Month: April 2007

Bangladesh Tour: Young Team, Please!

The BCCI has recommended to the Indian selectors to pick a young team for the Bangladesh tour. I just hope the selectors would take this advice seriously! The so-called super stars of Indian cricket have had their chance on the World stage and failed miserably. Now comes a series against Bangladesh. This is perfect time to experiment and discover some new talent. On the last Bangladesh tour India lost an opportunity by dragging along the same “old” players. A struggling Sachin Tendulkar scored a century etc. on the last tour. Duh! What a waste? What were the selectors trying to prove?

Just look at Sri Lanka. Marvan Attapattu the former captain has been warming the benches as a reserve for this entire World Cup. Can’t India’s super-stars take a break from a single tour? It doesn’t have to mean that its the end of the road for the likes of Ganguly, Sehwag and Sachin. They can always be brought back for the tour of England and Australia. In the mean time, its a golden opportunity for India to unearth the talent that sadly Dilip Vengsarkar thinks doesn’t exist. It would be premature to pick the under 19 players, unless there is some outstanding talent that is spotted. Instead it would be prudent to try those who have had a chance to mature through the system (the 23-29 year olds).

The Australian team is a perfect example where this approach has been perfected. Barring Michael Clarke most players have come into the Aussie side after significant number of years at the domestic level (I don’t mean to say that India’s Ranji circuit is anywhere close to its equivalent Down Under).

Btw, Here is my pick for this tour (though I think the selectors will continue to persist with the Gangulys, and Sachins).

ODI Team:

Dravid, Gambhir, Uthappa, Badrinath, Yuvraj, Karthik, Dhoni, Powar, Piyush Chawla, RP Singh, Manoj Tiwari, Yusuf Pathan, SS Paul, Zaheer Khan, Gagandeep Singh.

Test Team:

Gambhir, Wasim Jaffer, Dravid, Venugopal Rao, VVS, Yuvraj, Kaif, Powar, Kumble, Sreesanth, Zaheer Khan, Karthik, Munaf Patel, VRV Singh, RP Singh.

Cricket: Finally, the World Cup Semis

Boy! what a boring World Cup! The organizers did an awful job by dragging this World Cup for so many weeks. When the cricinfo website posted this picture on their home page it was obvious that they are suffering the repercussions (of a disastrous world cup) in terms of page views.

To make matters worse there is no news whatsoever about the Woolmer case. It certainly looks like the organizers are waiting for the games to be over (or mostly over) before they announce any findings.

Its good to know that three of my four teams made it to the semis. 🙂

Quite understandably the teams that have been eliminated India, Pakistan, England and WI are having all kinds of trouble.

Restaurant Review: Monsoon Cuisine of India

Restaurant: Monsoon Cuisine of India
Location: Castro Street, Mountain View, CA

I had been to this restaurant sometime last year shortly after it opened for the first time. The food at that time appeared to be good, like most Indian restaurants do in their early days. In general, I prefer to avoid buffets at Indian restaurants mostly because it fills you up no matter how little you eat (thanks to the generous use of baking soda). However, Indian restaurants are the safest bet from a variety point of view for strict vegetarians. I was taking a friend of mine to lunch and chose Monsoon Cuisine of India based on my prior experience at this restaurant sensitive to the fact that it might have deteriorated since my last visit more the 6 months back. Boy I was disappointed to find that the quality had come down quite dramatically. There was plenty of empty space with no chairs or tables (a sign of difficult times perhaps). Barring this, the decor and ambiance seems to have sustained the passage of time.

However, the variety of the food was far from impressive, and whatever was available didn’t appear very fresh either. Wonder if this was all because of the weekend? I guess I’ll never know because I don’t intend to visit this restaurant for some time to come, weekend or otherwise!

Book Review: By the River Pampa I Stood

Title: By the River Pampa I Stood
Author: Geeta Abraham Jose
Type: Fiction

The story revolves around families belonging of the Syrian Christian Community of Kerala, India. The story set in Kerala, involves the Christian Community tied to an ancestral home with hard core “mallu” sounding name, inter-caste marriage complications, joint family squabbles, religious issues, you name it. It is hard to imagine that this book was not inspired by Arundhati Roy’s God of Small Things. It has all the parallels of Ms. Roy’s book minus the lengthy description and prose. The central character in the book is the grandmother, and much of the story revolves around the close relationship between her and the grand-daughter.

Its a simple, short and easy read, and despite being a work of fiction, it does give a good insight to the Syrian Christian community, their customs and traditions.

The author is a EE post-graduate from IIT Madras and some portion of the proceeds from the book go Nav Srishti Foundation (an NGO).

Movie Review: Guru

Title: Guru
Starring: Abhishek, Aishwarya
Director: Mani Ratnam

The story is one of a young man with humble beginnings who rises to great power and impressive wealth through entrepreneurship. With hope in his heart, boundless self-confidence and immense drive to succeed the young man starts his business in textiles from money received as dowry. He grows the business by leaps and bounds often resorting to bribery and other corrupt practices. The movie certainly appears to have been inspired by Dhirubhai Ambani’s business success, if not his life.

The movie stars Abhishek and Aishwarya. For starters, the movie didn’t really need Aishwarya Rai. The role was one for an innocent village belle who later transforms to a faithful wife. A fresh face could have done a better job. Ash lacks the natural innocence but works hard to fit the role. In the heroine intro’ song, “Barso re” the Director has tried hard to re-create the magic of the film, Roja where the heroine is introduced with the beautifully choreographed “Chinna chinna Roja…”. Unfortunately the results are nowhere close, not to mention Ash’s way to vigorous dance movements.

Abhishek on the other hand plays a role he has never handled before and does a creditable job. Even his dances are bearable for a change.

Almost all the songs appear to have been deliberately inserted — Mallikka Sherawat’s item number being the most blatant of them. In the catchy number sung by Bappi Lahiri, Abhishek looks younger in the song than he did in the scenes leading up to the song!

Some of the scenes are needlessly over-dramatized. The scene were the hero addresses his shareholders in the rain being one and the final court scenes were the camera crew goes completely berserk being the other.

Also, the movie ends abruptly. The characters played by Mithun and Madhavan simply disappear at the end as did one of his trusted employees. It sounds like the Director is justifying the heroes actions, but this makes little sense. If he didn’t intend to justify the hero’s actions, then it certainly doesn’t come across. Perhaps it was deliberately open ended for the audience to decide? In any case the end needed a lot more work/clarification!

Like all Mani Ratnam movies, the technical finesse is apparent in the music, the lighting, the scenes, the background score etc. and is overall very watchable. But this film certainly has a lot more loose ends than most of his earlier films. Increasingly, Mani Ratnam comes across as a talented movie maker seriously lacking in good scripts. Besides, he appears to have become more risk-averse, going in for tried and tested actors and actresses as opposed to fresh faces.

Don Imus Firing

The firing of Radio jock Don Imus is a positive step in American media. There is an implicit belief that if you have a sizable audience you can get away with pretty much anything. Don Imus and the like have been doing this for years and getting away with it. Hopefully, this will deter other radio hosts from mouthing offenses on air.

On the one hand it is great that both MSNBC and CBS took the final step of dropping the otherwise popular radio host. On the other it is disappointing that they did so only after extreme pressure from advertisers and minority groups. At some level it was probably just economics at work and not a genuine concern for offensive radio talk.

Kids Castle in Newark, CA

Kids Castle in Newark seems to made a dramatic recovery since its slump a couple of years back. Many of the toys in the arcade appear to actually work now (hopefully this situation lasts). The “desi” pizzas (particularly the pav bhaji) are excellent. Its a good place for a family dinner outing or for a kids birthday party. The crowds appear to back as well.

Pak Cricket: A Good Start

Pakistan’s media manager spoke out about obsession with religion in the Pak team. Finally, someone had the guts to speak out about this. Even the late Woolmer had mentioned how he had difficulty at first with constant prayers by the team. But later he felt that it helped the team bond better. It could very well have been a case of the Woolmer compromising on a situation he felt he could never fundamentally change.With the overall rise of religious extremism in Pakistan, its influence in sports is very believable. But under Inzy, religious fervor has scaled needless heights. From Mr. Mir’s report it sounds like this stretched even beyond the blatant display on the field. If you think back to the hey days of Pak cricket when Pak won the World cup in 1992, it was dominated by the suave Imran Khan, the street fighter Javed Miandad and the more progressive minded folks like Aamir Sohail, Rameez Raja, Wasim Akram and others. Unfortunately, a decade and half later, Inzy who was a member of that team has clearly lead the team in different direction. It is time to make a fresh start with perhaps Younis Khan as the captain as suggested by Imran Khan. While Pakistan cricket tries to re-group after the World Cup debacle, Mr. Mir’s report is a perfect place to start.

George, It’s All About Your Legacy!

Disclaimer: This is a fictitious conversation between President Bush and his Dad, George Bush Sr. It is set in the month of Dec 2006 after the Iraq Study Group Report and after Rumsfield was replaced as Secretary of Defense. If you are wondering why now, it is because I didn’t publish this for various reasons — waiting for my site re-design, busy with other things, plus a combination of laziness and “will get to it later” syndrome.

Ok, so here goes..

Hi, George. How are things?

Hangin’ in there I guess.

Have you read the ISG report yet?

What?

I said the ISG report!

What is that?

I mean the report that Baker put together.

Oh! Ok. Don’t get me started on that. I thought Baker was bored and you wanted me to give him something to do. I did, and he turns in this huge a… report and now I have to read it, because everyone on the planet wants to know what I think about it! What do you expect from a bunch of grumpy old men? Did you know that the average age on that group was 74? Those men are nuts. Also, the whole concept of a bipartisan study group makes no sense. What our politicians in Washington can agree on does not mean that it’s best for Iraq, does it?

George. Can you stop givin’ me the talking points that Karl has been feeding you? Iraq is a complete mess and you gotta act quickly and do somethin’ about it.

So you think I am doing nothin’? I just met with Malliki and what-was-his-name, the deputy PM of Iraq, whatever his name was. I have been talking to Blair all the time. I might even meet the Syrian guy, Syriana or somethin’…was that his name? And, who knows, maybe even that crazy Iranian President chap, the guy who hates Israel. Dad, it’s hard. But I’m doing my best.

But son, the situation has gotten really bad. Americans are dying. Your poll ratings are dropping. And the world is watching. Please plan on some quick action, will ya?

There you go again. So you think I am not doin’ enough?

Fine, you are doin’ your best. But lemme tell ya, from now on for you, it’s all about your legacy.

Legacy? What is that? It sounds like you have found something new to complain about. BTW, I meant to ask you. What was all that stuff about you choking in public at a speech with Jeb? People are saying that you were overcome by emotion because you had planned for Jeb to be President but I became President instead! I am having enough trouble as it is in Washington. Can you sit tight and not make things worse for me, please? Tears in public, nonsense! And what does Jeb do, he runs up to the stage and hugs you. Oh…goody-goody son of yours. Crap!

Fine, I’ll sit tight. But please do something about Iraq.

Ok, you want me to embrace Baker’s report? The Iraqis don’t like it, nor does Condi or myself. Limbaugh, Bennett, and others don’t like it either. How do you expect me to accept it? When I ask Cheney about it, he says let’s go hunting and discuss this! You know what happened the last time someone went hunting with him, don’t you? And now Rummy is gone and I have this new guy, Gates, to work with. Isn’t he like the richest man in world or somethin’?

Good Lord! Please, George. You are confusing Bob Gates for Bill Gates! To be honest, I don’t know whether I should laugh or cry. Anyway, George, you gotta get something done about Iraq. That’s your only hope to leave behind a decent legacy.

What’s with the legacy thing again?

It’s about what people will remember you for long after you are gone from office. Reagan is remembered for the end of the cold war. I am remembered for the Kuwait war. Bill is remembered for great economic times and, of course, his nonsense with that girl in the White House. What do you want to be remembered for ─ A lousy war that sacrificed American lives and plunged the Middle East into utter chaos and spread terrorism worldwide? Think about it, George. People like that guy Gore are going around saying that your decision to attack Iraq was the greatest strategic blunder in American history.

Gore! What does he know? The smart ass that he thinks he is. Remember I kicked his butt in the last election.

Mmh…..Not quite, George. It was not until I put in a call to Rehnquist, remember?

Ok, ok. Let’s not get into that right now.

Anyway, Gore has only the climate to worry about. I hear he is makin’ movies these days. Isn’t he going to win an Oscar or something for that movie “Inconvenient Truth?” We have a joke in the White House — the biggest inconvenient truth is that he lost the election in 2000! He still can’t get over it so he named his movie after it! Anyways, when is the last time someone from Hollywood was taken seriously?

Don’t be so sure, George. That Arnie chap in California just won re-election. Also Clooney and others are making a lot of noise about Darfur and being heard.

Mmmhh…. Interesting. What will I be remembered for? Lemme think here ─ No child left behind, privatization of social security, patriot act, making America safer, spreading freedom and democracy…….

George, cut it out! Cut it out, will ya? None of this stuff you are babbling about matters. Your legacy will be determined by what happens in Iraq over the next two years of your Presidency. The people have already put the Democrats in charge of the Congress. You need to wake up and smell the coffee. Laura, Laura, are you around? Are you listening? Can you please join in this conversation and explain this to George.

(Laura speaks up…..Yes, Dad, I am listening. I am here to help in anyway I can!)

Aw, Dad. Stop getting hysterical.

What do you mean, hysterical? People are dying in Iraq, George.

You think I don’t know that?

You certainly do, but you ain’t doin’ anything about it. You hear me?

There you go again. What do you mean I am not doin’ anything about it? I just got off the phone with General Casey, I spoke earlier today with Abbas of the PLO, the Egyptian President, and others.

That’s fine, George. Just do something quick, please. People are going to forget about my Kuwait victory and instead remember me for being your Dad!

Aha-ha, ok, now this is all starting to make sense. That is the problem! You are afraid of your — what do you call it….legacy? Yes, your legacy. So if I don’t fix Iraq, you will start to look bad. Is that it?

George, George, listen to me.

No, I don’t want none of that, Dad. Remember, the American people elected me not once, but twice. The booted you out after one term and brought in that Bubba chap from somewhere in the boonies…wherever that was… I think it was Louisiana or some place like that.

(Laura helps…Honey, Clinton was from Arkansas.)

Thank you, Laura. Yes, Arkansas. Who cares anyway?

Barbara steps in. George, that’s enough! I have had it with you. Your Dad has been so worried about Iraq and you and he is trying his best to help you. He dragged Baker into this so he could help you out. Instead of appreciating this, you have the gall to talk to him like that!

Mom, last I checked, I was President of the United States.

Cut that crap George. You were my son first before you become President. Besides, we have had other Presidents and Governors in this house before you. Just remember that.

Mom, Mom, calm down. I take that back. Dad just pushed me over the edge. Life is tough in Washington as you know……Ok, I’m sorry. Time out, time out! Let’s take a step back for a moment. How do you explain Dad going around town shedding tears in public for Jeb, the son who should have been President?

George, I am not getting into that. End of discussion. Not another word.

Fine, Mom. Laura, lets go. Thank God for being President, at least I have the last word outside this house!

Obama’s 25M+ is VERY Impressive!

Wow! Just Wow! 25M in the first quarter is simply amazing for someone who just jumped into the presidential race. Hats off to him and his team. Very impressive indeed! It sure sounds like the Clintons are in for a big battle. Obama’s unprecedented momentum is going to get harder to match up to.

The Presidential race is sounding just like Wall Street with quarterly numbers, forward looking statements and what not being rolled out!

On a side note, it is well known that it takes huge amounts of money to win elections in the US and most politicians in the US are wealthy to start with. It is not clear where Obama made his personal wealth. Anyone seen any articles or reports about this? Just curious. There was no reference to it in his book either.