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This bowl out in Twenty20 is so stupid and childish! Wonder who got that stupid idea and suggested and wonder how other people accepted it ?! First of all, by run rate/ number of wickets fallen, ( Duckworth-Lewis or something like that ) easily a side could be declared winner.

But understanding that you want to make it thrilling in the last minute and all, even then this bowl out looks so disgraceful to cricket. It is not equivalent to penalty shoot out in football/hockey, it is roughly equal to kicking at the goal post without the goal keeper.

Why is it being reduced to only bowling accuracy ? Kicking a goal and defending was what they did it all the time in a football game but in cricket it is more than that. Why not consider batting accuracy and let the batsman hit a ball by tossing it himself in the air ?

Also it is quite simple to bowl at the stumps. Just bowl plain dead slow ball ! I am sure just after few tie-breakers, one will see all the bowls hitting the stumps, then what ?! I think they will be asked to bowl at single stump ?! When that also does not break a tie, they should do it with eyes closed. Wah !

If a tie breaker had to be played, then an extra over each team of normal cricket is most perfect. ( And again, not in an empty field without fielders! ).

In advance wishing you all a very happy Ganesh Chaturthi.

Ps: Some posts coming soon. Also sharing lot of things on link blog
Pps: What do you think of new theme ? Click on those tiny pics on top to change the look.

Happy Independency Day to All Indians !
Lalbagh Photos:

Just wondering what would have happened if these things did not happen in our life time - iPhone, Harry Potter, Rajnikanth ? What would have people talked about so passionately ? What would have caught the fancy of people ? What would have got the cult following ?

More importantly, would people have led a mundane, mediocre lives or would people have found something among the available things as craze-worthy and cult-status worthy ?[1]

If it is the former, we have been very lucky. If it is the latter, more thoughts needed. Till then happy reading/watching or experiencing.

Be maniac, be happy [2]

[1] Lets leave out iPhone from this discussion. iPhone or actually iPod created a space for itself when there was none. Its not one among 100s like movies/books.

[2] I personally feel, everyone, everyone should have something to be maniac about.

Histronics (have you heard in any show about terrible but cute host getting kissed on the show ? ) and contracts and emotionally charged over exaggerating shouting over the top “gurus” aside, Saregamapa is still immensely watchable for me for the singing talent it has. And also since it was a show I used to regularly watch pre-sms era. Though the names behind the show, like Gajendra Singh and Shaan have moved on to Star, I watched episodes of saregamapa. I tried watching Amul Voice of India in Star but due to the timing and the darkness of the set I fall asleep and the bright colourful set of Saregamapa along with the over the top performances of gurus of Saregamapa help me keep awake (and of course there is a repeat show in the day time plus entire show’s video is online).

Coming to the point of the post, last week I found all the 8 people in the Brahmastra round (or whatever round) in which only 2 would be taken forward.

My picks are Sarika and Raja Hasan. Sarika is the same lady who fainted on the stage after a biased judgement ( by Asha) . She sang extremely well in this round too and more I liked was her way - irritatingly innocent way - of asking for votes. Thats how my niece of 4 year old would have asked for votes chocolates !

She does have serious competition from Shaberi who has already bagged a singing contract from Visha-Shekar. And Vishal-Shekar are the most sensible and watchable gurus over there (save Bappi Da who is neutral most times). Lets not talk about Himesh (for there are conflictingly diametrically different opinions, and any stance I take is dangerous !), and his partner in crime Ismail. More about them some other time and oh I am digressing. Just wanted to say, really love the way Vishal-Shekar enjoy the music.

Among the boys, again there are very talented ones but Raja Hassan is my pick. He pulled out an unintentional emotional card which should easily give him more votes but that should not take away any credit from his ability. He is gifted, period.

And the Bengali contest winner really got the pulse of the crowd and since he is already qualified to move further, should be a tough competitor to others.

Here are the videos of Sarika (I wanted to post the way she asked for votes!) and Raja Hassan :

The starter homepage is one of things that I never used to get. Long back when I was learning html, I had created a starter page that was just putting all the frequently visited sites at one place (with their logo) so that I need not type out the url and also I can keep track of the sites visited in that session (the clicked link would change its colour). Making this as the default homepage was all about it.

The last time I tried starter homepage was while trying out web2.0 ( netvibes/pageflakes) starter pages. Full of bright colour, with drag and drop features, ajaxy stuff, yet my usage did not extend beyond signing up and trying out once. And having to remember one more account was making it difficult. I still did not get it.

Finally came google homepage. It should be one of the most underrated services by Google (or I might not have heard about it). Though I initially tried homepage only because I could check if there were new mails in gmail without logging into gmail ( logging into gmail is time limited & restricted in office - but no such restriction for homepage )

But now I have added enough stuff to homepage that it makes sense to open one page rather - both to get different content at one place and to login only once.

Most important components are of course gmail, news, reader -which contains digg, delicious etc, game, twitter, clock so on and so forth. With reader embedded on starter page, finally I get the feel of riverofnews concept - easy, simple yet very meaningful, useful for a google-reader freak like me.

To get around the email restriction in office I tried out some back door tactics but did not succeed completely. If I could get hold of one good email to rss converter, I can subscribe to that feed in reader which now embeds the mailing feature. That would have completed the loop without logging on to gmail, but alas.

Update: Eureka !! I’m right. This is in update to this post. As guessed in the comments there, it turned out to be Amw@y after all. This happened very next day but updating the blog now.

Yesterday he said he would talk to me sometime today but instead of talking to me he took my number. I also observed him from morning, I was doubting every move. He spoke to few people and took an appointment to meet them. He joined me for coffee. He wanted to join for lunch but I escaped. Now it was becoming very clear. While returning, I asked what was it about. He said “priv@te franchi$ing”, have you heard about it. I wanted to scream “Oh, is it Amw@y..please stay away”, but instead said I dont know. He said he would call me up to discuss about it.

Today again he gave big smiles to me. He asked me what would I be doing in the evening. I knew this was coming. I said I have to meet my friend. He said, ok lets talk for a minute. He took me out, secretively. And the bs talk happened. “You should have a vision. We are not into technical. It involves hard work. More the work more the returns. It’s a good concept where in lies the 80% of world. It requires smart work. I am expanding in India in 800 locations. Our company is present since 50 years. I am doing it for my security. We recruit only passionate people. Why dont you come down in the evening and have a look at what we are doing ? About 300-400 people are gathering today. Let me know before 5Pm as it is an invited business presentation. People can attend only on invitation “…..etc blah blah blah to pull/suck people.

All the while I was smiling in my mind.

I am so proud of myself. I could see the future But regret for not having rejected it at the first chance.

Will narrate another victory in my life.

Long ago, while in Mumbai itself, my father had come across this stuff. This time it was from another relative who, after knowing that my father has got retired, wanted to introduce a business scheme. At the same time another friend too started introducing the scheme. You should see how friendly these people get when they want to introduce the scheme. They will vanish without trace after the deal is rejected, they are busy with their business you see !
So the motivational books, cassettes started coming in. Since it was first time for me I was pretty hopeful and excited about finding a new business opportunity and success path. It was in my mind everywhere I went. So I spoke about it to my friend, Bk, who immediately dismissed the thought and gave all details. He too was a victim. He said only by making more members, and not by marketing the goods, do we make money. But from the outset the deal is to market some magical products which could reduce the cost of household expenses by great margin.

I had been to a product demo which showed - a single concentrated liquid, they said could be used either to wash clothes or to clean toilets or to brush your teeth or to etc by only varying the degree of dilution. (That very explanation motivated me to doubt them. It is such a false claim - imagine if the toilet cleaner’s composition is same as the tooth paste’s !) I also understood the points creation. The 1000 or more points would be redeemed by 1paise and in the motivational and invitational seminars these people organize, they claim big earners and announce the earnings in Lakhs (what is left unsaid is whether the Lakhs is Rs or points). People in top positions would be doing this business, they claim. Money is also generated by making the members attend some programmes - like a workshop in Mumbai. The commission on the sales of such tickets add to the points earned. It is such things which add points and not due to the sales of products. I was equipped with all such information now but my father could not reject the pursual and bought a ticket for the initial business presentation (yeah this too adds up to his points earning).

I knew everything. I did not want to go. But I was forced to go. But I didn’t know that it would boost my confidence Many people had gathered there to “explore” and “understand” this new “business opportunity” which would help then earn “lakhs of rupees” and give them “life long security”. But they were clueless unlike me. So a person with all enthusiasm started talking to me outside the venue. We were there half an hour early. He wondered what this would be about. I gave all the details I had in a very calm voice, in a very clear manner and without a bit of exaggeration. I told only what I knew. He asked many questions and I answered. I also told the hidden cost “to register 6.5k”. He was totally disillusioned. He said “I am a business man. I own a shop to sell dresses in Rajajinagar. If I invest 6.5k there and work hard I would “surely” gain more returns. Also I would make my customers happy. Thank you very much sir for enlightening me”. He was very happy to have avoided falling into trap. He was disappointed that he had wasted time to come here instead of sitting at his shop but he was happy that he wont waste any more time now, not even the presentation. He tore the Rs.30 ticket and handed over to me his visiting card and asked me to visit him. He left.

I was proud of myself. I could really do marketing. I can really speak and sell something. This is yet another achievement of my convincing power !¹

But I didn’t have the liberty not to attend the presentation. I went through the brainfart for the evening but returned home very satisfied with my deed of saving a person and feeling good about myself.

Sorry if I hurt someone who is into the business. I am sure you are doing it, knowing what you are doing. But I must say people gain tremendous confidence in this business and improve their inter-personal skills beyond imagination. They think of themselves as huge self sufficient business men where as others are cheap bonded laborers. They communicate better than before, become huge convincing salespersons - selling dreams and products and memberships and all. What they perhaps don’t understand is the behind-the-back impression people might have about them.

1. Another achievement about my convincing power I am proud of, was to make a girl laugh, who was weeping over having got less marks in the board exams. That is for some other day! [back]

Courtesy
A visit to Mocha: It was a plan come true after almost 1 year. When the office was near to the place, we planned several times but none materialised. Finally, had to change the company (no, not the meaning that strikes first) and it finally worked out.

We went around 10 to the place. The place was simply very different than the ones I usually frequent. It was all laid back, albeit with posh people - mostly teenagers and some foreigners. It almost looked like a lazy bar but was vibrant with colours and energy (not a measurable description, but explanation given on request).

There were two kinds of locations available. One in the outside garden-like-setup, where a family crowd or a formal get-together could hang out. The bushes all around and with unconventional seating arrangement - stone benches, wooden benches, a swing, bamboo (betta) chairs. A closed hut like structures (like in Dhaba) or an open umbrella (like in juice corners) were also available. There were other forms of seats like auto rickshaw’s , car’s put around a table on one end. (Rangashankara had lot of such items) A small stream of water flowing added to the look of a setting in nature. Colourful lights around was a plus along with the natural wind. Due to the fear of mosquitoes we instead went inside.

There it was more of a typical hukka joint. The red curtains, the dress of waiters and the dark place looked like a setting in a Mahal. The seating here was casual - one could either sit on mattresses on the floor or one could use the more formal chairs. A big group of teenagers sat on each other and occupied half the space that otherwise was required. They had roaring fun but they quit gracefully after their time (which was quite less considering we were there for more time). Along with the lack of light (intentional), the place was quite smoky - one thing I did not enjoy- which could have been avoided with better ventilation (or some other technique). A nice soft music was being played (both outside and inside) which was non-intrusive and added to the overall ambiance.

We had a flavoured one and man didn’t it taste good! I was new to it but the fragrance remained with me even days after.

And “the kick” eluded me, as always. (I guess it wasn’t supposed to kick in the first place).

Thanks AB for a memorable evening (and few additions to this report!)

Many (like here) are of the opinion that she might be good at only item songs. My opinion will be biased Anyways below is the song which is little musical. Also don’t forget she has done a Bhajan album too.

Mauli, with her brother Omkar had her first Bhajan album (CD) titled “Prabhu Tare Pagathiye” released in September 2006.

Yand here is “Lag ja gale” by Mauli Dave.

So what do you think ?

Asha too felt Mouli could sing some other kind of song to exploit her talent completely, other songs like romantic or sad. I am not convinced about romantic songs but sad songs, yes. (romantic-sad songs, double yes!).

Here is Bahon Main Chale Aaon:

For more songs like Kaisi Paheli, Deeda de check out here

If BappiDa you are reading this blog, I want you to suggest her sing “aap ki nazaron ne samja”, “baharon phool barsao”, “choti si asha”, “barso re”. Or even “tere bin” of Atif

Just wondering why she did not take part in American Idol. If Malakar
could produce so much of noise, this girl surely could have done better ?!

Today I met an interesting person. He smiled to me as if we have known for years and talked to me quite nicely. I was asked my background details - to an extent about what my mother does, whether the house is rented or owned - the kind of details people normally don’t ask on the first or second meeting. A very friendly person, I thought.

We bumped into each other quite a few times in the day. I was asked about my interests and my career goal. As he had seen me reading Kalam’s book in the morning and due to the further talks regarding how India should do progress etc , the natural progress of the talk made me say I would be doing something different than coding. When asked when would I start on own, I was cautious - because once earlier I had told someone else - like in 5 yrs - which is already over for a matter of fact - and he had asked me various questions about my plan, ideas, strategies, path etc to none of which I had any clear answer to give. Also he showed me the reasons why I can’t achieve whatever I wanted. He was true, he was practical. So this time, I said may be 15 years later - and this again worked negative. This person said why so late , motivated people dont wait for things to happen and other such things. He also gave examples of Suresh Kamath starting with Rs200 (incidentally he worked there earlier) or that of Narayana Murthy. Lot of talk happened regarding the evils of working and that we should become self-sufficient and blah blah.

Later again in the evening we met again. He now enquired what I would be doing at home. I was very pumped up with Ubuntu installation and tweaks and I told about it enthusiastically. This was met with cold reaction. Computer here in office, computer at home, he sighed. How many years technical work, he asked. I was suddenly feeling inferior and my enthusiastic bubble had burst.¹. I said I don’t watch TV and I should do something to pass my time. He said “Time _pass_ ?! Don’t tell like that. I don’t have free time.”. I felt that he is asking me to ask him what does he do. I asked, though something inside me told me not to.

He said “I run a business”. I got very curious and asked him what business. He said “he would tell me some other time in detail.” I felt uncomfortable but did not show that. We left in bus and I did not want to ask anything further.

I thought about lot of things. How people have different priorities. How few people succeed and how others fail. How some people strive to get somewhere but some people just get lucky to be dashed by opportunities. Also about failures on the same line. Don’t know when I fell asleep.

When I woke up, I just looked back at everything. Suddenly, I have a strong suspicion about his business. It would be “viral marketing” Amway. Everything fits. Including the hesitation to talk about it.

Will update this post later.

1. No this does not affect me in long term but I keep meeting people who have totally opposite views and what bothers me is that they look down upon other activities..what puts me off is incoherent trivialisation - like when I said I would like to buy an iPhone a moron said “Why iphone, instead go trekking like me”. You don’t believe me, do you. I’ve met such characters. Even after days later, I will be dumbfounded at their nitwittism [back]

This girl totally rocks. Her voice, body-language, variation of voice, selection of songs. Sure finalist and may be a winner too.

More info was found here.

* She was finalist in ‘Boogie Woogie, Chalo America’. dance competition organized by Sony TV in the year 2003.

* In August, 2006, during participation in NRI Antakshari organized by Annu Kapoor, Mauli’s singing talent was much appreciated by all the visiting members from Mumbai. Annu Kapoor expressed that she has lots of potential and deserves better platform.

Mayya mayya:

Rasiya :

Using quotes for any occassion has become my favorite activity. So I wrote this for my last mail!

Hi,
Was wondering “Where is the good in goodbye? (Meredith Willson)” but found solace in the thought “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard. (Carol Sobieski)” and looking forward to meet you again because “We only part to meet again. (John Gay)” .

As you know, today is my last day at office. It was wonderful working here and and more importantly knowing you all. Thank you for all the guidance and support. Would take away lot of lessons and happy memories. Wishing you all health, happiness, wealth and success in your life and career.

Would love to stay in touch.
My address:
Ph:

My send off coincided with the birthday party and we cut cake. Usually birthday parties have this ragging session, but in my case I duly accepted to sing a song! So the torture it was to them, not me I had gone prepared to sing “Tere bina zindagi se koi”
I had also thought of few points I wanted to say in my parting speech but suddenly I either turned emotional or got stage-fear and said something else. Some colleagues spoke about me - one observed I can become good manager rather than growing in technical lead. Though he meant it as a compliment, it was against what I had projected to become! Another said that I keep my calm under all circumstances and I am cool and my motto is to enjoy life. Felt good. My supervisor told I have determination and I have patience to allow others to complete their talk. Good listening power. There were few fellas who had worked very close with me, who were not present on occasion, that saved embarrassment for me

Talking about office, I have left my mark - in the form of analog clock on the desktop I was very impressed with the clock that was just introduced with google desktop and since the whole app just for the clock was not too much, I downloaded Alwact clock (freeware) along with the skins. I spread it to few people and over the time it just got spread to each and every system in the office. I was about to become the similar reason for yet another app - OutlookOnDesktop. Also I pioneered the MondayMorningLalbaugh practice - I went to office afternoon on Mondays if I had come to Blore. This was soon followed by other Bloreans and they even went a step ahead - they went to Lalbagh on Fridays (leaving the office around noon) and returned in Monday lalbagh !!

Enjoyed those outings and eat-outs. And as usual at every place I have gone, I have met interesting people whom I am going to surely miss.

Life is like Sea. As vast as you can imagine; As deep as you can think. Don’t waste time measuring your life. You won’t succeed.
Instead, explore life. Reach for new harbours as you pass through different phases of life. Make friends on each destination. Enjoy your journey.

Managing the task between reading blogs and writing a post has become an impossible task for me. I tend to use up all the time reading one instead of writing anything. Is that laziness ?

Anyways, for not posting last few months, as if anyone is bothered to know, but anyways, is not because I did not have time. In fact I had loads of it. It was simply because I had an easy reason for myself - tension and indecision about work etc. Uff what and all has happened in last few weeks. Such surprises and shocks, the one moment it was gone and next moment something else came up and next minute that was gone too. I almost became as much convinced as Annu Kapoor was about the existence of Mr India, before Mr.India actually visits him that is¹ I stopped believing anything that was happening around me or to me. It seemed so meaningless even to plan for an hour ahead as only FSM knew what would happen next. The confusion, indecision, tension all became blurred and the emotions got converged to plain boredom. It almost looked like frustration to others but I knew I wasn’t frustrated but plain disappointed and bored. Plain bored, if you did not get it, you must experience it one day and I wish you should not.

And then the introspection, though unwarranted but was unavoidable, furthered a feeling which almost made me think of myself seriously. Any further I continue with the rant would leave a bad taste on this blog which is otherwise testimony to happy things.

Let me just say, it was a bad time. Last few months. Things continued to fail. My ego got hurt. (Actually its not ego, it was stupendous self-confidence, anyways since its hurt we can name it anything). My optimism got hit. I turned extreme skeptic, unsure of myself. You know something is wrong when you dislike your shadow (due to the past), worst is when it is compounded by failed belief system which will make you fear the future too. And somewhere I changed or my attitude has changed. (So much so that it was visible in few sentences in chat that few of my friends and family took note of. I am surprised that I was observed so easily!)

Anyways, don’t be surprised if such rants like the above become quite frequent here.

For the sake of update, I have quit Chennai and have found a job here in Bengalooru. So now back to home should enable me to spend more time on my blog.

1. and this strange habit of recalling and drawing an analogy to movies is a habit I want to develop and this has rubbed off on me from some blog [back]

An old farmer and a young farmer are standing at the fence talking about farm-lore, and the old farmer’s phone starts to ring. The old farmer just keep talking about herbicides and hybrids, until the young farmer interrupts “Aren’t you going to answer that?”

“What for?” Says the old farmer.

“Why, ’cause it’s ringing. Aren’t you going to get it?” says the younger.

The older farmer sighs and knowingly shakes his head. “Nope”. he says. Then he looks the younger in the eye to make sure he understands, “Ya see, I bought that phone for MY convenience”.

Most of us regard the ringing phone as an emergency. Drop whatever you’re doing and grab it! Stop all conversation, abandon the meeting, and respond to what is all too often some salesman pushing cheap phone services.

We know better than that. Interruptions are one of the most effective productivity killers around.

For my money the most important work on software productivity in the last 20 years is DeMarco and Lister’s Peopleware (1987 Dorset House Publishing, NY NY). For a decade the authors conducted coding wars at a number of different companies, pitting teams against each other on
a standard set of software problems. The results showed that, using any measure of performance (speed, defects, etc.) the average of those in the 1st quartile outperformed the average in the 4th quartile by nearly a factor of 3.

Surprisingly, none of the factors you’d expect to matter correlated to the best and worst performers. Even experience mattered little, as long as the programmers had been working for at least 6 months.

They did find a very strong correlation between the office environment and team performance. Needless interruptions yielded poor performance. The best teams had private (read “quiet”) offices and phones with “off” switches. Their study suggests that quiet time saves vast amounts of money.

Think about this. The almost minor tweak of getting some quiet time can, according to their data, multiply your productivity by 3x! That’s an astonishing result. For the same salary your boss pays you now, he’d get essentially 3 of you.
The winners - those performing almost 3 times as well as the losers - had the following environmental factors:

1st Quartile 4th Quartile
Dedicated workspace 78 sq ft 46 sq ft
Is it quiet? 57% yes 29% yes
Is it private? 62% yes 19% yes
Can you turn off phone? 52% yes 10% yes
Can you divert your calls? 76% yes 19% yes
Frequent interruptions? 38% yes 76% yes

Too many of us work in a sea of cubicles, despite the clear showing how ineffective they are. It’s bad enough that there’s no door and no privacy. Worse is when we’re subjected to the phone calls of all of our neighbors. We hear the whispered agony as the poor sod in the cube next door tries to work it out with his spouse. We try to focus on our work… but being human the pathos of the drama grabs our attention till we’re straining to hear the latest development.

Is this an efficient use of an expensive person’s time?

Later studies by other researchers found that after an interruption it takes 15 minutes to get into a state of “flow,” that Spock-like trance where you’re one with the computer. Yet the average developer gets interrupted every 11 minutes.

Dilbert rightly calls cubes “anti-productivity pods.”

Yet the cube police will rarely listen to data and reason. They’ve invested in the cubes, and they’ve made a decision, By God! The cubicles are here to stay!

This is a case where we can only wage a defensive action. Educate your boss but resign yourself to failure. In the meantime, take some action to minimize the downside of the environment. Here are a few ideas:

* Wear headphones and listen to music to drown out the divorce saga next door.

* Turn the phone off! If it has no “off” switch, unplug the damn thing. In desperate situations attack the wire with a pair of wire cutters. Remember that a phone is a bell that anyone in the world can ring to bring you running. Conquer this madness for your most productive hours.

* Know your most productive hours. I work best before lunch; that’s when I schedule all of my creative work, all of the hard stuff. I leave the afternoons free for low-IQ activities like meetings, phone calls, and paperwork.

* Disable the email. It’s worse than the phone. Your two hundred closest friends who send the joke of the day are surely a delight, but if you respond to the email reader’s “bing” you’re little more than one of NASA’s monkeys pressing a button to get a banana.

* Put a curtain across the opening to simulate a poor man’s door. Since the height of the cube rather low, use a Velcro fastener or a clip to secure the curtain across the opening. Be sure others understand that when it’s closed you are not willing to hear from anyone unless it’s an emergency.

The ultimate irony of cubicles is that shortly before he died in 2000, Robert Propst railed against cubes, calling them “monolithic insanity.”

Robert Propst invented the cubicle.

Source : Embedded Newsletter from jack @ ganssle.com

Also , an old email joke. Meaning of cubicle = a sleeping compartment partitioned off from a large room.