Alfred Hitchcock presents - The signature tune

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...

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

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...

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...