Tales of Old and New Madras - S. Muthiah - Book Review

Tales of Old and New Madras by S. Muthiah

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Landing upon this book was a pure chance. I was randomly browsing through the Amazon's monthly kindle deals and ended up purchasing this gem for a cheap price. The book is authored by S. Muthiah the famous Madras writer and the man behind the organization of Madras Day celebrations in the recent years. This is not a book written in a single flow, but is a collection of 38 articles written by the author in various instance at various lengths. Strewn together, the book brings the stories of Madras from its founding days to the recent fiasco of the new Assembly building.

The first chapter starts with how Francis day got the land for Fort St. George by combining two villages back in 1639. To placate the Village headman Madarasen and the ruler Chennapa Nayak, he decided to name the fort as Madarasapatnam and the surrounding colony as Chennapatnam - the names of which has created controversies in the later years. After this interesting chapter, the book enters into a few articles on how rules were established in the settlement based on first reported Murder, a Rape Accusation and how Sheriffs were setup in the settlement. These chapters appear extended and creates a lull in the book, given the disconnect with the modern day.

After this comes the articles of late 18th and early 19th centuries, which are interesting. They cover pieces of famine relief (Cyclical rains seems to have been a eternal worry for the state), a few historical buildings, the Club House and the beginning of Engineering institute in the city. The author seems to have a critical remark of how the College of Engineering, Guindy has been let down off late, given how great it was an institute in the early days.

Then comes the tales of late 19th century which is the most interesting part of the book given that the city has attained a remarkable shape in this part and most of them remain intact today. These parts covers the tales of the Indo Sarcenic architecture of the old buildings, the formation of the Marina Promenade, construction of the Madras Harbor, the formation of Theosophical society and my most favorite part of the book - the Chepauk Cricket Stadium. It is indeed sad that the local cricket administrators have ignored the history of the ground completely in the name of modernization. How great it would have been to have an antique cricket museum or hall in the ground reflecting the long tenure of cricket here.

The book deals with various firsts in the city - Telephone Exchange, Bank, Movie Theaters, Studios, Newspaper, Magazine and looks into the history of how a few failed, while a few went on to become household names like Ananda Vikatan or The Hindu. The book then looks into the life of few famous personalities to have come from the city - the math genius Ramanujam and how prodiogious and unfortunate he was (he died when he was just 33), Kalakshethra founder Rukmani and how she found discovered and made Bharata Natyam popular, the Woodlands hotel founder K. Krishna Rao and how he setup the entire business, Thiru. Vi. Kalyanasundaram and his tryst with Labour Unions.

In the final part, the author briefly touches upon the major political events of the recent times - the death of CM Annadurai and MGR - their rise to power and in the process he covers the history of Justice Party, Dravida Kazhagam, DMK and ADMK. It is certainly indulging to read about the party in 1940s and 1950s and how they came to the current state.

The flipside of the book is that the author has just compiled the articles he has written at various points of time. This drives the lack of continuation at certain points of time and also lack of depth in some articles. The other effect is that certain portions keep getting repeated like there are lot of instances where the establishment of Justice party is meted out.

The book gives lots of interesting anecdotes all along. An entire chapter is dedicated to the rise of Indian English and how even the the Britishers had established a dictionary for that. The author keeps lamenting the fact that we have forgotten the Englishmen who established various institutions and facilities in the city. He is also critical of the modern day governments for not preserving the history. The author also brings the fact a lot of rules that forms the core of our country were actually established in this city in the founding days.

There is so much of history in Chennai, but so little a current generation Chennaite would know. This is a must read book for any History buff from this part of the country.

View all my reviews

Visiting the iconic MCG!

Hi Guys,

On a day when Dhoni’s six sealed the World Cup for India six years before, I’m back here writing a blog post on a cricket ground. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that the first cricket ground I would walk in my life would be the Melbourne Cricket Ground or ‘The G’ as it is called simply. Despite being so close to the iconic Chepauk Stadium in Chennai, I have never been inside.

Being in Melbourne on a short official trip, we were so close yet so far from the ground on the first four days when we had to put up with the hectic office hours and meeting preparations. On the final day, we had our return flight in the afternoon. But, I and my colleague were determined to not miss the opportunity to see the historical ground.

The G - from Outside

The G was two kilometres from the city centre we stayed and we decided to walk the distance bracing the chilly morning weather. After a serene walk along the Yarra River and a beautiful bridge, we were at the stadium by 9.50 am, 10 minutes before the first official tour kicks off. The 75 minute tour costs AUD 23. For AUD 31.50, you get in a combined pass for MCG and the National Sports Museum which is also in the same complex. As we were chasing time, we opted only for the ground tour. At 10, we were introduced to our tour guide, an elderly lady from the Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC). She was somewhere in her 70s or 80s, but she was the most energetic amongst the touring group and we had a tough time matching her pace (It’s a pity that I forgot her name). Along with the two of us, there were five others – two from England and three from Australia, meaning it was a group passionate on Cricket.

From the turf!

The tour started with us being let into the grass turf, where our guide explained the history of the ground and stands. The ground was established in 1853, when the settlement was just pouring in. The ground hosted the first ever test match in 1877 when 30,000 people attended the spectacle (it was a significant population of Melbourne back then). The ground has four stands – the great Southern Stand which makes a semi-circle and then Ponsford Stand, Members Pavilion and Olympic Stand which together make another semi-circle. With a seating capacity of 100,024, MCG is largest cricket ground by capacity. I have always been awestruck by the four layered seating arrangement of the MCG and that is what makes the stadium so special to me.

The Great Southern Stand - and the four layered seats!

We were slightly disappointed that the turf was being converted into an Australian Rules football turf for the AFL season that kicked off just the previous day. It would have been greater to see the ground with the cricket pitch, but still it was magnificent. After a couple of photographs for later memory, we were taken across multiple facilities across the four levels. Since, I will run into multiple pages if I describe about all of them, I am writing some of the significant ones.

While this is the home ground of the legendary Sir Donald Bradman, the MCC has made lot of credits to WH Ponsford who was overshadowed by Bradman during his hey days. This includes the stand named after him. There was names of all the players who has played for Victorian state (the state were Melbourne is located). The Home and Visitor change rooms has names of all players who has scored centuries or taken a fifer here. Bradman has scored 9 centuries here and our guide being a big fan of Bradman was going mad about it. They had pictures/photos of all the Australian teams that had travelled to England starting from the 19^th century. All the statistics, pictures, photographs, artworks had to do with Test Cricket. I guess MCC recognizes only that as pure cricket.

A plaque in memory of WH Ponsford

There were lot of special amenities for the MCC members including a fine dine restaurant and a great view of the ground from the Long Hall (made in similar lines with the Lords, except that batsmen don’t walk through this one). Another special feature about the ground was the library, which our guide told is one of the best sports libraries you would come across. Anyone is free to walk in here on Weekdays and refer to the books. They have a copy of Wisden from 1916 (due to World War only one of them was published and is worth millions in value in today) and the first dictionary that had reference to cricket back in the 1600s. Of course, these are locked and are there only for display.

The Long Hall!

It was interesting to see the olden day steel benches on display and our guide was saying that with cushioned seats the facilities for spectators has very much improved. A century back, spectators were supposed to stand and watch the match in the searing heat. The ground had hosted both 1956 Olympics and 2006 Commonwealth games. There were multiple plaques and arts in memories of those events. There were lot of artworks made specifically for the 150^th year of the ground.

Those ancient Steel benches!

Three stand out features to me – the ground was very accessible from the city – there was a train and tram station just outside. From city center, we were able to walk without any traffic interference. And the second one was that the entire stadium was friendly to physically challenged people including special seats for them across the stands. The final one is that they have captured and displayed the entire history of cricket in the ground and evoke strong memories out of it!

A view from the one of the ground's balconies - From Left( Practice Tennis Court, Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne Skyline including Eureka Skydeck, St Paul's Cathedral) and Train/Tram tracks just beside the stadium

Soaked in the history for the entire duration, it was time for us to come back to real world and rush to catch our flights back home… The G will always have a special place in my heart!

Happy Reading!!!

Redefining Cricket Telecast using Analytics!

Hi Guys,

It has been a long time since my last post.  This time writing it from the comfort of my home and typing in a traditional Desktop Key Board after a long time.

If you have been following World Cup T20 in Star Sports, you would have noted that Star Sports is providing viewers with lot more details than usual. You get a huge analysis of data about the pattern of a batsman’s scoring rate in particular overs and against a particular bowler of a category of bowlers. You get the same type of details for a bowler and also for a team. You are also provided with the line and length at which a batsmen hits or bowlers takes wickets.

This is completely an innovative move on the side of Star Sports to provide viewers with the analytics that only teams had. Another important thing out of the whole analysis is that Star Sports is providing meaningful pattern out of the data available.

In today’s world, you have a whole bunch of data. More often than not, analysts tend to slice and dice the data without finding any proper meaning in the data. As long as you do not get meaningful patterns out of the data, there is no use of Analytics.

From what Star Sports has done, you get meaningful pattern out of the existing data. You tend to know how good a batsman is in the initial 10 deliveries, how effective he is against seamers, which is his favorite area. So far, a few teams might have analyzed to this extent. But, now this opens the door for everyone and strategies can be easily designed based on the analysis. This removes decision making based on gut feelings.

The disadvantage though is that the analysis is based on matches played after either 2010 or 2012 which means the sample size (or population) is too low and you cannot come to a conclusion based on this data. There are many other factors like the pitches played in, the quality of bowlers or batsmen and external conditions.

Despite the disadvantages, this is a great move from Star Sports to provide a far more reliable prediction than the earlier versions of plain analyses.

Happy Reading!

Strategies in IPL Auctions!

Hi Guys,

It has been a long time since I started writing. The fact that this is my 200^th post is quite amazing. As the days have went by, the number of posts has decreased proportionately. There are two reasons behind this. One is that I have got busy in life and second one is I think quite seriously before writing each post. For the past few days I have been of the idea of writing an E-book. I have been doing some research on publishing e-book. Anyway, I am not a person who can write long. So, I am still in confused thoughts. Let’s see, how things go.

In this post, I’m going to write about the IPL auction that took place yesterday. Like the previous versions of IPL auctions, this edition too had many surprises. Each team followed a different strategy. Some players who are very young and unknown became very rich by the end of the day.

Thinking a little on why some teams just keep rising the bids, two things come into my mind. One maybe the Ego factor, where two rival teams fight for a single player. In that case, the past performance or talent of a player doesn’t come into play and the teams enter into Irrational Bidding. The other factor might be a trap. If one team is so desperate on getting a player and other teams come to know of it, they might keep increasing the stakes of the player and make the other team pay high for him. This way the spending capacity of the team goes down and the other teams can concentrate on their wish list.

Some teams have got too many big names in their squad. From the past records, the teams that is strong on paper struggles at the end. The main reason is that at the end of the day, the teams (or Captains) don’t know who to pick and who to leave. The second is the team spirit gets decreased and individual talents come into play. Some teams like Rajasthan Royals have stuck to a 21 member squad instead of acquiring more players and creating problem.

The latest auctions were better compared to the previous versions where only the names of the players went into consideration. This time, the teams have considered the availability of the players, their recent performance and also their past performance in IPL.

Yet another strategy adapted by many teams is that of getting ‘Mystery Players’. A player who has played fewer matches is under exposed and the other teams find it difficult to handle the player. It has been the case in the past too. A new batsman or a bowler comes in and the opposition doesn’t know about the player’s particular style. Once the mystery players’ styles are exposed, their value goes down. The traditional proverb ‘Make hay while the sun shines’ goes well with these players.

A few well deserved players have missed out the chance. It is always a Zero Sum game with the franchises having a fixed wallet. At the end of the day, it boils down to the players’ form during the IPL, the team spirit and attitude and the Captain’s cleverness.

The players’ performances have never been proportional to the money they get. It has always been the case and I believe that it will be the case this season too. So the bottom line is that a better method has to be generated in which a player’s performance is linked with his performance.

Happy Reading!!!

The Cricketer who is perfect, yet again!

Hi Guys,

I’m back in my comfort zone again. A post about Cricket. A cricketer who has been amazing in the recent days. But it’s not with his Cricketing skills, but his orating and writing skills. If you have been following Cricket recently, it is an easy guess. It is Rahul Dravid.

I haven’t seen live telecast of Cricket for many days (as I never got any chance). I heard from many of my friends that Rahul Dravid was doing a brilliant job in Commentary Box. He is so much into Cricket and he has the amazing ability of analyzing things and interpreting them beautifully.

The first time I knew Dravid was such a good Orator was in December 2011. Indian team was touring Australia and of course, no one knew it would be his last test series. Rahul Dravid was invited to deliver the Bradman Oration and he gave a spectacular speech covering all aspects of the game.

The way he had described things, the way he had researched things that happened in the past and how it impacted the game. He strongly said that Indian Cricket is not just power and money. It has much more than that. He went on to say how many cricketers have come from small towns and how they fought against the odds to become successful.

After setting up the base, he moved into the topic of what is troubling cricket these days. He spoke about the sparse crowds for many matches in India. He went on to say how poor audience would affect the big picture. He said, ‘We are performers and entertainers. We love the audience’ He said a wonderful point that Disrespecting the fans is nothing but disrespecting the game. He went on to speak about the three formats of the game. In short, it is the best Oration on Cricket I have ever heard.

After he finished his Cricketing career (quite abruptly), ESPN realized the potential and grabbed him. He has been doing wonderful things. He has created a completely new dimension.

The article he has written today about MS Dhoni is a spectacular piece of article. He has done a wonderful analysis and has concluded that India can’t find a better captain than MS Dhoni (in the current situation). He has said Dhoni needs to understand the team better and he has wonderfully compiled what has been actually happening. He has made it very clear that no one is in good form and if you do not want Dhoni as the captain, who else can be? Is there anyone eligible to fill the position? His arguments make absolute sense.

Indian fans are very sensitive. A win can take the Cricketers to height of pride and a loss can pull them to the range of Villians. It is high time we understand that our team is in a transition phase and you can’t do wonders in a single day. Of course, there are some problems. But we need to focus on the problems rather than creating new problems.

Coming back to Rahul Dravid, he has been doing a wonderful job. The Cricketing World needs people like him. The audience love it and of course, I am one among the audience. Looking much more from Rahul Dravid V2.0.

Happy Reading!!!

Is it right to demand for Spinning Pitches?

Hi Guys,

Back to Cricket after a long time. This time I am planning to write about the wayward demand made by MS Dhoni.

Dhoni wants the pitches to turn right from Day 1 and this has created a huge controversy. The logic made by Dhoni is that Home Conditions need to favor the home team. Also in Australia and England pitches seam right from the first ball. Before agreeing or disagreeing to Dhoni’s comments, we need to look into the logic.

Leaving apart the nature of the pitch, we know that a new Ball seams or swings and as the ball starts to wear it starts to Spin. It is true in most of the cases, except that the amount of seam and spin depends on the pitch. Dhoni’s comments is nearly something like Alaistar Cook saying that England pitches should support seam and bounce the same way irrespective of whether its first over or 80th over.

Also in Test matches are not touched until the end of fifth day and the pitch withers according to the nature’s wishes. So, as time goes on the pitch starts to spin more or seam more. This is one of the main reasons why chasing a score above 250 in fourth innings is tough. Asking for a turning pitch right on the first day will make things worse as the match goes on and the match gets over in three days. Dhoni’s logic of saying that there is no fun playing for five days goes against the history of 5 day matches.

Dhoni says that each country has its own Home Advantage and India doesn’t. Indians have always had their home advantage. The blazing sun along with batting and spinning pitches has made the opposition tired. Other teams have found it hard to win in India. Steve Waugh’s dream was to win a test series in India and it never happened. And home advantage does not belong to pitches only. It lies with the environment, surroundings, fans, etc.

In Australia or England all the pitches don’t behave the same way. Perth is a heaven for Pace Bowlers. Sydney always supports Spinners to some extent. Melbourne and Adelaide are completely different. The same goes with other pitches too. Clarke doesn’t say that all pitches should behave like Perth or something like sort of that. Asking for similar conditions in all pitches of India is not a right sign.

With problems aplenty in the team, asking for supportive pitches (even after which we lost) won’t help. Grooming youngsters towards Test Cricket is the right sign. We always find someone to blame with. Similarly two good matches can take a player to extreme highs. A long term solution is more important than a short term one.

Hope to see Indian team performing well.

Happy Reading!!!

Tough times for Indian Cricket Fans!

Hi Guys,

It has been a hard time for ardent fans of Indian Cricket Team. If loss is paining, then the way the cricketing fraternity reacts to it is excruciating.

MS Dhoni has been the most celebrated captain of Indian Cricket team. He won us the T20 World Cup, ODI world cup and he took the team to new heights. But, now suddenly he is on a low and no one knows why. His attitude is low and strategies puzzling. He has always been a man of puzzling strategies, but they worked earlier and now they are backfiring. No one knows why he went on setting defensive field. He stills says that his bowlers bowled well and they didn’t have the cushion of big runs. By any means 4 wickets for 650 odd runs is not good bowling.

More awful, after the West Indies series Mr. Cool said that he wanted pitches that spin right from the first day, because spin is our biggest strength. Is he making a plan for India to lose all the overseas series ahead? What is more puzzling is that Ashwin took 22 wickets and Ojha took 21 wickets in that series (43 wickets in 3 matches). Does Dhoni want them to take all possible wickets?

Our selectors and cricket board are another set of crazy people. India lost the Sydney test match and two hours later, the schedule for next IPL was ready. Is money the only thing they think about? A few days ago, Yahoo Cricket published an article on who will be the replacements for the famed Indian batsmen. They came out with some names and in the end concluded ‘Though these batsmen have piled up runs in the Ranji Seasons, we can say nothing about their talent again seam bowling as they play on flat dead pitches’

By this time, some of the former players have made suggestions that the senior players should retire and fresh blood should be induced. Sachin has been the best batsman in this series so far. Dravid had a fantastic year just now. Former players have said that Laxman should be axed and Kohli should be given another chance. They have said that giving chance for just two matches is not good. They should remember that it is a 4 match series and not a 40 match series. He has hit just 43 runs and also misbehaved in the field (whatever the reason maybe it was irresponsible behavior). He has also wasted chances in West Series. Laxman played well in last innings and maybe it is too early to discard him (considering the fact that Aussies are the opponents and Ponting proved himself after 34 innings!)

Aussies were blasted one month ago. It was said that their bowling was the weakest. Ponting, Hussey, Clarke, Haddin – everyone were criticized. But they bounced back and now they are being celebrated across the country.

Being a fanatic of Indian cricket team, I believe that something like that will happen. Last time Indians won at perth. Hopes are low now, but still anything can happen. The fourth innings at SCG was good. Hope the show continues.

Winning a match from now on will be superb. If it happens, lets see how these intelligent guys react.

Happy Reading!!!

2011 in my view!

Hi Guys,

I was thinking of writing a post about New Year celebrations for the past one week. Just then, I visited the archives of my blog to see what I have written during the past two years. During 2009, I had been writing a series on Holiday Activities and I wished my readers at the end of a series. Last year, I was in Chennai and I was busy as I underwent In-plant training and so I didn’t write any post for nearly 20 days.

So, what comes into my mind as I think of 2011?

Personal Life

First thing is my carrier. All these times, I had never felt myself as a matured guy and I had a sort of childish attitude (which I enjoyed very much). The final year of my Engineering began and all of a sudden I felt some pressure. I had responsibilities and I had to work for it (the same was the case for most of my classmates). July and August went past very quick and we worked the way we had never worked before. For some the next few months were sweeter and for most it was bitter. (read my interview experience here). Hope, they will get better opportunities for the wait. Personally, I am expecting 2012 to bring in more good news.

Blogging Life

As far as my blog is concerned, I have written 79 posts (including this one) this year. It is 20 more than last year (last year it was 59). Sometime in the middle of the year, I changed the URL of the blog and it lead to little confusion for some time. Towards the end of the year, I rebuilt my photo blog and introduced it again. It has received a very warm response and I am very happy about it. After a long time, I have added 14 photos this year and I am planning to do more with the photo blog. But, I was not able to expand the number of blogs I read drastically, though I read a few more blogs now. I am thinking of expanding my subscriptions this year. Many of my friends started to blog, but none were successful in continuing. Everyone stopped after writing one or two posts. Blogging requires passion.

Cricketing World

The next thing that comes into my mind is Cricket. It could be divided into four phases. In the first phase, Indians were facing huge expectations. Everyone wanted India to win World cup in front of the home crowd and the players exhibited brilliant team work and the dream became true. The second phase was the dullest IPL ever. Players didn’t have time to rejoice and they came back for IPL. People were exhausted and not many cared about it. The third phase was a very bad period for India. They went to England and came back without a single win. Probably India’s poorest performance in the recent times. The fourth phase was West Indies touring India and this series created waves just because of expectations on Sachin’s hundredth ton and it never happened. Now Indians have already lost the first match against Australia. Let’s see how Indians play in 2012.

Indian Politics

This year state elections were held for 5 states and there was of change of power in many states. In particular, in west Bengal a three decade rule came to an end and in Tamil Nadu, people closed the doors for a very corruptive government. Later, Anna Hazare stormed Delhi with his fast and pressured the government to introduce Lokpal (read my post on Support Anna Hazare here). The most important thing was that youngsters were very eager to participate in this movement. Now, there are lot of confusions and controversies over this movement and government’s attitude. Let’s hope 2012 will bring in solutions. There were lot of people’s movements and politicians creating controversies for their benefits.

That’s what I remember right now.

Wishing my readers a very Happy and prosperous New Year, I sign off this year’s blogging activities.

Happy New Year 2012!!!

Karthi

Revival of Cricket's Craze!

Hi Guys,

I was quite busy for the past few days and it has been really difficult to think about a topic to write and I was also not able to read my follower’s blogs. It feels so good to be writing something again. Also, I am going to write about Cricket after a long time.

Last time, I cherished watching the match was the 2011 World Cup Final, when Dhoni sealed the Cup with a six. There was no time for celebration and within a week, the players were in IPL. It turned out to be very boring and people hated to see players in different teams. Gayle’s blitzkriegs lighted the tournament towards the end and the last few days were much better than the first few.

Then India went to West Indies and… Well, what happened there? I don’t remember exactly. Many of the key players were down with injuries and some were given rest and young Indian team managed to win the ODi series and test series.

Then came India’s worst ever performance in the last 10 years. A team, that was performing well in overseas failed miserably and didn’t even come close to the performance of the English. Except Rahul Dravid (and occasionally Sachin Tendulkar) no one else seemed comfortable. Contrastingly English Players were so comfortable against our bowling. Even their tail Enders batted well and Indians came back without winning a match.

Then England came back here for an ODI series. I think Champions League was conducted in between. I was expecting some tough competition, but English surrendered without fight. It was tough to believe that the same team thrashed India two months back. So, the hunter became the hunted.

So, slowly my cricketing interests were diminishing and then came the India vs West Indies series. I had no interest in the series. I thought India would be comfortable. But, life is full of surprises.

Indians were trailing by 95 runs in the first innings. I thought, it was tough and Indians may lose. But, then our spinners bundled out the West Indies batsmen and after a long time our top order clicked. Everyone contributed and India won.

Then, it was day before yesterday. I was seeing some video in Facebook, when my friend pinged, ‘Karthi, watching SA vs Aus match?’ I replied no and thought something interesting was going. I just then checked the score and OMG! Aussies were 21-7. I started to type a message to send to my friends and now they were 21-8. I started sending and now they were 21-9.

I had checked the scores in the starting of the day and Clarke was batting brilliantly. So, I was confused how Aussies were playing their second innings. Then, I came to know SA was all out for 96. 17 continuous batsmen (SA’s last 9 and Aussies first 8) were having single digit. It was heaven for bowlers and hell for batsmen (or, was it?)

I thought in the conditions, it was difficult for SA and Aussies had an upper hand. But, then I didn’t know Smith was always brilliant in fourth innings. He hit his fourth consecutive century in fourth innings and increased his fourth innings average to 85. The match was over by the third day. What a match!

Both the matches have some similarities. The team that batted first had a huge lead and then collapsed in the second innings (though the magnitude was different). Both team’s batsmen failed miserably in first innings and came back strong in the second innings. Two debutant bowlers (Aswin and Philander) collapsed the opposition batsmen in the second innings and both of them got Man of the Match awards (only third player in their respective countries to do so).

So, Cricket has again become an interesting game to watch!

Happy Reading!!!

Past is no Good!

Hi Guys,

It is so interesting to note that how people forget the past so easily. This is the worst series India has played in the last 10 years. There are numerous reasons behind that. One main reason people say is that Dhoni failed as captain. A few months back, when India won the world cup people were saying, 'Dhoni is the best ever captain India has got'.

Over the past 4 years he has developed our team to a very good extent and all his good work is now forgotten. Maybe if India wins the ODI series people may say Dhoni never gives in.

Winning continuously is impossible. Even when England won the Ashes in 2005 and boasted themselves, they lost pitifully 0-5 to Australia in 2007. When Australia won 15 matches continuously, they lost the series to India in 2001. When England comes to India next year, the result maybe completely opposite.

This is also an important lesson in life. No matter, how long you keep winning, you will be criticized when you fail. And when you fail, all the victories you achieved will be forgotten. We should not be frightened by the criticism.

Finally, I read these beautiful lines in Facebook today. Thanks to Vijay Dinesh who posted it.

A Person should not be too honest and straight forward.

Straight trees are cut first and straight forward people are screwed first.

- Chanakya

Happy Reading!!!

IPL Jerseys!

Hi Guys,

A few days back IPL 4 started and after a superb world cup, it is definitely hard for the IPL to make an impact. For most of the matches, the stadiums were only half filled. High ticket prices are also a reason. The jerseys are most of the teams are irritating and so I will write about the jerseys.

Delhi Dare Devils

Their earlier Black-Red was good; Dark Blue-Red was nice. This time, they have lost most of their players and with newer players, they have got new sponsors. Their jersey is shocking, with Dark Blue color and white curves all over the jersey. It is as if the jersey is covered with nets. The team sponsor has got a major portion. The jersey seems as bad as their new team.

Kochi Tuskers Kerela

This is one of the most comic jerseys of the IPL. I think Kochi’s idea might be to scare their opponents by using their jersey. Full of orange and shades of Violet. Whoever designed this jersey must have got a very creative brain. 

Sahara Pune Warriors

Not a bad jersey, but something is missing. It is more like the jersey is copied from the Kiwis. The sponsor’s logo does not suit the jersey. There are places when the logo is too bright compared to the jersey. The jersey is dull and lacks energy.

Other Teams

Their Black-Gold jersey (they wore in IPL-1) was one of the best jerseys of IPL. It is sad they changed it to Dark Blue-Gold. 

Of the other teams, RCB looks good, thought they were superb without the blue stripes.

CSK looks as usual, blazing in their yellow jersey with lion roaring.

Mumbai Indians also look as good as ever with the blue jersey. So does Rajasthan Royals and Punjab.

Deccan Chargers also haven’t changed their jersey, though they could have done something to create an energetic look.

Bleeding Blue

It is also interesting to note that, 5 teams are wearing different shades of blue. Many teams changed from black to blue. I think, sentimentally blue is considered to be a lucky color. Not only in cricket, but in most of the sports, the jerseys will be blue in color.

Popup Ads

Seeing the jerseys, there are lot of sponsor logos all over. They are like Pop up advertisements. Logos are present above thigh, over the chest, on the back, above the sidearm, in the helmet. My doubt is, how to leading brands expect people to see such a small logo.

Happy Reading!!!

Things that crossed my way!

Hi Guys,

It’s nearly 10 days since I wrote my last post. I was busy with my internal exams and also was engrossed in World cup cricket matches.

Cricket Celebrations

It was an unforgettable Saturday. A day that will be etched in all our minds. A day when the dream came true. The celebrations following the win were also memorable. There were crackers and fireworks all around. The newspapers celebrated the victory with so much of enthusiasm. It was then that all the state governments started to announce crores of prize money to the cricketers. The question that came to my mind was ‘Do the cricketers really need it?’ They are already earning crores in IPL and moreover the money they earn in ads is unbelievable. Comparing with them, the prize money is so small. But the money belongs to the people. Think, how much can be done with this money. So, what I feel the money is going to be wasted ultimately.

Elections – A week ahead

We are getting our state assembly elections in a week and I’m really delighted since it is going to be the first time, I’m going to take part in one of the country’s pride – Democracy. It is also really heartening to see that all my classmates are looking forward to cast their vote. So, people who say that young people don’t care about the elections, please change your mind.

Election Commission has been really strict in following the rules and as a result, we don’t even feel like we are nearing elections. There are no banners, no pamphlets, no flags, etc. It is really incredible.

The Shining – Stanley Kubrick (1980)

Two days ago, I watched this horrific thriller movie. Based on Stephen King’s novel named the same, this movie deals with a family who stays in a hotel at Denver during the winter season as caretaker. Everything goes fine, before Jack Nicholson turns crazy and starts to hunt his wife Shelley Duvall and little son Danny. Do they survive it?

The poster says it all

The background music is really scary and it is the biggest plus of the movie. Even you get scared for ordinary scenes. The acting of the trio is also remarkable. Particularly the little boy captures the viewer's heart. To be true, this was the first time I have been so haunted seeing a horror movie.

Manufacturing of Pencils

I came across this wonderful video in youtube. It is a video if Staedtler’s pencil manufacturing. A pencil is simple in its appearance. See this video to know the things behind the manufacturing of pencil.

That’s it for now!!!

Happy Reading!!!

Things that crossed my way!

Hi Guys,

After 4 days of pongal holidays, it was a sad feeling going back to college. But, I can’t ponder much on that and things must move on.

Incorrect Identity Proofs

I went to Passport office to apply for passport last week and I applied successfully. Some of my friends who like to apply for passports are finding it difficult as something is wrong in their identity proofs. Either their spelling is wrong or address is wrong or any other information is wrong. In most cases the information present in 2 proofs will be contradictory. The responsibility lies with our government officials. My father says that when all the details are collected manually and then typed in computer, lot of errors happen. He says that either online application (where we type our own data) or uniform ID cards (then too our details must be correct there) are the only solutions. Carelessness is the main root cause.

Movies I watched recently

It has been very long since I shared with you the movies I watched. Recently I watched the movie 500 days of summer. It was tagged as an offbeat romantic comedy. It was rather emotional at many places. Directed by Marc Webb, it deals with the 500 days of relationship between Tom and Summer. It was a good movie. I watched Se7en, a psychological thriller movie starring Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt. Directed by David Fincher, it deals with the case of a serial killer, who uses seven sins as the cause of murder. The movie occurs in seven days and the climax is more shocking.

Cricket – Is it right to call the third powerplay as the Batting Powerplay?

If you have been following cricket for the past year, you would be aware of the introduction of batting powerplay. It is the 5 overs chosen by the batting team (mostly at the end of their innings). The main objective of the powerplay is to increase the run rate and make the match fascinating. But, the powerplay rather helps the bowling team. Batsmen try to take advantage and lose their wicket. This also leads to decrease of run rate. In the 2nd ODI between India and SA, both teams lost 3 wickets in the last powerplay. It was an easy to win match for SA and they lost mainly because of wrong shot selections in the powerplay overs. Today too, they have lost many wickets in the powerplay overs. But, SA also showed how to use the batting powerplay properly in the 1st ODI. Teams need to be careful with the selection of the batting powerplay overs.

Dan Brown books – Mysteries, secrets and codes

Two weeks back, I read the book ‘The Lost Symbol’. It is the latest book of Dan Brown. I have already read his previous 4 books and am quite a fan of him. Particularly I love the way he write about secrets that truly exist, puzzles, codes and the way to break them. This book also resembles the previous stories. Robert Langdon is forced to break a historic code in order to save his friend Peter Solomon from the villain. Though the story occurs within a time period of 12 hours, it doesn’t have the pace of 24 hour long Angels and Demons. It is boring at parts and the huge epilogue makes you drowsy. It is not one of Dan Brown’s best. Though people rate The Da vinci Code as his best, I prefer Angels and Demons. The other two books (Deception point and Digital Fortress) are also good.

That’s it for now.

Happy Reading!!!

Crazy IPL Auctions!

Hi Guys,

It feels good to sit and write a new post after a long time. I have lot of things in my mind and can’t decide what to write. Finally after some research, I decided to write on the crazy IPL auctions that concluded today.

The common views going around is that many players are unworthy for the huge amount they were bought. Recently as the Indian innings of India vs South Africa T20 concluded, I got a message in my phone viewing the same.

Let’s see the players who have grossed huge amounts and analyze their previous performances

Gautam Gambhir - $2.4 mn – The most bid player of the auction. A good opener, but the question is whether he is worth the money. He is a good opener, quite attacking, average fielder and captain. Also, note that Delhi was not much interested in retaining him. But seeing the next best bids, it seemed to me Gambhir deserved this.

Gambhir and Rohit striked gold in the auctions!

Yusuf Pathan - $2.1 mn – The next costliest player. He is match winner. But the problem is he strikes form only once in 10 matches. For example, last time he didn’t have a great IPL after the 37 ball 100 against Mumbai. He is a good bowler. He seems to be hyped so much. He got out for 6 of 8 balls in the T20 today.

Both these players were bought by Kolkata. Something tells me, SRK is again making a mistake.

Robin Uthappa - $2.1 mn – This was the most shocking one. Uthappa is a good T20 player. He can be a wicket keeper too. But, note that there are far too better players and it has been long since he was there in the 15 member squad of Indian team. Whatever Pune thought, Uthappa has got a jackpot.

Rohit Sharma - $2 mn - The next big one. I thought comparing with others he quiet deserves this price. He is also lucky to play for his home team along with his hero Sachin. He has a great time in the previous IPLs (quite shocking that Deccan didn’t try to retain him and Gilchrist). Rohit again proved his worth in the match today, 53 of 34 balls.

Irfan Pathan - $1.9 mn – Much like Uthappa, Irfan also lost form and it has been long since he has been considered for the Indian team. He was not a big performer in the last IPL too. The only thing that might have gone his way was his previous records and the all-rounder tag. Delhi roped him, but the comedy is what followed. Preity Zinta says he her most favorite player in the Punjab team. Then why didn’t they try and retain him?



Pathan brothers have got much more than what they deserve for their current form!



Yuvraj Singh - $1.8 mn – After seeing the prices above, I feel pity for him. He is the best T20 batsman available today, except that he is not in form at the moment. How can one forget his majestic shots, when they remember Irfan’s. One difference is that Irfan isn’t playing and Yuvraj is playing. Anyway $1.8 mn isn’t that bad and I think Pune is lucky.

Saurabh Tiwary - $1.6 mn – He was the best young achiever of IPL3. He played superbly for Mumbai. But except that one series we didn’t see him. Based on that, I think he is hyped so much. Let’s hope this money doesn’t spoil the young Jharkand captain.

The top 6 players are Indians, but the next 9 players were foreigners. To me it appeared everyone were worthy for the money they were given, except for Dale Steyn. He is a good bowler for test matches. But is he a good T20 bowler that too in Indian pitches? Has Deccan chosen wisely? Chennai must have retained Muralidaran, he wished to be in Chennai and they should have preferred him for Vijay. It’s too late and Kochi has grabbed him for $1.1 mn.

The other shocks were Sreesanth - $0.9 mn, Piyush Chawla - $0.9 mn (Is he better than Ojha and Aswin), Abhishek Nayar - $0.8 mn, Umesh Yadav - $0.75 mn (I don’t even know who he is), Ashish Nehra - $0.85 mn.

Sangakara was given only $0.7 mn by Deccan. OMG! He is one of the best T20 players and a good wicket keeper. Is Dinesh Karthik ($0.9 mn) better than him? Deccan has hit a jackpot. Daniel Vettori went for only $0.55 mn. Again he is one of the best spinners on earth. More than that, he is very economical. He deserved better. Ojha, who got the purple cap last time, goes only for $0.5 mn. What does this mean? Deccan Chargers again lucky. It seems Deccan have got all good players at a very low price. Seems, this is the reason why they saved more than $2 mn at the end.

Deccan Chargers got Juan Theron for only $85000. How did Punjab forget his bowling? One of the best T20 bowlers ever. Again Deccan strikes gold.

As far as CSK are concerned, they made good choice retaining Dhoni, Raina and Morkel. But was Vijay the right bet? I think they should have gone for Murali or Aswin. Losing Murali to Kochi seems to be a big loss. But they did well to retain Aswin, Bollinger (considering his fellow Aussie bowlers, Bollinger should be happy with the $0.7 mn), and Badrinath. The highest bid Chennai made was for Badrinath ($0.85 mn). I think this was a fabulous move. This means that, rather depending on a star player, they are depending equally on everyone. It was good to retain Michael Hussey. The first new player, Chennai roped in was Scott Styris, the kiwi all-rounder. They also got Ben Hilfenhaus and Dwayne Bravo. Chennai tried to retain the older players whether they were big or small (it’s clear from retaining George Bailey and Joginder Sharma). They want to retain the team spirit. Hope this works.

The thought that came to me was if the retained players chose not to remain in their teams they would have gone to great heights. Mainly Sachin, Dhoni, Raina, Pollard, Sehwag deserve much better than their current prices. I think the teams will have internal solutions.

These auctions have occupied most of my day today. I have been reading a lot about it. I have been discussing a lot of it with my dad, brother and friends. Finally everyone points the same: the teams have been illogical.

I think that all the big priced players are going to flop and the lower priced players are going to shine, as usual!

Let’s see how it goes in IPL4.

Happy Reading!!!