfolded.

It was at this point that I had decided to go for dinner. By the time I came back, South Africa was batting all right, but in the fourth innings.

Hang on. What? The day started with Australia finishing their first innings and now its the fourth innings all ready?

That's right. The fourth innings came via two fantastic collapses. In the first, the smaller of the two, the hosts went from 40/1 to 96 All Out. Shane Watson, the demolisher-in-chief, grabbed 5-15 in five overs. Ryan Harris grabbed three Proteas too. And it looked like it was going to be a Aussie party. Then came the second collapse.

The unfortunate distinction of posting the lowest ever total in an innings belongs to New Zealand when they managed a paltry 26 against England, back in 1955. Their friends from across the Tasman Sea came very close to snatching the record away from them. Australia went to tea at 13/3. On resumption, five overs later, they were 21/9 (or as you would see in Australia, 9\21). A combination of great bowling by Philander (that's the family name) and poor shot-making (even gully cricket teams will shake their heads) saw Australia perilously close to giving the Kiwis, an early Christmas gift. The last wicket partnership of 26 between No. 9, Peter Siddle and No. 11, Nathan Lyon saw Australia ultimately post 47, their lowest total in 105 years.

So in a space of dinner, almost every thing that can happen on a cricket pitch happened. At the end of the day though, calmness prevailed in Cape Town and the South African dressing room after some nervous prodding and nudging, as they eventually reached 81/1, well on their way to achieving a most extraordinary test victory.

Australia still had one more thing to say though.
Michael Hussey dropped Hashim Amla of the last ball of the day.

[PS- I started writing this with SA requiring some 70 odd runs to win. At this moment they need another 14. Ok Amla, let Smith get his century too.]

The Bare Necessities of Life

There is actually a movie on this.
It stars (well, for the want of a better word) the son of Anupam and Kirron Kher, Sikander Kher (remember him?), Gul Panag, Yuvika Chaudhary and some other B-Town newbies as the leads. It even features the highly talented Ashutosh Rana and Divya Dutta is some supporting roles.

In 2008, the Union Health Ministry, under the very energetic Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss (this isn't his only claim to fame, he was quite media savvy, Google him), came up with a rule requiring every MBBS graduate in this country to put in a whole year of rural service before they can apply for a post-graduate program in India. In that stint it would be mandatory for them to spend four months each in primary health care, community health centres and district hospitals. During this period, they will receive a monthly stipend of Rs. 10,000 (approximately $205).

Now, there are several points over which this issue can be debated. And I'm not saying if this rule is fair or not. But to make a point in favor of those who protested against this rule, rural India is hardly a place to live in. Despite nearly two-thirds of the country's population living in rural areas, India's villages are poorly developed and lack access to the basics. They are poorly connected to power starved electricity grids, have insufficient access to clean water, lack communication channels like telephony and internet and are barely accessible through those badly built roads. Even essential systems like sanitation and health care (one arguments for the Union Health Ministry then) are inadequately set up. Clearly, it comes as no surprise that a large amount of our rural population is excluded from our nations economic growth.

So the movie in question is titled "Summer 2007". The movie deals with a bunch of carefree and urban (presumably, I haven't seen this movie, but only then does the rest of the story make sense) med school graduates who are sent to rural Maharashtra to do an internship. It follows their lives as they undergo an awakening of sorts when they are exposed to life in rural India. Interestingly, this movie released before the Health Ministry's ruling came out and is set in a period two whole years before the rule came into force.

Visionary, maybe not. Worth a see, perhaps.

Now med school graduates are still under the Health Ministry diktat but engineering graduates are not. So you would think Indian engineers are mostly groomed in an urban atmosphere with sophisticated infrastructure so as to inculcate a world class thinking ability in them, right? But there is this college which is subjecting those enrolled (you (mostly), me, and everybody) to a rural environment. Even though technically Zuarinagar is classified Industrial and physical access is above the national par and the sanitation infrastructure is decently in place, it would seem, based on the "current" situation, that almost two thousand students are living in a rural environment.

Perhaps it is an experiment. Or maybe a set up, in a hope that one (or some) student(s) will rise above the prevailing despair and establish a system that would lead their fellow students towards a better standard of living.

Clearly, I chose to be the one who commentates on it.