Now that there are three friends who are expecting babies, I decided to run a pool and have everyone guess two things about each baby:
 
1. Weight
2. Time of birth
 
Everyone is chipping in with some $$ and their guesses, and there will be 6 winners.
 
Cool, eh?

If I have to use one word to describe ARY Digital’s coverage of the Asia Cup, I would use the word ‘sucks’.
 
It seems like they are re-telecasting someone else’s coverage. So the commentators seem to be in a studio (or maybe an apartment in New York ;-) ), and there is hardly any stadium noise. It feels quite dead.
 
And of course, the camera work, which I don’t suppose is ARY’s, is pathetic. It took me back to those old Doordarshan days where the camera and the ball would hardly ever be in the same place!
 
Pathetic may be another word I could use.

So many things to say.

India won its game, as predicted. Sehwag scored a 0 instead of a double hundred, as I expected.

Sachin was comfortable and confident and got out to a soft dismissal. As usual.

Ganguly was clueless and he should have gone on 0 (easy slip catch dropped) and 4 (a tough catch in the gully dropped). But in the end, what he puts up on the board is more important. And in the end, time spent in the middle has not substitute. Good for him.

I slept off after the first 45 minutes or so. Later found out that Dravid scored a century.

This guy, I am telling you. Don’t know what he eats and what he does, but he is redefining consistency. No wonder he is The Wall or Mr. Dependable.

Hats off to you, sir.

I saw some of the initial bowling and man, Irfan Pathan is awesome. The way he is able to swing the ball is amazing to watch. He is a good prospect for India in the long term and hopefully he keeps fit and keeps bowling for India for a long time.

Of course, the rest of the innings was nothing much to shout about, except the fact that Sachin pocketed 3 wickets. Did not see how he took them (but I have the innings taped, so I will watch it later today ;-) ), but 3 wickets is quite a handful.

India has started the season 1-0. Let’s hope for more in the win column.

I went to the ATM today when I realized that there was a new Indian restaurant called Tiffins right next to it. I noted it and after doing my bank work, I decided to try it out.

After all, they served Naans, Paneer, etc. and they mentioned Tandoor too.

It is a small place that can seat maybe 15 people. There is a mini buffet where you can order 2 or 3 items and you get 2 tandoori rotis or rice or 1 Naan. I chose Naan, along with Malai Kofta and Matar Paneer.

The Naan was awesome - with butter shimerring on its top surface. I have not had butter naan in a while, so this was quite a good deal. As I was eating, I noticed a gentleman who looked like the owner, talking to the person who was taking the orders. They were talking business, I suppose.

Then he started walking towards me and asked me how the food tasted. I replied that it tasted good. Then, immediately, even without waiting to hear what I had to say, he turned away and started talking to a white boy who was waiting for his to-go order.

He talked and talked and talked. He in fact, gave him the menu for him to take and give it to friends. He also told him what other stuff they have to offer to him. A lot of things were discussed.

My problem is that why did he not choose to talk like that to me, or another Indian fellow who was sitting there? Why did he choose to talk so much in detail with the white boy?

And trust me, this is not the first time I have seen something like this happening. I have seen it all over the place, and a lot of times. Amber India in Mountain View is one place that jumps out for such behavior.

It is sad, but true. Why do Indians not like other Indians? Is there some bad precedent that Indian consumers in general have set? Do business people not want to bond too much with Indians? What is the reason?

Yahoo News reports that the BCS has changed its formula and is going to give AP writers and the coaches polls more weightage.

Does this solve our problems? No.

Will this solve our problems? Who knows.

One way or the other, we need a playoff structure so that all the fans see for themselves what could’ve been. Like USC/LSU meeting for a true national championship last year.

If Mike Williams comes back to USC, I would say that they will be ranked #1 in pre-season. How they play their games will determine if BCS formula is going to be important or not.

First game is against Virginia Tech, which is no puppy. So let’s get the momentum going!

Football, can’t wait for it to start! :-)

Not that it was not a forgone conclusion after Phil Jackson went and Shaq was traded, but now it is official - Kobe Bryant is going to stay with the Lakers.

I know a lot of people fall under the ‘anti Kobe’ and ‘pro Shaq’ category, but hey, as a Lakers fan, it is nice that at least one of the two superstars is going to stay.

Now, Kobe will feel what he had and what he took for granted - those easy passes to Shaq for dunks are not going to exist anymore. Do the Lakers have a center?

Days are flying by. It is already Thursday. Day 11. I sometimes wonder if there will be a day when I look back and say, why the hell did I do the things I did. Wasn’t there a better way to spend the life?

Maybe it is just a philosophical thought, as very powerfully said in Pink Floyd’s song Time:

“And you run and you run

Racing around, to come up behind you again

The sun is the same in the relative way

But you’re older

Shorter of breath,

One day closer to death”

Just keep running.

I did not want to have to subscribe to this channel - ARY Digitial. Apparently, based in Dubai and having predominantly Middle Eastern content. But they are the only ones televising it in North America, as far as I know.

So I did what I was resisting for so long. Signed up for that channel, just to see the boys play some cricket for the first time this season.

Let’s hope the rain Gods don’t dance around the time India plays :-)

Read this! Amazing. How can they come up with such a gimmick?

Well, on second thoughts, it seems like it is a nice one. People will watch the game, and see who is the winner of the USD 1000 :-)

And of course, be happy that Sachin is dismissed ;-)

Left threatens to withdraw support. How many days since the new guys were in power?

I am telling you, these Left parties are going to create havoc for the Government. Let’s hope for the best.

India cannot afford another election. Too much to handle.

Poor guy. Seems to be disappointed a lot. Let’s hope he gets back into the test team at least.

Wow. What and eventful Wednesday evening it was. We were all talking about a friend whose wife (also a friend) is pregnant in her 6th month.

Then, as we were getting ready to go eat, another friend stopped us and said that they have an announcement to make. And boom, they said they were expecting their child in Jan! And we had not even let that thought sink when another friend casually said that they were also expecting their kid in Jan!

Wow!

Wow! Wow!

Suddenly, we are in a minority here, in the ‘non expecting’ couple category.

Wow! Still shaken up a bit from the news.

First it was my roommate from LA, though it’s been a long long time (2 years?).

Then it was my roommate from DC. Their kid is about 2-3 months old.

Then it was my cousin. Their kid is about 2 weeks old.

The other day I met a friend who was visiting from India. His kid is 22 months old!

We met this friend at a common friend’s place. Their kid is 4 months old!

Then the other friend in the 6th month.

And now, add these two to the list.

Suddenly, the talk was about morning sickness, exercises, OB-GYN, common doctors, hospitals, stroller valet, etc.

Things are changing so fast around me. Need to come to grips with reality. :-)

The deal is now done.

I feel bad that Shaq’s gone. Hopefully Lakers can keep Kobe.

Hey, at least Shaq did not go to Sacramento or Dallas. Phew! :-)

It’s going to be a long season behind the wickets

Finally, yesterday, my blog became ad-free. The look-and-feel is much better now, with that extra space at the top devoted to the page style.

Now, I want to see how I can put a picture within a post, rather than have only the picture in a posting.

How does one get on the inside track of someone else they know? To get the scoop. To be the buddy.

Does it involve give-and-take? I tell you something first and then you tell me? Or is it mostly the warmth, the charm, etc.? There are people who are instantly within the inner circle, but there are others who just don’t get through that sphere.

And the issue can get more complex if you involve not just person A to person B, but also person A, person B and person C. You see it all the time - friends, family, work, everywhere. Everyone trying to get into everyone else’s circles/spheres. Not all make it.

And when these persons interact on a regular basis, it could become critical for all to be in each other’s spheres or none to be. Or else…..

These replies do not sound scripted. I think these have come from the heart, in a very truthful manner.

Sachin like Formula 1 and would love to drive a Formula 1 car (Ferrari)! :-)

According to Cricinfo, Agarkar is all set to play for Middlesex for one month. Lord’s. The Mecca of cricket. Ajit’s only test century.

And Glenn McGrath as the bowler from the opposite end.

Only next to playing for India in the Asia Cup :-)

They were able to survive the last day and somehow manage a draw. To get a draw against these rampaging Aussies is a big deal. Especially after they put up such a huge score in the first innings. And especially after a collapse in the final innings from Sri Lanka.

Their lower middle order and the tail somehow survived some tough times at the end of a dark final session. Warne has equaled the world record for wickets, but Murali is going to win that race for sure.

Congratulations, Lanka. Now, please stay in that test match mode, because you are in India’s group for the Asia Cup :-)

Can’t wait. Though I must say I am not so excited about India facing the likes of UAE, Bangladesh and HK.

But looking ahead to the major series - Australia at home and South Africa at home, for tests, it is important to talk about the openers.

I understand that Sehwag turned into a decent opener despite being a middle order batsman. I am feeling bad for Chopra who has been conveniently pushed out of the squad with all the talk about Yuvi opening with Sehwag.

First of all, I have no problem with ‘middle order’ batsmen becoming openers. But talking about Yuvi as a test opener for the Indian national team without truly testing him in that position is unfair to him as well as Chopra. He is kinda set up for failure and Chopra is unnecessarily thrown out of the playing XI.

Of course, time will tell what the real deal is, but on paper, it does not make sense to shake the existing XI, except tweaking the bowling combination based on fitness as well as pitch conditions.

But Ganguly’s talk of Yuvraj being a ‘class act’ and one that ‘cannot be ignored’ is again a pointer to what I think is favoritism. ;-)

There is one more thing I forgot to mention - profile and sharing profile.

Another thing you can do is create your own profile (so others with similar interests may find you) and also, share it. Sharing a profile makes it visible if someone clicks on your Display Name.

When you log into blogger, you see the Dashboard. On there, you will see a link to Edit Profile.

Uncheck ‘Show my real name’ if you don’t want others to see your real name. They will only be able to see the Display Name.

Uncheck ‘Show my email address’ to make it invisible to others.

Show my blogs. This one is used to hide your blogs from others who see your profile. Of course, your blogs are always visible to users if they know the address. But let’s say you don’t want someone to see one of your blogs, if you have more than one. In that case, you can decide to ‘show’ only the ones that you want to show.

For example, you can have a personal blog for jotting down your thoughts and not make it public. In that case, just show the public blog and keep this personal blog hidden.

Photograph and Audio Clip will be empty for now. Once you move to advanced stage, you can start experimenting with those things.

From ‘General’ onwards, the more you put, the more you will match with others. I personally did not put the year of birth, so my age is not known.

Also, in the interests, movies, music, etc. sections, make sure you put the name of the movie, band, singer, etc. correctly and separated with commas. What this will enable is clicking on the name, so that you can find people with similar interests.

Hope this helps!

Came across an excellent article by Rohit Brijnath about brilliance and domination and how that is never boring.

Let me tell you my take on it. There is a certain part of me as a sports fan that wants to see some team dominate their opponents. There is another part of me though, that wants to create a contendor, and hopefully a rivalry. Two or three people (or teams) who are equally good in skills and talent and who could win on any given day, would be much better for me to follow, than one individual/team completely dominating all the time.

That’s why I did not like (and still don’t) Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls.

That’s why I am not liking the current state of Formula 1.

That’s why I truly did not like Steve Waugh’s Australian cricket team, and I do not like the Ricky Ponting’s current team.

That’s why I would not watch Sampras playing at Wimbledon.

In fact, in all of these cases, I would actually hope that a rank outsider would beat them.

I don’t follow much of football, so I will pass on Arsenal.

Mind you, it is not like I did not like them at all at any given point. I liked Jordan, Tiger and Schumacher as athletes. I loved to watch the Australian team playing awesome cricket, redefinig a lot of philosophies prevalent in cricket at the time. But once they start dominating for a while, they do make it less and less exciting for a lay sports follower like me.

True, the purists would say, like Brijnath says and like it is aruged on a blog, brilliance and domination is actually perfection on display. If you really really love the sport, you won’t mind domination as displayed my Schumacher, as displayed by Jordan and Tiger and the Aussie team.

But I don’t agree. I have seen enough of pure cricket. I have seen enough of pure driving. I have seen enough of buzzer-beater shots by Jordan. It is more exciting to see rivalries.

John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors.

Ivan Lendl, Stefan Edberg, Boris Becker.

Schumacher and Hakkinen.

Senna and Prost. Add Mansell, Lauda to the list.

Lakers and Celtics of the 80’s.

Yankees and Red Sox.

Michigan and Ohio State.

and so on.

Its rivalries that make the game more exciting from spectators' long term point of view.

Yes, it is cool to see a team or a players completely dominate the opponents once in a while. It has to happen otherwise we are encouraging mediocrity. But for the long term, it is good to see a change. Dynasties are good, but complete domination by a team in creating a dynasty is very bad for the sport.

At least that is my point. What’s yours?

Here is a copy of instructions I sent to my niece about how to start blogging. Useful for anyone starting off :-)

1. Go to www.blogger.com

2. Click on ‘create a blog’. If you have already created a blog, skip to step #1 in the next section

3. Create a username for your login to blogger. This username is something that will never be displayed anywhere. It is only for login purposes.

4. Choose a password

5. Display name is the name which will show up when you post a thought on your blog (posted by RPM, for example). It is also what shows up when you make a comment on someone else’s or your own blog.

6. Click next and choose a title for your blog.

7. Next, choose how your blog address will look like. Make it simple so people can remember the address. Once you choose the address, it will become your blog’s address as something.blogspot.com. If the address you want is not available you may have to try a few alternatives.

8. Clicking on next will show you a list of templates you can choose for your blog. Click on the magnifying glass next to the template to expand the view. There you’ll see how the template looks like. Once you like the template, choose it and click continue.

9. That’s it!

Of course, then you can go into the settings of your blog and customize it.

1. Go to www.blogger.com

2. Login with the username and password selected in #3 above.

3. Click on settings tab at the top.

4. You can enter a description for your blog.

5. You can also add your blog to the directory listings. What this does is makes the blog visible to a lot more people than it would normally. It is kind of putting an ad in the paper for your shop or something. If you want to stay low-profile, you can choose no. If you want to create a splash and have more and more unknown people read your thoughts, then choose yes.

6. Always keep pressing ‘Save settings’

7. Click on ‘publishing’ under ‘settings’. Ping weblogs.com is similar to #5, where it announces to a lot of people that your blog has been updated, when you do update it. Choose yes if you want the world to know that you have updated your blog, and no if you want to keep it subtle.

8. Choose ‘formatting’ under ‘settings’. It would be best to leave it at default.

9. Choose ‘comments’ under ‘settings’. If you want others to be able to comment on your thoughts, choose ‘show’.

10. Under ‘who can comment’, you can choose to let only registered users of blogger make comments. This means, when people want to make a comment, they will have to login to blogger. Anonymous comments will not be allowed. And that is not usually a good thing. So I would say ‘Anyone’. Of course, if you want to make it a truly closed blog, you can choose ‘only members of this blog’ in that option. This means, that you have to set up a list of members who can post to this blog. Only they can make comments to the blog. I had originally tried this but it was not a good option, because I wanted to make a splash and let others/unknowns also make comments. :-)

11. It would be nice to put an email address for notifications as and when someone posts a comment for you.

12. Leave the other tabs on default settings and go to the ‘members’ area. Here you can invite members if you want to make it a closed blog. Only people on this list will be able to make comments and even write posts.

That’s it. It’s that simple.

Gotham 2 off my Amazon Wish List

The domination of Michael Schumacher continues, but the good news for me in the British GP was Kimi’s P2! Go Kimi Raikkonen!