Open Quiz!!!

Greetings to all...

There's going to be an open quiz hosted by V V Ramanan of The Hindu Young World fame.

Details

Venue: Bannari Amman Institute of Technology, Sathyamangalam , Erode District, Tamil Nadu

Date : August 30th 2009

Timing: Prelims at 10 am followed by finals

Prizes:

Rs. 10000 for first place
Rs. 5000 for 2nd
Rs. 3000 for the third spot

For more details contact:(Tamil nadu SIM)
Ramakrishnan - +91 9952968169
Gowrishankar- +91 9940307842

MOUNT T20!!!!

India has started its quest of defending the T20 champion’s title in style with a convincing win over Bangladesh. India after mixed results in the practice games has started off its world cup campaign on a winning note. It really is a big surprise that India is the overwhelming favorites in clinching the title, I say so, purely on the merit of the format of the game. T20 has one rule written all over it – UNPREDICTABILITY!!!! It certainly ain’t a Monza circuit as in F1 where the driver who takes the lead and steps on the gas at the right time will win nine out of ten times. This game is as unpredictable as India’s coalition government and can turn topsy – turvy in a matter of an over or a couple of wickets. The Indian media as always has gone about its routine job of over- hyping the National side but, this time around the results in the recent past certainly add spice to it.

I always wanted to write about “upsets” in sports. A lingering antipathy in me that always surged up whenever a commentator said “We are in for a big upset here!!!”. “Upset” is too nominal a word used to ridicule a hard earned victory. When stated, it shifts the focus from celebrating a surprise and BIG hard earned victory to the defeat of a much stronger opposition in a context that makes you to sympathize the dismal performance and feel lucky about the hard earned success! What an irony! The term minnows don’t sound that pleasant either. The US and Canada were undoubtedly minnows when they played the First official Cricket match in 1844. So was the case with Australia and England when they started their international outing. Well! The fact that The US and Canada still remain as minnows cannot get more obvious. For some reasons Longevity alone has not defined the term “minnows” but standards and performance have a greater say in defining the term.

The typical English weather is doing no good to the sub continent players. The players swell up with pullovers and find it tough to take the pounding the ball effects during fielding. It’s not just the players who have got the cold shoulder of the weather but the biggest losers are the spectators who paid heftily with all the hopes of having a closer look at the cheer leaders. Where is the Glamor? Why the hell are the cheer leaders dresssed like Eskimos?? This is definitely not the opening the world cup wanted. Lol!!!

England as rightfully predicted by Ian chappell, faltered when it came to doing the basics right and yet again has stumbled in the big stages. India too looked very apprehensive and itchy when they came out to bat in their first match against Bangladesh. Rohit Sharma was awe-inspiring with his astounding stroke play that looked so effortless but he played one too many shots that led to his exit.

Dhoni has off late indulged in a much futile act of promoting himself up the order to the most important number three position. Now, that’s a fatal tactic and I still don’t understand how the support staff and coach is keeping mum on this issue. Dhoni’s saga of big hitting and marauding stroke play is slowly diminishing and is very evident from the way he plays in the recent past. He is now more of a nudger and has transformed into a fantastic finisher picking up the ones and twos and putting away the odd bad ball to the boundary ropes. A role much similar to what Bevan did so well for the Aussies. When he has such a cushion up the order with the likes of Raina and Rohit in his ranks to do the job at number three, over experimentation is not the order of the day! Dhoni has picked up this unhealthy habit of coming down the track time and again risking his wicket only to end up securing a single, this is quite frankly absurd. Gautam Gambhir anchored the innings but he too was more of an accumulator on the previous occasion rather than his usual self who would punish the bad deliveries at will. If not for Yuvraj’s cameo The Men in BLUE would definitely have faced the BLUES!!!

T20!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How often have we witnessed big finals turning out to be a dead rubber with one sided contests! Let’s take a walk down the memory lane.

• ICC World Cup 1999, England – Australia vs. Pakistan, the Aussies truly were the Lords on that day! They defeated Pakistan by 8 wickets.



• ICC World Cup 2003, RSA – Aussies had the final laugh in India’s melodramatic run in the tournament. Australia recorded an emphatic victory by a record margin (in World Cup finals thus far) of 125 runs, underlining their dominance of the tournament.

• ICC World Cup 2007, the Caribbean Islands – Australia completed the Hatrick. Australia recorded 53-runs victory over Sri Lanka via the DL method.

Let’s play the music now:

• ICC_World_Twenty20_2007, RSA – India clinched the victory in the last over, defeating their arch rivals, Pakistan by five runs.


• 2008 Indian Premier League - In a match which went down to the last ball, Rajasthan Royals defeated Chennai Super Kings in the final to win the title.

• 2009 Indian Premier League – A match that got decided only in the last two deliveries with the The Deccan Chargers outwitting The Royal Challengers Bangalore by just six runs.


The NANO format of the Gentlemen’s game has so far lived upto it's hype and reputation. No wonder it has proved to be such a big hit. REASON??????:

The thrills and shrills of a nail biting finish is something that every sports lover would crave for. Agony, ecstasy, elation, despair all these invaluable emotions at the very last second of a game!!!!
Who could forget an absolute screamer from Iniesta that sealed the doors for the BLUES in this year’s Champions League Semifinal at Stamford Bridge! What drama it proved to be at Interlagos, in São Paulo, Brazil when Hamilton passed Toyota's Timo Glock in the final corners of the race to finish fifth, securing him the points needed to take the Drivers' Championship. Cricket has had its fair share as well and T20 has certainly added the oomph factor to what some considered as a dying game!

The 2009 IPL final between The Deccan Chargers and The Royal Challengers Bangalore was a low scoring game but was not short of excitement, twists and turns. The balance shifted between the two sides as periodic as a pendulum and kept the spectators and TV audiences on the edge of their seats. The Two teams were running for cover in the last edition of IPL, but this season they were truly much competitive and were hungry for success.

Anil Kumble showed everyone how well he could fit into the role of a leader and a mentor. On the other hand, Gilchrist seemed to have made the right moves at the right time whenever an opportunity was there to be taken. The 2009 IPL final had it’s moments of brilliance, verbosity, silliness and emotions. In the big final, it really proved to be a PERFECT GAMBLE when Anil brought himself on in the very first over to dismiss the ever dangerous Gilchrist. A gamble so well planned that it is worthy of a little briefing.
Anil who normally pushes his deliveries through the air was considerably slower through the air in that first over, lured Gilchrist to go for the heave onto the ON side and. The trajectory, dip and subtle deviation proved to be too good even for Gilly himself. Anil chipped in with wickets at the right time to put the brakes on the Chargers from running away with the game.

Unfortunately, his efforts went in vain as his batters let him down miserably at critical junctures. The DC’s were absolutely electric on the field with Sharma, Gibbs and Symmonds forming an impregnable corridor on the offside of the wicket and with their bowlers bowling to the field set, it really proved to be a nightmare for the RCB. Just as Anil proved to be the trump card for the Royal Challengers, it was Gilly who was the mastermind in causing their opponent's downfall. His behind the wicket glove work, that got rid of the set Virat Kohli was an absolute treat to watch. For critics who considered T20 as young man’s game, this is the ideal reply from a man aged 38 and still matching his reflexes on par with the best in the business. With wickets falling at regular intervals, it was just a matter of time before the challengers bundled out.

For once, Force India One was a solace for Dr. Mallya. Force India One finishing 9th and 13th in the Monte Carlo Grand Prix might well have saved the day for the UB DON!
IPL 2009, a true African safari!!!

IPL South Africa

The second edition of the IPL is coming to a close and we are two matches away from crowning the champions for this year’s IPL. In complete contrast to last year’s edition, IPL 2 has definitely proved to be even money bet between bat and ball.

Though the dissimilarities between the two editions seem to loom large, it has to be noted that, both the editions have witnessed one important similarity that has made this format of the game a box office blinder. Cricket is never short of surprises, excitement and for obvious reasons it neither runs out of disappointments as well. There is never a game in cricket that goes without coupe de theatre, certainly not in this format. Last season, Rajasthan Royals proved that Big Names are not necessarily the ingredients for success.

This year’s edition has witnessed a similar episode and it has to be said that The Deccan Chargers really did not run out of charge this time around. The Deccan Chargers looked in complete disarray last season, with a batting line up that was tailor made for this format of the game with the likes of Gilly, Gibbs, Afridi and Symmonds in their ranks. This year, the team has really done justice to their potential and has eventually found a place in the tournament which is almost from touching distance to the coveted trophy. Their semifinals tussle against the tournament favorites Delhi Daredevils proved to be ‘Gillyz’krieg! By the time Shewag’s men realized what had hit them; it was curtains down for the DareDevils.

Another surprise package in the tournament is the Royal Challengers from Bangalore. A team that proved no challenge to any team last year has witnessed a sea change this time. I doubt if they endorse Buchannan’s multiple theory of captaincy but they certainly had a tough time around finding the right leader at the helm, right from the word go. The then, England skipper pieterson replaced Rahul Dravid as captain at the start of the tournament but did not find success allured to him as easily as women might have. With his departure midway through the tournament and with his team finding it tough to keep its head out from drenching in complete failure, it was very crucial that they made the right choice in choosing their skipper and it really seems to have paid off by letting the old spin fox Kumble in taking over the team for the stub of the tournament. The team peaked at the right time and with their power hitters backing up, it’s ominous signs for their semifinal opponents The Chennai Super Kings. It really will prove to be a humdinger of a contest between last year’s runners up and this year’s phoenix of IPL.

Adieu!!!!!

Time is a luxury that we humans don’t have. Four years back, time was measured in grades, hence then, it was semesters that quantified it. Well, that is about to change for many of my friends here in college as they are about to bid adieu. As you might have guessed, this post of mine is reserved for my friends who added all the flavors to my college life which is turning out to be a bikini cocktail. If not for them and a few of my classmates and juniors, my college life might end up much like my hostel food. Need I say more?

The Rendezvous:

My college use to be an open house. Trust me it really was when we were in the first year! If not for the literal sense, at least people had no problems to get back to hostel even at unearthly hours after a movie at sathy’s famed IMAX’S but the only option they had was to jump the fence. Let’s plunge headlong into the list of the notorious pranksters, the peters, the Johnny Bravos, the Gunners, the red devils, the motofreaks, the manish malhotras and the desperados.

The MeCH TRIO:

AnKaN:


This guy will be your best mate if you address him as HUNKan every time, he might respond to you if you call him Ankan and he’ll go absolutely berserk if you call him Gong. Jokes apart, Ankan is BIT’s Hariharan. Ankan, a Bong, in fact a proud Bengali is one bloke who can go to extremes as far as his humor goes and has immense potential in exercising his vocal chords. I can never forget our IIT face painting competition and the stay at his home was absolute joy. I need to mention Ankan’s parents and his brother Arnab. We guys had a fantastic stay at his place, amazing hospitality and great food. A great mate and at times, he’ll be too rude a self critic and that has confounded many amongst us.





Vinay:

Vinay is ankan’s roomie and they both have the ability to amaze you with sheer brilliance and can also make you gobsmacked with bizarre mokkais. To be precise, vinay is smart, very smart guy. Whatever he does, he does it with interest and purpose and that is something I personally envied of this guy. Very clear of his ideology and conducts his life as he wishes. There is always something that is informative when you talk to this fella. He is an ardent football fan and an Arsenal Fan, a man for all weathers and a no fuss guy.










Sandheep: Sandy, sandu are a few names that can invite this guy’s attention. Sandy is an F1 and Football freak. He knows much about Ferrari than Stefano domenicalli does. He won’t mind giving a few suggestions regarding the team’s formations to Sir Alex Ferguson as well. Sandy can speak loud, really loud. I mean it! Sandy is down to earth. He won’t hesitate to admit his ignorance and that is something I like in him. I have had his company in all the major cultural competitions that I have been to and I have enjoyed every bit of it.









The Mixed Bag:

Prabhu Shankar:

Pappu , chitappu, brubbu, coach etc……. are few of his nick names. Prabhu is BIT’s chella pillai. Everyone knows him. Hold on a second, let me put it this way, he knows everyone. He is a natural story teller. The best part is that it is not intentional. A cricket maniac and that’s a common trait amongst us. He can go on and on about cricket (in fact he can do it on any topic). He is an extreme hard worker and can fit into any role, be it a technocrat, a throw ball coach and obviously a cricket expert. He is a Genial Giant.




Saravannan:

Pottu, loosu kounda (that’s how ska calls him) are his nick names. A true eco freak, very passionate about animals, pets, plants and all that is related to flora and fauna. A humble person and an enthusiastic participant in all activities. All the major treks in our college’s Eco club were possible, truly because of this guy. His koundar accent is something that’ll stay in my mind for long. His hideout is my college’s cafeteria and you can find him there, nine out of ten times after college hours.


Prashanth:


Shanth is a motofreak and goes crazy for cars and bikes. He would rather be working in a pit stop rather than studying network protocols. An athlete, a good friend of mine and off late for some reason he badly wants to murder someone just because he feels bored. I got to know him only in the latter half of my hostel life and since then we have partnered in morning jogs, afternoon class bunks and a few cricket’ O7 matches in ska’s system.






Varun:

I call him Vroomm, a name inspired from Chetan Bhagat’s One Night at the Call Centre. He is BIT’s student’s voice in any important function and don’t mistake him to be a students head. He sings the lullaby in every function from the MC desk. He adores sleep much more than his B.E degree and he is up there to compete with ska as far as afternoon naps go. I first met him in the English department for a MC rehearsal in the first year and even then, he was the king of that trade. Varun, along with his gang mates relish pulling my legs and obviously ska’s too.



Gokul:

Goka has a fantastic dressing sense much like maali, prashanth and few above mentioned characters. He is studious, a quite operator and a good dancer. He taught me the important step for the ringa ringa part in our recent “flirt with danger attempt” (I mean, our hostel day dance).















Mahesh:


Maggi, matter are few of his famed nick names. This guy had his base in the hills for sometime and was literally chucked down to the plains. Jokes apart, mahesh can prove to be a silent assassin and he is adept at pulling other’s pants down and still act as if nothing had happened. Matter, is an easygoing person and makes girls go crazy over his hair style.















Anantharaman:

Anda is Bio-tech’s Bheem boy. Anda is varun’s roomie and both come from the same school as well. I know Anda right from my school days when we use to go to the same cricket coach for daily nets. I was surprised to see this guy when I joined the college. He is The Big B (big brat). A famous Rotarian in our college and can get very candid at times.














Marshal:
Malli is the chocolate boy of our gang. His dressing is impeccable and carries a soft demeanor and obviously, a ladies man. He is very polite and has a clean sheet in whatever he does. A brand freak and like a few others, an absolute no fuss guy. Malli shares a good rapport with ambi and he is ambi’s roomie.








Tarun:

Appachu still has this habit of irritating me with the question that he asks me every weekend “dude how come you are still in hostel instead of going home?” (Well! To be honest quite a few of my friends, juniors and seniors would ask me the same question and that makes no difference to me) Tarun rarely talks and barely comments on anything. He has his own world out in the backyard of mysore and coorg. He too is an automobile freak and his room walls stand testimony to this fact.











Kadambari:

Well KD is the personification of Bharathi’s pudumai penn! She has enough ammunition in her armory to rattle down everything and anything that is thrown at her. Her response would be as blatant as one could imagine. She is a knowledge hub and would not hesitate to help you out if her help is sought. A very good friend of mine and history says that she was in my batch and in my school. A Bhavan’ite!











Amrutha:
She is a real brat. She is one person who would start joshing casually and then can go up to the extent of making you completely mum with her spontaneous responses. She is one of my very few friends from the opposite gender and she really is a worthy friend of mine. A chatter box and a die hard MSD fan! .








The list is non-exhaustive and I only hope that those names that I have missed out don’t get cross with me. A statement is beautiful only if it is complete. On that note, separation is as important as instigation. Any relationship derives meaning not on the proximity but on the longevity (wow! I never knew I would come up such an authentic, awesome one-liner!). Anyways, let the best of luck accompany you in all endeavors.

Team India is only one test match away from scripting its famous series victory in New Zealand that has eluded them for more than four decades. The just concluded test match at Napier has added more to the fact that team India is now covering grounds on all aspects of the game. India has managed to pull off a draw after being completely outplayed by the kiwis for almost three and a half days of the test match.

The Kiwis piled up a mammoth first innings total of 619, thanks to Jesse Ryder’s marauding double century and tons from both Taylor and Mccullum. The strip at Napier served as a batting paradise and there was virtually no assistance for the quickies from it. Sloppy ground fielding from the Indians aided with ordinary bowling ensured that kiwis batted India out of the game. India started their daunting quest of scaling the huge total on an ordinary note with the Delhi dasher getting out cheaply for a very ordinary shot. Gambhir too perished yielding to sudden rush of blood. The Indian batsmen played one too many shots and failed to put up any considerable partnership throughout their innings. All three senior pros failed to convert their starts and that cost India dearly. India was asked to follow on and that meant India had to bat for two and a half days. Even though the wicket was true enough and had even bounce, it really required an out of ordinary effort to stick it out for all seven sessions. India has quite often succumbed to pressure when it comes to saving a test match in the last innings, but this new Indian outfit seems to be averse to losing games and this is the quality that has transformed the poor travelers to a top draw team. Much was expected from Viru but he failed again and India was one down at stumps on day three.
MARATHON INNINGS:
Day Four:

All that was required of India was Bat, bat, bat and bat on till dusk and that’s exactly what unfolded from the Indian batting camp. Rahul Dravid and Gautam Gambhir did exactly what was required off the duo. The Kiwis tried all that they had in their arsenal but couldn’t make any inroads early on. Dravid has finally come out of the shell that subdued his batting in the recent past. Even in the last test match his batting was flawless and very fluent. Dravid was at his best in both offense and defense. An absolute shocker of a decision sent the dejected dravid back to the pavilion. Sachin who walked in as India’s number four did not put a foot wrong. The Master is in sublime nick and that was evident in each of his outing. Dravid was the sole wicket to fall on the day and India raised their chances of pulling out a draw out of nowhere. The black caps had a long and toiling day on the field.
Day five:
Things looked rosy for the master blaster to add another ton to his kitty, but a stunning catch from Brendon Mccullum consumed his wicket. It was crucial for India to keep the wickets intact as we know history has often surprised us with team folding up like a pack of cards on the last day in fact, even in the last session of the match. Just as the kiwis smelled blood, Laxman yet again performed in trying situation and made sure that the kiwis did not get under their skin. The match was nicely poised and both the teams had a chance of getting home. Gambhir, on the other hand played an innings of his lifetime occupying the crease for almost eleven hours. For a natural stroke maker, it really is coming of age for this Delhi youngster. Gambhir finally got out and even then, Kiwis had a fair chance of winning the game. Yuvraj Singh was under pressure right from the word go of his innings.

Laxman Silken:

Post tea session witnessed vintage laxman. Laxman was all class and poise as he caressed his way through for his fourteenth Century. The wristy player scored hundred of his one twenty four in boundaries and this says the complete story. India finished the job with much ease and lead the series. All set for a humdinger of a contest at Basin River.

Carnage in Christchurch

New Zealand tour has always proved to be a nightmare for the Indian Cricket team but, this time around the situation is altogether different. Team India is on a roll now and in the past two years they have only grown from strength to strength in all formats of the game. While India remained the undisputed champions at home, their overseas performance has always come under criticism. Fair enough! Who would tolerate a quality test team from not even posting a total of 200 in neither of an innings of both the test matches played, when they toured New Zealand last time around? When India toured New Zealand the last time around in 2002-03 just before the start of the world cup, the Indian batsmen just couldn’t put a proper bat on ball. The lethal bonding of Bond – Tuffey tamed the famed Indian batting with much ease. Moreover, Christchurch has so far only proved to be a Devil’s Den where India vs. NZL has a 0 – 5 victory ratio. So, as always the thought of watching a cricket match on T.V, laid back at home proved irresistible to me.

India took on the Kiwis in the third ODI at Christchurch on Sunday (8-03-09) in the five match National Bank ODI series. The second ODI was washed out due to incessant rain. India were already one up in the series and the make up of the third ODI was all the more luring with the Little Genius Sachin showing glimpses of his batting geniuses in the second ODI. I got back home on Saturday (7th of March) and was dying to watch the match the following day.

Friday, the 7th of March, at around 19:15 Hrs, I met a couple of my school friends at our very own RK paani puri stall. As always our conversation touched all spheres of possible imagination and at last settled down to Sunday’s plans. Decision making was never a tough task for us, if it was on hangouts. We decided to go for a movie (sorry, they decided and as usual I just nodded my head pretending to be okay with the decision). I would never sacrifice a chance to watch a match for some dumb movie. My friends did their best to persuade me for the movie and even went on to state that the Sunday’s match would definitely be a rain washout. I tell you, that did not please me one bit.

Beep, beepp, beeppp….. Like a visually impaired individual, I stretched my hand across the table to shut the screaming cellbore (My MutePhone). I woke up hastily and switched on the T.V set, only to find out that I was a touch late to miss the toss. A sigh of relief to watch the stadium bathed in bright sunlight contrary to what was predicted by my friend. Shewag and Sachin strolled in. I dislodged my blanket, adjusted the pillow and comforted myself to watch, what promised to be a splendid game of cricket.

Initially, Sachin was very cautious and selective in his shot making and at the other end; shewag had no method to his madness and soon perished playing a tail ender’s slog shot. His Delhi teammate Gautam Gambhir walked in as the number 3 batsman for India and he too looked off color and was very tentative in his shot selection. He got out trying to run down a delivery to the third man area. He got out in the same fashion for the second time in this tour.

Yuvraj started off his innings with a splendid cover drive and looked good right from the start of the innings. Sachin and Yuvaraj resurrected India from the initial jitters and gradually stepped on the gas and started playing some beautiful cricket shots all around the park. Sachin carried his momentum from his last game and outclassed and dictated terms to the Kiwis. Just as everything looked bright for India, everything turned dark at home. Power cut!!!! Imagine my plight! Once in a while I get to watch a cricket match and when I do get a chance to watch sachin in full flow, these things happen. By the time my T.V got back to life, the Kiwis hopes had already died. Sachin had butchered their bowlers all around the park and with cameos from Yuvaraj, Dhoni and Raina, India piled up a huge total of 393 on the board.


As expected, the black caps came out all guns blazing and Jesse Ryder proved too hot to handle.

The Ryder bazooka fired time and again and with Mccullum playing the way he normally does, the duo batted India out of the game. The Indian captain led from the front but, this time for a lost cause and dropped an absolute sitter behind the stumps off the bat of the marauding Ryder, then followed a flurry of drop catches, high school bowling and sloppy fielding. The ball sailed past the ropes time and again and the opening partnership was soaring at a pace of 8 runs an over. It looked as if the Indians gave up hope and their body language on the field was evident of this fact. They were waiting for the Kiwis to make a mistake and fortunately for the Indians, Ryder obliged to their unsung request and committed a fatal mistake by chancing Raina’s arm only to leave his helpless partner in absolute despair. That very run out cost New Zealand the match and that triggered a string of wickets to fall and all of a sudden the black caps were down in the doldrums.

Even after losing 8 wickets, the Kiwis never gave up. The spectators got their moneys worth and were treated to some delightful stroke play even at the fag end of the match. The new ball partners Southie and Mills used the long handle to good effect and sent the spectators in the crowd for cover. Munaf Patel, the weak link in the Indian pace attack experienced the drubbing of the summer from the Kiwi tail Enders. The best part was that, even after such humiliation he managed to project a smile, Kudos to the selection committee. Much to the relief of the Indian fans, he was removed from the attack for sending down two consecutive beamers in the same over. India finally managed to get their noses in front across the finish line.

The only consolation of the match was that of Sachin’s delightful innings. An absolute treat to watch. SACHIN, 43 AND COUNTING…………

Midsummer Night’s Dream

I could hear the murmurs from the other side of the door. The shadows gradually sneaked into the room. I tried my best to avert my attention from the engulfing dark shadow and turned off the lamp hoping to fade away the stretching silhouette. The rhythmic spattering of the rain drops on the asbestos knocked on my senses with equal intervals. The thought of spending the remaining six hours alone in my room haunted me. For once, time haunted me! The beautiful white curtains which had its moments of admiration and praise have now turned its ugly face on me. Familiarity breeds contempt but that very night it catalyzed the willies. My little room out of no where started showing ominous signs of hostility. My pupil dilated as I tried to discern the aberration in the normalcy of my room. I slowly slid into my slippers and ambled across my study table and edged close to the windowpane.
I couldn’t digest the fact that my yellow bordered little window that portrayed the finest of morning hours that embraced the golden rays with balanced dignity is now pretending to be a host for several hundred raging, blood thirsty demons. I turned around at a pace that would have made the wachowski brothers proud. I looked at the wall clock, a sigh of relief as the clock ticked past four. A sudden gust of wind pushed me back and it howled out in the trees. I threw myself onto the cot, rolled under the blanket and slid my face amidst the pillows. I began to chant all my forgotten prayers; I started cursing myself for opting not to accompany my parents and for resorting to stay all alone. Little did I move, I could feel the pulse motoring up, the bedspread wrinkled into a spider’s web in no time. The illusion of someone breathing down my neck loomed large. Phat, Phat, two familiar heavy blows on my back. I was on the verge of letting the world know how loud I could yell. I did the superman thing, stood up all of a sudden holding onto my blanket and starred at a figure that has co-existed with me for 21 years. The darkness has evaded and everything looked the way it used to be. Time to School, blurted the silhouette standing in front of me. Gosh! Chimera was better than reality.

3 SHADES OF TRIVIA

The desperation to make my blog better than my previous posts has for once turned trivial to me. Well, as you guessed it right, I am very much not in the mood to blog. The very thought of today’s flop show (21-02-09) gets me worked up a little. Defeat has embraced me as frequent as victory has but, still it annoys me when I get so close to tasting success and at last end up with bitter defeat. To be fair enough I haven’t even made anything clear as to what I am talking about. Okay! Let’s get on with it.

Wednesday (18-02-09):
This week (16th of Feb ’09 to 22nd of Feb ’09) has been a mix of fortunes as far as my quizzing stint goes. On the 18th of Feb ’09, “The Economic Times” hosted a quiz competition at GRD College. The quiz master for the competition was “Tata Crucible” famed Giri, a burly man whose voice could well be classified as Death Metal genre. GRD has always proved to be an exotic college if not for educational aspects but at least for other reasons. It wasn’t a working day so, our anticipation went in vain. Much to our surprise we came to know that it was an out and out business quiz and not a general quiz. We were under-prepared as always but, still stuck to the ritual of giving it a shot. The prelims proved to be relatively easy and we did fairly well. When the results were out, we were a bit upset that we couldn’t make it to the finals. The frustration peaked all the more when the Quiz master disclosed the prizes for the top six finalists. As always we stayed back to watch the finals and that did not go in vain as we managed to grab four audience prizes. Post Quiz, we managed to have a word with the Quiz master. We told him about our Quiz club and that we also have a proposal of hosting an open quiz in our college.

Thursday (19-02-09):
The department of Computer Science hosted an intra college Quiz competition as part of their 3 day fest which they termed as Sieger. We managed to win the quiz even though there was stiff competition from my club mates. That proved as an impetus for us and the win in the quiz competition made us to top the list after Day 1 of Sieger.

Saturday (21-02-09):
/>My outdated gizmo missed out to wake me up by 5 ‘o’ clock and fortunately, Deepak did the work of my alarm but understandably with a humanly delay of half an hour. We were instructed by our Placement officer to be ready by 6-15, that meant I had only 45 minutes before hell broke loose. I managed to be there on time, only to find that not all are as foolish as I am. Only a few had come. We (I and Deepak) decided to take a look at the proceedings leading up to today’s (22-02-09) eco club trek, a trek primarily organized for the first years. We reached the cricket field where around 50 first year students were present along with a handful of club coordinators, who were supervising the others. We started from college by 6-45 and reached PSG medical college by 8-15. The event TRANSITION’09 organized by CTS encompassed many events like movie making, paper presentation, ultimate techie, stall presentation and the all important Quiz (“AWE”). It was clinically organized and the event got underway at around 10-20 a.m. Much to our surprise, around 100 teams were there for quiz alone. The prelims got underway with “Lloyd” being the Quiz master. The preliminary round was easy and we got 15 out of 20 correct.

We had to endure a long break between prelims and the finals, which was the final event of the day. Fortunately, the anchor kept me occupied for the major phase of the idle period. She reminded me of my school senior. A tall and fair complexioned lady tidily attired in a dark green saree. She was gorgeous till lunch, (doesn’t make sense eh?) well, post lunch had a different story altogether. After lunch, I went in search of the free ice-cream that everyone was relishing on. I grabbed my cup and tasted it standing in front of one of the entrances to the auditorium. I accidentally happened to spot this girl sitting on the steps along with few of her friends. She was the odd one out of the bunch because, she was in salwars and the rest wore jeans and t-shirts. Coincidence you may call it, we both glanced at each other at the same instance. She looked like a mallu and that spurred my inquisitiveness further. She had the look of an innocent chubby kid with gleaming eyes beautifully bordered with an eye liner. I then resorted to concentrate on my ice-cream (this is how I portrayed myself) and occasionally I gaped at her. I decided to seek my classmate’s assistance to confirm what unfolded before my eyes. I then, asked ambi (rengerajan) to check if she was looking for me and I decided not to look at her again. Ambi as always proved to be a master in these matters, answered me in the affirmative and tell you what! That pleased me in fact, that delighted me. She then went inside the auditorium and I obliged to her silent invitation and convinced my friends as well to enter the auditorium. For about one hour this fairy tale continued before she left the place. I couldn’t do much as the results for the prelims was about to be disclosed in a matter of minutes.

I was a bit tensed and was on the edge of my seat. The quiz master disclosed the first name and much to our surprise we found ourselves as the first team to qualify. I was very much excited and we ambled across to the stage with huge applause from the mammoth audience. I was so absorbed by the moment that I just did not notice the beautiful anchor giving us some instructions. The quiz then got underway with teams from KCT, PSG TECH, AMRITA, CIT AND GCT (I GUESS) completing the top six teams. The first round did not fetch us any points but, by the end the second round we were tied at first place with CIT. The next three rounds were buzzer rounds which meant pace had to be mixed with caution, caution of earning negative marks for a wrong answer. We were out of sorts and couldn’t do much about the remaining rounds. The last round had only 3 questions and carried +15 for a correct answer and a -10 for a wrong answer. We had no other option but to go after the questions if we were to finish among the top 3 spots. Two wrong answers and that put us on the darker side of zero. Disappointment, frustration, anger and everything except happiness crept in one by one. Though everyone consoled us saying that it was a brave effort to risk in the final round, we couldn’t digest it that easily. I had to return home so that I could finish off the police verification for my passport.
SO CLOSE, YET TOO FAR.

Black Constitution

It is intriguing to notice the nature of us – the lesser mortals. I seriously doubt if I explicitly need to qualify the word mortals with the adjective “lesser” when there are concrete reasons for the fact that it goes without saying. The recent Mumbai carnage has really been shocking and it is has left a deep scar in the hearts of many innocent people for sure but, it once again stands a proof for the sphere of duality that we have encircled for ourselves. The same people who now make the fullest use of their intellectual ability to reason and question the acts and the negligence of our so called Government, have always remained quiescent when no personal loss happened and when some distant compatriot was the sufferer. In Independent India (except for the liberation of a few thousand issues like communalism, terrorism, capitalism……..I still wish to term my country as Independent) egotism has outraced patriotism. Our reluctance to stand up for our fellow citizen’s cause against our own fellow men is still the reason for us being done in by even lesser mortals like the terrorists and politicians. It is comical to even think about using phrases like lesser mortals, even lesser mortals etc…. but, I find nothing wrong in doing so, for we as Human beings are constantly on the lookout for bastardizing Humanity. My intention here is not to vilify the human race in totality but to talk reality. Now that I have given an introduction about human nature for those of you who don’t know (Ahem…) lets narrow down on my intention.






I started this piece of blog on the first day of the Mumbai attack and due to unprecedented events happening in the due course I mean, I had my VII semester and I had no other option but to delay the completion of this posting. I guess some of you might be wondering how could semesters stretch to a span of one month or more then, all I can tell you is “If you are under Anna University everything is possible”. The subsequent proceedings of the Government conveys a rather humiliating sign that we pretend to sleep until our as*** are on fire. This is not the first time our neighbors have failed to check whom they call “non state actors”. This is not the first time the noble terrorists who fight for a greater noble cause have intruded into our border. In fact, the intrusion is so deep that they don’t find it tough even to peep into our parliament, which is the rendezvous of our legally elected terrorists who meet up quite often, if not to devise beneficial measures to their compatriots but, at least to drive the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha speaker crazy. To be fair enough we, as the masses need to take the brunt of the blame. Ignorance might be bliss in many aspects but, it is not when it comes to electing your state’s and country’s representatives. When you know that the gentlemen clad in white are no better than the tidily attired terrorists, why do you have to cast your vote in favor of them? If prohibition of the fundamental right of a citizen is a crime, so is exercising the same right for a wrong cause.




Communalism is worse than terrorism and the politicians are adept at exploiting it. The public of Maharastra remained mute when Raj Thackrey proclaimed that no non-maharastrian should stay in the state. No one gave a damn about what was said and what was done. Every one of us saw footages of many innocent non-maharastrian being beaten up by Raj Thackeray’s men. Even the Bachans were not spared. Every crime in this country is candid and each one of us know the entire story behind it and the men behind the screen as well but we seem to ignore it. Not once or twice but it happens so regularly that some even say “chod dho yaar, yeh tho mamooli hae”. Are we consciously blind or are we so self absorbed that we adorn patriotism and religious tolerance only for a cricket match. I certainly respect those few unbiased and patriotic souls who lost their lives fighting to save others. The aftermath of the terrorist attacks were even more disheartening. One politician quotes “But for the NSG commander even, dog wouldn’t visit your home”, and this statement was the only commiseration that the politician could afford to a dad who lost his only son, a major aged 31 who died fighting the terrorists. Another politician even goes to the extent of saying that the death of one of the policemen is politically motivated. Our politicians even go to the extent of opting such down market ploy to bank the election votes.




Human values seem to be an outdated commodity. I have always said and believed that Darwin was a prophecy. It’s down to the survival of the fittest. An unwritten rule that speaks little about human values and more about materialism, inconsiderateness has embedded itself in our consciousness.





If innocent lives have to be massacred,
If blood is the only answer to wash our opacity from kindness,
If a perpetrator is the only teacher who could teach us the wisdom of oneness then
None is holier-than-thou.