Chris Broad: A Racist Bastard

International Cricket Council (ICC) match referee Chris Broad has done it again. Like always he has sided the whites. If it is a international match then all nations and race are supposed to be viewed equally, but Chris has never done that.

Chris Broad is the match referee for the the ongoing test series between Australia and West Indies in Australia. Australians who are known for their sledging and unruly behaviour have done it once again. This time Mitchell Johnson and Brad Haddin started to pick up on the West Indies Bowler Sulieman. Sulieman who responded to the harsh behaviour was banned for two match, while the other two were not banned. How does Chris Broad reason this judgement? On the other occasion Mitchel Johnson kept sledging at the West Indies batsmen and what happened when he took the wicket of the the West Indian Captain's wicket? he ran into him and yelled right on his face. Chris Broad defends him by saying that it is the passion for the game and not agression.

A thorough spoil sport is the international referee Chris Broad. Previously when the Pakistan's wicket keeper Rashid Latif appealed for a caught behind after the ball had pitched, he was banned for two matches by Chris Broad. The last encounter of India and Australia in Australia saw 16 wrong decisions and 13 were in the favor of the Australians and Chris Broad had nothing to say. Also Ponting had appealed for a catch and told the umpire it was a clean catch and asked the umpire to give the Indian batsmen out. Later the footages showed that the Catch was not taken by the Australian Captain and Chris Broad neither fined him nor warned him, let alone banning him. More than just appealing Ponting walked towards the umpire and confirmed that the catch was taken, even when he did know that the catch was not genuine.

These are just a few incidents.........

So, Why is Chris Broad's Judgements different to Indians, Pakistanis and West Indians when compared to his decisions against England and Australians

3 Must Watch tamil movies of the season

1> Aayirathil oruvan


The most awaited movie. Two years into the making and is one of the big budget movies that is being released in 2010 for Pongal.

Cast: Karthi (from paruthiveeran fame), Parthiban, Andrea (from Pachhaikilli muthucharam fame) and Reema Sen.

Director: Selvaraghavan, one of the most successful and critically acclaimed director in tamil industry.

Music: G.V Prakash

What to watch out for: Most unique story line and two years of hard work form the crew, Special effects, annimation and VFX.

youtube trailer

2> Tamiz Padum


The first ever Tamil "SPOOF" movie, Full on comedy movie with a lot of dedication in it.
They have made fun of almost all top hit movies of tamil. I have seen the trailers and the songs and they got me rolling on the floor. There is even a SPOOF song.... Man this movie is a laugh riot. They have put in a lot of effort for a spoof movie and also have made sure that they have got their work perfect. There have been a lot of Hollywood spoofs but this is the first in Indian cinema industry. Me and my brother used to talk about Spoofs not made in India. Now we have one.

Cast: Shiva.

Director: Amudhan.

Producer: Dayanidhi Alagiri.

What to watch out for: Tamil movies being ripped and criticised and nothing more.

youtube trailer

3> Goa


One more entertainer from the makers of "Chennai 60028" and "Saroja". Similar crew and seems to be a promising movie.

Cast: Jai, Premji, Amaran, Vaibhav, Sampath and Arvind Aakash.

Director: Venkat Prabhu.

Producer: Soundarya Rajinikanth.

What to watch out for: Venkat Prabhu's Hat trick

youtube trailer

Legends of my time

I am 24years old and I must say that this generation of mine is one of the most lucky one to have seen the all time best players. I follow some sports and I would like to share what we are blessed with.

You can call all of them as living legends

Cricket : Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar : Most of the people of my generation who have missed watching Don Bradman's work, will not regret as they would have watched most of Sachin's record breaking performances. Very few players shine like a lone star in team sports, he is one such star.

Formula 1: Michael Shumacher : Most promising driver and a gentleman. World's Best Driver. His reputation precedes him.

Moto GP: Valentino Rossi : A true master in racing. Always emerges on the top and has great nerves.

Tennis: Roger Federer : He is one of those people god cannot make again.

Golf: Tiger Woods : He has made himself synonymous to Golf.

Swimming: Michael Phelps : The man who made breaking records as his pass-time.

Cycling: Lance Armstrong : A man with will and power to inspire. I started following Tour de France only after Lance Armstrong's inspirational story.

Football: Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo, Christiano Ronaldo : All greats and as a small kid I have seen Diego Maradona wonderful performances. Though I do not follow football much, I am gald to have watched these Men perform.

Karate: Chuck Norris : I have not seen his champion performances, as they were much before i was born, I don't even think it was ever aired too, but I have seen his movies, I should be happy to share at least a part of his time line.

There are many other sports that I do not follow like

Chess: Vishwanath Anand

Billiards: Pankaj Advani

both are Indians.

There are a lot of other sports that have greats too but just that i don't follow them.

Sangakara Vs Dhoni

India Vs Sri Lanka Test series

First test: India won the toss and batted first, India were 32/4 when the Wall came to rescue and scored 177. The Indian captain posted a ton to keep the game alive. India’s total was 426 and the Sri Lankan team easily surpassed the score and posted a mammoth 760/7. For India Second Innings was all about the rescue act and saving the game as the pitch was still intact on day 5 and India just did that. The game ended in a draw with India 412/4

Dhoni scored a century in spite being a lower-middle order batsmen and kept wickets.
Sangakara hardly scored in spite of being one of the top order batsmen and did not keep wickets, Knowing that he is the best wicket keeper for SL he should have kept wickets. Prasana Jayawardene (Wicket keeper) did poorly and dropped a vital catch that was actually going to Mahela Jayawardene at 1st slip. P Jayawardene also did not attempt a catch that went between him and the 1st slip. He was also poor in keeping the balls that went to his left.

Second Test: India won the toss and elected to bat and Posted a huge score of 642. By the end of the second day the wicket started to disintegrate and caused a lot of issues to the Sri Lankan Batsmen. With just scoring a meager 229 in their first innings, they were forced to follow on. Their second inning was no better than their first and scored only 269 and losing the game by an inning and 144 runs.

Dhoni kept wickets. He had attacking field setup throughout the game. The main thing was the team selection. He got 3 Pacers and 2 spinners. The inclusion of S Sreeshant was vital as he picked a 5 wicket haul in the first inning
Sangakara did not keep wickets and did not score well. His team selection included 2 seamers who were not very fast and 3 spinners. Come on man that’s silly, every one knows that the batsmen form the subcontinent play spin very well. For most of the game, he had a very defensive field set up and the Lankans were too worried about the pitch. Prasana Jayawardane missed a vital catch this match too, that too of Shewag when he was at 0. Shewag went ahead and scored a century.

Third Test: Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat and posted a total 393. India batting second is already way past it and has a healthy lead of 230 and counting.
The previous test India batted first and the Lankans blamed the pitch; they felt it was not suitable for batting from day three. This pitch may have not been the same like the Green Park Kanpur pitch, but India just lost one wicket when the surpassed the Sri Lankan tally of 393 and also gave a lead of 50 in the very same day with a just a loss of one wicket.
So I suggest Lanka not to worry too much about the pitch. (I know it’s not their home ground unlike it is for Indians). If India can score 443 on a day 2 pitch and Lanka can only score 370 odd in day 1 pitch, with India playing fewer overs than SL, SL should not blame the pitch.

Dhoni’s attitude: Dhoni was not bothered about the win that will fetch India the No.1 slot. So, he kept his mind cool and could think about his field placing and bowler regulation even while keeping wickets
Sangakara’s attitude: He had a big responsibility of breaking the jinx; Sri Lanka has not won a test match on Indian soil for a very long time. He couldn’t think of options when Shewag was sending the ball all throughout the park. He was not even keeping wickets, he must think better and try to make better use of his resources as he is got the Second best team in the World while Dhoni has just got the third best team in the World.

Interesting fact about Dhoni : has captained 10 matches and yet to loose a match.

When Sehwag wags his bat

Day 2 of the 3rd test between India and Sri Lanka saw a blistering performance by Sehwag’s who got to his double century in lightning speed, this is his 6th test double hundred and the first by any Indian batsmen. Sehwag who opened the innings with his new partner Murali Vijay was unbeaten at 284 runs off 239 balls by the end of day’s play. Sehwag whacked 40 boundaries and 7 sixers in his knock, allowing India to ease past the Sri Lankan total of 393. It seemed like a day of breaking records.

At the end of the day, India were 443/1 in 79 overs with a runrate of 5.61.

Day 3, Sehwag fell 7 runs short of his third triple century. With every hour there were records being shattered, with the 7 more runs Sehwag could have broken many more records. However, he has put India in the driving seat, to go ahead and win the game and continue their dream run, and also acquire their number one spot which they have been hunting for quite some time now.

A very interesting fact:

Previous to the second test, Sehwag’s last 11 centuries were above 150 runs, no one has ever done this. Last match Sri Lankans stopped his run when they got him out in 130s. This match his century is again gone past the 150 mark. If he could have just managed to pull the 150 in the previous match, his record would still be piling.

Records

Only Batsmen to share 200 plus runs partnership with both 1st wicket and 2nd wicket in the same innings and that too he has achieved this twice.
Highest individual score in Brabourne, Mumbai (surpassing Vinoo Mankad’s 233 odd runs scored in the late 50s)
First Indian to score 6 double centuries.
First Indian to score 2 double centuries against SL (no Indian has managed to score even one)
First Indian to score 250 or more in 4 innings.
First Indian to score 200 in boundaries (40x4 , 7x6)
Second Fastest double century (168 balls)
Third highest individual score in a single day (284)

Will India be the No.1 Test team

Cricket

India plays Sri Lanka today in the ongoing Sri Lanka tour of India. India Leads the 3match series 1-0. The third and final match is crutial for both the teams. Sri Lanka Placed 2nd in the ICC test rating will be looking for a victory to square the series and avoid a series defeat. On the other hand India ranked No. 3 will be looking out for a victory too, as this will put them into first position and allow them to achieve something that they have never done before.

ICC team Rankings (right click and open in new window)
ICC player Rankings (right click and open in new window)

India is in the second position in the ODI rankings, with Australia and South Africa taking the top honours in the ODI rankings and Test rankings respectively.

A win in the Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai, will be one of the significant achievements. It just does not show that India has won the match or achieved the first position, but also its path of victories and raises after failures.

Captain Cool's take

Dhoni like usual is not worried about the records and is just looking forward for winning the match and hence winning the series. Dhoni feels that, with performances, records will come and thereby the team should not worry about the records and get under pressure.

Is Banglore still Banglore??

Bangalore was famously known as "The Garden city". The name was given to her because she was filled with greenery. This small city was made up of parks, gardens, and roads sheltered by the tree's canopy. Bangalore being 3000-3100 ft above sea level (much higher than some of the hill stations like Ooty) was a very cool place that was featured with the early morning fog even in the summer. Bangalore was once a sight seeing place and used to delight everyone who visited her. The mist that used to settle down early in the morning, the dew drops on the grass blades, the light air, the fresh cool breeze, the silent surroundings with the sparrows chirping, the clean ponds and lakes, all of these made Bangalore a great place to live. Inviting more population, Bangalore slowly started to develop! Bangalore became the IT hub for the country and was called the "Silicon city of India".

A Barren land next to Koramangala intermediate ring road

13th Nov 2000

Same barren land filled with many MNCs

6th Jan 2008

Every Bangalorean was proud of the city's status as the IT Capital, but less they knew about the hazards of urbanisation. The rapid growth in the number of companies in Bangalore led to what i call the destruction of the city. There were countless call centres, IT companies and many other MNCs that were offering jobs and the demand gave high salaries to the employees and this raised the value of almost all the commodities. Which economists call as the effect of inflation. There was an exponential increase in the number of pick up and drop cabs, which resulted in the exponential increase in the traffic congestion, the existing infrastructure did not cope up with the pace the city was developing. Infrastructure started to improve.......

Indiranagar 100ft road and Air port road intersection (Domlur Flyover)

17th May 2007

The same intersection some time back

13th nov 2000

This, some people call "development", the a true Bangalorean calls it as "destruction of Bangalore's identity". Can u see the number of trees cut down just for this project. Back in the days, there was a variety of bird species and squirrels we could see, now we can hardly see any of these. There we migratory birds that visited Bangalore to nest their fowls, because Bangalore had large fresh water bodies and abundance of trees. Look at how polluted and dirty is the water that is flowing now. This is because this area has lost most of the natural cleaners like the birds.

Hebbal Flyover

13th April 2008

One of the engineering marvels of modern Bangalore. The planning of this multi take-off and landing Flyover is simply superb. It connects the parts of urban Bangalore to the rural ones, it also connects NH4(national highway 4), connects to Bangalore international Airport,Tumkur and Hyderabad. Bangloreans must be proud of this structure, but they should not be proud about the cost. Some might say it costed few hundred crores, I will say it costed a huge farming land. Check out the Hebbal lake, its so dirty and is not maintained at all.

Same place dome time back

13th Nov 2000

The Metro Rail project has brought down thousands of trees, along with many ancient trees those were more than 100 years old. These are just few examples, Bangalore has lost its charm. The climate has become erratic and the place is very polluted, this is not the Bangalore that i grew up in. It may be one of the most advanced cities but does not have the old parks, sparrows, light air, clean and green surroundings, and all the things that once made Bangalore. Now she has become a huge concrete jungle stuffed with population more than she can handle. Now she is filled with inconsiderate people who do not follow simple rules and people who are always busy and not bothered about her. She is also filled with pollution, traffic, crime, corruption, and much more. All of these are the effects of urbanisation.

There is nothing much we can do about it other than just feel bad. the Government needs to wake up and has to redifine the layout of Bangalore. The residential, commercial and industrial areas should be defined properly and should be strict about its implications. These area should be planned well and should be well connected. The only solution to reduce the urbanisation is to bring on secondary cities. The Government should aim on bringing up other cities around Bangalore, rather than just cashing in on the economic growth of the Bangalore.

Pics courtesy: Google Earth

Rain Water Harvesting

The simplest solution for the ever growing water scarcity.

Humans have always wanted water for almost all of their activities. They have found ways to get water to their house, right from pumping up water from a bore well to building dams and channeling water. Ages ago people used cattle to draw water from wells and rivers, it is said that the Egyptians built many canals and drew water from the Nile. Then people started the use of hand pumps, and now the motor pumps to pump up ground water. No one used the water that gets delivered to their house: THE RAIN. Except for the few farmers who planned their sowing period.

What is Ground water?

There are huge reservoirs just under (50-400 feet) the earth’s surface that has large amount of fresh water flowing. These reservoirs get their water from the rain. Rain water seeps through a layer of topsoil, then through a layer of rocks, which acts like a filter and purifies the water. This water dissolves some of the minerals as well. Humans access this water by means of wells and bore-wells.

Facts:

One: Only 5 % of the water on earth is fresh water and consumable by humans.
Two: 60% of this fresh water is in the form of glaciers in the mountain caps, Artic and Antarctic.
Three: A very high percentage of the remaining fresh water is contaminated and polluted.

Rain:

It is a natural distillation process. Sunlight evaporates only the water and leaves the impurities. Low temperature at the higher altitude cools the water vapor and precipitates the water down.

What is Rain water harvesting?

It’s very simple: Collecting rain water.

How to collect?

Create channels on your house, office and other buildings to collect all the water that falls on the building. You can even use the existing drain lines that these buildings have to drain away the rain water. Now we can collect his water in an underground chamber, or can be used for recharging ground water.

Lakes, ponds and some perennial rivers are examples of nature's own way of collecting rain water. Ground water is the nothing but the rain water that nature has been harvesting for millions of years now.

The growing need for water has made humans exploit all their resources, especially the ground water. Here in India most of them rely on ground water. About half of the houses in the city have bore wells and most of the rural population depends on wells. Nearly half of these vents have dried out due to over use. Humans are using water from these sources much faster than the nature can replenish them. So the simplest solution is to harvest free fresh water.

Rain Water Harvesting and Global Warming

Now everyone knows about global warming and its effects. The increase in green house gasses increases global warming. Some of the green house gasses are carbon-di-oxide CO2, Methane CH4, Nitrous Oxide N2O and water vapor. There are so many methods we would have heard about in reducing CO2, CH4 and N2O, but no method of reducing the water vapor in the atmosphere. The solution to this is Rain water harvesting. Rain water gets stored in the chambers or goes underground instead of stagnating on the surface, which is later evaporated leading to increase in water vapor in the atmosphere. This is the most effective solution I could think off. When I learnt that water vapor is a green house gas. I used to wonder what we could do to reduce the evaporation of water from oceans, lakes, rives, ponds, etc. There is actually nothing we can do about it, but we can reduce the amount of surface water.

Advantages of Rain water Harvesting

Over a period of time, floods and drought can be controlled.
Proper utilization can result in huge water collection.
Places which are far from the water sources can be benefited.
Replenish the rapidly reducing ground water.
Reduces green house effect.
It’s inexpensive.
Very easy to implement RWH.
Least or no maintenance required.
Ratio of return to investment is very high. Invest once and enjoy for ever.

Roger Federer: Greatest Ever singles Grandslam Player

Roger Federer became the only person to win 15 grand slam titles, surpassing the all time great Pete Sampras. Probably this is the reason he chose the gold theme for the Wimbledon this year. he also made his 7 consecutive final at the Wimbledon. This victory makes him the world number one, pushing Nadal to number two.
Fedex(SUI) defeated Andy Roddick(USA) in a gruelling five setter: 5-7, 7-6(8/6), 7-6(7/5), 3-6, 16-14. The game that entered the fourth hour was watched by few tennis greats like Pete Sampras, Bjorn Borg and Rod Laver. throughout the game Federer was not able to break Roddick's serve until the last set which got the champion the championship. Roddick had saved 6 out 6 break points until then. The last set which does not have a tie breaker went on for more than an hour and 30 sets were played. Both men held their nerves and kept winning their servers but couldn't break the other's serve. Throughout the tournament Federer was never challenged until the finals. federer served 50 amazing Aces in the match most of which Roddick didn't even move. Though I thought Roddick played better than Federer, the points say it otherwise. This game will be one of the epic games and Roddick must be happy about that the fact that he was a part of it as well as he was half the reason why this game is going to be remembered for a long long time. Roddick could have had the championship if he would have won the second set tie breaker. At 6-2 he was 4 points a ahead of Fedex but was unable to win another point, whereas Federer won the next 6 points and claimed the set.

Roger Federer gets His Career Slam, Equals Pete Sampras

Roger Federer wins his first title at the Roland Garros and completes his Career Slam. Thanks to Robin Soderling who eliminated the only man who could have defeated Fedex, the king of clay Rafael Nadal. Soderling Caused one of the greatest upsets in Roland Garros, when he defeated the Rafael Nadal, and this is Rafa's first loss at the Roland Garros. The world number one was contesting for his 5th consecutive French open title to break the Bjorn Borg's Record of 4 in a row. But the Spainard broke the record of consecutive victories at the French Open (31 matches in a row)
It took 13 Singles grand slam titles for the Swiss Master to win his first Clay Court Grand slam and completed his Career Slam. Now he shares the record for the highest Singles Grand Slam title (14) with Pete Sampras.

The only hurdle for Fedex in the French open 2009


The day Rafa was knocked out, Fedex's dream to get his hands on the French open got brighter. The Day after, his dreams turned into nightmares when he faced the ever stylish German, Tommy Hass. Federer was two set down and in the 8th game of the 3rd set Hass had a break point, had he won that point, he would have served for the match….. and would have eventually defeated the World Number 2 in straight sets. But the Referee gave the controversial point to Federer. Federer fought well and won the match. 6-7 (4/7), 5-7, 6-4, 6-0, 6-2
After that there was no looking back for Federer….. and became the 6th player to get the Career Slam.

Global Warming: Only we can save ourselves from this!!!!!

Let me keep this simple…..
Global warming is due to green house effect. It is caused due to increase in the Green house gasses. These green house gasses trap the sun’s radiation and warms up the planet.
Carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and water vapor are the major green house gases, and the increase of such gases increases global warming…

Remember that Energy can neither be created nor be destroyed it can only be changed from one form to another. Heat is also an energy that directly or indirectly causes rain, drought, forest fire, bush fire, hurricanes, tornadoes, cyclones, melting of the ice at the polar, sea level increase, and lots more. Remember if there is a drought in a place, somewhere in the planet there has been a flood. If the summers get hotter, then the winters get colder. This phenomena is in such a way that it has unlimited number of negative effects on the planet we live and these negative effects fosters its own growth. There by fastens the process much faster than we imagined.
Few years back people were talking about saving our planet for our kids, now, its time to save our planet for ourselves.

Everyone is alarmed by the rate of increase in the green house gasses, and that’s all we do. Its time that we take a step to curb this process that we’ve started.

Save fuel – leads to burning lesser amount of Fossil fuels which in turn reduces the pollution.

Use public transport.
Use Hybrid cars.
Turn off your engines, when not in use.
Always have the tire pressure checked.
Change the engine oil on time.
Maintain your vehicle.
For short distance- take a walk or use a bicycle.
Car pool.

Save paper – leads to cutting down of lesser number of tree and also lesser manufacture of paper reducing pollution.

Reduce the use of tissue papers, take your own handkerchief.
Don’t print unnecessary mails.
At the ATM’s – Don’t ask for the transaction slips when not needed.
Recycle your old newspaper.
Use both side of the paper.
Opt for online/electronic billing.
Opt for recycled papers and note books.
Reduce using paper for decorating.
Use reusable paper bags.

Save electricity

Use solar power for heating and lighting your house and office.
If you are stepping away from your computer for a short spans and many applications are running on your comp then just turn off the monitor.
Turn your computer off at your office before going home. (Just turning off the monitor does not work here.)
While buying home and office appliances, Instead of going for the brand you should go for the ones with lesser power ratings.
Use CFLs/CLFs wherever possible instead of conventional Bulbs.
Switch off the electrical appliances at the plug point than just turning it off.
Try to reduce the usage of Air conditioners/coolers and heaters.

Reduce the use of elevators
Set your fridge cooling to most appropriate rather than setting it to full.

Save water

Use a bucket to wash your vehicles rather than using a pipe.
Maintain your taps and pipes
Reuse water (e.g. water used for cleaning can be used for watering plants.)

Other ways

Educate people, spread awareness.
Start harvesting Rain water.
Use reflective glasses in your house and office for windows. (Keeps the place cooler, saves electricity)
Plant trees.
Stop Smoking.

Make Love, not Babies
Have your own garden.
Be responsible.
Follow the rules.
Be healthy and slim. (Obese people consume more oxygen and give out more carbon-di-oxide CO2)
Reduce Burning wood for heating (use alternatives like: solar, Natural gas. Etc.)

* Remember to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

These are just simples things that you do only once or twice in your life time or things that you do in your daily life. Try to follow at least few from the list (which ever is convenient to you. Do your bit). Try to make it a habit.

You don't have to be a super man to save the Earth, but just responsible Humans.

*Notice that everything that you do to save the planet SAVES "YOUR MONEY".