Year 2007....

As all do, its time to look back at the passing year to analyze the positives and negatives that happened to you. Well, there were a lot of negatives that happened to me but every time I kept on learning a positive thing out of it and now I am strong believer of

"We must be the change we want to see in the world"
~Mahatma Gandhi


Thanks 2007..

Nicknames

"Have you ever heard of person nicknamed "Bob" whose actual name is "Robert"??" or

"Polly, Patsy, Peggy, and Nancy are actually nicknames for Mary, Martha, Margaret, and Ann, respectively."

Its kinda confusing but interesting as well. In English the nicknames may not always tell you the real name of the person. After doing some googling I got this interesting info. Some excerpt

http://www.cc.kyoto-su.ac.jp/~trobb/nicklist.html

http://www.moonzstuff.com/articles/nicknames.html

Yuvraj Singh.. A Ton in Last Session.. Fabulous

I still remember when I was a kid, my father bought a cricket book for me. It had a little story of the cricket match between Australia and England at Headingley in 1930. Sir Don Bradman hit a triple ton in a single day of a test match. He scored 105 in first session, 115 in second and scored 89 in by the time the day finished.

Yuvraj Singh repeated the feat yesterday when he scored a ton in the last session of the play on the first day of the third test match between India and Pakistan at Bangalooru (Yes, its no more Bangalore its bangalooru). He was at 67 when India went in for tea. He got out in the third last over of the day with 169 in his pocket. 102 in just one session.

It was an innings of great class, awesome timing, high back lift, perfect placement, a touch of arrogance and loads of confidence. Watch the highlights here

http://crideos.blogspot.com/2007/12/3rd-test-india-vs-pakistan-at-bangalore.html

Tough time for selectors to choose a team for Australia tour :-)

Show Me Your Jalwa!!

Watched Aaja Nachle yesterday.

Madhuri is as stunning as she was in her twenties.

Konkana Sen has run away with a little cameo.

Android - Next Gen Mobile Phones

Android Demo

Re-usablity

I picked these Diyas from Walmart and they are indeed re-usable. These actually are candles in a small plastic bowl! The candle burns but the melted wax does not go anywhere. It remains in the bowl only.

I light the Diyas in the evening and keep it outside and then buzaofy them after some time. The melted wax solidifies as the temperature outside goes below zero in the night.

In the morning you have the diyas ready for re-use :-)

दीपावली शुभाचिन्तन

दीपावली शुभाचिन्तन

Hurricanes - They also have names

Currently hurricane NOEL is in Bahamas. I really wonder how do these hurricanes get names. So after doing a little bit of googling I got this. Its interesting.

Follow this link http://www.fema.gov/kids/hunames.htm

Can there be hurricane 'Sujay'? LOL--<

$ vs INR : What's Next?

In the last financial year we have seen a great deal of appreciation of rupee against dollar. The conversion rate is into late 40s. will the rupee further appreciate or it will go down??

Here is the insight

Why Rupee is appreciating?

The Indian economy is booming like anything. The services, energy and manufacturing sector is doing very well. The monsoon has been good. When the economy is booming and attractive investors will pour in money into the economy. In the recent months the sudden surge in the stock market is because of FII and foreign mutual funds investing their money in Indian Economy. As they need to buy everything in Rupees the demand for Rupee has increased.

On the other hand, the US economy is slowing down. There is major credit crunch. Also there are companies in their better times promised that their employees will be given all medical care even if they are retired. The US health care however is too expensive and it is sucking money out of the profits these companies are earning. Also, the thirst of oil will never die in US. Oil has reached all time high and the inflation has increased.

The US fed reserve is continuously cutting down on interest rates. There is no way citizens of US can appreciate their daollar savings withing the country. Hence they are looking around for the booming economies.

All in all, as long as US economy does not boom up, there is no way rupee is going to get weak. It will continue to appreciate. Stock market players have a good time :-)

It also happens in Developed Country

Well, I am currently in Saint Louis, MO and was surfing through you tube regarding the history of St. louis and found this shocking video. Please watch it.


Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol, East St. Louis




East St. Louis has produced the great people like Jimmy Connors, Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

Also, Jonathan Kozol who has created the video, is a non-fiction writer, educator, and activist, best known for his books on public education in the United States.

Reliance Bubble?

I could not stop 'copying' this on my blog.

As the Sensex moved past 18000, the Ambanis crossed another milestone -that of the richest family on earth. The combined wealth of Mukesh and Anil is now over $90 billion, more than the net worth of Walton family -promoters of Wal-Mart. Now consider this, only 53 countries had GDP of over $90 billion in 2006 as per World Bank data!

Reliance Industries, Mukesh's flagship, is the best performing large-cap index stock anywhere in the world this year by a wide margin. The stock has been on a relentless up-move, triggered by speculation on pricing of natural gas from its KG Basin fields and expectations of fast expanding retail operations. The gas pricing has now been finalized and it is a fair deal to Reliance. High crude oil prices will ensure record refining margins at its refinery and the petrochemicals businesses are also doing very well.

But, do all these factors - many of them known even earlier - warrant a more than doubling of the stock price? Reliance's much talked about retail roll out is slowing down as the company is facing resistance in many states.

Given the uncertain political scenario at the centre and possibility of an early election, it is unlikely that state governments will move in favour of the company - though it has every right to receive protection from violent protesters.

Even if the company manages to expand its network, using the famous Reliance ability to work the system, how profitable are these stores going to be - given the rush of new players into retail and prohibitive property costs? The small neighborhood I live in already has seven modern branded retail stores on one street, including a Reliance Fresh! It is doubtful if anyone other than the landlords are going to make any money out of the retail revolution anytime soon.

Reliance Petroleum, the latest jewel in Mukesh's crown, now boasts of a market capitalization of close to Rs78,000 crore. This is for a company, which is setting up an oil refinery and may start operations in another two years if all goes well. Many things can go wrong in between; the US economy may cool off further, which will lower fuel demand and bring down prices.

Margins are already under pressure despite record crude oil prices, though Reliance Petroleum will enjoy higher than industry margins by processing heavier crude oil. The US dollar may weaken further, making exports of refined products less lucrative. Domestic demand is not rising fast enough to absorb the possible surplus capacity.

RPL's market value of Rs78,000 crore seems even more incredible when the total project cost of the refinery is Rs27,000 crore! So, even when the project is at the implementation stage, the company is enjoying a value of nearly thrice the total cost. Once the refinery becomes operational,imagine the future value it must generate to justify these valuations!

To put it in another way, RPL's current valuation is nearly two-thirds of Infosys. That much wealth was created without even 5 per cent of the effort Murthy, Nilekani and thousands of Infosys employees put in over the last 25 years to make Infosys what it is today. Reminds you of website valuations in the late '90s? Wait until you hear about the miracles that the Anil Ambani Group stocks have performed.

Not to be outpaced, Anil Ambani has also taken a leaf out of big brother Mukesh's 'wealth creation strategy'. If Mukesh can generate so much wealth just by taking a new project public, why can't Anil? So, he decided to take hive off the big power projects from Reliance Energy and announced the creation of Reliance Power. How much capacity is Reliance Power going to build? The sky is the limit it seems, as the company has announced plans for 12 projects with an aggregate capacity of more than 24,000 MW. That is more than the existing capacity of NTPC, the biggest power generation company in the business now. Impressive, indeed.

What else can Reliance Power do? There is some market talk of huge cement plants, which will use the fly ash from its own power plants as raw material. Some reports suggest that the potential capacity may be more than the existing capacity of the entire cement industry in the country. Even more impressive! Where will the company sell all that cement? Please don't ask such dumb questions!

But how profitable are these projects likely to be? Reliance Power's flagship project will be the 4,000 MW ultra-mega power project at Sasan, which by the way is its only project that can be implemented anytime soon.

This project was awarded to Reliance Energy after the earlier awardee, Lanco-Globeleq, was disqualified. The tariff quoted by Reliance is Rs1.2 per unit, which must be among the lowest anywhere in the world. When the project was awarded to Lanco, many doubted whether the project would ever be profitable at such low tariffs. Now that the project is with Reliance, the markets have no doubt it will be a money-spinner.

All the troubles Reliance Energy continues to face on its 7,500 MW Dadri project in Uttar Pradesh have also been overlooked. Even nearly two years after announcing the project, it is still not clear if the company has completed its land acquisition. It does not help that the current Uttar Pradesh government is sending not very supportive signals over the project because of Anil Ambani's political interests. Nothing much has been heard about a similarly ambitious project proposed in Orissa, announced last year.

When the Reliance Energy stock was moving on all these fantastic news flows, came the announcement that the company would develop a huge township in Andhra Pradesh. The centrepiece of this township is to be a 100-story high-rise, the tallest in the country - no less. And the stock jumped another 12 per cent!

All these stories of fantastic valuations pale in comparison to Reliance Natural Resources or RNRL. Here is a company that was originally supposed to buy natural gas from Reliance Industries and supply it to various Reliance Energy projects. In other words nothing more than a gas trader. Then markets started to see infinite possibilities for the company in the entire energy space - from exploring for oil and coal bed methane to city gas distribution. The company won three or four coal bed methane blocks in Rajasthan and a small oil block in Mizoram in the last round of NELP bidding.

These are all exploration blocks, mind you, and RNRL has to drill and find something under the ground. But the RNRL stock has behaved as if the company is already sitting on huge oil and gas reserves.

RNRL now boasts a market capitalisation of around Rs13,500 crore. Incredible as it may sound, the last leg of the surge came after the company applied for a licence - just an application that might have cost a few thousand rupees - for city gas distribution. That news pushed up its market value by around Rs3,000 crore in a single day. Indraprastha Gas, the leading city gas distributor in the country with a monopoly in Delhi and now expanding to other cities, has a market value of just Rs1,900 crore!!

Source : Bola na Yahan Wahan Se Mara!!!

Fly

Sometimes it happens on some day that nothing goes fine and you feel really really frustrated at the end of it. A fly made my day miserable yesterday.

Lately, there are lot of flies intruded in my apartment and I spend almost half an hour running around them and killing them (don't tell to Maneka) in order to stop from them populating more and more. Yesterday I completed the assasination and almost reached the level of frustration and then was going through somebody's scrap book on Orkut and found this

Arrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

Where Does Google Get All Its Hard Drive Space?

Goonji si hai...

The lyrics and the actions in the video somehow do not match 100%. But still its the best by Sadhna Sargam. Just Melodious!!

The Sensex story: From 1K to 18K

Indian markets achieved yet another milestone on Tuesday. The Sensex crossed the 18,000-mark on the back of renewed buying today. The index hit a fresh all-time intra-day high of 18,327. It took just 8 trading days to hit 18,000 from the 17,000 mark. The last 2,000 points have come in a short span of just 13 trading sessions.
Following is the timeline on the rise and rise of the Sensex through Indian stock market history.

1000, July 25, 1990
On July 25, 1990, the Sensex touched the magical four-digit figure for the first time and closed at 1,001 in the wake of a good monsoon and excellent corporate results.

2000, January 15, 1992
On January 15, 1992, the Sensex crossed the 2,000-mark and closed at 2,020 followed by the liberal economic policy initiatives undertaken by the then finance minister and current Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.

3000, February 29, 1992
On February 29, 1992, the Sensex surged past the 3000 mark in the wake of the market-friendly Budget announced by the then Finance Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh.

4000, March 30, 1992
On March 30, 1992, the Sensex crossed the 4,000-mark and closed at 4,091 on the expectations of a liberal export-import policy। It was then that the Harshad Mehta scam hit the markets and Sensex witnessed unabated selling.

5000, October 8, 1999
On October 8, 1999, the Sensex crossed the 5,000-mark as the BJP-led coalition won the majority in the 13th Lok Sabha election.

6000, February 11, 2000
On February 11, 2000, the infotech boom helped the Sensex to cross the 6,000-mark and hit and all time high of 6,006.

7000, June 20, 2005
On June 20, 2005, the news of the settlement between the Ambani brothers boosted investor sentiments and the scrips of RIL, Reliance Energy, Reliance Capital and IPCL made huge gains. This helped the Sensex crossed 7,000 points for the first time.

8000, September 8, 2005
On September 8, 2005, the Bombay Stock Exchange's benchmark 30-share index -- the Sensex -- crossed the 8000 level following brisk buying by foreign and domestic funds in early trading.

9000, November 28, 2005
The Sensex on November 28, 2005 crossed the magical figure of 9000 to touch 9000.32 points during mid-session at the Bombay Stock Exchange on the back of frantic buying spree by foreign institutional investors and well supported by local operators as well as retail investors.

10,000, February 6, 2006
The Sensex on February 6, 2006 touched 10,003 points during mid-session। The Sensex finally closed above the 10K-mark on February 7, 2006.

11,000, March 21, 2006
The Sensex on March 21, 2006 crossed the magical figure of 11,000 and touched a life-time peak of 11,001 points during mid-session at the Bombay Stock Exchange for the first time. However, it was on March 27, 2006 that the Sensex first closed at over 11,000 points.

12,000, April 20, 2006
The Sensex on April 20, 2006 crossed the 12,000-mark and closed at a peak of 12,040 points for the first time.

13,000, October 30, 2006
The Sensex on October 30, 2006 crossed the magical figure of 13,000 and closed at 13,024।26 points, up 117.45 points or 0.9%. It took 135 days for the Sensex to move from 12,000 to 13,000 and 123 days to move from 12,500 to 13,000.

14,000, December 5, 2006
The Sensex on December 5, 2006 crossed the 14,000-mark to touch 14,028 points। It took 36 days for the Sensex to move from 13,000 to the 14,000 mark.

15,000, July 6, 2007
The Sensex on July 6, 2007 crossed the magical figure of 15,000 to touch 15,005 points in afternoon trade. It took seven months for the Sensex to move from 14,000 to 15,000

16,000, September 19, 2007
The Sensex scaled yet another milestone during early morning trade on September 19, 2007. Within minutes after trading began, the Sensex crossed 16,000, rising by 450 points from the previous close. The 30-share Bombay Stock Exchange's sensitive index took 53 days to reach 16,000 from 15,000. Nifty also touched a new high at 4659, up 113 points. The Sensex finally ended with its biggest-ever single day gain of 654 points at 16,323. The NSE Nifty gained 186 points to close at 4,732.

17,000, September 26, 2007
The Sensex scaled yet another height during early morning trade on September 26, 2007. Within minutes after trading began, the Sensex crossed the 17,000-mark . Some profit taking towards the end, saw the index slip into red to 16,887 - down 187 points from the day's high. The Sensex ended with a gain of 22 points at 16,921.


18,000, October 09, 2007
The BSE Sensex crossed the 18,000-mark on October 09, 2007। It took just 8 days to cross 18,000 points from the 17,000 mark. The index zoomed to a new all-time intra-day high of 18,327. It finally gained 789 points to close at an all-time high of 18,280. The market set several new records including the biggest single day gain of 789 points at close, as well as the largest intra-day gains of 993 points in absolute term backed by frenzied buying after the news of the UPA and Left meeting on October 22 put an end to the worries of an impending election.

Stolen From: http://www.rediff.com/

IT pros can't avoid tax on foreign earnings

In a ruling which could affect tax payments of thousands of employees of Indian IT companies earning mega bucks on overseas assignments, the Authority of Advance Rulings (AAR) has said that that there was no escape from paying tax on the amount earned during a stint with the employer's foreign affiliates.

If there was a deputation income, tax had to be paid either in India, if it had not already been paid abroad, and even a tax treaty would not rescue IT professionals.

"The ruling is relevant for the determination of the income of non-resident employees sent on deputation abroad, as it specifies that it may not only be in India but also other contracting state which may have the right to tax same income, depending on the provisions contained in the treaty. In a cross-border world with a growing trend of mobile executives, this ruling could have a significant impact," legal and tax consulting firm Nishith Desai & Associates said.

Income tax department officials, buoyed by the ruling, said this could form the basis for dealing with a host of similar cases. The logic, they said, was simple. "If the company is subject to Indian tax laws, the employee will have to pay taxes in India even if the income was earned overseas and the manager had claimed NRI status by virtue of having spent the stipulated number of days outside the country."

In the case between the tax department and S Mohan, an Infosys employee who went to Norway on deputation, Mohan claimed NRI status for tax purposes saying he spent over 183 days outside the country during 2005-06. Though he paid income tax on the salary he received in India, Mohan sought an AAR ruling on the deputation amount he earned since he believed he did not have to pay taxes on it.

The clause relating to "dependent personal services" (DPS) in the India-Norway tax treaty specified that the remuneration earned by DPS provider would be taxable in the state of residence (India). When the service was provided in another contracting state the other state could also tax it.

The clause relating to elimination of double taxation provided that where the income earned by an Indian resident was taxed in Norway, the government will have to deduct tax paid in the European country from the tax paid in India.

"In this case the applicant failed to provide any proof that he was taxed in Norway or that he had paid tax to Norway, and it was held that the applicant was liable to pay tax in India and he was not eligible to get any relief under the treaty," it said.

Borrowed From : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

मी नथुराम गोडसे बोलतोय

या नाटकातले काही मला आवडलेले संवाद

"....मला चिरतारूण्याचा आशिर्वाद तात्याराव सावरकरांनी दिलाय. तात्याराव सावरकर - सूर्याची उबदार प्रखरता, वाऱ्याचा वेग, खडकांना हेवा करावा अशी कठोरता आणि साक्षात बृहस्पतिंनी शिष्यत्व पत्करावा इतकी बुद्धिची प्रगल्भता या सर्वांनी धारण केलेला मानवी अवतार म्हणजे तात्याराव सावरकर ...."

"... तात्यारावांचे शब्द ते, शिलालेखच जणू. तात्यारावांनी उच्चारलेला प्रत्येक शब्द म्हणजे भेद आणि लिहिलेला प्रत्येक शब्द म्हणजे वेद ..."

"... भवानी तलवार लोखंडाची असली हे जरी सत्य असला तरी प्रत्येक लोखंडाचा तुकडा भवानी तलवार असू शकत नाही..."

"... महाराजानी स्पर्श केला म्हणून तलावारीची भवानी झाली. तलावारीच्या पात्यापेक्षा मूठ जास्त महत्वाची. मूठीवरच्या पकडीमधे जिद्द असेल तर तलावारीला धार येते ..."

"... जगाला हिंसेपेक्षा अहिंसाच जास्त आवश्यक आहे. पण गांधींची अहिंसा स्वसंरक्षण, स्वहित नाकारते. स्वसंरक्षण म्हणजे हिंसा नव्हे. स्वतःच्या अस्तित्त्व रक्षणासाठी धडपडणे याची व्याख्या हिंसा, असा करणारी अहिंसाच म्हणजेच स्वहिंसा नव्हे काय? ..."

सम्पूर्ण नाटक बघा. भाग १ ते १४

भाग ०१

भाग ०२

भाग ०३

भाग ०४

भाग ०५

भाग ०६

भाग ०७

भाग ०८

भाग ०९

भाग १०

भाग ११

भाग १२

भाग १३

भाग १४

My New Friend in US

I got so may new friedns here in US and here is a lil about them.

For all kind of fresh vegetables and special whole wheat bread.

For any thing that you want from shoes to toothbrush, from iron board to tissue papers, from photo frames to voice recorders and from car tyres to duplicate keys.

Thats the small brother of wal mart. Anything and everything that you want in wholse sale.

QuickTrip aka QT : Weekly food for the car.

I dont go there much but for any kind of new cloths this is the best place to be. You can spend hours looking for the perfect thing.

Americans - They want to be different

I landed here in US a couple of months back and noticed that the Americans want themselves to be different. I observed that many a times and here is something that I will write and keep on updating as time goes.

You call it "Cold Drink" they call it "Soda"
You call it "Petrol" they call it "Gas"
You call it "Pin Code" they call it "Zip Code"
You measure it in "Kilometer" they measure it in "Miles"
You call it "Squash" they call it "Racket Ball"
You "Courier" it they "FedEx" it
You call it "Red Signal" they call it "Stop Light"
You call it "Overtaking" they call it "Passing"
You call it "Curd" they call it "Yogurt"
You send an "Email" they send a "Note"
You take a "Bath" they take a "Shower"
You call it "Accelerate" they call it "Step/Push on the Gas"

Leap Year

I work on SAS and Teradata. Some kind of databases. I was reading data from Teradata into SAS and figured out that dates or leap years to be precise are treated differently on both systems. To my surprise, year 4000, 8000 or years divisible 4000 are not leap years in SAS but they are in Teradata. I could find a fix but then I 'wiki'fied leap year and found this.

The Gregorian calendar, the current standard calendar in most of the world, adds a 29th day to February in all years evenly divisible by four, except for centennial years (those ending in -00), which receive the extra day only if they are evenly divisible by 400. Thus 1600, 2000 and 2400 are leap years but 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200 and 2300 are not. If the Year qualifies the following condition then its a leap year (Wikipedia)

(Year mod 4 = 0 AND Year mod 100 <> 0 ) OR Year mod 400 = 0

By this logic year 4000 and 8000 do qualify as leap years. Should I open a ticket against SAS? ;-)

Time, Quality and Globalization

It's been 18 years since I joined Volvo, a Swedish company. Working for them has proven to be an interesting experience. Any project here takes 2 years to be finalized, even if the idea is simple and brilliant. It's a rule.

Globalized processes have caused in us (all over the world) a general sense of searching for immediate results. Therefore, we have come to posses a need to see immediate results. This contrasts greatly with the slow movements of the Swedish. They, on the other hand, debate, debate, debate, hold x number of meetings and work with a slowdown scheme. At the end, this always yields better results.

Said in other words:
1. Sweden is about the size of San Pablo, a state in Brazil.
2. Sweden has 2 million inhabitants.
3. Stockholm has 500,000 people.
4. Volvo, Escania, Ericsson, Electrolux, Nokia are some of its renowned companies. Volvo supplies the NASA.

The first time I was in Sweden, one of my colleagues picked me up at the hotel every morning. It was September, bit cold and snowy. We would arrive early at the company and he would park far away from the entrance (2000 employees drive their car to work). The first day, I didn't say anything, either the second or third. One morning I asked, "Do you have a fixed parking space? I've noticed we park far from the entrance even when there are no other cars in the lot." To which he replied, "Since we're here early we'll have time to walk, and whoever gets in late will be late and need a place closer to the door. Don't you think? Imagine my face.

Nowadays, there's a movement in Europe named Slow Food. This movement establishes that people should eat and drink slowly, with enough time to taste their food, spend time with the family, friends, without rushing. Slow Food is against its counterpart: the spirit of Fast Food and what it stands for as a lifestyle. Slow Food is the basis for a bigger movement called Slow Europe, as mentioned by Business Week.

Basically, the movement questions the sense of "hurry" and "craziness" generated by globalization, fueled by the desire of "having in quantity" (life status) versus "having with quality", "life quality" or the "quality of being". French people, even though they work 35 hours per week, are more productive than Americans or British. Germans have established 28.8 hour workweeks and have seen their productivity been driven up by 20%. This slow attitude has brought forth the US's attention, pupils of the fast and the "do it now!".

This no-rush attitude doesn't represent doing less or having a lower productivity. It means working and doing things with greater quality, productivity, perfection, with attention to detail and less stress. It means reestablishing family values, friends, free and leisure time. Taking the "now", present and concrete, versus the "global", undefined and anonymous. It means taking humans' essential values, the simplicity of living.

It stands for a less coercive work environment, more happy, lighter and more productive where humans enjoy doing what they know best how to do. It's time to stop and think on how companies need to develop serious quality with no-rush that will increase productivity and the quality of products and services, without losing the essence of spirit.

In the movie, Scent of a Woman, there's a scene where Al Pacino asks a girl to dance and she replies, "I can't, my boyfriend will be here any minute now". To which Al responds, "A life is lived in an instant". Then they dance to a tango.

Many of us live our lives running behind time, but we only reach it when we die of a heart attack or in a car accident rushing to be on time. Others are so anxious of living the future that they forget to live the present, which is the only time that truly exists. We all have equal time. No one has more or less. The difference lies in how each one of us does with our time. As John Lennon said, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans".

Congratulations for reading till the end of this message. There are many who will have stopped in the middle so as not to waste time in this globalized world.

Source : A Forwarded Mail

Twenty20 Cricket

Life has become faster these days. We are getting into habit of doing things quick and fast. Cricket is no more an exception. People raise their eyebrows when they are being told a game of cricket can last for 5 days without a result!!! But now you a new version of game of cricket which is more exciting, a bit biased and you just have to spend three hours of your life and you are guaranteed an outcome as well!!

Its called Twenty20 Cricket.

Its simple! 20 Overs per inning per side(some time saved). First team will score runs and set the target. The second team will chase it. You will not have long breaks between, only 10 minutes break (some more time saved). After a wicket goes down, the new batsman wont come out right from the dressing room. Instead there are dug outs next to the boundary line as you have in baseball (some extra time saved). However, the new version of the game is bit biased and favors batsmen. Most of the times the bowlers are butchered as the rules are very tight for bowlers. The margin for error for bowler is minimal or I would say its zero. If a bowler bowls a front foot no ball the very next ball he bowls is called a free hit where in a batsman can not get out except for run out.
I think they should find something like this in bowler's favor as well. For example, two runs are cut down from team's total if a wicket goes down except for a run out or if a wicket goes down then the next ball should be counted without its being actually bowled.

Its a matter of creating a balance between batting and bowling. All and all this form of cricket will get popular in the countries like US where normally the team games finish in 4-5 hours. Let hope that cricket excites more and more countries and it becomes a truly global game.

Kayaking

It all started at 7 in the morning and it all started on time :). We took I-44 to head to Huzzah Valley 90 miles from South County St. Louis. Yes, we wanted to have a shot at Kayaking and with no experience headed towards destination.

Huzzah valley was a typical country side, and you can notice that by the language the people speak there. I mean it was very difficult to understand what the people speak.

We reached there by 830 and hired 3 kayaks. Kayak is kind of a flat boat with only one person can sit in it. I was new to this kind of adventure. But I believe I have enough sportsperson in me that helped me to get on track very fast. I understood the technique very fast and it was fun them. That was my first fdriving experience in water :)

The deal was minimum 6 miles and max 10 miles. It was a bit overcast day and that did helped as we enjoyed the kayaking and the surroundings. The water was as shallow as 6 inches to as deep as 5 feet (Thats too less but i dont know swimming and neither had life jacket.).

And then came a moment when all of sudden there was a bit heavy downstream current. I lost the control and banged into the bank. And i tried to get my kayak to get out of it and splashhhhhhhhhh... it toppled. Thankfully it was not so deep and i got completely wet below waist. That taught me the lesson and then it was anice journey throughout.. 6 miles 3 and a half hours...phewww!!

Great Fun it was!!

गुगल ची नवी भेट

Google has always been unique with its gadgets. The recent thing that they have released is a very good example of customer targetting. Its called Indic Transliteration. You can write in hindi/devnagri. And I am sure that it will soon percolate down to Google Talk and we can chat in Hindi.

Along with this they have also released a new gadget that you can add to your personalised google. It is called Indic OnScreen Keyboard.

And last but not the least, we now have the indian version google labs. Check it out.

Chak De India

WOW!! Was my first reaction when I came out of the cinema hall. I am really amazed by the fact that a hindi film industry can think of the subjects other than love story. Its Chak De India

All the girls have done a fabulous job in the movie. Shahrukh Khan has again ruled and looks pretty good in the new character. I like him he is not a typical love-story hero. Watch Swades for that matter, lovely movie.

Well, the best part however of this movie was the casting. I have seen for the first time when any competition in Hindi film is not at all looking cheaper. In fact they have shot the entire Word Cup in Australia!!! There are as many as 6 international teams whom they have casted in the movie with their national spportwear (Not a joke). The complete World Cup setup really looks real.

Good Movie! Must watch! At least its better as a change in the herd of boring hindiloave stories and folks its based on the TREU STORY

Next up is (Dhan Dhana Dhan GOAL)

टाईम फ्लाईज्

काल ओरकुट वर फेरफटका मारताना एका मित्राच्या फ्रेन्ड लिस्ट मधे अचानक इंजिनिअरिंगचे बरेच मित्र सापडले. त्यांचे तेव्हांचे चेहरे आणि आत्ताचे चेहरे यात प्रचंड फरक पडलाय. बरेच जणांचे दोनाचे चार झालेत.

Q&A

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The only thing it has is PERSPECTIVE....

Eventually if a question has a common and unique perspective....

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