Team India gets new outfit, but...

Indian Cricket Team's official apparel sponsor, NIKE unveiled a new "inspirational" outfit for the team for the upcoming World Cup in the Carribeans.



"Advanced Nike patented technologies have been incorporated into the cricket apparel to ensure zero distraction, superior comfort levels and enhanced performance", Nike said.

The jersey is made from Dri-FIT fabric, a Nike patented technology, which reduces cling and enables the skin to breathe better. The fabric is designed to wick sweat, which leads to better moisture management and is extremely light so that the player does not carry additional weight that may affect his performance.

Captain Rahul Dravid, Vice-Captain Sachin Tendulkar, former skipper Sourav Ganguly, Zaheer Khan, Sreesanth, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Dinesh Karthik donned the new outfit at the press release.

Twist in the tail!

But to add a twist to the tale, just 24 hrs. later the International Cricket Council (ICC) informed the Indian board that only uniforms approved and supplied by the sport's world governing body can be worn at the World Cup in the Caribbean!



So why were the stars paraded in those outfits? Obvious Nike had an eye on the coming World Cup and Indian market with its fanatical support for anything that relates with cricket.

Although the new outfit is already available on major online store like Amazon it appears that the Indian team can sport the new clothings only after the World Cup.

This comes after Nike won a $ 27.12 million ( Rs. 199.96 crores) deal in Dec 2006, to sponsor the Indian cricket team's clothes for the next five years. To put it in perspective, this is more than shirt deals struck by Juventus, Chelsea, Real Madrid and Man U!

While other sports are neglected...

Amid all this razzmatazz, other sports in India get a step-brotherly treatment. Read this story about a man, who once was the best player at the National Kho-Kho games in 1987, but now works as a daily labor.

Joke of the day!

Samajwadi Party, whose government headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav, is in danger of being pulled down in Uttar Pradesh (as it moved into minority), says it will withdraw support from the Congress led UPA government at the centre.



Read the news here.. and guess who published the news ... Sahara Samay owned by Subroto Roy.

Incandescent light bulbs are out..

Global Warming has a (welcome) victim in the good ol' "incandescent light bulb".

The Australian government plans to phase out Australia's 87 million standard light bulbs with fluorescent bulbs by 2009 or 2010. The Howard govt. wants consumers to pay $5 for an efficient compact fluorescent bulb rather than 50 cents for the wasteful incandescent variety that have lit up households for 125 years.



Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull says the expensive bulbs will pay for themselves within a year by reducing household electricity bills by up to 66 per cent and eventually cutting Australia's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by four million tonnes a year.

The move has received support from environmental groups and opposition parties. Australia ranks among the highest 1, 2 per head emission of GHG and is also the first country to initiate such "reforms".

Mr. Howard said, "We need to take practical measures in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

But it is difficult to see why he refuses to sign the Kyoto Protocol setting Greenhouse Gas reduction targets, instead requiring energy-hungry developing countries like India and China to help combat climate change!

United States, the largest emitter of GHG in the world has been the biggest culprit so far by obdurately refusing 1, 2 to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. But there are signs of some change 1, 2 in the outlook of the Bush Administration, already under immense pressure from nations and environmental groups.



With the world temperatures rising and its effects becoming all too visible 1 , 2 the efforts to reduce GHG emission are on a high now. Richard Branson, owner of Virgin brand, recently offered a prize of $ 25 million to anyone who can reduce billion of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere.

Hope sanity and good sense prevails, so that our beautiful earth - remains as ever beautiful!

Big B for President!

Big B has once again, refused to join politics in any form. After news of his nomination as a presidential candidate was doing the rounds. He clarified his views on the topic.



“After leaving active politics, I had said I would never return. I’ve never done anything since then to indicate the contrary… I’ve attended functions that were organised by politicians who are my friends, like Amar Singhji and Mulayam Singhji from the Samajwadi Party" , he said.

Oops she did it again!

Britney Spears, the pop diva has done it again!

She stunned everyone after she shaved her head bald and also tattooed the back of her neck, wrist and hips (?) - a pair of red and pink lips. Reportedly the salon owner tried to talk her out of shaving her head but she used an electric clipper and did it herself.



The transformation came on the same day People magazine and other entertainment media reported that Spears recently entered a rehabilitation center in the Caribbean island of Antigua and checked out a day later.



This incident has sparked fears over her mental condition - leading to a mental breakdown. The 25-year-old singer - who is said to be terrified of losing her children in a custody battle with estranged husband Kevin Federline - was seen crying in her limousine before entering Esther's Haircutting Salon in Tarazana, California, on Friday.



However some enterprising person has already put up her locks on sale at eBay. Bids for the hair had reached $1.1 million when last seen!

Stallone carried drugs?

When "Rocky Balboa" - Sylvester Stallone, arrived in Australia for the promotion of his latest movie Rocky Balboa, he would have had little idea about what lay in store!

After touching down at Sydney International Airport at 10:10 p.m. he was detained by the custom officials and left well after midnight. He was held up for possessing some human growth hormones in his luggage. These items were detected during a routine X-ray of luggage. It was rumored that Stallone may have been carrying bodybuilding drugs, banned in Australia. (Customs are still carrying out tests to ascertain the composition of the substance)

Later the luxury hotel room and the private jet of the actor was also raided by Custom officials even as members of his entourage were seen throwing items out of the window!



However Stallone said all the drama was the result of a misunderstanding.

"I do know (why I was stopped) but I can't tell you " he said. "To (Customs) it's major, but it's really minor stuff. I just made a mistake ... I misunderstood a few things and we are going through the process.''


When asked on the red carpet what was in his luggage, he joked, "My wife."

Australia Crushed..

When was the last time you heard that line ..?

Not in recent memory I bet, and yet, it is very true. Australians were mauled by the Kiwis during their first encounter in the ongoing Chappell-Hadlee Trophy, 2007 (BTW the Chappells include our very own Guru Greg). And to make it worse, this was Australia's first ever defeat by this margin (10 wickets).

Current Australian team has dominated the world cricket scene like no one else (not even the mighty Windies in the 80's). Australian cricket team, has been playing well along the last two decades - winning the 1987 world cup, since recovering from the retirement of the irreplaceable trio of Rod Marsh, Dennis Lillee and Greg Chappell after the 1984, Sidney test.



But nothing matches their unparalleled rise under the indomitable Steve Waugh. And Ponting has not done too bad either! With two successive World cup titles under their belt (1999 and 2003) - Australia seemed insurmountable.

Their rise was matched with the subsequent decline of other teams. Pakistan after Imran, England after Stewart and South Africa after Cronje have never looked the same again. Even with the brilliance of Lara, Windies could never really match their predecessors and India have always been a "Star-Studded Paper Tiger" in the 90's. SriLanka was probably the only aberration, when the sparkling willows of Jayasuriya and De'Silva won them the World Cup in 1996. Frankly, SA had been their only competitor for the better part of 90's but unfortunately they managed to stumble at the last post!

In this context, the Ashes series of 2005 was a landmark and probably the best thing to have happened to World Cricket. Although Aussies regained the Ashes this time demolishing England by a whopping margin of 5-0, the pommies beat them in the best-of-three finals of CB series.



But their crushing defeat against the Kiwis as well as the retirement of Warne, McGrath, Langer and Martyn has put their status as the No. 1 team under threat as they risk losing to the Proteas who are on a resurgence now.

Is this the beginning of end of the Aussie dominance of the world cricket. Will a new Champion emerge out of this World Cup? Only time will tell.


Updated 19 Feb,2007 --##--

And Australia did manage to lose their no 1 ranking to South Africa. They have slipped to the second place after being beaten by New Zealand in the second match of the Chappell-Hadlee trophy to NewZealand. And what a win it was for New Zealand, shaking off the disappointment of not reaching the finals of CB series, they chased down a total of 336 and that too in 49 overs! Kudos to them.. World cricket is suddenly getting alive !

Updated 20 Feb,2007 --##-

Well its a dream.. New Zealand have white washed Australia 3-0 in the ongoing Chappell-Hadlee series. They chased an incredible 346 for victory. This is getting better and better!

Race for faster chips..

The Race for faster chips is on...
As the Moore's Law goes - "The number of transistors on integrated circuits would double every 18 months or so " - this remarkable rate of advancement has resulted in smaller feature sizes, improved manufacturing techniques, which allow making larger chips and wafers and more efficient circuit designs and materials, which allow better circuit performance.



But as the size of transistors shrank and chips became more & more crammed - the fundamental physical constraints came into play. In fact, the consequences of miniaturization were predicted to be opposite to their original purpose, with smaller transistors performing even worse.

A different approach is to work with multiple processor chips working in parallel. But all such approaches will plateau some 10 or 15 years later, paving the way for research in nanoelectronics. As the components involved achieve smaller dimensions, their quantum effects cannot be ignored.

IBM, on Wednesday announced that it has devised a way to triple the amount of memory stored on microchips and double the performance of processors. This development is expected to speed the movement of graphics in gaming, networking, and other image intensive, multi-media applications.



In a statement, Subramanian Iyer, Development Director, IBM, said, "IBM is effectively doubling microprocessor performance beyond what classical scaling alone can achieve. As semiconductor components have reached the atomic scale, design innovation at the chip-level has replaced materials science as a key factor in continuing Moore's Law. Today's announcement further demonstrates IBM's leadership in this critical area of microprocessor design innovation."

IBM plans to use dynamic RAM (DRAM) instead of static RAM (SRAM) as the embedded memory cache built onto each chip. The change will allow each chip to store its data in one-third the area and use one-fifth the electricity for standby power. IBM is already using the new embedded DRAM (eDRAM) in 65nm prototype chips, and plans to roll it out commercially by 2008 for its entire range of 45nm chips, including its Power line.

Orkut logo on V-Day

Check out this Orkut logo designed especially for the Valentine day.
This follows the tradition of Google putting up special logos on its web pages for various occasions like New Year's Day, Halloween, Soccer World cup ...
To view the logos, which give a glimpse of the creativity bubbling inside Google visit the links - Holiday , Fan logos , Googlers at play.




Disclaimer: Please note that the above image is proprietary and its use for commercial purpose is illegal.

Google setback on copyright

For those (incl. me) who regularly look at Google News as a source for current updated news on international and domestic affairs, sports, science and technology, health and entertainment, the recent ruling of a Belgium court might be a little upsetting.

Ruling that Google news and Google search for Belgium cannot show excerpts of news from French- and German-language Belgian newspapers, the court put up a fine of $32,500 if Google violates the ruling. This follows the suing of search engine in March 05 for atleast 17.5 million dollars by the world's oldest and 3rd largest press agency( behind AP and Reuters)- Paris based Agence France Presse.

However Google has decided to appeal the ruling. " It is important to remember that both Google Web Search and Google News only ever show a few snippets of text. If people want to read the entire story they have to click through to the Web publisher's site where the information resides. We believe search engines are of real benefit to publishers because they drive valuable traffic to their Web sites." , Google spokesman Ricardo Reyes said.




This ruling could possibly have an impact on other European countries who might follow suit. This ruling is in line with various such noises that have arisen in the past against Google's privacy and copyright policy.

Meanwhile Le Soir and La Derniere Heure - two of the Belgian papers represented by Copiepresse, the group of French and German language publications that filed the suit against Google - show a slight decline in traffic over the past year (vindicating Google's stand?).

This ruling and the subsequent appeal are being watched closely by Yahoo! and MSN as Copiepresse had previously warned them to remove the articles, pictures and links from their search websites.

Yahoo! combine email & IM

There is good news for people who are hooked to chatting. Taking a cue from Google, which has already integrated chatting into its email service Gmail, Yahoo! also plans to do away with installing the Yahoo! messenger client on the machine. The users can now access the Yahoo! messenger from within the Yahoo! mail page.



The new feature, built on the Yahoo! Messenger platform, began rolling out today to Yahoo! Mail beta users worldwide, and will be available to all users in the coming months.

"Yahoo! is focused on making it easier for people to connect to those who matter most to them," said John Kremer, vice president, Yahoo! Mail. "By bringing Yahoo!'s leading instant messaging capabilities to e-mail users, we're transforming Yahoo! Mail into a tool that's about communicating; regardless of the form that communication takes."



The users will be able to see the online status of their contacts and then exchange messages real time. This brings an end to the tiresome part of downloading and installing the IM client and will bring along a seamless experience across various applications - the best part of Web 2.0.

Sleep..

"I have never taken any exercise except sleeping and resting.",
said Mark Twain.


Albert Einstein, JFK, Winston Churchill, Napoleon, Thomas Edison and Leonardo de Vinci also used to enjoy midday naps. Many of us would agree (or perhaps would want to agree!).

Everybody dreams about a good nap in the middle of the day (My favorite is - under the shade of a tree after a good meal) but have to make-do with sleeping on an armchair in the office. For such sleep enthusiasts, there is good news in store. According to the researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the University of Athens Medical School in Greece - a nap a day keeps the doctor away.

As per their findings published in Archives of Internal Medicine, those who took afternoon siestas of 30 minutes or more at least three times a week had a 37 percent lower risk of dying from heart disease than those who did not. Their study, conducted on 23,681 men and women indicates that regular or occasional naps reduce the risk of death from heart attacks or other heart-related ills by 64 %.

"We all know that the three pillars of health are diet, exercise, and sleep, and, sometimes, people forget about the importance of sleep," said Dr. Alex Chediak , president-elect of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and a University of Miami researcher.

It would be very encouraging if someone could pass on this philosophy to employers all over the world. Please don't forget my boss!

Shankar Dada Zindabad?

The runaway success of Munnabhai movies, MunnaBhai MBBS and Lage Raho Munnabhai has prompted many creative minds in the Indian film Industry. Among those "inspired" by the movie and its funny duo of Sanjay Dutt and Arshad Warsi, are the actor-turned-director Prabhudeva and Writer Paruchuri Venkateswara Rao.



Inspired by the success of "Shankardada MBBS", they are working on the sequel, the newer version being named "Shankardada Zindabad". The movie stars Chiranjeevi and Srikanth as "ATM" - 'Any Time Murder'.

“I am 100 per cent sure that I will enjoying doing this. It is a kind of re-make and it definitely gives me a lot of kick and energy. We accepted this proposal because of the success of Shankardada MBBS,” Chiranjeevi says.

Telugu movie fans - watch out for this one!

Vodafone tie-up

I witnessed with interest and curiosity, the recent battle between corporate bigwigs like Vodafone, Reliance Communications, Hindujas and Essar group to win the controlling 67% stake in Hutchison Essar. Ultimately the battle was won by Arun Sarin headed Vodafone which beat suitors with a $11.1 bn bid ( hence valuing the firm at $18.8 bn). Although Vodafone was accused of overpaying, its shares rose immediately after acquisition by 1.8 %.



It is interesting to note that the shares of Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd. had risen 28 percent since the start of November in anticipation of a sale!

Vodafone also sold its 5.6 % direct stake in Bharti Airtel to Sunil Mittal's group for $1.6 bn as per TRAI regulations. However for people on Hutch's network, there is good news in store.

After signing deals with popular online services like MySpace (where customers can access their MySpace accounts through their handsets), eBay( to search and buy items) and Google's Youtube (watch and upload videos to YouTube), Vodafone announced yet another agreement, this time with Google Maps.



The deal will allow Vodafone users to access the Java application, Google Maps for Moblie, offering local listings, search and navigation facilities. However there is still some wait for users in India, as the service is primarily focused at customers in UK and other EU nations.

Note: The image as well as the trademark "Hutch" are proprietary (Courtesy Hutchison Essar Limited).

Social Networking

I first heard about Social Networking through MySpace, later Google opened up its own social networking site Orkut which has since gained a lot of ground in India.

Social networks connect people with all different types of interests, and one area that is expanding in the use of these networks is the corporate environment. Sites like Linkedln and Ryze are examples of such networks.Businesses are beginning to use social networks as a means to connecting employees together and helping employees to build profiles. This makes them searchable and be connected to other business professionals.



Cisco's move to buy a social networking company based in San Francisco, that has developed software that allows large companies to easily add social-networking features to their Web sites.Using this tool, companies will be able to create communities in which users can share audio, video and photos, as well as post blogs, podcasts and profiles.

It seems odd that a hardcore "hardware" company like Cisco would but up a social networking company! Sometimes back this would have been dismissed with a laugh, but not now. For more than a year, Cisco has been implementing a strategy to broaden its product portfolio beyond simply being the "plumbers of the Internet."

Cisco executives say this acquisition will likely be the cornerstone of the company's digital media strategy, because social networking is an important way that people connect with and discover content.

Disney has already seen the value in the social networking phenomenon. It recently revamped its Web site to create a MySpace for tots. Kids are able to play games, watch music videos, customize their Web sites with Disney characters like Tinkerbell or chat with other kids.

This trend might be followed by many more businesses across the world.

-##-Updated on 15 Feb,2007 -##-
Hello, found this article on Social Network Analysis.

Anna Nicole

Anna Nicole Smith, the curvaceous, blond beauty and a Playboy model passed away at 39. Her life has been like a fire-cracker, giving lots of light (and smoke) to the world, but getting extinguished untimely. Her death has been a shock to many.

All through her life, she had been embroiled in controversies...
From teenage pregnancy to working as a topless dancer at a strip club, and marrying a man who was probably the age of her great grand-father to legal fights over right to estate and fatherhood of her daughter - to add to it -her 20 year old son died just five months ago . Whooh.. probably a little too much, but then you only get one life!



Even in death, she managed to shake the world, her death news sent the wikipedia into overdrive with many users trying to update the news of her death at the same time. In the space of 2 hours, more than 300 edits were done to her entry.

Update: News reports suggest that drugs were found in her hotel room. Her mother also blamed drugs for her tragic death.

Update on 19 Feb,2007 --##--

Even after she's gone, Anna Nicole remains in news. This time it is her intimate pictures with the Bahamian Immigration Minister Shane Gibson, that have sparked a controversy with allegations that Gibson fast-tracked Smith's application for permanent residency on the island chain.



Gibson later resigned apologizing to the people of his country.

"I want to apologize to all persons who may in any way have been offended by anything that I have said, done, or perceived to have said or done," Gibson said on state TV Sunday night. "To the extent that my beloved country has in any way suffered . . . I want to apologize to the Bahamian people as a whole."

He also denied any sexual relationship with Smith.

Gmail to open its gates..

Google's email service, Gmail is ready to open up its services to all. Until now, Gmail was available through invitation only. Although it was not much of a restriction, as every user was allowed 100 invitations.



But now Google wants to do away with all this..although the "beta" tag still remains.
Read the AFP report here.

iPod on NY streets..

The ever changing technology is churning out newer and newer gadgets by the day. What is hip today, is a goner tomorrow. In this mercurial age, iPod has been able to hold its own. Designed and marketed by Apple Computers, they are a type of digital audio players which can store up to 20,000 songs, up to 25,000 photos, and up to 100 hours of video - or any combination of each.(Source Apple Computers)




You can watch the latest movies (by buying them at the iTunes Store), download TV episodes, new iPod games, audio books and lots of free podcasts. They have been such a craze with the younger generation that many colleges offer their courses as podcast, straight into your iPod! Although this has already led to concerns.

Some days back Wallmart also launched an online movie download store where it plans to sell movies and television episodes. It intends to compete with Apple with its "cheap" prices.

Now iPod has run into rough weather with the NY state senator Carl Kruger planning to introduce a legislation that will impose fines of $100 on anyone caught using a cell phone, portable music player or video game system (read iPod) in a New York crosswalk.
This comes in the wake of death of two pedestrians who died while crossing a street and could not heed to the warnings of bypassers because they were listening to music.

"You can't be fully aware of your surrounding if you're fiddling with a BlackBerry, dialing a phone number, playing Super Mario Brothers on a Game Boy or listening to music on an iPod,If you want to listen to your iPod, sit down and listen to it," Kruger declared.



"You want to walk in the park, enjoy it. You want to jog around a jogging path, all the more power to you, but you should not be crossing streets and endangering yourself and the lives of others", he said while taking an aim at the "iPod oblivion".

"Tuning in and tuning out can be a fatal combination on the streets of New York," he concluded.

But if this legislation becomes a law it can become very difficult to enforce on the streets on NY. With most of the users of iPod coming from a young age group, a large resistance is expected to the move.

Beedi Song..

I came across this "translation" of the Beedi song from Omkara. Its quite funny so I thought I would share it. Apologies if copyrighted!

"Daan doong dudung daan doong dudung......
Not glass
Not stole
Cold air is also against us
Mother in law
Not glass
Not stole
Cold air is also against
Mother in law

Its so chilly take somebody's quilt go and take fire from neighbors stove
Take fire from neighbors stove
Lit up the ciggi from liver oh lover
There is lot of fire in the liver
Daan doong dudung daan doong dudung......
Dont not take out smoke from the lips dont not take out smoke from the lips
The world is very crooked
Lit up the ciggi from liver oh lover
There is lot of fire in the liver
Its so chilly take somebody's quilt go and take fire from neighbors stove
Take fire from neighbors stove

Not glass
Not stole
Cold air is also against
Mother in law
Its so chilly take somebody's quilt go and take fire from neighbors stove
Take fire from neighbors stove
Yeah yeah
Not crime
Not chaos
Without sin died
U called me in the after noon
Talked bangales
Masked himself

Burn the small stove 4m from liver oh lover
There is lot of fire in the liver
Lit up the ciggi from liver oh lover
There is lot of fire in the liver

Not even kinfe shaprpnees
Not even plough or plougher
Bite so that it leave imprints
This crop any farmer vill leave
Make house of cruel like this cato (billo)
Make house of cruel like this
Cruel like this
Cruel like this
Make house of cruel like this

Not even called me
Not even told me
U woke me up 4m sleep
I dont know 4m ver this fate came
He came near by making me eat cardaemom
Burn the coal from liver oh lover
There is lot of fire in the liver"

Himesh bhai..

Himesh Bhai to stop singing ?


I got a shock (breather?) on hearing the news..
Himesh Bhai will stop singing ? Itni meharbani kyon ?
Later he clarified that he will stop nasal singing. Ek hi baat hai Himesh Bhai..
Read the full story here ..

War of Words - Bollywood Ishtyle..

Here are some of the quotes from two of the biggest stars in Bollywood who are engaged in a war of words.

"I am sexy, smart and young, that was his century, this is mine."
- Shahrukh Khan (SRK)

"Whatever he says is correct. I am old and he is young and I agree that he is smart and sexy. Let's see what happens to him after 35 years"
- Amitabh Bachchan (Big B)

"I want to do more good work so that he can copy me."
- (Big B)

"I have never imitated anyone. I am quite good at what I do."
- (SRK)



"I have been able to get people to warm up to me"
- (SRK)

"I just hope I'm Shahrukh Khan. No one else."
- (SRK)

"Let me also say, nothing and nobody lasts forever, not Shah Rukh Khan, not me. It's how long you last and what you achieve within that time that matters"
- (Big B)


However Mr. Bachchan says this "cold war" has been created by the media.
"It makes good copy so you people keep writing about it", he said.


More to follow..

Indian Pietersen?

For those who followed this year's Ranji trophy final between Mumbai and Bengal, would have noticed a player with the shirt sleeves folded up the shoulder ( ala Warne),ambling along with a swagger and an air of unmistakable confidence about him .Apart from the Indian regulars Tendulkar,Ganguly,Zaheer,Agarkar,Zaffar and Powar who hogged the limelight( remember the NECC hoardings all around the stadium ?), there was this guy managing to bask in his own glory. From becoming the highest run-getter for Bengal in a single Ranji season (overtaking Arun Lal's 729 in 1993-94) to helping Bengal reach the final (he scored 151 in the second innings of the semifinal against Karnataka while chasing 307 on the final day) this 21 year old lad has come a long way.

Manoj Tiwari who has already earned the sobriquet of "Chota Dada", is very well on the path to emulate (and even overtake !) him. Armed with good attacking and defensive technique, and more importantly grit and determination to give the best, he could very well be the Indian Kevin Pietersen.

He is certainly one of the future prospects for India and indeed the find of the season. Let the dust settle down on the World Cup and Indian cricket team's heroics(?) and there will be a talk about building a team for next World Cup. This guy will sure be in the reckoning then. To be followed...


P.S. Meanwhile the Ponting juggernaut rolls on. He recently swept the Allan Border medal for best cricketer, the Test Player of the year and the ODI player of the year awards at the Cricket Australia functions (after being the ICC player of the year for 2006).

Born in the USA

"Born down in a dead mans town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog thats been beat too much
Till you spend half your life just covering up

Born in the u.s.a., I was born in the u.s.a.
I was born in the u.s.a., born in the u.s.a.

Got in a little hometown jam
So they put a rifle in my hand
Sent me off to a foreign land
To go and kill the yellow man

Born in the u.s..a....

Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man said son if it was up to me
Went down to see my v.a. man
He said son, dont you understand

I had a brother at khe sahn
Fighting off the viet cong
Theyre still there, hes all gone

He had a woman he loved in saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms now

Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
Im ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run aint got nowhere to go

Born in the u.s.a., I was born in the u.s.a.
Born in the u.s.a., Im a long gone daddy in the u.s.a.
Born in the u.s.a., born in the u.s.a.
Born in the u.s.a., Im a cool rocking daddy in the u.s.a."

So went the Bruce Springsteen single!

It was the first thing to hit my mind as I saw the news about a court-martial being initiated on an Army officer for refusing to go to Iraq.


In his defence ,Lieutenant Watada said what everyone knows and believes - that the Bush administration had incorrectly used 9/11 to instigate a needless war against Iraq - that no biological,nuclear,chemical or any unconventional weapon had been found in Iraq - that Iraqis had been mistreated by the American soldiers.
The Lieutenant has become the focal point for many antiwar campaigners and has received support from them.
This incident also reminds me about Muhammad Ali refusing to join the Vietnam War , famously stating that he "got nothing against no Viet Cong" and that "no Viet Cong ever called me nigger." (also captured in the movie Forrest Gump). He even got sentenced for five years in prison (later reversed by the Supreme court).

However the trial of Lieutenant Watada is in progress and under public scrutiny.
It would be interesting to follow the court's ruling.

Organised Religion

I was on a trip to Ganapatipule ,a famous religious place and a beautiful and clean beach in Ratnagiri district, Maharashtra.After spending a long time at the sea and the beach I decided to visit the Ganapati temple nearby.

There was a long serpentine queue for devdarshan. After getting through the queue, I reached the bosom of temple. Inside the temple , a picture of Lord Ganesha was adorned with flowers. Adjacent (!) to the idol was, a well documented ,picture-framed list of donation/prayer offerings. It enlisted various denominations of offerings to Lord Ganesha. Some people sat nearby on a desk-chair,with a big tilak on their forehead, equipped with receipts for donations/offerings and small satchels containing a picture of Ganesha and some vermilion.



As people entered the premise of temple to get blessings from the lord, the priests encouraged them to offer money to the deity. When I visited the famous Raghunath temple at Jammu , the scene was no different, only more vociferous! In fact this could be the scene anywhere in India..from Ayodhya to Nashik, from Vaishno Devi to Tirumal..

Now I do not have anything against religion as such, but what I resent is "organised religion". Today we live in a fast paced world. There is so much pressure on every one of us just to survive in this competitive world. Therefore it is imperative that many of us visit temples and shrines to seek some emotional support and motivation from the Gods.

But primitive religion has been a free man's paradise. Right from Jesus and Muhammad to Buddha,Mahavira and Nanak ,every one has been an advocate of "free religion" . They all went to people , preached among them , ate with them and lived their lives with them. They lived a simplistic life , that's why they are revered as GOD!



But mankind somehow lost the way..By taking the religion away from the masses and confining them to temples,churches and gurudwaras, they took the life away from the religion. This "organised religion" can be witnessed easily at most of the temples in India. The priest urging you to donate more , instead of asking you to seek blessings and telling you walk a path of truthful and honest life!
What a farce.. the preachings of GOD have been chronicled in all major religious books , but we need a mediator to interpret it!( or on second thoughts , do we?)
It is probably one of reasons behind the decline of religious belief all over the world with more and more people turning towards agnosticism.

These so called centres of worship have been monopolised by certain institutions and individuals over centuries. From the Brahmins, exercising their control over entry to religious places to the Old church establishment, all claim themselves as mediators between us and the GOD.Indeed the caste system in India has been intermingled with the society over centuries with repression of the shudras.
Even in this age of "modern" and technologically advanced society ,the stigma has not been washed (In fact it rears its head time and again)

So the now obvious question is do we need an "organised religion" in our lives?

David Beckham : The Brand

David Beckham knows how to stay in news. He made news waves recently by announcing a move from Real Madrid to MLS Team LA Galaxy on a five year contract beginning on July 2007. The deal evoked strong sentiments from the Real coach Fabio Capello who flayed Beckham by saying that he would not play for the club again. However he retracted later.



Although being booed by Real ,David has had a grand welcome from across atlantics with even the Tiger backing him . This deal is being advertised as a promotion for American football and indeed it is generating a lot of interest in that part of the world.Although I am sceptical about his ability as a footballer , I guess he's going there as a BRAND name.

David has been more than a mundane footballer though. He has been in news for reasons other than Soccer. His metrosexual icon image (whatever that may mean !), his hairstyle ( ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous) ,his friendship with stars like Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes,his perfumes ,his tatoo his sunglasses and all the brands he promotes,his swirling free kicks that earned him the highest glory, his red card against Argentina in the '98 World cup that led to England's elimination and subsequent criticism and abuse against him, his subsequent revenge by scoring a goal against the same opponents are all part of history now..

What remains to be seen is whether David can bend it now?

Updated 16 Feb,2007 -##-

I found this article on "The Brand Beckham". Read it here.

Google

Google has been intertwined in our daily life, so much that people have become dependent on it. When it first arrived on the scene, it was seen as a jack-of-all-trade-free-for-all technology that everybody loved to love.Every thing here was free,easy and fun to do.Terms like "googling" have attained everyday usage (Although looks like Google isn't happy about it!

Want to find out the near by restaurants to dine out or a research paper on schizophrenia or the recipe for chocolate chips cookies or the driving directions to west coast - one stop shop GOOGLE!
Slowly it edged out old timers like "Ask Jeeves" ( which has since then dropped the Jeeves) , Altavista , Lycos , MSN and Netscape search. It is still the boss of "search" market with Yahoo and MSN always trying to close on.

With the launch of its email service,news,social networking sites like orkut, blogs,image search ,maps and many others the only area left behind was online video.Acquisition of YouTube filled in the gap. So what's next ?? What is google poised to do now..
It plans to connect all its services together create unique identities of all its customers. For eg. your search history and pattern might be used to place appropriate ads into the pages that you visit. It already scans your emails to put in the ads. In short Google is trying to become indispensible. Where ever you go .. you can't hide from the Big Brother. I was searching for blogs with my username on blogger website when my posts on travelpod turned up!
Comments like "We are moving to a Google that knows more about you" from the CEO , Eric Schmidt didn't really dispel the image of a emerging Goliath.

Privacy, copyright,knotty page search rankings are just some of the issues concerning Google.Having already mapped the geographical earth , it is now trying to map the demographic counterpart.

It seems that every other service offered by Google is under some sort of pressure by governments / social groups alike.Is it the brazen and speedy rise of Google to the top? Whatever the reason might be, Google certainly is something to watch out for in coming years..