First Photography Appreciation

IMG_1793
Originally uploaded by vshreeniwas

This photo received a comment and it happens to be my first even comment on flickr (I have been around long enough) and am glad that the comment was positive. The comment itself comes from a guy who has a fantastic photostream himself/herself. I am feeling proud now.

I am heading out on a short vacation and this photo has prepped me up to do some good clicking there too...

Dravid and his "comeback" century

It was a treat to watch Rahul Dravid get his first century in 20 innings. It was a very good knock powered by concentration, technique and class. His century may do what many of his previous centuries have done - seal and Indian victory. I am great fan of his and its good to see him spend so much time at the crease - reminds you of the old days.

Having said that, I must admit that I am not happy with the path to the century. There were two paths - one which is followed by our cricket management - let him play till he gets back into form - or the other - which stated that he must be dropped and brought back after a stint in domestic cricket. I would have preferred the latter.

The reason for this preference is simple - its based on pure merit and is fair on all concerned. If Dravid was allowed 20 innings, shouldn't Sehwag and Ganguly also allowed the same leverage before they were dropped? They both were dropped, they both performed, got back into the team and everybody is happy. Why shouldn't that be the case for Dravid?

I do not agree that simply because he has scored 10,000 runs, he should never be dropped. That's ridiculous. If the same cricket followers, mostly young, who make this statement were to be told that simply because Govt officials have 40 years experience, they shouldn't retire at 60, but allowed till they died, would they agree? Having scored 10,000 runs means that a failure is an aberation and granted that he must get a longer runway, but how long?

More than this, I am most appalled by the other sentiment that some people are speaking - media and otherwise - "See, he finally scored the century". True. And so did Kumble after 100 test matches! How about giving Yuvraj or Suresh Raina or Rohit Sharma or Virat Kohli 15 test matches and tell them that if you can get one century in these 15 matches, you are good? I don't agree with that sentiment either.

Eventually, its simple - every cricketer gets a small runway to prove/reprove themselves and its natural that it's subjective depending on too many factors. Even then, there has to be a minimum and maximum to that also. Its not fair that some budding cricketers (M Vijay or S Badrinath) get 1 or no match at all, and give Dravid 20 innings to get that one century to prove that he is great all over again.

One Devoted news reporter

If you searched the youtube with the same headline as this blog's headline, you will find this amazingly hilarious video. You will need a little knowledge of Hindi/Urdu to enjoy it, but it is the he most hilarious video I watched on YouTube.





ps: This video literally brought down work across the entire 5th floor at Yahoo's EGL office. Damn good...

Flat for Sale

I know this is not a normal blog concept, but I am planning to sell off my new flat and I thought I'd let me readers know - just in case somebody happens to get interested. Its a beautiful 1500 Sqft house with 3 bedrooms. I will put in the details later, but first let me explain why I am selling:

• I don't need the house currently
• I don't want to pay 2 EMIs anymore - one for my current house, one for the new one
• I am comfy enough is my current house to switch
• I would like to use up the extra cash generated by the sale and the EMI savings into diversifying my life interests - probably travel a bit or take a sabbatical or allow my wife to take a sabbatical.
  

So, now, if you happen to be interested in coughing up the extra cash that you have stuffed under the carpet at your home for a great house, here are the details:

Brand new 3 BHK flat for sale in Mahaveer Calyx project, off Bannerghatta Rd, Bangalore

Flat Details

• 1500 sqft
• 3 Bedrooms, all with attached toilets and 2 with balconies
• spacious kitchen with service room
• Pooja room
• Spacious Living/Dining room
• Spacious bath tub prefitted
• no shared walls
• Car parking
• ready for possession
• first floor (just above parking)
• Ready for Posession

Apartment details

• The apartments has Swimming Pool, Children's play area, jogging track, car wash area, jacuzzi, games room, gym room and guest rooms.
• Total 180 flats in the apartments

Location:

• 1.5 Km from HSBC, Banerghatta Road
• 1.5 Km from Hospitals (Apollo, Wockhardt)
• close to schools (Magnolia, Padma Seshadri etc)
• 2.0 Kms from Hosur Road (Bommanahalli)
• 25 Minutes from Electronic City through multiple routes
• 12 Kms to M G Road, 16 Kms to Majestic
• 4.5 Kms from Shoppers Stop, Bannerghatta Road
• Very Close to DLF's New Town Project http://www.dlf.in/wps/portal/homes?jspName=new_town_bangalore/overview.jsp

Vastu Wise

• Door Facing East
• Kitched in NorthEast with cooking platform facing east
• Master Bedroom in SouthWest
• Very Vastu wise house

For more details on the pricing, updated listing and photos of the project, refer to the listing at ListIt. That also contains my contact details.

ps: I like to eat my own dogfood - hence giving preference to ListIt.yahoo.com over others, plus it has the facility for me to know the total views of the page - and hence guesstimate how many interested buyers might be out there.

Yesterday's Victory against England

Yesterday's victorious chase against England was amazing. Facts will tell you that it is the fourth highest chase in the history of the game. More than the magnitude of this victory, the fact that we actually won chasing in a fourth innings itself is great. We haven't done that all that many times. Now, if you consider the past 15 years, about the time I have been following cricket, going into the 5th day chasing a target has been the nightmare for India. We have traditionally lost those matches and we did it with amazing regularity.

The following are our 4th innings, 5th day chases that were successful over the past 15 years:

• Defeating Zimbabwe at Kotla, 2000 (target: 190)
  
• Defeating Australia, Chennai, 2001 (target: 155) (in the VVS Laxman-Harbhajan series)
• Defeating Zimbabwe again at Kotla in 2002 (target: 126)
  
• Defeating Australia, Adelaide 2003-04 (target: 226)
  
• Defeating SA at Eden Gardens, 2004 (target: 120)
  
• Defeating England, Trent Bridge, 2007 (target: 73)
• Defeating Pakistan, Eden Gardens, 2007 (target: 203)

As you can see, we haven't achieved a win like this of significant proportions in a long long time. These statistics does not even go into the many many matches we lost trying to get into a 4th innings chase on the 5th day.

More than all this, I think the greatest achievement was for Sachin to close out the victory. There has been significant criticism, and rightly so, that he hasn't closed out 4th innings chases for us. The Chennai test in 1999 against Pakistan is just one of such many instances. For a cricketer of such stature, such a glaring absence of 4th innings chase is bound to be noticed and talked about for years to come. With this victory, he has essentially closed that chapter. Agreed that its just one victory, but thats good enough for me, for now.

Congratulations to the Indian cricketers. It was a pipe dream of mine to see India win a 4th inning 5th day chase and to do it with such a emphatic chase was amazing. You made 2008 for me.