2E Factor in Cricket

It was my original plan to write about India's victory test series victory in England. However, after witnessing the recent T20 match between India and Pakistan. I must confess that I had to immediately revisit my original plan and write about something that is actually revolutionizing the game of cricket.

I always used to wonder how it would have been for people back in 1975 to see the first ever world cup of one day cricket. After having accustomed to follow a cricket match for 5 days, it must have been exhilarating for those at that time to watch matches reduced to a one day affair. Guess, we are all experiencing probably the same feeling what those people in 1975 would have, if not more. Game has changed a lot since 1975 in more number of ways, be it type of shots played, sponsorships, money and politics.

Two most important changes that stand out is, one to do with Economics and the other one is to do with Cricket being treated as Entertainment. While, we leave the economics piece to the administrators, let us touch upon the entertainment factor. Before T20 the last time I found the game being approached in a different manner was when Greatbatch played those explosive opening innings during the 1992 world cup in Australia. From then on Jayasurya just mastered it and ensured that Srilanka lifted the cup in 1996. Some of the changes that were brought to the game in the last 15 years are the field restriction, third umpire, power plays, super sub, Duckworth Lewis and so on, some of them have stayed and some of them have vanished. I sincerely believe all these were done just for the 2E’s that we have listed.

The most recent entry to the change is T20 matches, boy isn’t it a big change. A free hit for a no-ball, bowl out rule for a tied match, matches getting over in just about 3hrs, things can’t get better. With the advent of India Cricket League and BCCI’s champion league with 4 countries, on couldn’t help but think Cricket is on the verge of a major change and for sure it is for the betterment as it will improve our 2E’s and that’s what is more important. Those oldies might tend to think that this spoils the purity of the game, how many times we would have seen a batsman making room on the leg stump against a leg spinner and hitting him over the cover fieldsman in the older version of test cricket, probably none. Thanks to the one day cricket we savour such shots, I can still remember Laxman playing such a shot with his wrists. With the T20 games, one is certainly going to witness some innovative shots and more importantly, free minds going and batting. In my opinion T20 is the best thing that has happened to cricket and it is only going to add enhance our 2E’s, let us wait and watch.

Naan Vandhuttennnnn....

Naan padhivu ezhudhi romba naal aachu... 5 months of marraige life ennoda kanna moodiduchu... Gentelman padathulaSaranrajukku avaroda aapa advice kudupaaru... Iam settled and You are not settled'nu.. Idhu edhukku??? Kalyanathukku!!! correct... Andha settle'kku meaning ennanu ippa naan therinjikitten... Civil Engineering'la... specifica Geotechnical Engineeringla... Settle'na Mannu nallaamungiduchu artham... Surukkamaa sollanumna midhichittanga, Podhachittaanga, Amukkittnaga .. ippadi edhavadhu sollalaam....Adhu pola... I am settled now...

Enna dhideernu romba naal kazhichu dhideernu endhirichu oru blog'nu ellarum yosikkalam... onnum illa makkaley, Office'la ukkandhuttu google'la ennoda perukku oru search vitten.. chumma enna match varudhunnu paakalaamnu... Not bad 3 pages vandhudhu... naan idhu varaikkum kazhatti irukkardhukku adhu romba jaasthi... Adhula, ennoda nanban, maamu Moganraso'da Kaipullai padhiva paarthen... Naan kooda avan kalyanathukku appuram blog panradhu illannu nenachen... paarthaa nerayaezhudhi irukkan... Seri, nambalom aarambippomnu, marubadiyum ennoda nanbanaala inspire aagi.. marubadiyum oru pullayarsuzhi... Innum sila naatkalil oru padhivu...

Neeyum Pathu Masam.... Naanum Pathu Masam

This morning I happened to listen to this song Aanenna Pennena Neeyenna Naanenna...... from Darmadurai. While I have alwaysadmired the quality of that song, What stuck me today was the lyrics and specifically the phrase "PATHU MAASAM", this phrasereally took me to my school days. Not because I was becoming sentimental about the song, it is just that "PATHU MASAM" reminded me of one of my classmate in school who we used to call as "PATHU MASAM". I don't know why we called him so, but somehow he had this name.

So what? Why such a round about? Get into the matter man, well sometime back I had read a posting in wikedpedia that gave the list of terminologies that we use in street cricket right from Attetail to Over Gajji. After hearing this song and inspired by the wikepedia posting, thought I would list some of those nicknames of my friends that can tickle someones nerve. Now let us get going...

NILA PALLAN : The same guy who was called as pathu masam used to be addressed by this name, because his front two teeth use to be in the shape of valar pirai.

MATTU PALLAN : No prices for guessing, he had some big teeth

ELI : Don't know why but he actually used to look like a ELI, in fact nowadays when I meet him I fin it difficult to call him with his actual name.

KAEKKU : This guy's name is K.Suresh and it was shortened.

TUSSU : Don't know why though...

THOCHAI : God knows what this means, but this is a famous name

GANDHI : Because he used to wear a Gandhi Kannadi

BENDU : His forearm used to be slightly bent

KEESI : Apparently a short form of Krishna Kumar.

GARIBALDI : Inspired by one of the kings we read in History and the color of the person (Friends no racism involved here u see :-)).

PULIYODHARAI : Inspired by the fart that this guy released after having puli saadham

TOM CRUISE : This guy is one of my close friend and he used to ride his cycle like tom cruise, nothing inspired by the looks. Please do no get misled.

PUTCHUTTING : This name was the best of all, actually coined by THOCHAI, the reason behind this is highly scietific. Our friend who carries this name had once caught his fart in hand and release it near the nose of THOCHAI. What a sickening act? hence this name PUDICHU UTTING combined as PUTCHUTTING. Nevertheless I take a bow to Thochai for coining this name :-)


I was able to recall only this much, anyone reading this post can probably leave the nicknames of their friends in the comments...

IITians Are Big Fools

I got this as a forward from my friend and this was an article captured in The Outlook as well. It is an eye opener, being an alumnus of IIT Bombay, to learn that this speech was delivered in IITB makes me feel great as well. Check out... good one.

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'IITians Are Big Fools'
No, it wasn't a frustrated or failed aspirant but a former IITian who said this last week at a lecture, while addressing a crowd of nearly a thousand IITians.

No, it wasn't a frustrated or failed aspirant but a former IITian who said this last week at a lecture while addressing a crowd of nearly a thousand IITians and other college students during the annual Techfest at Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IITB). But coming from Dunu Roy, who, unlike his colleagues and peers, decided to pursue grassroot integration of technology with local and practical requirements, it shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone who has followed this IITian's career.
But for a first-timer, the 90-minute talk and the subsequent Q&A could well have been an eye-opener. Provoking his audience by calling them "big fools" who know nothing about India and its village life, Roy said the IITians are victims of the politics of education and science. He added that the first lesson he learnt was that technologists and engineers are under an illusion that they get to take the decisions. That was not all. He went on to say that environmental dynamics aren’t understood by engineers who seem to specialise in solving one problem to create another one, thereby creating a "sustainability for the engineering profession—and not for the people".
"How many of you will end up working for the Haliburtons and Microsofts of the world?" he asked. And then proceeded to answer by pointing out that many of the students would do so because "Indian technical education is geared to meet global demands". The collapse of the US education system has led to a shortage of scientists and technologists, he said, which is why the courses they [the IITians] are learning are required for the US". Since Indian engineers are also cheaper than the American counterparts, "it made good sense for the Indian government to promote technical education so that you can provide cheap service to the US." Therefore, he suggested, the curriculum has changed. Earlier, he pointed out, IITs had a more integrated approach and also taught humanities, ethics and logic. But these subjects were removed in order to hasten the production of ‘unreal’ technologists.
The original vision to set up IITs stemmed from the independence movement. The Indian leaders at that time realised "the need to have trained scientists and technologists" who could provide equal rights to food, shelter, education and work to the people. The idea was to take the "best from universal education, invest in pockets like IITs (so that) they would return their expertise to the common pool of the country." Which is why the money to fund the IITs comes from the exchequer, he pointed out.
And then came perhaps the most thought-provoking part of the lecture. Referring to the hyped-up success stories of IITians —he cited the example of Kanwal Rekhi, a Silicon Valley-based venture capitalist— who have earned millions of dollars, Roy posited that while the ostensible aim of education is to teach us about success, most of our learnings comes from analysing and understanding failures. For every one IITian who makes money, there are 10 others who don't. And no one talks about the thousands of IITians who stay back and work for the country despite encountering victimisation by domestic politics of science and technology. Urging the young students to ask questions, and not just be receivers of "wisdom", Roy asked them to "learn the laws of motion of society and not just the laws of motion of science."
And coming from him, it did not sound phoney. For after his post-graduation from IITB, Roy moved to Shahdol district of Madhya Pradesh and started the Vidushak Karkhana as part of the Shahdol Group carrying out focussed work on building a development model for the district and its implementation, in conjunction with local people.He was involved in this for 17 years during which he earned his income primarily out of repairing bicycles in the village district. He then shifted to Delhi for a four-year stint with the World Wide Fund for Nature, and later set up the Hazards Centre, a multi-disciplinary consultancy group. It’s rare for IITians to be the recipients of such blunt talk. And it should be noted that the student organisers of Techfest invited Dunu Roy to give this talk after accepting his condition that there would be no restriction on the content of his lecture. So perhaps the IITians are not such big fools after all.

Ultimate Maama - Part II

As we said bye and see you on 1st August, I instantly switched to the mode of enjoying the remaining 3 weeks before the college. With no one at home accepting my decision to do Civil Engineering, enjoying the remaining holidays was a challenge. Till date I have not regretted for the decision to do Civil Engineering at Anna University, however the reason for which I took up Civil Engineering was a disappointment. It is always easy to do a post mortem, and would be unreasonable to make any comment on how life would have been on a path untaken. Nevertheless what followed was 4 years of fun filled and highly rewarding college life.

July 31st, 1995
Traditionally Anna University always opens up the academic year on every August 1st; I think the rules have changed a lot now. On July 31st, everyone assembles at Vivekananda auditorium to pay the semester fees and register for the subsequent semester courses, 1st year students also had the same rule. I stepped into the Vivekananda auditorium proudly thinking that I am a student. Not sure how many of us would have observed, we always address school going pupil as SCHOOL CHILDREN irrespective of the standard, not many times we call them as school students. This is one of my favorite observations that my class teacher in 12th standard made a point to re-iterate. As a proud student of Anna University I sat inside the auditorium to wait for my turn to pay the fees. I was wearing one of my brothers blue striped shirt and as a perfect Chennaiite had left the shirt outside my trouser and was wearing a bata leather slipper. I was also holding a folder with all my certificates and most significantly a malaimadhi Tamil novel.

As I was waiting for my turn, was thinking to myself about Mohan Raj and wondered how it will be to attend classes along with him. Truly living to the cliché of “Will Live For 100 Years” I heard the hero of the posting’s voice uttering “Excuse me what is the time now”. As I turned to say the time, my brain somehow instructed my lips to pull of a smile from nowhere. By now the readers must be wondering what is so significant about Malaimadhi. If the shear look of Mohan Raj created an impression about him, it is the Malaimadhi novel name that made Mohan Raj set his initial impression on me. With all due credit to him if anyone see’s a guy carrying a novel named MANJU + 5, will come to the immediate conclusion to which Mohan Raj also came. To put it in Chennai slang, he thought I am a matter boy carrying a sex novel during college admission. That was a damaging impression to have first up. With our initial impressions set on each other, what we both went on to prove was that “initial impression need not always be the best impression”.

Kick Start...
First 3 weeks or so in our college was not significant however just towards the end of the first month we had that famous Ganesha drinking milk episode. This posting will not get into any details on the milk episode, however what is important is, the way we used the episode to win first prize in the intra college variety entertainment competition. This was one of the headiest moments in our college life, we got our first prize by beating the most fancied veterans from the third year mechanical engineering group. This significantly marked the first time that MohanRaj and I got to work together and started to appreciate each other. During this time I observed certain wonderful qualities of MohanRaj, the one that I admire the most is his patience. I am exactly polar opposite to him when it comes to patience. I have always dreamt to be as patient as him and to date have not managed to achieve it.

The next significant moment in out interaction came during the freshers party organized by Anna University in the Vivekananda Auditorium. I do remember the senior who ragged us, without physical or mental abuse from the senior; the whole incident was really funny. Both Mohan Raj and myself were asked to play Tikkilona in the main pathway of the auditorium, without a modicum of hesitation we both played that with great enthusiasm. When I imagine my dicky vis-à-vis Maams’s, there is no comparison at all. There were other incidents during the freshers party, for want of maintaining decency those are all censored. That pretty much covers the initial interactions with Maams, during the subsequent posts; we will get into some more incidents…

Ultimate Mama

After some deep thinking and reviewing of multiple subjects for my next 3 to 5 posts, I finally decided to put some write up on my inimitable mama. When I say mama, I am not talking about my mom’s brother or my dad’s sister’s husband or my sister’s husband. I am going to talk about my friend Mr. Mohan Raj who we all call as mama and for sure he is a great mama. Let us get this rolling and see how many posting this spans out to be, let us start with our first meeting….

Our first Encounter...

Our first meeting dates back to 1995 in the month of June. I had taken Kovai Express in the morning along with my Dad for my Engineering Admission at Government College of Technology, commonly called as GCT. Guess the college is in Lolly Road / Thadagam Road, I really like the names of those roads. Interestingly, people give a different expansion for the acronym GCT (Girls College of Technology), this apparently is due to the fact that the percentage of girls in this college is higher than the guys, and one would tend to think LUCKY GUYS. As I reached Kovai sometime in the afternoon, we headed straight to PSG, IMS (Medical College at Peelamedu). This is where my brother had finished his MBBS and some of his friends helped us with accommodation inside the campus.

Next day morning dad and I found our way to GCT and I was taken aback by the distance of the college building from the main gate. After a long walk we reached the main building and further we were directed to the nearby auditorium. Both of us were surprised to see the parents and kids with beds, books and huge suitcases. While we inquired on the reason, we then realized that the classes start once the admission is over. I was not prepared for that since my plan was to get back home (Chennai) and return after a week. I was feeling sick just by thinking about the fact that I need to spend my time out of home and I did not like that idea even a wee bit. On the contrary to majority of the students in the campus I was feeling very low and sick.

While my dad and I were trying to find our way to the auditorium we encountered a guy who was tall, a bit dark, shaven head and with a neatly pressed formal shirt and a trouser. My initial thought was that he must be a senior; I did not have the courage to talk to him. In my mind the look of his was imposing and sent a wave of fear in my spine. My dad approached this guy and asked for the way to auditorium, that’s when we learnt that he has also come for admission. I was surprised and realized how small I am (in size) when compared to my peers. Truly and surely I was scared about the prospect of attending classes with this guy, don’t know why, but I was dead scared. This man happens to be the softest guy I have come across so far and he answers to the name of Mohan Raj.

After that I did not see him during the admission and completed all my admission formalities and headed back to PSG medical college. Next day, I attended the first half of the class where a rude chemistry teacher lambasted a guy. I still couldn’t figure out a reason for him scolding the poor guy. Guess what, our teacher gave the time table for the semester and our friend who was taken to task had noted down the days as columns and periods as rows (typically people note down the days in rows and periods in columns). This apparently pissed our teacher and gave him a mouthful; in fact he even concluded that our poor friend will become good for nothing. One does not expect this from a teacher, at that time I was scared, but if I ever happen see such a teacher I will give my piece of mind. He had no business in the first place to shout at the guy since it is one’s prerogative to note down things the way they understand and want to. Our respected teacher went to an extent of making a judgment, not done, certainly not done.

After that first session, dad and I took the afternoon Kovai express and reached home in the night. By this time I decided not to continue with GCT and I was looking forward for the counseling at Anna University for the admission of two branches Civiil and Geo Informatics Engineering.

A Week Later…..

I headed to Anna University (If I get the date correct it was July 6th, 1995) along with my Dad and Mom. We took the then Pallavan Bus 47A and I was thrilled to see T.Nagar since that was the first time I passed T.Nagar. We got down at Anna University and went straight for counseling; I met quite a few of those people who would then go on to become one of my best friends. Top of the list was one Lakshmi Krishnan, a wonderful girl whom I respect a lot. During the admission process, one of my other friend Makka (Arun Prasad Raja) was having problems in admission and unfortunately we were not able to help him. When all the admissions procedures were done I had a sigh of relief that I need not go out of home for my graduation. Somewhere in the corner of my heart I also felt happy that I need not encounter Mohan Raj again in life, but that happiness was short lived. Just when we stepped out of the campus, we found Mohan Raj along with his parents and he felt happy to let me know that he has also got admitted into Civil Engineering. I don’t think he had any clue on how sad and scared I was about his admission....

This is how the whole thing started, we will get into some details in the upcoming postings…

My Pencil Curves

Friends,
During my days in Mumbai I used to spend my time by reading books and doing some pencil sketches. Thought I will post some of my pencil sketches... These are all not from my imagination but was made by looking at some pictures...