The twelfth man

Ladies & Gentlemen who were vocal about a certain maoist supporter...

2011-04-07T01:55:00.002+04:00

The Chennai, Tamil Nadu that was vocal about civil rights when a certain Binayak Sen was imprisoned is sleeping now...

For the nation has started talking about corruption, the favorite past time of our favorite politicians in our state and we care a damn about it (we have historically, chosen the lesser evil)... As much as income tax is a certain % of our annual income, so is the allocation towards the "tea expenses" of the public servants, we have become "the barbie's in their hands" (Kai Paavai, as they say in Tamil)...

Tamil Nadu, let us wake-up...

There is life more than watching a Vadivelu campaign for a certain party slandering the other... And the lady who says her opponents family is corrupt is no saint either... Leave alone those who don't know what power is in Tamil Nadu for more than even Google could remember...

It is time for us to say "Kollai Addichuttanga, OK... Meesala Maan Ottrathukku Munnala Muzhichukitten !!" (They plundered, it's okay... I woke up before they stripped me nude !!)

The feeling of saying a goodbye...

2011-03-20T23:33:00.004+04:00

As “The Corrs” song, “Goodbye” blasted through my little big car stereo I was driving out of MEC, Dubai’s parking. As I waved off to one of MEC parking’s many friendly neighbourhood Pakistani security guards, I was feeling different. Very different from the last time I did this, apart from the fact that it was Jethro Tull who was with me as I waved off and it was 8p, there was a major difference.

I had a joblist ready for the next day in office and I had told Ashwini, Agnello & Raju that I would meet them on Sunday.

Today was my last day at office, I had already given away the access card and the parking permit which were like Karna’s armour for me. Mathew had already read the list of my end of service benefits, how they added up to that handsome sum and when he would deposit that crossed cheque into my loan laden ADCB account.

Mani had sent me the two cardboard boxes, slightly bigger than 5 year old Anirudhha’s pencil box to which I loaded my belongings. After a hearty lunch with my team, a cake cutting and a ceremonial opening of my parting gifts, I was ready to go. End of sentence.

As I waited at the exit of the lane next to the office, to join the main stream Media City I was feeling heady, gasping for breath. I felt like one of those Zardari’s non state actors. Not what they exactly were, but someone who didn’t have a state or as someone who just lost his state, his identity.

I had just renounced my rights at MEC / mc2. I wondered who I was, of course when Sidhartha renounced he was Buddha and me ?

Four years of relationship, new office, pitches won & lost, fights, appraisals, less bonus, low increments, four birthday cakes, one more son in the family, it was a fairytale journey. If there were rollercoasters in fairytales that is exactly the journey I’m talking about.

I don’t have a joblist for tomorrow, I can wake up anytime I want. I can wear my favorite jeans, T-shirt and sneakers, watch television, even have a drink at 11a in the morning. But it wouldn’t be fun, it wouldn’t match the moment every morning when I picked my phone up and said, “Ya, Andy tell me…”

Miss you MEC / mc2

More than anything, I’ll miss you Andy… God bless you for all those good things you have done to me !!

Vin Sinners: Howz that ?

2010-07-01T23:47:00.002+04:00

VIN SINNERS, I am proud I know this guy.

Listen to the first track “Something to believe in” and you will know why.

Some truly original music, mind blowing stuff …

My untrained ears can hear strains of Mark Knopfler in the first track (who actually rocks like he never has !!).

The second (Book of faces) is something that gets me reminisce "Indus Creed" the foremost of the popular Indian bands to reach out to the public. The track for me sounded a bit of an “Indian Rock” the mandatory you see in the Bollywood movies these days.

“The wise man” compensates if at all are disappointed with the “Book of faces” like I have. It would actually be a wise bet listening to this track before one proceeds to the “Book of faces”. This one is a truly rocking track. Here, I can hear James Hetfield & a Bruce Dickinson and more.

The next track is an alternative version. And frankly the untrained me doesn’t understand what an alternative version means.

Overall, as you are driving in your car am sure this is an album which would make your way back home lively and the one that would get you charged-up as you are one your way to work.

In total an album I would want to have in my car.

PS: I haven’t talked about the lyrics as yet as we only have one song in full “Something to believe in”, you get to read bits of it on the left side of the reverberation screen if you are like me, smarter people would realize how brilliant the lines are hearing !!

Finally the hibernation is over...

2010-05-01T21:31:00.004+04:00

At least on BCC! as of today...

Posted a blog on Bored in defense of Lalit Modi. I post my blog and move on to the Indian news TV websites and what do I see ?

I see a story about one of my favorites talking about the issue. Sharp tongued Bishen Bedi lashing it out on the whole BCCI & IPL establishement.

Going by what the acerbic Paaji has said in the interview, it looks like Angad wouldn't be back for the next IPL season.

Keep talking sir !! We love you talking

Wish Bish...

2009-09-25T16:15:00.003+04:00

Now showing on Bored...
Go there and say Happy Bored day to Bishen Singh Bedi !!

WADA: The holy cows & little lambs

2009-09-21T17:13:00.010+04:00

The debate rages on, the latest to join the issue is Shashank Manohar, chief of the BCCI. While he has not said anything about what BCCI’s answer would be to the Sports Ministry, he has said they would discuss about the issue with ICC.

May be he could have made the lives of the journo's simple had he said, “Let me discuss that with Sharad Pawar and come back”

Going back to the January of 2009, it was the ICC which had approved and implemented the WADA regulations. I am not sure if a single official at ICC could take a unilateral decision to sign the regulations. For, the ICC is supposedly a council. Hence it wouldn't be wrong if one assumed that the decisions must be consensual.

The Indian board and all the other “little lambs” that are following the BCCI today had time till July ’09 to think about WADA. To read, re-read, evaluate & re-evaluate the merits and demerits. The BCCI woke up after August 01, 2009, that was when the “Whereabouts” clause was to be implemented. That too after a couple of holy cows moo-ed.

The worst thing is that NADA, the National Anti-doping Agency of India has been writing to BCCI to know what their response / opinion / view on doping and WADA regulations are, but the BCCI has not been responding.

BCCI’s holier than thou behaviour could be justified by saying that they are not answerable to the government or any governmental agency, they are a private co-operative society after all. But when it comes to upholding the integrity of the game, when it comes to guarding the spirit of sportsmanship the BCCI should have answered.

Add this to the BCCI’s rhetoric of starting their own dope control agency which I am sure has not even seen a pen and paper, it makes one whine. I am sure the BCCI can get away with murder in India, because they are not dependent on the government and they are cash rich but the other “little lambs” that want to follow this Mary today would have to herd back to their respective farms once their governments wink on this issue.

So it wouldn’t be long before the BCCI is left orphaned with an immoral cause.

Should WADA have spoken to the Government of India about cricket ?

2009-09-19T22:37:00.011+04:00

This is the latest of the series of million dollar questions about WADA. There have been a million of these questions in the last couple of months. This one assumes some importance as there have not been any WADA questions for a while now. And some of us know the fact that the BCCI is a private co-operative society and not a government controlled sports body.

So why should WADA speak to the government, when the GoI doesn’t control the BCCI ?

Don't they know BCCI is not controlled by the Indian government ?

What will WADA achieve by speaking to the GoI about cricket ?

Is WADA bureaucratic in its ways ?

Two reasons why WADA could have spoken to the government

1. To assess the kind of interest the Government of India has in getting rid of doping from sports. There have been far too many voices against the “Whereabouts” clause, but most notably there was one voice of support, that of the Union minister of Sports, MS Gill.

We still don't know if it were his private opinion or the governments. There has not been a declared GoI position on the whole issue. So may be WADA wanted an official word on their position

2. The most important reason, if cricket gets to the Olympics then it would be the GoI & IOC who would be responsible for the Indian cricket team.

So what happens to the BCCI and its selection panel ?

The BCCI would select and recommend a team to the IOC and then the IOC & the GoI would get them to the Olympics.

So whenever that happens, the cricketers too must conform to the Olympic spirit and standards

Therefore what WADA have done is not at all surprising. They have done the right thing in speaking to the Sports Ministry who in turn control the local anti-doping agency NADA in India.

So if there is any such thing called an Indian dope control standard, it has to be the NADA which would govern it till the BCCI decides to give life and unleash the paper tiger of having its own dope control agency.

Let us not forget a key fact, WADA is just an enabler...

A key to shut the arena of sports away from the menace called doping. To offer a level playing field for the sportsmen & women around the world. The moment they become bureaucratic in their ways, the whole reason of their existance would be comprimised. As a responsible body, I am sure WADA is aware of this fact and would make sure they never get there.

Recreation time…

2009-09-18T22:31:00.006+04:00

The WADA story keeps floating up and down the sports headlines for the last couple of months. Most of the Indians and the cricketing community didn’t know the difference between this WADA and the one sandwiched between a Pav. Suddenly every Tom, Dick and Hari is speaking about it.

There are some people who subscribed to WADA initially who have now woken up rejuvenated once they heard that the Indian cricket board is against it. Agreed FIFA is in two minds but, most of the other game chiefs are in agreement that the arena of sports and sportspeople in particular should be clean.

The simple reason why...

Because they are role models for the youngsters, The Gen X, Y & Z

There was a report in the Guardian recently about this. Before dissecting the content of the report, let us remind the goodfellas at the Guardian that the Indian Premier League has still not spoken anything about the WADA regulations. Simply because of the reason that the IPL is regulated by the BCCI.

It was the BCCI and its cricketers who are against WADA.

According to this report the Professional Players Association which represents players, including those who play cricket (??) have spoken about two things.

1. The “Whereabouts” clause
2. Recreational drugs

In this post let us not talk about the “Whereabouts” clause.

Let’s see what the Professionals / Role models say about the recreational drugs.

“Don’t ban our players for a longer duration if they took recreational drugs”

Discipline – That is the most important trait a sportsperson / soldier should have. I have never known of a disciplined drug addict. Once a sportsperson decides to take recreational drugs, he / she is no more disciplined and therefore I wouldn’t want this person to be someone who influences my kids.

If these are recreational drugs that warrant such light punishments, then why do governments world over have a fleet of gadgets, dogs & people going after the so called recreational stuff ?

Why are they outlawed ?

Why are some South American governments hell bent on losing sleep and men fighting cartels ?

I wouldn’t want a drug addict’s poster on my son’s bedroom wall…

Would you ??

I wouldn’t want him ape an addict the way he walks, talks and plays…

Would you ???

However recreational the drugs that fella took might be

Infusing life to 50 overs cricket...

2009-09-10T23:49:00.004+04:00

The last week was hectic, everyone spoke. There was no action but speech, excluding Harbajan.

Every cricketer you could imagine spoke about the state of 50 overs cricket, except of course the gentlemen from the Westindies. They were debating about the survival of cricket - the game. They would continue to, till Floyd Riefer leads his grandchildren against Afghanistan in a world cup that would be hosted by Vanuatu some 25 or so years from now.

Cutting the long prelude short. Let us firstly, thank Sachin for the proposal.

Thinking about it The Twelfth man got the sparkly idea of the century, something that would revive the great game of ODI cricket. Something that would extricate the game from the beaks of a vulture called T20.

Let’s jump straight to the brilliant idea.

Each team would play 2 innings. Each inning would be of 25 overs

The batting team, before commencing its first inning would declare their set of 6 players who would bat. The innings would come to close at the fall of 5 wickets or 25 overs whichever occurs first.

The notout batsman along with the remaining 5 would bat in the second innings.

So each team would have a total of 10 wickets to lose in the match and one player who would be the notout batsman in the first innings of each team gets to bat in the second innings too.

Each innings would have two powerplays, of 5 overs each. The first 5 overs and another 5 overs which the bowling captain could enforce anytime during the 25 overs.

Now for the bowling…

The team bowling would select its 4 bowlers who would bowl in the innings. 3 would bowl 7 overs and the other 4 . The bowlers who bowled in the first inning can’t bowl in the second. This means each team would have 8 bowlers.

To make things a level playing field and give some advantage to the bowlers, we would allow 25 bouncers an innings. The teams can decide to bowl all 25 in the trot or leave it to its bowlers to decide when to bowl them. So the game becomes much more competitive and balanced.

This version would be much more balanced than a blind 25 overs each innings cricket. There again inequality would creep in, it would become the game of your best batsmen and the bowlers. So ideally you can have 5 batsmen, 5 bowlers and a wicketkeeper who can bat. That would drive you home.

In the format we are proposing, we cut all these shortcuts off.

ICC… BCCI and the other powers to be… Are you guys listening ??

Don’t forget to pay The Twelfth man his due before you steal this idea !!

Thank you Thambi… I had to time you out !!

WADA and cricket: What is happening now…

2009-09-04T00:56:00.006+04:00

BCCI wants cricket’ own watchdog.

ICC wants to wait till WICA (the players association meets WADA).

And the media wants all the cricket boards to join the BCCI against the whereabouts clause, for they want some sensational news and some sustainable TRP’s.

Now that Mr Y S R Reddy is gone (pardon me for not considering the other passengers of that fatal flight… that how the Indian political and journalistic dharma works) and we have another very important news to talk about for the next 7 days. Post that we'll talk about Jagan Mohan as the next CM !! So thankfully WADA becomes a third class news...

Let me spell out the reason why I have been a vociferous advocate of the WADA and its regime…

It is an independent body, they know nothing but enforcement.

What does that mean ?

This means that someone can’t get off by simply replacing a “Monkey” with a "Maa Ki". It means that the Darwinian theory could be disproved, it wouldn’t be just about the survival of the fittest but about the abiding of the lot.

So if the ICC does, as BCCI has been wanting … Set up its own anti-drug unit, it could be (shall be) a farce.

It would then be selective, crucifying an X while exonerating a Y. A Nandrolone could become Nimbu Pani just like the metamorphosis of the monkey in Australia.

That is why you need a neutral body, some one who doesn’t know the difference between the intersection of the union of the bottom and the elbow of cricket politics.

For heavens sake, please realize that they (the cricketers) too are humans, and not some species else or the gods.

Let them also adhere to some rules and regulations. And that too for the noble cause of keeping sports clean.

More WADA talk: If you wanted to start from scratch or wanted more dope... Click here

PS: The only thing that is common between us and these demigods is the strip search at the US airports

A professor on Bored !!

2009-08-18T11:52:00.004+04:00

They got a Khufia Baaz, Jatman, Che...

Then, they got an interview done with the communications director of WADA.

Now see who they have got ?

A professor who delights us with the way cricket was those days, or rather his days !!

Can't imagine what they would do tomorrow, these chaps at BCC!... Can you ?

WADA speaks to BCC!

2009-08-12T09:51:00.004+04:00

WADA, the World Anti Doping Agency spoke to us at Bored. Too much dope about anti-dope across media and too many interpretations of what WADA & "Whereabouts" stand for, our objective was to clear the air up.

And that is precisely what Ms. Julie Masse, WADA's Communications Director did, speaking to yours truly

Anirudhha & Logos - Part II

2009-07-25T16:29:00.005+04:00

We saw Anirudhha's response to the facebook quizzes a while back, that was about cars.

This one is about everything. From soaps to supermarkets, from his favorite music icons to IPL teams, TV channels and many more.

Some 60 of them were shown to Anirudhha and you can see how he manages them.

Rebeca (1940)

2009-07-25T01:57:00.006+04:00

Actors: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Judith Anderson

The first film of Alfred Hitchcock the American. Yes, this was the great man’s first American project. And the first film under David O Selznick.

The movie was an adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s novel of the same name (1938).

The first of the many Hitchcock’s in America, those were the days when the master of suspense was trying hard to prove his mettle in the new land whre he was trying to settle down. The place where he was putting all his Trans-European experience into practice, to become the most wanted director of motion pictures.

The story line:

A wealthy widower who, purportedly under depression of having lost his wife meets an young charming woman. They marry and go back to the man’s land, and then begins the fun.

Mrs Danvers, the house keeper who has been very close to Rebecca, the dead wife of the man tries to chase the charming young woman (who is never named in the film) out of Manderley. Does she manage to ??

What happens in Manderley after the new woman comes in, that is the movie.

I see a similarity between this movie and Strangers on a train (1951). In both the movies the protagonists are rich or famous and are distanced from their unfaithful wives (Miriam / Rebecca), at the end of the day they are accused of having murdered the wife. In both the cases the wives cheat their husbands.

The disgusted husband wants to do something, but can’t because of his social standing.

At the breaking point the man wants to kill his wife but doesn’t because he is in love with a senators daughter (Strangers on a train) and he doesn’t want to create controversy.

That said, many critics say this movie is similar to Easy Virtue. I would beg to differ. It definitely is not.

It is said that Sir Hitchcock wasn’t faithful in his adaptation of the novel. But Selznick, the producer wanted the movie to be a copy of the novel, so what did Sir Alfred to ?

He shot what he thought was his story, his movie and just that. He ensured that nobody could edit and reach their means. This is what we call these days the “edited in camera” technique.

Trivia: Sir Alfred is seen outside the telephone booth when Jack is making a call to Mrs Danvers to tell her about the result of the inquest.

Rebecca was the best picture (1940 Academy awards), George Barnes also won the best cinematography for a black & white movie. Apart from these two wins there were nine other nominations including one for Sir Alfred for the best director.

Easy Virtue (1928)

2009-07-24T23:40:00.003+04:00

Actors: Isabel Jeans, Franklyn Dyall, Robin Irvine
Dir: Sir Alfred Hitchcock

Based (loosely) on a novel by Noël Coward.

One of the early Hitchcock’s, a silent movie with some supers that tell the audience what is happening. But the brilliance of this movie is that you don’t need those supers, it is simply superb.

From the Jurist’s scribble to the explicit expressiveness of the characters. This probably is one story that tells many stories.

The plot is simple, the mother doesn’t like the woman his son has married. She already has her choice made, so she has to look at ways to chase this woman out of her sons life. How does she do it ?

The best thing about this movie is the fact that one doesn’t realize that this is a silent movie. It makes you realize why Shivaji Ganesan, Rajkumar and Raj Kapoor were so over expressive. You have to be when there are only supers (subtitles) to tell the audience what is happening. The only difference when it comes to our stars is that they were simply over expressive for no reason when they were talking !!

Trivia: Larita runs away from reality to save her easy virtuous past immediately after the trial. Sir Alfred is seen walking past the tennis court of the hotel where Larita stays with a walking stick in his hand. This is just after 16-20 mins into the film.

A test match fact file...

2009-07-06T18:58:00.007+04:00

Q called the first test between Pakistan and Srilanka in Galle, A more than happening test match.

True it is. And he also had 3 Q's & A's about the match.

One of them was that debutants shared 16 wickets between them. He said he wouldn't be surprised if these (3 he had mentioned) had happened in the Galle test for the first time in history.

You would be surprised, of course...

It happened during 1988 in the Madras test between the Westindies and India. There was a young leggie called Narendra Hirwani who made his debut in that match. He took all of 16 Westindian wickets.

That was not all, there was another leftarm spinner who was also a capable lower order batsman (It was ironic that this leftarm spinner forgot bowling to become a opening bat soon...) called WV Raman who also made his debut. He took 1 wicket.

So I remember an instance when 2 debutants shared 17 between them. It was another story that the (in)famous Ajay Sharma and Phil Simmons also debuted in the same match.

But here comes a twist in the tale...

There is another instance when 40 wickets fell in a match and all 40 were captured by debutants. How ??

It was 1887 and that was the first test (called the first official test) between a combined Australian team and the visiting English team. Australia batted first Charles Bannerman scored the first runs of test history. And in the end Australia won the test by 45 runs.

Another trivia to close this post...

This was probably the only instance when 24 people who made their debut were there in the middle.

Yes 22 players belonging to the two sides and the 2 umpires. Add the scorers the number swells !!

We know, but still don't know...

2009-06-27T21:25:00.006+04:00

We are so anisometric that we don’t know how longer our other limb is

I am, would be and have been a self confessed fan of Nirvana, I remember having cried the day Kurt Cobain died, rather shot himself down. I till date follow Francisca’s life. I love the man and his music and I think he is god or rather one of them.

Smells like teen spirit is one of my favorite albums, I still have the magnetic tape (cassette) which might or might not play

And I know all the songs there by heart, at least the titles

I am sure every other Cobain fan would do so

Did we ever realize that there is a song titled “Aneurysm” in Smells like teen spirit ??

If at all we did…

Did we ever care to know what Aneurysm is ??

At least I didn’t at least till he called me and she spoke to me a while later

This is what Aneurysm is… Let’s spread the word

It is exactly 5 years as of today…

2009-06-27T18:48:00.010+04:00

I still remember…

How you apologized for being 10 minutes late to Coffee Day, the place where we first met in Madras

I do remember how badly I was hung over and how best I tried dissuading you, not to fall into the trap

I would never forget that 5.32p call I made the same day, confessing how I’d fallen for you

That sincere “Will you marry me” from my side

And that playful “That is a serious question. I might have to speak to my parents” and of course the “Let our families meet formally" decision you made

The number of F words I uttered during our marriage, facing up to the customs, friends, relatives and others. Whom I had never faced in my life in such fearsome frenzy

The way you tried freshening the air inside our (first nights) bedroom when your mother knocked for coffee, post that smoke I’d just had

How you cried on my lap when that month and a half disappointment happened before Anirudhha happened

The smile when you saw me gate crash in to your ward at 6.15a the day after Aniruddha was born

Your eyes when I smelled Aniruddha’s forehead for the first time, the day after he was born

That “Leaving on the Jet plane” of Janis Joplin (which I love) you played when you, with Anirudhha in your arms sent me off to Dubai

The hug, the day when you and Anirudhha landed in Dubai after three months of his birth

And the good life you have made possible thereafter

It’s five years and I don’t think it is. Feels like we just left that Rs 3 tips for that coffee at Coffee Day, I can smell that Lavender room freshener that camouflaged the smoke, our wedding video, the stupid look I had on my face just after I had uttered that “N^th”F word, our faces when we met for the first time with Anirudhha on your lap. And all those difficult things I can never write about, the way you made me see them through.

I love you Roopa K

A three and a half's mind tonight

2009-06-04T23:16:00.009+04:00

Anirudhha amuses me...

That is my three and a half year old son.

His music sense puzzles me...

I was in my 9th class when I heard my first non Indian music album, which was then classified as POP. Yes, in CAPS.

Jacko it was and "Beat it" was the tune.

It was a solo listen and dance, for if my parents knew I was listening to this alien music I would probably not be blogging now. It might have been my epitaph tune, that.

But I still listened, underground. Can we imagine a Michael Jackson underground today ?? Okay folks... he is underground most of the times... but I meant his music, the records (CDs)

Today a three and a half sings "Fat bottomed girls" along...

Does he know what FAT is ??

Or what BOTTOM is...

I am sure he knows neither

But he knows his Freddie uncle and his music...

Let it play on !!

It is a warm-up they say...

2009-06-03T09:36:00.005+04:00

Is it ??

Can you call an India - Pakistan encounter a warm-up game ??

Would you ??

This debate of "Is it ? Is it not ?" would go on for hours.

For this and more on the match, as it progresses Bored Cricket Crazy Indians have a fantastic plan or should I say platform ?

Yes, it is bigger and better than that mundane score card you see online.

Why only Online ? It's even bigger than watching the match on TV.

Imagine a comment you made about that stupid shot Sehwag or Afridi played being heard by a huge bunch of cricket lovers from all around the world ?

Imagine your small comment triggering a cracker of a discussion ?

Now tell me... Do you want this match to be just another warm-up ?

Or, would you want to join us in our virtual stadia and play along live ??

Do join the Twelfth man and the other "able" men from BCC! this evening !!

Anirudhha's response to facebook quizzes

2009-05-30T12:13:00.001+04:00

The Facebook quizzes facinate me, especially the identify the brand ones.

I always thought they were pretty basic and even my three and a half year old son, Anirudhha would score 95%+ in those. So I put together some 33 logos to test how he fared.

So here's how he scores when showed him logos of cars.

He answered 32/33 which is 96.96%. The Tambram parent I am, I am a bit concerned about the score.

I am worried about the 3% that was not, more than the 97% that was !!

What would be your reaction ??

2009-05-29T14:44:00.004+04:00

"I'm not very good at Twenty20 cricket, am I?"

Kevin Pietersen makes a frank admission on the eve of the tournament

May 29, 2009

Saw this on the Quote Unquote section of cricinfo.

The first question that came up in my mind was "To whom could he have made this admission ??"

His banker ??

May be, he thought he could have milked a couple of (hundred) thousands more from Mallya ??

Or may be he made this admission to Mallya himself !!

Let's say this question was directed to you...

What would be your answer to Kevin ??

Would you say...

Oh Kevin !! Don't be so humble and modest ??

Face of the Indian youth

2009-05-22T23:03:00.007+04:00

Firstly, this is post is not about cricket.

The twelfth man is extremely disappointed about what happened in IPL today. No, not that he is a Delhi supporter and Deccan won today. It was because his wife and son wouldn't let him watch the match, the whole match... Damn it!!

He missed the match okay. But he also missed three other things because of that which is not okay.

1) That gem of an innings from Gilly

2) How astutely Jatman handled his bowlers

3) His regular IPL feature "B the moment of the match"

Okay, now that we have done our days lip service to cricket let us move on.

Move on to another important thing that happened in Delhi today. The new Indian cabinet was sworn in today, all the Indian media is filled with stories. Some stories about the swearing in and many about the first family of Indian politics, the Nehru -(Feroz) Gandhi parivar.

This is one such story that I found in one of those Padmashree infested Indian news TV channels.

Now, the "She" here is Sonia Gandhi...

"On one occasion she even poked fun at Rahul, when someone asked her whether there was a future roadmap for the Congress. "Ask him," pointing to her 38-year-old son, "He should be knowing." Pat came the reply. "Why are you passing questions to me? That's not fair," said Rahul Gandhi"

Brilliant, the question that comes to The twelfth man's mind is, "Why is heirloom written in capital letters on the face of every Indian youth in politics ??. Where are the other youth, someone non family, in a supposedly young country ?? A country full of youth ??"

Think of a name irrespective of the party, it is all full of dynasties and families.

Congress, BJP, DMK, NCP, Akali Dal, Indian Lok Dal it's there everywhere.

We know it, we all know it, but still we vote for them. The worst yet, we take sides accuse someone a Hitler and we fight among ourselves, while we all know that there has been a Hitleress (feminine gender!!) & her Hitler Junior before.

We love when the aspiration of bright young kids are killed, plastered on to the roads like those carcasses of small animals on a highway because of what our politicians call "Affirmative action".

Why?? Because the politician wants to affirm his love to the downtrodden??

No, it is because those are the people who are a good majority when it comes to his / her constituency, the people who provide them that winning edge.

Let me ask you something, only to those of us who go to temples. Have you ever thought about how wealthy or prosperous the Pujari / priest of the temple is?? What his progeny do?? I know a couple, whose dreams have been squashed on the highway.

Why?

Because the "caste" column in their birth certificate said BRAHMIN.

This guy earns all of Rs.600 plus those ones and twos we drop in his aarti plate (offerings to the man who serves god). With his salaries he can't even have three square meals, two glasses of coffee (himself) and a daily newspaper. Still he has managed to educate his kids, and they have managed to do well till, the dear politicians we support decided to squash their dreams. I am sure we will forget all these.

Come next elections we might even vote for that party who we think are the outcasts of today. For, they might touch our emotional chords deep, a bit deeper than the others.

We would still not vote for those independent candidates with impeccable credentials. Ala Meera Sanyal, Capt. Gopinath or a Saratbabu.

Why, because they have no chance if winning. WTF, if you and me don't vote for them then HTF would they win??

The quintessential Indian mentality, we don't do or even attempt something but blame when something happens. We have seen those who lead candlelight vigils, post the Mumbai happenings sleeping soundly after a particularly heavy night before voting and there are some among us who had signed in or those of us who toasted "Cheers" to a Pink Chaddi but defeated the Prima Donna who stitched the Pink Chaddi first place (in the elections).

So what are we ??

Are we puppies who follow some dynasty and make them THE chosen ones ??

Till when do we want to live up to the tag of Indians being emotional idiots??

Being someone who stands erect and gets goose bumps every time "Jana Gana Mana..." plays (not withstanding the fact that it was written in praise of King George) because it my dear national anthem, I am ashamed.

I would rather remix that "song" to a club hit mix and get a couple of hundreds jiving to it than simply getting goose bumps and getting scratched all over bloodily by those useless politicians.

And long live the youth of India. Excuse me !! It is not you & me but some chosen one from those select few families.

Jai Hind !!

Re-integration

2009-05-22T16:04:00.007+04:00

Thanks to "The Twelfth man" cricinfo have decided to return Nainital back to its original state of Uttarakhand.

I hope Karnataka doesn't object !!

That was when Nainital was part of Karnataka**

** As per cricinfo

And this post the reintegration

It's okay even if you decide to call the state by its old name, Uttaranchal. At least you got the geography right this time, leave alone the history !!

Cricinfo's geography

2009-05-22T10:52:00.005+04:00

It seems Manish Pandey, the guy who became the first Indian to score an IPL hundred was born in Nainital, Karnataka.

I know Karnataka have a border dispute with Maharashtra, famously called the Belgaum dispute. The good guys of cricinfo are adding another dispute to the list, Nainital ?? Tall claim !

Get your geographies right guys !!

Nainital is in Uttarakhand, which is one of the northern states of India.

The odd Spalding...

2009-05-21T22:48:00.005+04:00

As I kid I was inquisitive...

And I had this odd hobby of collecting balls, I mean those used in mainstream sports and games !!

Sometimes it was odd when a Madurai kid had in his collection a rugby or a golf ball. For, those are something, games unheard of when it came to his peers. So there was no point WOWing them with an exhibition of this sort of a collection. In all probability they might end up saying, "What unshape cricket balls you have !!" and to add to the insult they would say "I would always flush off those unshape ones"

So to divert their attention I always invented a new form of cricket that would fit my ball for the day.

This particular day it was a Spalding, a Spalding golf ball.

The only association a Tamil would have to this game would be from that famous Rajinikant movie "Mr. Bharat". In a particular song sequencce Rajini plays golf.

So when I got this Spalding and I wanted to show off, I told my select few in my class... "Thalaivar played with a lean stick on grass, why don't we play cricket with this in the class"

It was my seventh class and we decided to use the golf ball to play cricket during our 5 minute class break.

The physics / chemistry record note would become our bat and we would hammer our way till the next class commenced. This used to be our routine till the Spalding arrived, the only change... The ball till then, used to be the crushed pages of our notebook. Tactfully removed from the center.

And this was the one bounce catch out varient of cricket.

So, came the Spalding and without even thinking about its bounce we started playing cricket. That was the break between our Maths class and we were expecting our Hindi master to come in anytime.

The bowler at that time pitched in a short one, "S" who was batting tried to prove a point to the girl from the second row he was eyeing those days "R". He did that wild slog and unluckly for us he connected right on the logo of his physics record book, the middle. The ball just missed "D" on the fourth row and flew on to hit the stained glass sliding window.

I heard "A" my crush crying a "Arghh". It was already broken and the Hindi master would get in any time. So what do we do??

The answer was to put "S" bag on the window wedge to hide the hole-some view.

Thanks to "S" and her bag we diverted things effectively till 4.30p when the school would disperse.

And then came football to get the window pane open from outside and save us.

Finally we had to marry cricket with football to have our soul saved

We have changed...

2009-05-21T20:41:00.003+04:00

RajaB's have given way for "The twelfth man"

For he has been a non player for a while. So he has decided that he would take centerstage and start driving a couple straight down.

There also has been some small changes in terms of the design. As usual we have decided to borrow a preset template from the good guys at www.blogger.com.

Let's hope "The twelfth man" talks more frequently than RajaB used to those days.

Okay it's time, let me pad-up...

The long shot...

2009-05-21T09:17:00.010+04:00

Two teams have booked their place in the semifinals of IPL 2 as of now, Delhi Daredevils & Chennai Superkings.

It seems like there are three teams fighting it out for the other two spots. But the reality as we know is that there are only two teams that stand a real good chance. They are the ones who play this evening, Bangalore Royal Challengers & Deccan Chargers.

The other, Kings Eleven Punjab would be praying hard. The first thing they would do is to sing a nursery rhyme loud, so loud that the gods hear it.

"Rain, rain go away... Come again another day"

For, if the match is rained out today their dreams, however miniscule in percentage would also get washed out. (if it happens the two teams get 1 point each and both get to 15, while Kings would be left behind at 14)

The next thing Kings would be praying for would be a big loss for any one of these two teams.

Here is a sample of how big a loss Kings would be praying for.

Let us first look at Bangalore, currently in the fourth position

In this case Deccan bat first and score 130 in their 20 overs. And Bangalore chasing it, true to its name plays like a test team and scores 60 in reply in their full 20 overs.

Then Punjab and Deccan go to the semis.

Not possible, right ?

Now option 2: Bangalore bat first and score 50 in 15 overs, chasing this Deccan score 51 within 6 overs.

This also seems a distant possibility, so Bangalore are more or less through. Unless some miracle happens and they get plastered by Deccan so badly.

Now let's look at Deccan's chances

Now let us say, Bangalore bat first.

They have to score 253 in their 20 overs and get Deccan out for 50 (in the 20th over)

Then Deccan are eliminated, Punjab advance with Bangalore.

I know what you are saying, IMPOSSIBLE. Right?

Now the other option, Deccan bat first.

They score 40 in 12 overs and Bangalore in return score those runs off in 4 overs.

This is another way of eliminating Deccan.

No way again !!

So effectively, there is no chance other than statistically for Punjab to advance to the semis.

Unless I have missed out on any other combination... Do let me know and I shall stand corrected...

An interesting stroke

2009-05-20T22:03:00.005+04:00

Chennai Superkings playing Kings Eleven Punjab

With 56 runs required of 24 balls, it was Brett Lee's turn to face Suresh Raina.

The first ball of the 16th was plonked for a boundary, the second ball. Did he try a pull or did he try to cut the ball over point?

Whatever it was he missed the ball completely only to do some last minute adjustments to reach the ball back straight to the bowler.

Now, one could see an interesting expression on Lee's face. Gesticulating with his left hand like he was hitting the ball while his mouth saying "Tonk".

That reminded me of one of my childhood friends. I have never seen him connect bat to ball, but would promply replay the shot he had tried to and do that well connected in the middle of the bat sort of "Tonk".

Commentators on cricinfo...

2009-05-20T17:17:00.010+04:00

The commentators on cricinfo have a weird sense of humour.

Sample this...

"At the time out, Kolkata look lost and dazed. They are still in with a chance but Rajasthan have the edge. They never cease to amaze. They still have a very capable batsman in Agarkar, who's faced similar situations before."

A day after that painful loss…

2009-04-30T20:32:00.003+04:00

When Rio Ferdinand won the toss and handed the ball to Cesc Fabregas I was very happy. I was thinking the UEFA title had just been handed over. The famous Steven Waugh line was running in my mind, “You just dropped the (world) cup mate!”

I saw Rio as the Gibbs (the SA cricketer) who had just dropped the cup according to Waugh, in this case he had the ball handed over. But things weren’t looking as good as that thought once the ball was set rolling.

While my TV screen read 63:37 for ManU on ball possession, I thought it was 89:11 in favour of ManU. Arsenal played like they were playing the “injury time” out, kicking the ball out of their half as if they were defending the 3 goals they had already scored.

It was ironic that the game had just started.

Except for the 19 year old Gibbs (the right back for Arsenal) no one in the whole Arsenal line-up played any serious football. The goalkeeper, Manuel Almunia effected two fantastic saves before allowing the next from O’Shea clip the top of his hands into the goal. And ManU were 1-0 up. For the brand of football Arsenal played yesterday, I am sure Arsene Wenger would have been very happy with the score line.

It was disappointing to see Arsenal lose. But it was comforting when I think that they got away with a 1-0 score at the whistle after they played such pathetic football.

I was also there...

2009-02-28T20:49:00.005+04:00

Thanks Bhaskar for ensuring I didn't miss out...

Introspection – Deewar ishtyle!!

2008-12-12T02:00:00.002+04:00

Long after he had disappeared last, I managed to sight him yet again. GAWD had last appeared on November the 28th and that was 2007, the last year. He was back yesterday, by himself. This was post my prolonged, fanatic search to get him answer a couple of very important questions had failed. This time he was on a Deewar mode, may be some retro movie festival running somewhere in the world had caught his fancy.

Entering in like the typical angry young (I told you he's a great actor) man himself, he started off…

“Your classmates are all well settled, they have cars, bungalows, jewelry, bank balance and ESOP…. Tere paas kya hai?”

That was enough to wake the Shashi in me up, for I have been party to this man’s partisan politics for more than 30 years now.

The deep and resolute me replied in a firm tone…

Mere paas… VSOP hai

Cheers GAWD!!

The shark of a story…

2008-10-15T22:13:00.002+04:00

Sammy, the whale shark.

That is the most familiar name across newspapers, radio and internet in the UAE for the last couple of weeks. Sammy has pushed Subprime, Henry Paulson, Barack Obama, John McCain & Sarah Palin to one column by ten centimeter spaces. We see pages dedicated to Sammy, we have seen Save Sammy stickers going on sale and amusingly we have had a leading Pinoy singer strumming for Sammy. We have also heard RJ’s speaking passionately about Sammy and his rights cutting across radio channels, sometimes conveniently forgetting that they love their seafood platter.

Although I am not an active or professing member of PETA or likes, I come from a family that loves animals. Importantly we respect their rights and their habitat. That said I cannot quite understand the euphoria and this, “I give a column or second airtime more than you” attitude of the media here. After all Sammy is safe in an aquarium and I am sure as at least some of the saner souls would agree, didn’t up as a biryani in somebody’s plate.

Pardon me if I sound gross or uncouth, but that is a fact. While millions of tons of habitats of the sea are trawled out as seafood, we must be happy that Sammy didn’t end up that way or being thrown out of a speeding car, as many cats are in town. He’s part of an aquarium that might, of all things serve to educate kids, the next generation who otherwise might never get to see a whale shark other than in a book or when they google it out.

I repeat, I don’t support or oppose Sammy being held captive. As long as Sammy is being taken proper care of, let him be wherever it might be. Those who claim Sammy might lose touch with reality, the independence of his habitat should also think about those thousands of lions, tigers, elephants, rhinos, and giraffes etc. who are part of the various zoos around the world. Think, have we ever printed a sticker of say, Simba the lion? And asked the zoo authorities to release him in his native habitat?

I loathe this frenzy, the senseless hysteria of save Sammy. Can we ask ourselves

How many column centimeters or seconds do we devote for those labourers who toil in the hot sun sans proper food, shelter or remuneration? Forget those occasional sensational stories filed...
Was there any follow-up to see if the school transportation system and safety has improved after sensationalizing the death of a kindergarten toddler in Abu Dhabi for one week? Did we ever care about it?
Have we guys ever worried or cared about those numerous cats that lie dead on our roads?
Have we ever seen stories in the newspapers or cared to talk about people who chain monkeys or other animals to their steering wheels, making them sit on it and drive their cars with an open window just to show the world how macho they are?
And finally a simple question, how many times in your life have you ever used a zebra crossing or a designated facility to cross the road in the last 3 months?

Please, for heavens sake let’s dust our own back before pointing out a peck of dust at our neighbour’s. Let’s be responsible. I agree sensationalism sells in media, but please understand that we don’t need to either sell or buy stories at this obscenely suffocating sensation levels.

I would also ask the Pinoy musician to first strum for those hundreds and thousands of her Kabayan brothers and sisters who live a life of agony and suffering. I would ask her to do something for them before she grabs her next column centimeter at the expense of a Sammy.

Guys have some sense, let’s show at least 10 – 15 % of the concern we show on a Sammy on the fellow human beings we deal with day to day. The poor taxi drivers, the labourer, the guy who serves us at a hotel and thousands of others we encounter in our daily life. If we are able to do this first, I am sure we would end up feeling prouder and satisfied, than cutting a save the Sammy motif from a newspaper, pinning it on our kids and clicking a photo. Hoping we would see it in the next morning’s newspaper.

Let me reiterate, I am not saying don’t care for Sammy. Please do. But before that think, think how many times we ever care for our fellow human beings and their rights. At least now let us resolve, to care for our fellow humans.

Long live Sammy, the whale shark!!

Subprime Mortgages and Cricket

2008-09-22T10:47:00.001+04:00

As I was flipping on my bed trying to catch some sleep after a "full" sake dinner, I could hear my inner voice. The fact that I had one glass too many of sake made me hear my inner voice loud and clear.

It was unhappy, unhappy because I am the one blogger left in this world who hasn’t spoken / written about something called the "Subprime crisis", too bad. I have been hearing people at the golf course, pubs, office coffee machine, lunches, dinners, malls and so on. People who were speaking about Subprime, Lehman Brothers, Merrill lynch etc.

I remember one very economics & finance savvy gentleman talking about how his favorite Mac has gone bankrupt and how it was lucky to be bankrolled by the Fed Authority because they didn’t want the Mac's to be dead!!, little did he know the difference between the Mac as in burgers and the Mac as in mortgages. With all this action happening around, I didn’t want to be left out.

And here is my two bit about subprime.

I think post the real estate & financial markets the phenomenon of subprime is going to hit cricket, precisely the IPL. One might wonder how?!!

It is pretty simple, to understand this one should understand the basics of what subprime crisis means.

It started with giving a loan / mortgage to a person who doesn’t deserve it and then the lending agencies inability to recollect the money. In other words, a mortgage or loan given to a person whose credit rating is not good enough which doesn't repay the lender. Now what connection does this have with cricket?

Recently 13 players from Bangladesh have gone and joined ICL, a huge exodus of talent for a small country like Bangladesh. Big Brother, oops!! BCCI announced that they would take care of this by getting more Bangladeshi players in the next IPL auction.

We all know where Bangladesh's cricket credit rating stood before the exodus, more precisely the T20 rating. Now with talent gone, let us close our eyes for a minute and try and think where and how their cricket credit rating would stand now. And now a Freddie Mac or a Fannie May (the BCCI / ICL) is trying to finance them (by taking more of them in the auction).

I was thinking what might happen.

There are two scenarios,

1. As usual it might just be a BCCI / IPL rhetoric and nothing might happen
2. They might go ahead and take more of the Bangladesh players to the auction

If they indeed take more players from Bangladesh, then there is a potential opportunity for us to see a cricket subprime. If you remember the definition of subprime, undeserving or uninteresting people getting money is what caused the subprime.

With Srilankan cricket allowing ICL cricketers to play domestic cricket there, if a couple of more boards follow suit then there is a good enough probability of talent (read people with good credit rating) drifting the other side. If this happens, then going by the financial precedent, gone would be the IPL & BCCI.

I am not sure if there is any federal setup equivalent in cricket, even if we (mistakenly) consider that ICC is one then I am not sure if they would want to bail the Big Brother out.

A match I would never forget...

2008-09-06T00:34:00.001+04:00

It was the US Open...

The men's doubles final...

And it was one of my favorites, Leander Paes pairing with Lukas Dlouhy

Against the Brian twins, Bob and Mike.

It was one of the most memorable, interesting, action packed doubles match I'd ever seen. There was a twist / suspense on every point played. Lee, as in any other match he has ever played till date, had his heart in his sleeve... The man was brilliant as ever.

Would have been fulfilling (for me his dear fan..) had he won, to add to that mixed doubles crown he won the previous day... But destiny decided that the deserving would win the crown...

And it happened to be the Bryan bro's...

Whatta match... I was blessed watching the finals !!

A new league on the block (or should I say the range??)

2008-08-11T11:35:00.000+04:00

I am seriously considering a business proposal... I think I have a brilliant idea, a nice business proposition, unique to the present day Indian sports TV market, which could make pots of money. Yes, I am thinking of starting a league...

Let's call it the Indian Rifle shooting League. I am sure the IRL would give IPL, ICL and any other alphabet between an "I & L" a run for money, given the present climate.

The eternal optimist I am, I think with the terrible loss to Lanka, age drowning our superstars and with more talented opposition, it is time. It is time we announced the beginning, of the end of Indian cricket and superstardom. Let's welcome the arrival of the great Indian Rifle shooting League.

We could actually make our cricket superstars standby for targets and clay pigeons. I don't think they would find this role way different from what they are doing now... Standing the middle for a while and getting shot out or down!!

Venture capital firms (and angel investors!!), if you are reading this contact me now. This is a first come first offer and you know how brilliant a proposal this is. Abhinav Bindra, after his 10m air rifle gold in the Beijing Olympics would be the new Indian sports hero, at least for the next couple of months. I am sure the Indian cricket team would continue with their good work in Lanka even in the ODIs, so the sooner we start this league the better for our ROIs. Else the Indian cricket team might start winning again (a couple of matches here and there or an odd series of course!!) and we might have competition.

Let's act quickly and change the trend of cricket and cricketers being demigods and superstars. I am not writing this because I have suddenly started disliking cricket after India's disastrous loss to Lanka. I am writing this out of concern for the other (great) Indian sports, the state of Indian hockey today being a prime example. With an Olympic gold in 10m air rifle category, this might be our opportunity to infuse some blood and revive the other sports in India and start respecting the sportsmen and women who (actually!!) represent India in the international arena and bring us glory.

Let's congratulate the Indian Olympic contingent and especially Abhinav Bindra. You have made us Indians proud.

Interesting piece of sports news...

2008-07-28T21:12:00.000+04:00

Rafael Nadal wins Rogers cup. More on this here
Reading this piece of news I had a question for Rafa...
So when are you going to win Roger's ranking??

Rahul, you beauty…

2008-04-21T12:03:00.001+04:00

Friends of mine know how big a fan I am of this man, Rahul Dravid. When one of them said Rahul should do some domestic duties before he came back to play test cricket after his dismal tour down under, I fumed. I swore by Dravid and shouted on top of my voice that he is the best batsman Indian cricket has had in the recent past and would continue to be in the near future too. I was sure I would never change my opinion, for I love the way Rahul plays his cricket. His exquisite extra cover drive, the silken ondrive, he is the best. The friend responded with a call for me to get out of my dream world, the world where Rahul Dravid, The Wall is the king.

Slightly shaken, I started doing some math on Rahul's recent performances. The stand out was the recent home series against South Africa, the Chennai test to be precise. This is where Rahul joined the 10,000 club and supposedly scored a scintillating century. A second look at the score card told me that my dear Rahul had played a gem of an inning, for himself. The innings he played was as fast as a millipede's quick march, made sure India drew the test, when victory was at sight. A must have won test was drawn, and India went on to lose the next test on a pacy wicket in Ahmedabad. No doubt, the series was drawn but India could easily have won the series convincingly had Rahul paced his Chennai innings to the needs of the team than that of his selfish motives. And now I started agreeing with my friend who had remarked earlier that Rahul needs to play some Ranji before he gets back to his original best at the international level.

The next match of Rahul I watched was the IPL, Bangalore (Vs.) Mumbai. It was a T20 match and Bangalore were chasing Mumbai's 165 in 20. And Rahul opened the innings with Shiv Chanderpaul. He as usual was at his millipedal best. He had no clue as to what Shaun Pollock was bowling to him. The closest I had seen a bowler being that successful before was when I bowled to my two and a half year old son, when he was two and was learning to hold his bat.

As Sunil Gavaskar in the commentary remarked, he was trying to settle down before he opened up, in a T20 match. It seemed like he didn’t want his team to win. I was thinking someone from the Bangalore camp would send a message to Rahul on field that there was no draw in the T20 format and restore some sanity in the middle. It was either a win or otherwise.

Boucher and Kallis managed to pull off a near impossible victory in the end. There would still be people who would say Rahul set a stage for the victory. If I were the coach of the Bangalore team, I would frankly not want a victory set up like this. Nerve-wracking victories like this would cause fatigue and would tire the minds of the team.

Being a big fan of Rahul, I don't want to see him kicked out of cricket someday. I would hence recommend that he took a quick decision. Analyse where he stands today honestly and do something about it quickly. As Greg Chappell told Sourav some years ago, there is life outside cricket too. I am sure Rahul is sane enough to know this truth. A quick decision by him now might save a buck or two for Mr Mallya and make the cricket Bangalore team plays resemble the T20 brand, at least.

Quite a notice not to miss...

2008-04-04T13:11:00.000+04:00

China would have been very happy listening...

2008-03-25T10:01:00.001+04:00

It is about Tibet again.

With all the agitation and the protests happening around Tibet issue, the way the Chinese are handling it and the Olympics, every news channel / paper / magazine is clamouring for their bit of breaking news.

The latest to break this fantastic news is an FM radio in Dubai. The news...

"The Olympic flame would do its round of 20 countries including Tibet before it makes its way to China, the hosts of this years games."

The Tibetian' would certainly have been very happy listening, I am not sure what the Politburo's reaction would have been.

The best way to insult a sportsperson

2008-03-16T22:18:00.003+04:00

Kudos to this Indian news channel, they have perfected the art of insulting sportsmen / women by their reporting. The latest is to insult Dhyan Chand, the greatest hockey wizard the world has ever produced. So how did they manage insulting a hockey wizard who played in the 1900s?

I quote from the news channel' website "Jhansi, a city which has produced some of India's greatest hockey players including the Don Bradman of hockey, Dhyan Chand."

What a shame. When you report about hockey in India, you shed crocodile tears about the state of the game and then analogize the best of hockey players the world has produced to someone who played the game that is killing hockey. I am not refuting the fact that Sir Donald Bradman was a great cricket player, what I am pissed is about the analogy.

And this is not the first time this great news channel with Padmashree news reporters is insulting a sportsperson. They have done it for Saina Nehwal, an Indian badminton player who trains under the great Gopi Chand (the only Indian player who never wanted to make that extra advertising buck even after becoming a big sports personality). In one of their bulletins after Sania Nehwal won the Philippines open in 2006, they hailed her as the next best thing from the state of Sania Mirza.

What a joke!! (1) She is actually a Haryanvi who trains with Gopi in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh (2) Sania Mirza has never (at least till date) won any major titles (3) Sania Mirza's family doesn't own Andhra Pradesh (that is the history I know!!)

I am sure this news channel would never realize what they are doing, for they are supposedly the leading Indian news channel. And most importantly a channel whose reporters (who are supposed to be neutral entities) accept favours from the Indian political masters in the form of awards.

Long live morality!! Long live their reporting skills!! Long live such stories they report!!

The Answer - Cricket Trivia

2008-03-13T22:57:00.000+04:00

Whoa... What an overwhelming response, thanx a ton for those 91 pageviews and the 61 unique visitors (among which, one was me. And I was responsible for about 12 page views!!). Ironic none complied to the call for action, to reply to the question. Thanx a ton again for all you guys gals who came here to see the question and apologies for posting the answer late...

The question asked was...

Matthew Hayden called Harbajan Singh an obnoxious little weed.

What would he have called had it been Robin Uthappa or Sreesanth?

And the answer is...

Mouth Ki Saudagar

These two guys should be the official Spokespeople of the team. For, they just talk.. Oh, sorry it should be "They just blabber".

Ps: Breaking news today!! Uthappa can't wait to play test cricket.

Cricket Trivia

2008-02-28T09:39:00.001+04:00

Matthew Hayden called Harbajan Singh an obnoxious little weed.

What would he have called had it been Robin Uthappa or Sreesanth?

Clue: The recent Gujarat assembly elections

Post your answers on comments. I would have my answer posted soon...

There can't be a bigger hypocrite

2008-01-12T22:20:00.000+04:00

I read this story in Cricinfo. This is the probably one of the recent revelations of Andrew Symonds. Here, he goes on to say it is acceptable for him when his friends make racist jibes.

This is like saying nobody else but my mother could call me a bastard. For, she is the one who would really know if I am.

Mike Proctor and his Kangaroo court

2008-01-08T16:52:00.000+04:00

He was unlucky to have missed this prime cricketing years due to South Africa's international isolation. He is compared to Kapil Dev, Ian Botham & Imran Khan in terms of his allround cricket talent. But that is the past. He would now be remembered for ever as the Mike Proctor, who handed a 3 match ban to Harbajan Singh for his alleged racist comments during the Sydney test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2008.

While his intentions of rooting out racism from the cricket field is noble. His decision in putting Harbajan infront of the canon and blasting him with a ban is questionable and dubious. This is considering the simple reason that there was absolutely no evidence whatsoever to confirm Harbajan indeed said those words. No one else in the field or off the field (television channels or viewers) heard or saw Harbajan say the racist comment he is supposed to have.

The most ironic thing is that there were four witnesses supporting Symonds are Ponting – his captain, Clarke, Hayden, Gilchrist. All these witnesses had at somepoint in the match commited something that would make you question their integrity and honesty. They never heard Harbajan hurling racist abuse at Symonds, but still they were witnesses and could say with conviction that Harbajan said those comments.

And why does Proctor find Harbajan guilty? Because the Australians say he is guilty. They argue Harbajan called Symonds a monkey once, during their tour of India recently. And therefore there is every chance he would have said it again, and that amounts to a repeat offence and hence a 3 match ban. Brilliant logic.

And then comes Proctor's interview, where he talks proudly about how he delivered justice to the Australians, especially Symonds. He says "I am South African, and I understand the word racism". So do we Mike, but your understanding a word can't be the basis of calling someone a racist and banning him. Where is the evidence that he said those words?

Procter has set a very dangerous precedent here. Tomorrow, while touring Pakistan Ponting might face a situation where he is getting out to Shoaib Akthar frequently or he is simply afraid of his bowling and hence he might decide to put him off the game. He would be joined by three more of his mates and they would accuse him of beating an Australian player with a bat without any evidence whatsoever. Now, what happens?

Here again you have four Aussies accusing a player from the subcontinent and here too the accused is someone who has used a bat to hit someone before. Would you want to ban him for 3 matches just because the Aussies accuse him? What is the guarantee that the Aussies wouldn't accuse Harbajan or any other player in the world of a uttering a racist remark again?

Effectively Procter has made the cricket field a kindergarten classroom. Where kids cry and accuse their neighbours of something or the other. The cricket players are neither kids nor is the field a classroom. It is hightime the ICC does something to remove incompetent referees like Proctor and expand their elite panel with competent referees. And most importantly they must also put cry babies like Australia in their place.

PS: The greatest joke in all was for this man to support the Australian team on TV, Michel Slater. Mate, the world still remembers the Pontingesque catch you took of Rahul Dravid and your reaction to both the batsman and the umpire, Venkat.

An open letter to Ricky Ponting - Australia – 2 : Cricket – 0

2008-01-08T11:24:00.000+04:00

"Michael Clarke's got the golden touch, hasn't he? We knew if we kept them under pressure. That's an unbelievable win…"

Those were supposedly your words words during the post match interview as quoted in a website.

Yes! Mr Ponting, it was indeed an unbelievable win but surely forgettable. You surely had four things behind you in this match. Luck, and the three umpires. And each one played their part, perfectly and precisely.

When Gilchrist walked during a crunch world cup match, the whole world appreciated. That is including the many Indians like me. You have been harping about the batsman taking the fielders word and walking off. But as ever your team has always preached and never practiced, of course except those odd Gilchrist like moments. Which I have come to a conclusion that are stage managed purely for PR purposes.

Your mates didn't walk when they knew they were out, the whole world but for 3 men didn't. When it came to the second innings we saw how desperate you were to win the match and equal a record. The Dravid and Ganguly dismissals showcased your intentions. Even if we leave Ganguly's dismissal as a mariginal decision (which was not by any means, it was so obvious he was not out), Dravid's was a classical case. He pads a ball and the most moral guy in your team goes up and gets a decision in his favour. Is he not the same guy who said even his kid during a game of backyard cricket wouldn't have acted like how Sreesant did during your recent India tour? Could you check with him if this is the way his kid would react when a ball clearly brushes his leg?

You are also a strong advocate of things said or done in the ground staying within. What happened to that when you decided to take Harbajan's case outside? I agree with you in saying, if anything racial had been said, he ought to be punished in the strictest possible way. But did he really say anything as you claim, is there anything else to back your claims up? Now, for a moment let's decide to forget the "everything stays within the ground" argument. How do you justify a Hayden going public saying you have a strong case? The match was on, the referee had decided to postpone the case till the match ended because it might have put undue pressure on the people involved. Is it fair on you to go public harping about the strong case you have? Is this not a negative tactic, to put pressure on Harbajan and on the Indian team? Is this the way any champion team would want to win?

The catch of Dhoni you had claimed says it all. Before you say it was a fair take again, take a look at those pictures floating around the net or the tapes one of the TV channels have. It is proud thumping your chest in normal circumstances, not now Mr Ponting. You've got a fractured rib cage! Thumping more would not only puncture your heart but also your country's.

Mr Ponting, there is something called walking the talk, if you can't walk at least try and crawl the talk. You can't simply ask for the rule to be bent or your statements be altered when it suits you. That is very unbecoming of a cricketer of your stature, it damages the image of the game that feeds you and most importantly it damages the image you're your country too. We are all in agreement that you won this test, but unfortunately Mr Ponting the game of cricket was the loser.

Again Mr Ponting an odd sprinkling of "We won / lost today, but the game of cricket is a even bigger winner" in your interviews is not enough. You need to walk the talk. I hope being a (sports)man you would realise this sooner than later and start walking the talk.

I wish to congratulate you, the Australian team and the umpires for this (forgettable) win of yours. DON'T KEEP THIS TREND UP please, for the sake of the game.

Will the real Indian please stand up?

2007-12-01T22:36:00.000+04:00

We Indians have a fixation, I would call this a disease. Everything of Indian origin is Indian and likewise everything of Tamil origin is Tamil. Our politicians over a period of time have conveniently fooled us into believing this wrong notion. I am an Indian (passport holder) and my mother tongue is Tamil, Tamil has been our mother tongue for the last 7 generations I am aware of. That should be at least a 300 years. But still I don’t think the politicians of Tamil Nadu consider me a Tamil, they would take pride in calling me an Aryan because I am a (Tamil) Brahmin. But they would consider someone settled in Malaysia some 100 years ago Tamils & Indians, because they speak Tamil.

I am neither arguing on behalf of the Malaysian government nor speaking against the Indian government’s concern for the freedom of expression in Malaysia, but I am against terming them Indians. For, they used to be Indians 100’s of years ago. Now, they are as Malaysians as any ethnic Malay. Anyone who has lived in a country for a period should allow him / her to be assimilated into that culture. If this assimilation doesn’t happen, then conflicts happen. The case points for this are Fiji and Sri Lanka. Through this article let me take you through who else is Indian.

Sunita Williams is still Indian: We saw political parties fight to honour (and to meet) this Indian for having been to the space, while she was on a personal visit to India. She was born in Ohio. She was educated in the US and she went to the space representing the US space agency NASA. What is Indian in all these? The most Indian aspect is that her father was an Indian. She is Slovenian from her mother’s side. Does Slovenia consider her a Slovenian? No, they are busy minding the problems they have. If that is the case the natural question that arises is “Is the Indian government jobless? Are they doing enough to take care of the Indians (citizens)?”. I leave the answer for this question to the reader.

We, Indians are proud of Bobby Jindal, the governor elect of Louisiana. What is Indian about him except his ancestry? He calls himself (and insists to be called) Bobby, although all his legal documents still call him Piyush. To add to the name many more things have changed about him.

One should read a recent article by the eminent Shri. Shashi Tharoor about Bobby Jindal to understand more about him. We still conduct havans and yagna for Bobby’s victory, why? Because, he is Indian, what an irony. How many of us even cared to pray once for Shashi Tharoor, when he stood for the UN Secretary General’s election? May be we forgot to because he is actually Indian.

Those were two examples of us Indians celebrating people of Indian ancestry, there are many more like Anerood Juganath, Basdeo Pandey, Vikash Dhorasoo. Before I close, let us see another example. Did Italy protest when Sonia Gandhi didn't become the Indian Prime Minister (this is a debatable topic, some would say she refused to become. I wouldn’t get into that debate). No, they did get into it or didn’t even release a statement on this because they considered it to be India’s internal issue. Sonia for them is Indian.

After having said that, the next question would be, Do we at all help each other (the fellow Indian in the street)? The answer would be an emphatic no. I have suffered because of my fellow Indians refusing to help. This was 5 years ago when I was involved in a bad hit and run accident in Chennai. It was a Sunday evening with only a few shops open in that area. No one even cared to come near me, leave alone helping. I was very thirsty, I had a 100 rupee note in my hand asking a teashop guy to fetch me a bottle of water. His reaction was amazing, one I would never forget in my life. Yes, he hurriedly closed his shop and ran away. So this is what we do to Indians living in India but our heart pains when someone who was Indian about decades back is in trouble. Aren’t we hypocrites?

Let’s hope and pray that the fight for the freedom of expression by a section of Malaysians prevail…

My conversations with the GAWD

2007-11-28T12:05:00.000+04:00

A friend from india had called up yesterday. Amont other things the conversation was also about another friend of us, who within 5 years in advertising became an Account Director recently. The moment I heard this, I started thinking how I didn't when everyone else is. This friend of mine closed the conversation at a more depressing note, "What are you now?, Oh! I remember you are an Account Manager".

This nice long distance conversation made me feel like a loser, incompetent enough not to become an Account Director after all those long years of slogging, working overnight and then growing up to what I am today. It has been quite a journey, interesting, but some times a little disappointing too. I had never regretted any of my decisions till I spoke to this friend yesterday.

I tried consoling me telling myself that in India everyone has a fancy designation. And due to the supply not meeting up demand in the industry, they are forced to fast track people. And hence you have these fast food varients of Account Director in 4 years, Account Supervisor in 3 years etc. But even then I couldn’t calm myself.

I was angry about what I had done all these days. Very angry, I locked myself up in the room and loudly yelled "Gawd, what have you done to me… What do others have, which I lack? Gawd, answer me".

To my surprise the good Gawd appeared "Son, you can't call me for such trivial things... Ok, now that I have come, can you quickly tell me what your problem is? And I don’t have time for 30 slides, Keep it brief…".

I said "Gawd, everyone who joined advertising with me is a CSD (Client Services Director), everyone who joined after me is an AD. And me… Even after all those 9+ years of slogging my butt out, see what happened".

Gawd in his very compassionate tone replied "But son, your butt has always been like that since you were born, bony… Ok, tell me what I could do for it?".

Getting a bit impatent with Gawd's wry sense of humour, I said "Forget about the butt, talk about my career. Why am I what I am? And now, don’t say it is my karma. That is a stale argument".

Gawd by now had slipped in to one of the bean bags in the room, speaking like the ultimate he is, "Son, why do you always google me only when you are in trouble? Othertimes I see you googling for what the old Karunanidhi said about me or about the bridge I got done… when you are not doing this, you check cricket scores. And have the guts to ask me to help your team win, even when they don’t try or want to…".

Not waiting to stop for an answer back, he continued "Ok, I would ask you a general knowledge question. Do you know Janis Joplin? I am sure you do". I nodded my head in affirmative with a faint "Mm… yes".

Gawd continued "What is her most popular song?". Even before Gawd could finish, I had started singing…

Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz ?
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends,
So Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercede....

By the time I was finishing the first stanza, Gawd pulled the plug off his ears. With hands pointing to his home he said "Ok… Ok… Can you stop now? Can I talk?".

Shaken by his tone, I shut up, and looked at him intently. He continued "Do you think I gave her the Mercedes she wanted?".

By this time I was completetly pissed by Gawd's attitide, I called him to solve my little problem and help me out of the situation. And here he is, cracking stupid jokes and asking me stupid quiz questions, I told myself "I think he is going to disappear after giving me ten points for telling the correct answer for his question… Why the heck did I call him first place".

In an irritated tone I answered him "I think you let her OD and die".

Now it was the turn of the good Lord to get pissed and be on the offensive. "You can't accuse me like that… Every measly mortal like you has this habit of accusing me for anything that happens on earth… I am not responsible for that!!"

Although shaken by his booming voice, I still wasn't stirred. I thought I had Gawd in the corner, in a rat hole now and I should press on…

And at a higher pitch I repeated my statement "You let her OD and die".

The moment I uttered this again, Gawd let out a smile. One of those plastic Aishwarya Rai types and said in a nice, sweet tone…

"I admit my mistake on Janis Joplin… I don't want history to repeat again… Most of all, not with you" he went on…

"I don’t want you to AD and die!! Be happy as you are, Bless you" The moment he finished, even before I could react he vanished in thin air.

I am googling for him ever since, but in vain. To ask him when I would (be) AD and possibly live…

ICL Vs. BCCI

2007-11-27T10:22:00.000+04:00

As many, I am a big fan of the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) for its ability to issue amusingly brilliant and quixotic diktats about people playing / representing ICL (Indian Cricket League) organised by the Essel Group.

We already know that BCCI has banned the players, budding, present and former representing ICL from taking part in any BCCI (and ICC) sponsored events. Here are some more diktat ideas for the BCCI to crush ICL to dust.

1. Nobody, TV, Press or Web can cover the ICL. If someone dares to then they wouldn’t be allowed to cover (why cover, even inside the venue) any BCCI sponsored event. They would be banned for life

2. The photographers who took part in the ICL sponsored photoshoot are banned for from shooting any BCCI sponsored event, players or families

3. The brand of the equipments used by the photographers of the ICL shoot is banned for life from sponsoring, supplying and being present in any manner in any BCCI sponsored event

4. Viewers watching ICL matches live on TV sets would be banned for life from watching BCCI sponsored matches on TV (BCCI has the Pawar and authority to seek and destroy those TV sets). Those watching highlights would be banned from watching BCCI sponsored events for 5 years

5. People who go to the stadium to watch the ICL matches would be banned for life from watching, buying tickets or being present in any area that is 5km radius from a stadium where a BCCI sponsored event is being held

6. The supplier of cricket balls for the ICL matches cannot henceforth supply either match or practice balls for any BCCI sponsored event or team. They would be banned for life

7. The cricketing equipment manufacturers whose equipments are used by the ICL contracted players would henceforth be banned for life from supplying equipment for the BCCI sponsored players, academies or events

8. The grass supplier who laid the turf in the stadia used by ICL for their practice or matches is banned for life. They henceforth can't either supply grass, water grass or undertake maintainance work in any of the BCCI sponsored pitches, lawns and meadows

9. The advertising agency which worked on the ICL branding and publicity is henceforth banned for life from doing any work for BCCI or any of its affiliates. It is futher stated that clients handled by this agency or its sister concern cannnot be present in any of the BCCI sponsored events unless they issue a public apology for being with the above said agency and severe all their relations with the agency with immediate effect

10. It is reported that a college in Chennai has allowed ICL to use their facilities for practice, this is unacceptable and unpardonable according to the bylaws of BCCI. Henceforth any student, old or new and staff from that college in Chennai would be banned for life from taking part in any BCCI sponsored event. However relief would be granted for those who severe their connections with the institution by either resigning or tearing their certificates issued by the college. These people can return back to the BCCI fold provided they write "BCCI is a winner. ICL is always a loser" 2,500 times in the paper provided by BCCI for this purpose

While this list can go on, I stop with 10 points and leave the rest to your imagination. I intend to send the list to the officials of BCCI soon and I am sure they would put these recommendations before a select committee of former Indian captains and implement it at the soonest.

It's back again...

2007-10-22T23:17:00.000+04:00

The latest of the Indian cricket captains, Mahendra Dhoni is currently talking about player burnout.

Too much of cricket = lots of hardwork = I should speak to the media, and like his captains before Mr Dhoni also feels the pinch, for his team...

http://www.rediff.com/cricket/2007/oct/22dhoni.htm

I had done a piece about this some time ago, which talks about burnout and its financial implications...

http://rajabaradwaj.blogspot.com/2006/05/player-burnout-why-is-it-farce.html

Burnout, for me is as diabolic a word that could take many meanings as anybody's imagination would workout. I wouldn't mind burning out the Dhoni way. For, with the money I would get paid would secure my life for the next 3 generations at least.

Barking dogs never bite. My mother told me when I was 4...

Mr Dhoni stop barking about burnout and concentrate on your job.

Alfred Hitchcock presents - The signature tune

2007-09-23T22:01:00.000+04:00

This tune and the iconic Sir Alfred silhouette, which was drawn by the master himself personified the “Alfred Hitchcock presents” television series. Famously dubbed the Hitchcock music, this piece is actually composer Charles Gounod's Marche Funèbre d'une Marionnette (Funeral March of a Marionette). One of the most memorable signature tunes I have heard. And this is Anirudhha’s favorite too, he begins to dance whenever he hears this tune playing.

My two bit on T20 and the future of world cricket...

2007-09-23T21:24:00.000+04:00

I was listening to an evening drive time cricket show in one of the FM stations here, it was about whether T20 would contribute to the growth of cricket or will it spell doom for the game. I always thought that cricket has more become a batsman’s game, bowlers are slowly loosing their importance in the game.

In a couple of years now countries would have ceased producing world class bowlers like Kapil Dev, Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner, Anil Kumble, Shane Warne, Muralidaran etc. I can’t recall the last time a 9 year old (cricket playing) kid I had met said he wanted to become a Kapil Dev or a Venkat? We are at the end of the day looking at thousands of wannabe Tendulkar’s, Dravid’s and Ponting’s. The reason cricket has become a game of the batsmen.

I agree with those commentators who fear the bowler would become an endangered species, looking at the proliferation and popularity of the more batsmen friendly formats such as the T20. If you are a bowler, you would be clobbered all round the park. I am sure any kid would agree with me in saying you better clobber than the clobbered (Chris & Stuart Broad would agree the most). So what is the solution? Here, my two bit…

The new format I propose would be called “Mech 20”.

1. Here you have the batsmen on one side and the bowling machine developers on the other side.

2. The developers would innovate in terms of the pace at which their machines would hurl the ball, spin, swing, reverse swing and so on.

3. The batsmen would simply stand in the other end and clobber and of course run.

4. The rest of the field wouldn’t be touched. You would still have 11 men on the field doing the fielding drills and trying to catch, save runs or run the batsmen out.

For example the Indian cricket team of this format would comprise of the 11 batsmen, who would also field and feed the ball to the machine. And a couple of developers, who would develop, innovate on this machine and improve it to beat the opposition batsmen.

For those who would ask how technologically advanced, say a Namibia can get. Here is the solution… Now you don’t need to hire a coach for those obscene salaries, you simply hire your developer.

I personally think “Mech 20” could well be the future of cricket, the batsmen’s game.

(For those who heard the show in Dubai… You might remember that a certain Mr. B had sketched this format out through his SMS to the show. If you want to know more about the Mr B, click here…)

I got the picture for this post from here

The Triumph of Bullshit

2007-09-13T05:35:00.000+04:00

Is a poem written by T S Eliot somewhere between 1910 and 1916 in the form of a ballade.

I stumbled upon this poem trying to google out the origins of the word bullshit. Bullshit was first used in 1915 in the American slang and later popularized by the American servicemen during the Second World War. More bullshit here.

And now the poem… A dictionary would come in handy while you are reading this poem.

Ladies, on whom my attentions have waited
If you consider my merits are small
Etiolated, alembicated,
Orotund, tasteless, fantastical,
Monotonous, crotchety, constipated,
Impotent galamatias
Affected, possibly imitated,
For Christ's sake stick it up your ass

Ladies, who find my intentions ridiculous
Awkward insipid and horribly gauche
Pompous, pretentious, ineptly meticulous
Dull as the heart of an unbaked brioche
Floundering versicles feebly versiculous
Often attenuate, frequently crass
Attempts at emotions that turn isiculous,
For Christ's sake stick it up your ass.

Ladies who think me unduly vociferous
Amiable cabotin making a noise
That people may cry out "this stuff is too stiff for us" -
Ingenuous child with a box of new toys
Toy lions carnivorous, cannons fumiferous
Engines vaporous - all this will pass;
Quite innocent - "he only wants to make shiver us."
For Christ's sake stick it up your ass.

And when thyself with silver foot shalt pass
Among the Theories scattered on the grass
Take up my good intentions with the rest
And then for Christ's sake stick them up your ass.

(I found this piece of T S Eliot’s work thanks to this website here)

One word I fail to understand...

2007-09-04T10:36:00.000+04:00

PROACTIVE, I am at loss whenever this word is used. And to my dismay I hear this word at least 10 times a day. Therefore, I decided to figure what exactly "Proactive" meant. Surprisingly, this is what I found.

The word Proactive was coined by psychiatrist, Victor Frankl. He used this word to discribe a person who rather took charge of his life than looking for circumstances or people to dictate what should be done. More on this here.

This term was later popularised by Stephen Covey in his book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People as the first habit. He had used the word proactive in the Victor Frankl sense, but unfortunately we have managed to give it a new dimension, the opposite of Passive.

More about Covy's book and his 7 habits here.

I am back...

2007-09-04T10:25:00.000+04:00

Masterly inactivity

2007-05-08T10:54:00.000+04:00

We have been seeing months of (3 months to be precise) masterly inactivity here. Things should get better in the coming days and I shall raise out of this slumber.

I would be back in action soon...

Entrepreneurial Generation

2007-02-19T14:43:00.000+04:00

Here is a thread to an interesting speech made by Jeff Cornwall, Director of the Belmont University, Center for Entrepreneurship.

It is an interesting read.

Tragic & Spellbound

2007-02-19T10:10:00.000+04:00

I managed to spoil my DVD of Spellbound. As of yesterday morning I was half way through this Hitchcock classic and I was supposed to finish this movie yesterday evening when tragedy struck (may be I dropped it down or something). I am going to give it another try to see if the DVD works this evening. If that doesn't happen, I would have to wait till the weekend to see if another copy is available in the local store and watch this movie.

Indeed a great tragedy that has left me spellbound.

Aesthetics, airlines, advertising and the Rio Carnival

2007-02-18T17:31:00.000+04:00

In the ancient Olympics the competitors ran naked for a prize of an olive crown. This was more looked at as a celebration of the human body, the male body to be precise. The organizers and the elite of Brazil have now (this year) compared the Rio Carnival to the Olympics.

A quote attributed to them in one of the website's says this "It is the celebration of body, closer in sprit to the Olympic games than a Strip bar". May be had they mentioned "ancient" before Olympics and "predominantly female" before body, it would have been more appropriate.

It also quotes a scholar saying ''Here, nakedness doesn't only lead to sexuality, it leads you to aesthetic appreciation,'' said Roberto Da Matta, a retired University of Notre Dame sociology professor and author of the book ''Carnivals, Rogues and Heroes: An Interpretation of the Brazilian Dilemma.''

Whatever said, the aesthetic appeal of the carnival pulls in aircraft loads of people from around the world. And this makes the carnival a delightful period for the airlines, hospitality and tourism industry. It is also an advertiser's delight, with so many advertising options available including the beautiful bodies of the samba dancers (Is anyone exploiting that media??) and a very captive audience.

The blog profile

2007-02-18T16:08:00.000+04:00

I have got a new profile note in here... I suddenly decided to leave out the mundane details like me having worked across some 10 different places spanning 5 industry sectors. This one up there I think gives a good account of what I do now. I have also added a couple of interesting books I read over the last couple of months.

This change is part of my "Greener the better" drive

Semi Spellbound…

2007-02-18T12:26:00.000+04:00

Another Hitchcock, starring Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman. I could only help watching half this classic late yesterday night. I'm sure I would have a small post once I am finished with this movie.

The Wrong Man (1956)

2007-02-15T10:35:00.000+04:00

Actors: Henry Fonda, Vera Miles
Dir: Sir Alfred Hitchcock

Classic Hitchcock, that would be the one phrase definition of this movie. Based on a true story, this movie is more a gripping documentary of the events which happened. Sir Alfred has also used many of the locations where the events happened and has also used the people involved in the case in some small roles in the movie.

The story… In New York, a wrong man is accused of hold-up and robbery. All the witnesses and the circumstances point to this man, who is a honest, law abiding musician who works in a local club as a cello player. How is he absolved of the acquisition? That is the story.

Henry Fonda plays Christopher Emmanuel Balestrero Aka. Manny Balestrero. Vera Miles plays Mrs. Balestrero. Sir Alfred moves the story around how things unfolded and the court room drama before Manny is acquitted, but that is not before he checks his wife into a mental asylum.

One thing very unlike many Hitchcock movies is the final frame of the movie, a super saying Mrs. Balestrero came out of mental rehab 2 years later and they lived happily after. This is very unlike Sir Alfred, who normally prefers an abstract ending for his movies giving freedom for the viewer to come to his own conclusion about the ending (necessarily a happy one!!).

That said, this is a great movie and a must watch for anyone who likes Sir Alfred and his movie making style, Suspense, tension and those will he or will he not moments.

Trivia: Sir Alfred Hitchcock appears early in the movie. Introducing the movie to the audience and familiarizing them that this is a true story.

This film is based on the book "The True Story of Christopher Emmanuel Balestrero" by Maxwell Anderson, who incidentally has penned the screenplay for this movie.

Maxwell was contracted by Hitchcock to write the screenplay for what would become Vertigo later. But unfortunately his screenplay was rejected by Sir Alfred.

Insights - The lethal weapon for any good communication

2007-02-15T10:30:00.000+04:00

Insights kick-off the planning process. It is the insight that determines whether a creative rendition is cutting edge or crap.

Wikipedia says that Insight is the act or result of apprehending the inner nature of things or of seeing intuitively.

An example for an insight

This is something I did sometime ago for a consumer durable major back in India. They wanted to launch a Picture-in-Picture television. I drew the insight from my experience back home. When my mother would want to watch a daily soap on TV, my father would fight her to watch his day-night cricket match.

Hence the insight "People fight over which channel to watch" gave birth to the creative expression which had the proposition "You don’t have to fight for control anymore".

I particularly like the great Jeremy Bullmore's expression of an insight "It is like a refrigerator, the moment you open it a light comes on". I love this analogy of the great man.

Here's some more about what the other planners around the world say about insight…
Russell Davies has some exciting threads about insights in his blog. And here is something from Abu Dhabi.

The DM dilemma

2007-01-16T10:45:00.000+04:00

The more we talk about Direct Marketing, the more we seem to be confused. This is primarily because most of us have still not attemped to understand what Direct Marketing is. Most of us look at DM from two angles...

a. A creative work with an address label pasted on it

b. A clean address (without the usual mistakes!!) printed on a label pasted to a pack containing some information

Now, which one of these is right? Is DM just the creative? Or is DM mailing list lead?

The answer is simple. It is a combination of both. The following are the most important things that would differentiate between a good and mediocre DM.

1. The database - The mailing list (in layman's terms)

2. The offer - What are you offering the target audience ?

3. The relevance - Are you trying to sell dating services to a monk? How relevant is your offer?

4. The creative - The presentation

5. The timing - There is an obvious difference between sending an offer for an Airconditioner at the starting of the summer and the end of it

6. The vehicle - Regular mail / e-mail / Web / Blog / Personal contact etc.

7. The response - How was the response? respose (Vs.) conversion

Only when you are able to tick off all seven you would be able to claim that you did a successful DM exercise. Even one cross would mean that your exercise was not as successful as you meant it to be.

So next time you see an amazing DM creative, wait till you take a look at the other six parameters till you rejoice.

Remember DM is a multi-dimensional stream, your approach has to be correct across the board to be successful.

The joy of living on the 14th floor

2007-01-14T11:35:00.000+04:00

It was a Sunday morning and time to go to office. Sunday is the first day of the week here in Dubai. As you are stepping out of your house, you see a nice little notice pasted on the wall of your floor.

"We regret to inform you that there would be a power cut till 11.30a today morning"

The gravity of the damage didn't strike me till I turned right to take the lift. Alas, Mr Baradwaj the lift wouldn't work if there is a power cut!

The thought of walking 14 floors to your car made more damage to me than the physical activity itself. But it was inevitable, I had to reach office in time.

I searched for the stairs with the help of whatever little light my mobile phone could offer to carefully tread my way down. And I successfully managed to do so in 12 minutes.

Good day Mr Baradwaj!!

Another one from Sajan

2007-01-04T11:38:00.000+04:00

Client: Matchpoint, Taj Coramandel Hotels, Chennai
Agency: Rubecon, Chennai
Medium: Poster

This is another good creative piece of work done for the Matchpoint coffee shop at the Taj Group of Hotels, Taj Coramandel property in Chennai. Done for the "Thanksgiving day", I thought this is a fantastic creative.

A nice creative

2007-01-04T11:26:00.000+04:00

Client: Fruit shop @ Greams Road, Chennai
Agency: Rubecon, Chennai
Medium: Outdoor - Hoarding

Fruit shop is a fresh fruit juice place. One of the must go's in Chennai. This is a hoarding my good friend Sajan has created for Fruit shop - Nice, clean & refreshing!!

Mobility and the saga of Du

2006-12-20T11:25:00.000+04:00

Du is the second operator in the GSM mobility space in the UAE. The country has been waiting them for almost an year now to launch their services. They are out with a million dollar marketing campaign for more than 3 months now. This includes those colorful hoardings across the city, those many full page color advertisements in the national newspapers – Arabic and English, kiosks at vantage points and not to mention the many thousands of Du staff in their uniform with a prominent monogram of the logo.

All this multi million dollar spend not withstanding they seem to go nowhere. They are simply not moving, no sign of them starting their service in the near future. Calls to their customer care center gets you the most ambiguous answer like “May be end of December, may be sometime in 2007” or even the mindless “I don’t know”.

They started their brand campaign “Du – Add life to life” about 3-4 months ago. It was a campaign based on water and its importance in a human beings life. This is what a spokesman from Du has said about this campaign “Water brings people together, it comes from inside us, it allows us to travel far, and it expresses itself with power or as a whisper. And of course, it is all around us in our daily life. This is how we see communication and we want to take it further.”.

Two months of teaching me the importance of water in my life?

Enough of it! Now, tell me what you have to offer me, as a mobile service provider.

And then comes the reserve your number campaign. The older operator Etisalat has a ‘050’ code and Du has been allocated ‘055’. Therefore Du has started a campaign asking people to retain their old number (Etisalat number) but with a ‘055’ code. They charge you somewhere ranging from Dh.100 to Dh.4000 depending on the novelty value of the number you want to reserve. And, yes you could use this number whenever Du decide to start its service. And when? God knows!

But how on earth would someone go on to reserve a number without even knowing what Du has to offer? I wouldn’t unless I suffer from a chronic numeric fetish.

There are no signs of Du telling people what they would bring on to the table in terms of service, costs etc. All they want people to do now is to rush to their kiosks or the website to reserve a number.

Very funny!

They have also extended the deadline for reserving numbers by a month. May be no one is reserving. While they started this campaign of theirs in newspapers, they now have started using radio (almost all the radio channels in the UAE, I presume). There is a cheap spot that appears in one of the Hindi FM channels I heard.

My first remark “Du is running out of water”

There are a couple of things I would like to advice Du and its marketing communication partners on.

1. Figure out who you are first. What business are you in? What do you have to offer to the consumer tangibly? What differentiates you from Etisalat?

2. Sort out the ambiguity in the tone and manner of communication – Figure out who your primary target audience is, speak to them in their language. Don't try win everyone on day one. Remember "Rome wasn't built in one day"

3. For gods sake don’t just plaster the walls and newspapers – Think about why you are.

4. Most importantly, don’t fool people anymore. Put a date for the launch of your services and launch it first before you speak further.

A commercial from Lowe, Mumbai

2006-12-17T13:08:00.000+04:00

This is a brilliant commercial Lowe, Mumbai has done for Camlin Permanent Markers. Camlin is one of the big stationery brands in India.

It is a simple thought all Indians would be aware of. For Indian women, married women in particular their bangles, the vermillion mark on their forehead and the sacred thread the husband ties around the wife’s neck called the mangalsutra (when a man and woman are married) are three important symbols.

The vermillion mark in particular is supposed to be associated with the life of the husband. They retain these marks as long as their husband is alive. Once they loose their husband they loose these sacred symbols too. In rural India, when the husband passes away the symbols are ceremonially removed from his widow. This process is done by a group of elderly widows in town.

The guys from Lowe, Mumbai have effectively exploited this insight to produce this brilliant commercial.

The story here is simple. Camlin Permanent Marker is after all a permanent marker, indelible. This is a story where the husband has used the marker instead of the traditional vermillion powder, and hence indelible. As mythology has it, as long as a woman doesn’t have the vermillion mark wiped off her forehead, her husband is deemed to be living and has to be living with her.

Brilliant… See it for yourself.

What am I watching now?

2006-12-13T10:34:00.000+04:00

It is time for one of the famed BBC comedies, Yes Minister. I bought a boxed set of 3 DVD’s over the weekend.

I remember watching "Yes Minister" as a kid in Doordarshan, the only television channel available in India those days. I particularly loved the character Sir Humphrey played by Nigel Hawthorne. Stiff upper lipped, cynical and the champion of redtape-ism. This character is simply brilliant.

For starters, Yes Minister is a political satire that revolves around 3 three characters (mainly). James Hacker MP. (played by Paul Eddington), who becomes the Cabinet Minister of Administrative Affairs (and later the PM), his Permanent Secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby (played by Nigel Hawthorne) and his Principal Private Secretary Bernard Woolley (played by Derek Fowlds). In some episodes there comes a fourth major character Frank Weisel (played by Neil Fitzwiliam), Hackers Political Advisor.

The advantage watching a British comedy is that even in case you don’t understand the English or the humour, you could time your laugh. This is made easy by the sound of people laughing in the background (an integral part of British comedies), one could time his / her laugh based on that. This would limit the embarrassment and make others think you understand and appreciate the British humour.

A good watch either ways, you understand or not!

Out to help those lads in South Africa...

2006-12-11T16:18:00.000+04:00

The bread, butter & jam effect

2006-11-21T14:55:00.000+04:00

Recently one of my friends felt cheated by his bank. The result of this feeling, he has stopped transacting with the bank and is doing his best to reach the gospel of the good customer service the bank offers across the UAE.

This bank in question is one of the top banks in the region. I believe, this bank has leadership position when it comes to auto loans. Being one of the oldest banks in the region they also boast a good number of companies being their corporate clients and a good number of influential individual customers.

I was thinking about how long it would take before the public en masse decides to pull out of the bank. I was also thinking about how this would happen.

Obviously this has to be a great snowball effect.

At present it is my friend who is the messiah, assume he manages to convince 50 of his friend's and then the word of mouth spreads, gaining momentum. People would add to my friend's story their own stories and their experience with the bank. Finally there would be a situation when a majority of the banks customers share the same opinion of my friend and pull out of the bank. This can’t happen immediately, for snowballs are not created out of the blue (of course unless they are man made - artificial). It is a process and this process of people (read customers) blacklisting this bank would easily take years before it happens, if at all it would.

For this to happen quickly the bank should do some sloppy work with their corporate customers and their hi-end individual customers (read Platinum customers). This wouldn’t happen in all likelihood as banks normally take special care dealing with these people. Agreed that individuals like you and me join hands to make a corporate but at the end of the day we would also agree that the way the bank treats me and you vis-à-vis our companies is very different.

Hence it is going to be ages before this bank in question is made an outcast by a majority of its customers, unless the bank doesn’t mess up drastically with every customer's monthly statement or some other services they offer.

While thinking about the time this bank would take to be boycotted by public I came up with an analogy.

To understand the anology I have come up with, let us assume every bank has three types of customers (broad based segments)

1. The individual customers
2. The hi-end individual customers (platinum or gold etc.)
3. The corporate customers

The individual customers are like bread.

It is the most essential thing for one to survive. But if one starts to notice that it is getting spoilt, we can afford to pick the spoilt side off and still consume it. And it takes a longer time for the whole loaf to get completely stale.

Likewise if one or some individual customer is dissatisfied or grumpy, the bank can afford to throw him out and still service the rest of the population. It would take a while before this dissatisfaction snowballs to a big issue covering a majority of the individual customers. And another advantage the bank has is that all the customers don’t essentially communicate with each other on a daily basis and hence no big badmouthing happens in a short span. Whereas when it becomes a dissatisfied or a grumpy hi-end or a corporate it becomes a larger issue involving press, PR and new media and hence the effect is immediate.

So I could liken the hi-end and corporate customers to the Jam or Butter that one applies on the bread.

If the Jam or Butter goes stale, the bread loses its taste and at times becomes inconsumable. But people take good care about their Jam or Butter, they refrigerate it or find other means to preserve it.

Hence, whatever my friend does now to blacklist this bank among the general public would mostly go into deaf ears or it might take ages before his efforts bear fruit for him. The best way for him to go about is to find a few Jam or Butter category people and try spoil them, then the effect should be immediate and apparent.

So until this bank's JAM or BUTTER is fresh, they would be under an illusion that all is well with the BREAD.

Business as usual…

2006-11-21T14:01:00.000+04:00

Well, the last two weeks of Sir Alfred Hitchcock frenzy comes to an end with today’s review of Psycho.

This means I have finished watching and reviewing all 14 movies from the boxed set of Hitchcock movies I had bought.

Now I shall watch the boxed set again and again. I am going to start my re-viewing process with “Frenzy”.

Psycho (1960)

2006-11-21T13:52:00.000+04:00

Actors: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles
Dir: Sir Alfred Hitchcock

Psycho is acclaimed as one of the best Suspense / thriller / horror movies of all time. It is based on a novel by Robert Bloch. Critics rate this as one of the most effective horror movies ever. Movie buffs, critics and film makers still talk highly about the famous “shower murder” scene in the film. Another reason why the “shower murder” sequence is thrilling is because of Bernard Herrmann’s superb background score.

This film is around the Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) aka. Split personality disorder. That is, a person carrying dual personalities in his mind. This disorder makes a person act like two different personalities at times and the person also suffers a memory loss. While the affected person doesn’t know that there are two personalities in him or what the other personality does to him. At the end the dominant of the personalities win resulting in the person losing his own identity or even death of the person.

Marion Crane embezzles $40,000 from her office. She does this to help her struggling boyfriend, Sam (without his knowledge though) and get him marry her soon. While decamping with the cash and on her way to her boyfriend's place she is faced with heavy rains. She decides to stop for the night a nearby motel, at a deserted road which used to be a highway. The owner of the place Norman Bates claims to be living there with his aged mother all alone. She hears the mother telling Norman to keep away from strange women. In a bizarre turn of events Marion is murdered while she is in the shower of her room. It seems that Norman’s mother is the murderer, Norman like a dutiful son clears up the murder scene and wipes of the remains by drowning them in a nearby swamp.

Arbogast, a private detective hired by Marion’s employer also faces the same fate when he goes in search of Norman’s mother to have a word with her about Marion’s disappearance. Fortunately Arbogast speaks to Marion’s sister Lila just before he is murdered about his suspicion on Norman and his mother. Sam and Lila approach the local sheriff for help. The sheriff laughs off at the complaint saying Norman’s mother had died years ago, commiting suicide and Norman was all alone.

Sam & Lila embark on finding the truth. After the usual Hitchcockian moments it is revealed that Norman is suffering from MPD. He takes his mothers identity to kill people who get close to Norman’s identity. And Norman thinks the murders have been committed by his mother and destroys evidence to save her.

An amazing movie and a must watch for all thriller / horror movie lovers.

Trivia: Sir Alfred appears four minutes in to the film. As Marion comes back to her office after meeting her lover Sir Alfred is seen behind the glass door of Marion’s office, wearing a cowboy hat

Vertigo (1958)

2006-11-20T17:02:00.000+04:00

Actors: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes
Dir: Sir Alfred Hitchcock

A psychological thriller, it is one of the best movies of Sir Alfred. This is a fantastically designed movie right from the title sequence, where Sir Alfred has used some graphic elements to drive the Vertigo name through the viewers mind.

Given all that, the fact that Vertigo was recognized as a culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant film by the National Film Registry (USA) in 1989 is not at all surprizing. This monumental film had to be restored in 1996 and if you watch it now (like I have) you wouldn’t even believe that this film was made way back in the 50’s.

John Ferguson (aka) Scottie is a San Fransisco detective retires from the force because of an acrophobia (fear of heights) he has developed. While he is contemplating what he should do post retirement, he meets one of his old classmates, Elster. This man is now the husband of the last living heiress of a large business family. The man believes his wife is now being possessed by her great grandmonthers spirit and she is being forced to commit suicide by the spirit.

This man wants Scottie to follow his wife and prevent her from commiting suicide. Scottie reluctantly agrees to trail his wife and even falls in love with her. He manages to rescue Madaleine once from drowning but couldn’t the next time when she climbs on top of a tower to plummet to death, because of his acrophobic tendencies. Because of the death of Madaleine, Scottie becomes mentally depressed for a while.

Later Scottie finds a girl called Judy who resembles Madeleine in every aspect. This is when Sir Alfred’s master directorship comes into play. The story then takes a complete U-turn. It turns out that Elster had hired Judy (who resembled his wife) to kill his Madaleine, threw her body from the top of the tower making Scottie a witness. He makes Scottie the witness by making him first believe about the sprit story and exploiting Scottie’s acrophobic tendencies.

It is amazing to see the way Sir Alfred produces twists and turns to keep you at the edge of your seat throughout the movie. A must watch.

Trivia: Sir Alfred makes his cameo 11 minutes into the film. He is seen walking in the street dressed in a gray suit.

Vertigo will have to wait

2006-11-16T12:32:00.000+04:00

A busy last couple of days at office has ensured that my review on Vertigo by Sir Alfred Hitchcock has to wait till this weekend.

I would have this review posted soon.

Rope (1948)

2006-11-14T15:39:00.000+04:00

Actors: James Stewart, John Dall, Farley Granger
Dir: Sir Alfred Hitchcock

I would rate this the best of all Hitchcock movies I have seen till date. A small house, 9 characters, 10 reels of film, minimal or almost zero editing leaving alone the opening establishment shot in the street.

In those days when a reel of film measured up to 10 minutes in running time, this should have been quite a task moving the camera around a small house, filled with characters. There is not a moment when one would feel a jerk in camera movement or the scene progression.

It is believed that Sir Alfred wanted to shoot a play real time and make it a movie, this gave birth to the idea of having a film shot like a play, without any editing. But because of the constraint that one reel of film could only run 10 minutes on screen, Sir Alfred divided his shots into 10 segments and then linked them up on the table. He employed techniques like ending a reel up in a close up shot and then panning off to the next character or close the reel with a pan and start the next one with a close up.

And now the story, two young men kill their friend. They kill because they think superior humans are justified killing their inferior counterparts, just to prove this point. They plan this a perfect murder, meaning they wouldn’t by caught by any chance. They dump the dead man in a chest, put that in the middle of their house and convert it into a dining table for a party. This party is attended by the dead boys parents (his aunt turns up in place of his mother along with his father), his girlfriend, a classmate and their high school master. The whole movie is how they try to cover-up their anxiety and the crime and then finally they are caught by their high school master, the person who implanted the superior humans theory in their minds.

Trivia: Sir Alfred appears during the title of this movie, walking down the road along with a lady

His caricature also appears as a neon sign behind the window of the hall

This was supposed to be a bold movie (at that time) with a very strong homosexual theme, but it is hardly noticeable in the movie.

Sir Alfred shot one segment (reel) a day

He had to re-shoot the last 4-5 segments because he was dissatisfied with the color of the sunset

Hitchcock has been credited both as director and producer of this film

Rope was Sir Alfred’s first movie in color.

Hitchcock on leave

2006-11-13T15:09:00.000+04:00

I couldn't catch-up with Mr Hitchcock yesterday night because of some unavoidable circumstances.

I would be back with his Rope tomorrow...

The trouble with Harry (1955)

2006-11-12T13:07:00.000+04:00

Actors: John Forsythe, Edmund Gwenn, Shirley MacLaine
Dir: Sir Alfred Hitchcock

Considered one of Hitchcock’s unusual films, it is a black comedy. An amazing watch, this film is a little ahead of its time in terms of some of the racy dialogues it contains. It was not a big box office success when it was released.

This film is set in a small town, Vermont. The film follows the quirky residents as they deal with a dead body found in the local mountain side. Everyone thinks they killed Harry (the dead man) and tries to cover up. Finally as they all team up to discuss who killed Harry and who would take the blame, the local doctor announces that Harry died due to a heart attack and was not murdered.

A simple movie set in a small town. I thought this was a brilliant Hitchcock comedy. I was particularly happy that it didn’t have any of Sir Alfred’s favorite spy & espionage elements in it.

Trivia: 20 minutes into the film, Sir Alfred appears walking past the parked limousine of an old man who is looking at paintings

Music composer Bernard Herrmann’s successful collaboration with Sir Alfred started with this film

Torn curtain (1966)

2006-11-12T12:46:00.000+04:00

Actors: Paul Newman, Julie Andrews
Dir: Sir Alfred Hitchcock

This is a political thriller by Sir Alfred (it can also be classified as a spy thriller). Though this film is not accepted as a Hitchcock hit, it was a minor box office success.

Michael Armstrong, an young nuclear scientist defects to East Germany. His young fiancée & assistant, Sarah Sherman trails him to East Berlin and confronts him. The twist and turns of the story reveal that Michael is actually no defector but is helping his country to unearth the East German and Soviet nuclear ambitions. Now Michael has to take with him the secret formula of the East German nuclear plan and his fiancée safely out of East Germany with the staci and the police chasing them.

The best scene in this movie is probably the murder of the East German staci by Michael and the farmers wife. Hitchcock rates this as one of his favorite sequences. In this sequence Sir Alfred actually demonstrates how difficult it is to kill a man. One of the best murder sequences I have ever seen.

Trivia: Sir Alfred makes an appearance very early in the film, sitting at the lobby of Hotel d'Angleterre with a blond baby on his lap

This film was produced by Sir Alfred Hitchcock (uncredited)

Topaz (1969)

2006-11-12T12:23:00.000+04:00

Actors: Frederick Stafford, Dany Robin, Claude Jade, John Forsythe
Dir: Sir Alfred Hitchcock

One of Sir Alfred’s movies without an American star cast, this movie is full of international actors. With a Czech actor Frederick Stafford in the lead. This is one the many Hitchcock spy thrillers.

A French agent André Devereaux agrees to help his American CIA friends in unearthing a missile program the Cubans are developing with the assistance of the Soviet Union. André’s French superiors are not very happy with his helping the Americans and he gets recalled back to Paris, it makes matters worse when André finds about a counter intelligence spy ring headed by some of his own French counterparts in high places to help the Soviets.

The film follows André’s journey through New York, Cuba and Paris before he exposes the plot of his own intelligence people. This film features a uncredited appearance by the Cuban leader Fidel Castro (Sir Alfred has used some footage of the leader to lend some credibility to a Cuban rally scene).

A trademark Sir Alfred Hitchcock spy thriller. But was not a success in the box office. And was criticized by many in the US for not featuring any known American faces.

Trivia: Sir Alfred appears half an hour into the film in the airport. He is being pushed in a wheelchair to a flight. He gets up at one point, shakes hand with a man and walks off into a gate.

Shadow of a doubt (1943)

2006-11-12T11:52:00.000+04:00

Actors: Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotten
Dir: Sir Alfred Hitchcock

Young Charlie suspects that her beloved uncle Charlie is a murderer. She sees that the police are trailing her uncle and he could well be the cold blooded “Merry widow murderer”. One who targets rich new widows, seduces them and murders them for gain. Charlie wishes she is proved wrong and her uncle is clean.

But as the story unfolds uncle Charlie even tries murdering his beloved niece young Charlie to escape law.

With the typical Hitchcock style of story telling and the staple suspense elements, this movie is worth a watch. But as any other Hitchcock movie you might want to watch this movie a second time before you like it.

Many critics and historians consider this movie a classic and one of Sir Alfred's best American films, and this movie was one of Sir Alfred’s all time personal favorites.

Trivia: Sir Alfred is seen in the train to Santa Rosa, playing cards.

The name Charlie (name of two characters in the movie) is repeated 170 times in this movie

This film was nominated for Academy awards in two categories – Best writing and Best original story

Saboteur (1942)

2006-11-09T12:07:00.000+04:00

Actors: Priscilla Lane, Robert Cummings and Norman Lloyd
Dir: Sir Alfred Hitchcock

A wartime movie about war. A typical Hitchcockian plot, where the hero is wrongly chased by police and law for a crime he didn’t commit. The hero is constantly on the run while he investigates and finds the real culprit to get his name cleared.

Aircraft worker Barry Kane is accused of causing fire in the factory which kills his best friend and injures many. While Barry says the fire could have been caused by a fellow called Fry, the police don’t believe because there is nobody called Fry in the factory. Barry becomes a fugitive to unravel the mystery and clear his name.

The movie is much ahead of its time. Unbelievable camera work and action sequences make you wonder if the film was really shot in 1942. the famous being the climax action sequence atop the Statue of Liberty.

Trivia: Sir Alfred makes an appearance by the end of the first hour of the movie. He is seen standing in a shop in New York, with his back facing the camera as the saboteurs car pulls up.

Sir Alfred’s cameo was supposed to be a slightly bigger role. He and his secretary at that point in time, Ms. Carol Steven were supposed to walk through the streets as a deaf and dumb couple. In this scene Sir Alfred was supposed to make some gestures (sign language) to his partner to get slapped by her (because the gesture was supposed to be an indecent proposal). Later this act was dropped by Hitchcock as he feared it might be construed derogatory by the deaf and dumb community.