mere funde

Had it been printed in TOI, I would not have bothered to respond. However, when a respected publication like The Wisden Almanack says something as outrageous, I think it warrants a few words. And no, it is not about selecting four Englishmen in the top five cricketers of the last year. The piece I am talking about, appears as “If the ICC move to India, we might as well say ta, ta” in the current edition under “Notes by the Editor“. Some lines and my response below.

“Were the ICC to be based in New Delhi or Mumbai, the power-base of their next president Sharad Pawar, the staff would become predominantly Indian as the main current administrators would find it too difficult to relocate their families there, and the organisation would cease to reflect the attitudes and values of all its members.”

Where would you, Mr. Berry, have it relocate to? One would think it has to be one of the Test playing nations, given the lack on interest in cricket in the neutral venues like Dubai. If so, would not a city in the sub-continent, with four of nine test playing nations, be more representative of the members? And I would stick my neck out and say that Delhi or Mumbai would a top choice in the region. Also, with a large number of expat population, I see no reason why administrators would find it difficult to relocate here vis-a-vis London or Sydney or Johannesburg.

“It is not a business, or an industry like steel, to be taken over.”

In case you have missed the memo Sir, the game is a business, and the clout of India is proof enough. Unless Mr. Berry wants to stick his neck in the sand and pretend that we are still in the 50s, he should know that the game needs money to be run efficiently and ensure the further development of the sport.

All said and done, I believe the piece was out of place. While I agree that India wields more than necessary influence on the ICC, one has to be cognizant of the fact that India is where cricket gets most of its audience from. So get over your fears and accept reality.

And for God’s sake, please let Tata and Corus be in peace. It’s not like we have made you slaves.

There has been a lot of nonsense written about why India does not deserve to be the best test team in the ICC Rankings. Example here. There have been a lot of rebuttals as well. Example here. This post is yet another rebuttal of the same.

Let’s look at batting for a while. In the past three years, starting 01 Jan 2007, five of the top ten run scorers in the Test format, excluding runs scored against Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, and WI, have been from India. SL, SA, Australia, England, and WI have one each in the top 10. Not too bad I would say. Even the great Ricky Ponting is on the 15th step, which really makes you wonder why no one calls him over the hill anymore, but I digress. A team that has the best batsmen of the last three years must have something in it.

Now for the bowling. The list is much more evenly distributed this this. Three of the top ten bowlers, with same filters as above, are from India, with SA claiming another three, Australia two, and England and SL one each. Though bowling still remains a concern for the Indians, it is no better for the other teams. SA is arguably the strongest in this department, but then with Steyn injured and Ntini fading quickly, they might not enjoy the same status for long.

The thing to note is that this data is for a three year period, and not for a one off year. So its not really a flash in the pan, but rather some sustained good performances by the Indian team. During this period, India has played an almost equal number of tests home (15) and away (14), so there is no real home advantage for the team.

I know that statistics don’t really tell everything, but they do tell you a few things, and what it does tell here is that India really has been a world’s best team for the past couple of years, even though SA are right on their tails.

All data from Cricinfo’s Statsguru. Batting and Bowling.

Whenever Google launches a product there is a huge brouhaha over in the blogosphere (There. I used the stupid word.) and people go nuts about how it is going to be the next big thing. I am not the clean one and am as much to blame as any one else for being a fanboy. However, when Google launched the free legal case law I was hardly excited.

I was transported back to the days when I was so happy at the launch of Google Patents that I almost predicted doom for patent database providers. Heck, I even sent them an email with features I thought would have been easy to implement.

Little did I know that it would turn out to be some time pass project for some one bored of regular work at Google. Sure the tool is great, but the limited coverage and search make it almost useless, when Google, using its immense technological prowess could have brought patents to everyone with very little incremental work. But then I guess the team that worked on it got shifted to some more important stuff and the project now sits there like a tool which I use only to read patents – and not search them. What a waste I tell you!!

Sleep in peace Lexis Nexis – there is no battle brewing on your home turf!

Failed promises – that is what the youngsters in the Indian team are. Not one young player, since Dhoni and Gambhir debuted in 2004, has kept the promise shown in the initial few matches.

Ishant has been but a pale shade of the bowler who bowled that amazing over to Ponting during that awesome Oz trip. Sreesanth was moved more by movies and glam than cricket. About the batsmen, the lesser said the better. The Jadejas, Sharmas, Pathans, and Utthappas have just shown a lot of promise and then quietly faded away after an initial hoopla has subsided.

Not one player, other than Raina probably, has shown any sort of consistency. Yes they look good on the field on the occasional days that India fields well. Other than that you can’t depend on them for anything. And yes, we have given them enough chances. They just don’t have the balls to grab the opportunity and prove that they are good enough. Heck they even lack basic cricketing knowledge – Jadeja was a classic example today! What on earth was he running for?? As Jrod says,

Those were the ten dudes. A collection of shit hot batsmen who were made to look like dribbling fools compared to Sachin.

And I am just talking about the ODI team. I don’t even want to imagine what happens to the Test team when Sachin, Laxman, and Dravid retire, with Sehwag not too far behind.

By Debasish on Cricinfo:

Given the volume of cricket that BCCI imposes on the Indian cricketers, the cricketers have found a novel way to avoid over exertion. How ? By crashing out in the first rounds of every ICC tournament ( World Cup, 20-20 World Cup and now the Champions Trophy) and thereby gaining some “rest” for the ad endorsements.

Another one from Apoorv:

O Captain my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The rain saves us the shame of losing two on the run, The port is near, the bells I hear, the Oz horns are blaring, While follow eyes the steady keel, the media grim and daring.

Surprisingly, this is something that I have discussed with two different people in the last 24 hours.

One thing that an engineering college education does to you is make you very emotionally inadequate. All we can do is think logically, brushing aside all emotions, and makes us quant jocks in real life too.

I was discussing the unfortunate death of Dr YSR Reddy, the AP CM, with a classmate who believed that all this state mourning and shutting down the state for a day was not logical. While I agree with the logic, I am not so much in sync with the emotional aspect of it.

Some people do believe that protocols are unnecessary, and a burden on the state exchequer. While I agree that some protocols are useless, some of them are required. We need to show some respect for people who work for the society and the country. Agreed that not a lot of them do it out of compassion, but who decides that?

The second discussion I had was the validity of Intellectual Property Rights, specially in the Pharmaceutical industry. While I agree that IPRs are an essential part of the industry and required to spur innovation, there is something fundamentally broken with the role they play in the pricing of drugs.

Would you rather not a sell a drug in a nation because you are making a lower profit or would you rather save a life? Isn’t the huge profit margins you make in some nations good enough to subsidize some losses in the less fortunate countries? Also, if a company decides not to sell a drug at an affordable price in a certain country facing an epidemic, is the government flawed in its decision to grant a compulsory license?

I guess these questions have no right answers. See what aspect sways you more and take that way is the right thing to do I guess.

As Captain Teague says in the last edition of Pirate of the Carribean, “It’s not just about living forever, Jackie. The trick is still living with yourself forever.“

I believe that Airtel has the best customer support of all mobile carriers in India, and also the best network. It has been my preferred carrier for more than 4 years now. However, they did not land up on campus till about a week after we joined, and since by then everyone else was on Vodafone CUG, I had to join the Vodafone bandwagon too.

The first shock was that Vodafone did not support Twitter. WTF!! Wake up and smell the breeze folks. It could be a significant revenue earner, and yet you have decided not too support it. Can someone please explain the logic??

Next, I had some issue with the billing (never had it on Airtel I tell you), and I lodged a complain on their helpline. I must inform you here that it is near impossible to speak to a human voice on their IVRS. However, I did manage to file a complain, and 10 days (seriously) later they get back to me saying that they believe that the invoice is correct. I try to explain to the person my logic, and why I think there is an error, but he doesn’t know anything about my complain. What?? Are you fricking kidding me!!

Anyway, I sent their regional head an email about the error with the invoice details, and also the complaint number. He replied back saying I had forgotten my mobile number. I was soooper pissed. Can’t they locate my details through the invoice number and my name?? How hard can that be??

Seriously Vodafone, if you want to be as attractive as the Zoozoos, get your act together in customer support.

… Well, not really. But almost there. 

When I landed in Gurgaon, in November ’05, the first reaction was – Wow!! What am I doing in this God forsaken place?? But then I got used to things. Made friends. Work became fun. Trips were made to Pilani. And truly speaking, I am hating the moving from Gurgaon experience. It sucks!! 

Tomorrow morning there will be no more familiar faces. No Pooja, no Gogo, or Sanchita, or Rahul. No more cribs by Shivangi. No funny ringtones from Manju. No lunch with the gang. No chai with Anoop and Praguna. 

Damn!!

Be warned: This is one long post!!

The adventure started on Thursday evening with a flat tyre. We had picked Jeete from the airport, and proceeded to pick Sudeep from Nizamuddin. After fighting through the intense traffic, we picked him up and headed to Flaming Mustard in Vasant Kunj for dinner. The dinner was good, and fun was had. When we walked out, we realized that we had to ourselves a flat tyre and a flat spare. We quickly called Tk and Bharathi, and they readily gave us their spare. What we did not realize, however, was that this was the beginning of a series of delays that would hit us.

Next morning we picked up Ankit, a new spare, and headed off to Jhunjhunu in an Alto and an i10, accompanied by Kanika, Raheem, Aditi, and Pari in a Santro. The first quarter of the journey was pretty nice and we were driving along nicely when we had to stop at a railway crossing. Jeete and Bansal were in the i10, while me, Ankit, and Sudeep were in the Alto. Jeete got out to see what was up with the crossing while Bansal headed out to chit-chat with us. When the crossing opened, we realized to our utter horror, that the keys were inside and the car. Further, the Hyundai car can’t be opened as easily as the Maruti ones can. Anyway, after trying for an hour, we called the Hyundai dealership in Rewari. The chap arrived in an hour and half, and we started off in another half an hour.

Since we were behind schedule, and tried to cover some time on the Narnaul-Chirawa stretch, which we were successful in. Just when it seemed that we might get to Dundlod (which is where Misra’s wedding party had halted), we lost transmission on the i10 and came to a slow halt. It was like a huge blow. Plus the knowledge that there was no Hyundai service station within a 100 kms. We started towing the i10 using the Alto, no minor task for newbies. After snapping the tug rope twice, we finally used our engineering heads, and used a thrown piece of tire tube to reduce the stress on the rope and reached Jhunjhunu at around 7:30PM in the evening. A drive that should have taken 5 hours had taken more than 8!!

We started packing the gifts, and getting ready for the main event. It was funny to watch Misra in the sherwani, and that is when we realized (at least I did) that STAR-PLUS was a man down!! It was the wedding of two of my closest friends, and I like a smart guy, quickly jumped on the “ladke wale” bandwagon The rest of the evening was spent having a lot of fun. We danced a lot in the baaraat and tried to get everyone involved. But since we were slightly behind schedule, we had to let the baarat proceed without too much dancing. The customary Joey dance, the clothes washing, and cricket dance were still accomodated.

Me and Joy, decided to lift Misra right before the varmala and poor Parul (who looked amazing) had no chance at the garland game till we had pity. I must mention here that she played hard ball and decided not even to try till we did not reduce Misra’s elevation to a competitive level. After that it was snap time. Parul had no difficulty in mantaining the Colgate smile, while Misra looked a little bored. Misra played the spoil sport and did not pose for even a single wedding snap. Parul was much more game – oh, and did I mention that she looked gorgeous We spent a lot of time pulling their legs and chatting with them up on the stage.

The food, to use Sudeep’s word, was “AWESOME”. It was a combination of good food, and Sudeep’s stay in US that the word was uttered with such regularity that we wondered if he was somehow related to Barney Stinson!!

The pheras were fun, and there were a lot of comments when the pundit was explaining the meaning of the various vows exchanged invoked a lot of interest from old timers. It seems that you need to disclose all your earnings to your wife – there goes the entire confidentiality of salary thingie!! Another point to note here was that Parul seemed to be in a lot of hurry and was walking very quickly (through the evening), while Misra limbered on in his usual style.

Anyhoo. After the wedding we headed back to Shalimar hotel and slept peacefully till eight in the morning. I was chatting with Misra, and Jeete and Bansal headed out to get the i10 fixed. It was then that Jeete and Bansal realized that the i10 needed to be sent to Sikar, 80 kms away, to be fixed. Misra by then had to go for the vidaai and we decided to skip it, mainly because we were too sleepy. Meanwhile, we also made a quick trip to Rani Sati temple in Jhunjhunu. Bansal asked the dealer to send a tow van, and headed off to Pilani with Kanika and company, while Jeete, Sudeep, Ankit and I stayed back.

… To be continued …

I always believed that unless you are excited about doing something, you shouldn’t do it.

I have seen souls at work, who come at work everyday, work hard, and yet do not enjoy what they do. Don’t get me wrong. These are brilliant people, who produce the best output and put in a hundred percent. But they could be better. They could be superstars. But they are holding it back. They seem to content with just doing what is asked from them and being done at that.

For the past some time I have been trying to transfer some of what I have learnt during work to people who would be taking it forward in my absence. I am trying to do my best, and people are constantly bearing with me during the entire process. But not once could I feel their enthusiasm for it. They are doing it because they are required to do it, and not because they are interested in it. 

I miss the times when people wanted to do more. When people were excited.