An Indian girl does a Charlize Theron

An Indian girl, Neelima has filed a lawsuit against her employer Caremark RX Inc, claiming that she was racially abused. To read more

http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?SESSIONID=&aId=6275



Go Neelima Go.... Be a rebel

Venkatesh prasad - Aamir Sohail duel

I can never forget the great duel between Aamir Sohail and Venkatesh prasad from World cup 96 match in Bangalore. I can forgive Prasads genorisity all his career to jayasurya and saeed anwar, for this one delivery that uprooted Sohails half stump

Blogs - The best thing to happen in my life

I have been reading blogs for over 2 years now. As a kid I was not a big fan of reading, though that was the first thing I would claim as to be my hobby (to sound cool). As a kid, I would rather spend my time watching/playing cricket and movies than getting myself lost in a fat, heavy book. Books were thrust into my hands only by force and my experience of reading was mostly limited to the boring text books. So I was completely unaware of the pleasure and wisdom derived from this act, until my adulthood.

Thanks to the Internet and a few wise and well informed co bloggers, I started to explore a new avenue of pleasure. I owe a lot of information that I am aware of today, to the courtesy of a few bloggers. Naming all of them is not a trivial effort, so I will limit myself to the top 3 whose updates I never miss reading. You can find the links for these blogs in the must read section.


3. Youth Curry: This is written by Rashmi Bansal and was one of the earliest blogs I book marked for regular reading. Being an young guy myself, ( some of my younger friends may tend to disagree with this claim) I find most of her posts very interesting and informative. I like the ones she wrote about making career choices and the difference of perpectives for a girl and a guy about the most taboo subject for we indians, sex.

2. Random thoughts of a demented mind: This is a unique blog on the web and a masterpiece. It is written by great bong who has an amazing sense of humour. I must have read all the archives atleast more than once. Post after post he dishes out humourous, most of the times satirical articles and reviews of a few chosen bollywood movies. He gets the credit to bring upon me the wisdom of Mithunism. Calling him a great bong is an understatement, he should have been called " The greatest living bong" (of course after Mithun Da).

1. Deesha: This is a blog written by Atanu Dey. He mostly writes articles about economics and a few on spirutuality. His writing definitely taught me a whole new perspective of life. The blogs under the section "Letters to Abhisek" are my favourites

Thank you guys for all the blogs ... and Please keep them coming

Indian Restaurants in Silicon Valley

I lived in San Jose - Santa Clara for nearly 4 years now. During these 4 years I have had the oppurtunity to visit many Indian restaurants thriving in this part of the Bay Area. This attempt of mine is to recollect my experiences at these restaurants

1. Madras cafe in Sunnyvale: A vegetarian place and was inexpensive a few months ago. Now the prices have been hiked and hence not as attractive as it once was. But I must say, I tasted the best sambar (other than my mother's) here. A big thumbs up to their sambar.

2. Swati Tiffins, Santa Clara: As the name suggests its more a tiffin center than a restaurant. Relatively inexpensive and tasty food. Lots of varieties too.

3. Sneha : A restaurant that serves both vegetarian and non vegetarian food. I havent visited this place for nearly 6 months now. but my last two visits before that left a bad taste in my mouth.

4. Saravana Bhavan: Nice place for a good traditional south indian meal. But it is a little harsh on your vallet.

5. KababnCurries, Santa clara: Their dum biryani is very good and I am a big fan of their lamb Korma. But the seating is lousy and not a very comfortable place to enjoy your meal. The buffet at lunch is very good and relatively inexpensive.


...................To be continued

Welcome to this world

This is the picture of the newest member in my family, my nephew. Welcome to this world Kiddo....

Batting Manual - by none other than the Wall

Rahul Dravids Magnificient double century against Australia

The greatest day in history of Indian Test cricket

Today is March 14, the very day, our own Very Very Special Laxman created history with a very very special innings. Not to forget Bajjis 7 wicket haul and Mr Dependable's innings of 185, whose amazing partership with Lax broke Steve Waughs dream of conquering the last frontier. Lets bring back those happy memories and feel blissful once again.

Aussie Innings

Crickets greatest game - Australia vs South Africa

India's win and ICC's parsimony

I am extremely pleased at India's victory against England in the second test. I didnot have the fortune of watching it live but I had been following the running text commentary at Cric Info. This text commentary belongs to a class of its own. Some of the words used are not in english , neither in Hindi, I must say Hinglish.

I dont know why the ICC is so greedy for money. Their official website Cricinfo wants to make money from selling audio commentary and they are desperate to stack up every penny. If you think paying for audio commentary sounds absurd, wait until you hear the so called commentary by experts. There are no experts in that commentary panel atleast not anyone I recognize and their coverage is terrible (I cannot sound more melodramatic than that). In a few words it sucks big time. I am glad atleast the text commentary comes free.. I am not sure though for how long its gonna stay that way.

Jumbo - the king

I always look at this man, Anil Kumble with awe and disbelief. I watched him play every match that he is chosen to play as if it is the last of his life. I must admit that, inspite of realizing that India has still a long time to go before they can win a test match without Kumbles meaningful contribution, I was among those who wanted him to be dropped for Indias tour Down Under last time around. But he proved me and many others like me who doubted his ability wrong, for the nth time.

His reaching the mile stone of 500 wickets in tests is a tribute to his perseverence and self belief. He definitely deserved an oppurtunity to captain India at some point in 16 years of his career but was sadly never considered for captaincy. Considering the kind of sportsman he is and his commitment to his team(bowling with a broken jaw to take Lara's wicket), I hope he is given a lot of say in Indian cricket team selection, once he retires from International cricket. If some one like More (whose only claim to fame is getting on Miandad's nerve with his incessant bashing during a world cup match in 92) can be the chief of selectors, I believe I am not asking for too much.

Iqbal

I watched Nagesh Kukonoors Iqbal last evening. It was a good one to watch. I was impressed by Shweta Prasad's performance as Iqbal's sister. She fully deserved the award she received at Zee filmfare awards, the other day as the best supporting actor - critics ( I never get how that is different from the actual one). Nagesh protrayed the love in Iqbals small and sweet family in very subtle way. The human tendency to search for reasons for his failures rather than confronting his shortcomings, was excellently shown, through Iqbals father citing, Iqbals love for cricket worsening his already fragile situation of his finances. The movie didnot end as impressively as it started though. Iqbal under perfoming in a session of the final match to stack some quick money, seemed to justify match fixing under dire circumstances.

Naseeruddin shah doesnt require any special mentioning. He was excellent as always and the scenes between him and shweta were very well scripted. But I never understood what he claims as "Chakravyuh" stratergy in the movie. I hope atleast Greg Chappel got what it means.....

Overall its a good movie to watch...definitely paisa vasool

Words of Lalkaar from Rang de Basanthi

Dont know who the author is. I like the last two lines the most.


hai liye hathiyaar dushman taak mein baitha udhar
aur hum taiyyaar hain seena liye apna idhar
khoon se khelenge holi gar vatan muskhil mein hai
sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai
haath jin mein ho junoon katt te nahi talvaar se
sar jo uth jaate hain voh jhukte nahi lalkaar se
haath jin mein ho junoon katt te nahi talvaar se
sar jo uth jaate hain voh jhukte nahi lalkaar se
aur bhadkega jo shola-sa humaare dil mein hai
sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai
hum to ghar se nikle hi the baandhkar sar pe qafan
chaahatein liin bhar liye lo bhar chale hain ye qadam
zindagi to apni mehmaan maut ki mehfil mein hai
sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai
dil mein tuufaanon ki toli aur nason mein inquilaab
hosh dushman ke udaa denge humein roko na aa
duur reh paaye jo humse dam kahaan manzil mein hai
sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai

Latte on your roof - funny

links to this post

Zee Cine Awards - what a farce

I watched the Zee cine awards today on T.V and as usual it was boring and sycophancy ridden. The worst part of the program was the hosting by Karan Johar. I believe his coterie keep telling him that he is a very good host coz he seems to be very convinced of this fact. His sense of humour was out of place and there were some half baked, rehearsed supposedly humurous discussions, which could hardly bring a smile on my face. There was a big section of the program dedicated to Yash Chopra where everyone (especially King Khan) was going gaga about yash chopra and his romantic movies. The best for the last. Shah rukh is nominated for the best actor award for his performace in Paheli!!! Good God, he was not given the best actor award.

Awards for Performance -- huh absolute farce...

A poem by Rabindranath Tagore

This is a beautiful poem, that captivates Tagores vision of India from Gitanjali. I came across it while reading the "Argumentative Indian" by Amartya Sen

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where the clear storm of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Into that heaven of freedom,my Father, let my country awake