Good team effort

The Indian team for once decided to showcase both their bowling and batting talents in one match itself.I am not being sarcastic but it was one of the very few circumstances in which both the departments shone.India's prowess has always been its batting.We haven't shown ourselves to have a particularly strong bowling in the recent past which makes this effort all the more sweet.

After a very good bowling performance in the first innings,the batsmen did what was required of them,i.e.,put the match out of England's reach.Though England ran away with the first session of Day 4 plundering runs at will,the bowling after lunch was raised a few notches the LBW of Kevin Peterson being a fine example.Zaheer's impeccable line and late swing did England in and the tail was not allowed to wag,something that we have often allowed in the past .A sub 75 target was never going to be a diificult task on a pitch that had no devils in it and Karthik along with Jaffer saw to it India didn't lose early wickets while Ganguly and Dravid saw India home,fitting enough since both these great batsmen made their debut in England and this could well be their last tour of England.Overall a good effort by the whole team and a victory to savour.

A special note on Karthik: This guy has got a wonderful temparament to go along with his sound technique and is quite aggressive too.He has settled wonderfully into the role of an opener and if he continues like this,Sehwag may well be looking at a spot in the middle order when he returns.

Beautiful

Finally got my speakers replaced.There was no fuss this time as the person incharge clearly understood what my problem was.The first thing i did after switching on my new speakers was to watch "The Pursuit of Happyness".

Gosh!What a movie it was.Beautiful.Never thought i would let a film dampen my eyes but here it was,a masterpiece in movie making.How does Hollywood time and again manage to come up with such beautiful movies based on real life incidents that absolutely roots you to your seat?Amazing,to say the least.

How Dumb can Taufel be

Simon Taufel.Regarded to be one of the best umpires in cricket in the likes of Harold 'Dicky' Bird and David Shepherd because of the astonishing accuracy of his decisions has just proved himself to be as human as other ordinary umpires.Now,when you are in the Elite panel of umpires it means that the guys out there in ICC consider your judgement of the game to be pretty good.

But horrendous decisions like the ones Taufel gave yesterday makes one reconsider the quality of umpiring going on.Before all the people out there cry out loud that 'Cricket is just a game.Everybody is human.Blah Blah Blah Blah!',I would like you to consider the situation of the game yesterday.Tendulkar was batting well,finally having got his groove back(not fully,but satisfying)and looking on course for a magnificient century.What could have possibly prevented him from reaching that landmark?.Only a dumb decision.AND THAT IS WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED.One of the most horrific leg before decisions i have ever seen.God!!Just because a batsmen doesn't offer a shot will not mean he is out.Come on.Have some sense.In giving a LBW decsion,the height of the ball when it strikes the batsmen has to clearly noted because it shows whether the ball will go on to hit the stumps or not.In Sachin's case the ball did miss offstump.Replays also showed that.Now,those who cry foul at my blog saying that the 'Pressure in the game is too much.The umpires have to take split second decsions while the audience have the luxury of deciding in the comfort of their homes' I would like to emphasise that it is a prerequisite to have a cool head when you want to be a umpire.If you have doubts take the help of technology.Yesterday Taufel did take his own sweet time to give the decision,a rarity,clearly showing that he was in a dilemma.Finally the fact that Sachin didn't offer a shot probably did him in but nevertheless an awful decision from what we call a 'good' umpire.

As for the Ganguly episode, the lesser said the better.What do you have the stump mike for?Probably to overhear what the players are chitchatting in between the overs.A kind of entertainment for the overworked umpires!!!When I can't hear a nick,sitting in my living room surrounded by my family talking nineteen to the dozen when the ball passed Ganguly's bat,how come did Taufel hear it.And remember the English crowd is not as noisy as their Indian conterparts.Another well deserved century missed out due to,if i may say,negligence on the part of the umpire.

You see its a paradox.If a bad decision is made,blame is put on not using the available technology to arrive at correct decisions.But if a bad decision is made even after the use of proper technology,what to say.Audience like me can only sigh.Make it a double sigh.

All said and done this leads to two possible solutions.Either the technology is dumb or Simon Taufel is dumb(with due regard to all his brilliant decisions made in other matches).And as far as i am concerned it is Simon Taufel who acted DUMB with a capital D on the third day of the second India-England test.

This forward is taken from Chinmayi's blog.Sorry Chinmayi it seems like plagiarism but it was too good to resist.

So here it is:

This one was also *TADAAAA* forwarded to me on orkut.I want to thank all my friends and other unknown people who have forwarded chain letters to me in 2003, 2004 &2005 and 2006.

Because of your kindness:

I stopped drinking Coca-Cola after I found out that it's good only forremoving toilet stains.

I stopped going to the movies for fear of sitting on a needle infected with AIDS.

I smell like a wet dog since I stopped using deodorants because they cause cancer.

I also stopped answering the phone for fear that they may ask me to dial a stupid number and then I get a phone bill from hell with calls to Uganda,Singapore and Tokyo.

I also stopped drinking water outside for fear that I will get sick from the rat shit and urine.

When I go to parties, I don't look at any girl, no matter how hot she is, for fear that she will take me to a hotel, drug me, then take my kidneys and leave me taking a nap in a bathtub full of ice.

I also donated all my savings to the Amy Bruce account. A sick girl that was about to die in the hospital about 7,000 times.(Poor girl! she's been 7 since 1993...)

My free Nokia phone never arrived and neither did the free passes for a paid vacation to Disneyland.

Made some Hundred wishes before forwarding those Dalai Lama, Ganesh Vandana,Tirupathi Balaji pics etc..

Now most of those "Wishes" are already married(to someone else)!

You can add your own notes based on your similar experience and send them to your friends.

If ORKUT deletes my account, it doesn't matter BUT PLEASE DON'T SEND me "Orkut is deleting accounts: Due to sudden rush...

" Otherwise I'll delete my E-Mail account!"

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
IMPORTANT NOTE:If you do not send this e-mail to at least 913760
people in the next 10 seconds,a bird will shit on your head today at 6:30 p.m.

#############################################
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Give me a break!!"
The World Is Filled With Foolish Ppl And Some Think They Got Talent
Too !!!"

Life is like that

Bought a brand new speaker set from Intex,the old one literally crying to be replaced.I unpacked it like a treasure,plugged in the wires,switched on the power and Voila! my new speakers.I heard some of my fav songs on it and just when i opened WMP to see a film there was a small POP.AND A BURNING SMELL.Took me 2 mins to figure out that my new speakers have just conked out.Hard luck some people say.Nope. Very hard.Infact my luck seems to be as hard as diamond.Attempting to repair the speakers was something I considered but what the heck I had a warranty.So i went to the shop where i got them and explained my predicament.
There was this sales guy who on hearing me said in the most saintly voice that conveyed he knew everything there is to be known in this mystical world and would have put Sri Sri Ravishankar to rethink about his knowledge"Sir,voltage fluctuation".I tried explaining to him that i had a UPS but he hung on to the notion of voltage fluctation like a child clinging to his mother on the first day of school.Damn!.Finally I realised that there was no way I could make him understand and wrote a letter to the shop owner who had gone out explaining my situation and gave it to the sales guy along with the receipt and told him i will be back tomorrow.Sigh!Shelling out three fourths of a thousand for the speakers,I was utterly disappointed.But as they 'Life is like that'.

Just out of curiosity

Hi people this is my first blog.Just thought that i will let my thought process see some daylight however idiotic it may be.Wanted to start a long time ago but was hindered by a number of factors(read laziness).Have to know a lot about the nuances of blogging especially uploding pics.

Any tips are glady welcomed