Sachin... Sachin...

Sachin Tendulkar got his 50th century today. I don't know what more can I write about this man, that has not been written in last 21 years. The God, Maestro, Little Master, Tendlya you can call him whatever you want but he is the best-est.

In every sport, there are champions who master the game and go on to rule it but none has had the sheer longevity of Sachin. 21 years and counting - highest number of Tests, runs, centuries whatever there is! He even has a bowling average of 50+ in Test - an avid fan might quip. Every run he scores today is a record. He's even got a double in ODIs. I don't have enough space on this page for listing out all his records. 

This picture courtesy my dear friend Neeraj who was in South Africa watching the match. Lucky dude!

I can just say I am fortunate enough to have watched him play.

Respect.

Laxman - the 5th day Man!

Today was special. Special because you saw someone who is Very-Very Special swear - in front of the nation. He had a bloody good reason to swear mind you! He is a very kind and gentle person but today he let his heart rip out. The lucky guy was Ojhi who appeared to be dancing down the pitch collectin' the dimes - to borrow the expression from Hindi.

So already frustrated by the antics of his other illustrious team mates, Lax gave him a mouthful. And he wasn't exactly saying 'Ah baby those are such great shoes', I can assure you that. Finally ably assisted by the beanpole Sharma, Lax on half-a-leg was able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

Laxman has quite been like his counterpart in Ramayana, always under the shadow of Ram. People are busy fighting over Lord Ram but I guess its time for a Laxman Janmbhoomi now.

Hats off to you Laxman - there will be Tendulkars, Dravids and Sehwags but there is no 5-th day man like you!

Boring Sunday Afternoon

Its a boring Sunday afternoon and I am wondering why does one name their company Jhandu? Or why Sehwag's official website's cover has him playing football? Or when will Lalit Modi stand up and say "Give me 15 days and I will move CWG to South Africa".



And to cap it, guess what Amit Mishra has to say on his Twitter page:

HELLO FRINDS HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY I ENJOYED TODAY PATANG BAZI AFTER 5 YRS I HOPES ALL GUYS ENJOYED TODAY

Unbelievable man!

Diego Forlan is in India!

I am writing this post just to express my pleasure absolute delight at the news that my favorite player at the recently concluded World Cup - Diego Forlan is in India :D

He is in Kolkata to participate in a Football reality show. He said that he "had no idea about Indian Football" but "knew that cricket is very popular here". He also said that he "was loving India" and is "overwhelmed to see the enthusiasm here".

He believed his best goal at the WC was the one against Germany in the 3rd place playoff. He also defended his teammate Suarez's action of saving a certain goal with his hand.



Forlan is the Golden Ball Winner at the WC 2010 and is being approached by the top European Clubs to play for them. While in Kolkata he will join two Brasilians - Romario and Branco for the last episode of "The Match" - a football reality show. He might participate in an exhibition match against Mohun Bagan on Sunday. He is also scheduled to visit Mother Teresa's home.

English-Hindi Dictionary (Free)

Need to learn how to say Hello in Hindi? Or for that matter FISH ? Or better still if you are an advanced Hindi learner or even a native speaker and need to find how to say exchange in Hindi. Well don't scratch your head, go no further than Shabdkosh.com.

Created by an IIT grad Mr. Maneesh Soni in 2003 this website serves as an online English-Hindi as well as Hindi-English dictionary. It started out with a database of 15,000 words it has now expanded the base with the help of contributing users. Starting from Hindi it now contributes words from many other Indian languages like Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu.


It now features a User -Forum and sections like "Quote of the Day" and "Word of the Day". You can type in Romanised Hindi and even listen to the correct pronunciation of Hindi words. If you don't have an internet connection and intend to use it offline you can download the dictionary here. If you feel like it, you can contribute to the site.

It is a wonderful site, certainly one of the best available today for English-Hindi translations. I have been using it for more than three years and I joined as a member today. I hope to make some serious contributions to the website in near future. Right now, I just want to spread the word.

If you happen to register with the website, just drop by and say hello to me!

Why did the chicken cross the road?

Definition from Wikipedia:
When asked at the end of a series of other riddles, whose answers are clever, obscure, and tricky, this answer's obviousness and straight-forwardness becomes part of the humor.

Besides the humour, there is a philosophical touch to this question, as one could argue "Did the chicken really cross the road?" Does the road exist for it? I am sure a chicken would not subconsciously be aware of crossing a 'road'. A man-made contrivance like road makes sense for a human rather than a chicken. It could also raise pertinent questions on the consciousness of an animal. Are chickens self-aware of the actions they perform -like crossing the road? More of that later because I want to write about something else today.

The art behind one-liners
What makes this question and the subsequent answer funny? Edward De Bono in his popular book Lateral Thinking writes:

"...there is often an alternative way of arranging available information. This means that there can be a switch over to another arrangement. Usually this switch over is sudden. If the switch over is temporary it gives rise to humour....the reaction to an insight solution is often laughter even when there is nothing funny about the solution itself.

A policeman was seen walking along the main street pulling a piece of string. Do you know why he was pulling the piece of string?.... Have you ever tried pushing a piece of string?

In this situation an expectation is generated by the way the information is put together. Then suddenly this expectation is thwarted but at once one sees that unexpected development is another way of putting things together."

In other words, it is the unexpected response to a build up that makes one find it humorous. Comedians often use this art on stage, where they weave a story around a joke and the end is something unexpected, a different or innovative solution to the original problem. Something that makes the audience think "Oh, I didn't think he would do/say that!". The realisation of the 'Oh-factor' is what makes the joke funny.

How mind works?
The best way of comprehending this is to understand the way our mind processes information.

Sample this:
"Borrow money from a pessimist
.

.

.

.

.

.

they don't expect it back!"

As you read through the sentence above and finish the first part, the brain identifies a problem it needs to find a solution to. "Why should one borrow money from a pessimist? Why only money? What could/should one possibly borrow from a pessimist? How does a pessimist come into picture here?". The mind races for possible solutions to a jumble of questions like these.

And then, the answer is revealed. Its a twist at the tail! There is a low probability that an average human would guess that answer. Unless of course if you have read it before or you are a genius. As Information Theory goes, the amount of information present in an event is inversely proportional to the probability of its occurrence. For example, if sun rose from the west tomorrow morning, it would make all the newspapers. It is the low probability of the answer that flummoxes the reader with a lot of information. The mind recognises it as a stroke of brilliance, but since it concerns with a trivial matter, the spark is temporary and leads to humour.

Individual perspective to the question - funny!
I will leave you now with some funny answers to one of the most (along with Lightbulb joke) humorous riddles of all time - Why did the chicken cross the road?

Aristotle:
To actualize its potential.

The Dead Sea Scrolls:
And God came down from the heavens, and He said unto the chicken, "Thou shalt cross the road." And the Chicken crossed the road, and there was much rejoicing.

Albert Einstein:
Whether the chicken crossed the road or the road crossed the chicken depends upon your frame of reference.

Freud:
The fact that you thought that the chicken crossed the road reveals your underlying sexual insecurity.

Bill Gates:
To purchase Chicken 2.01a, which will both cross roads and calculate the energy it used. There are bugs, yes, but if you uninstall Traffic 2.0 and Farmer 1.2 it will run. If it freezes at WhiteLine 2.0, we have a patch ...

Grandpa:
In my day, we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Someone told us that the chicken had crossed the road, and that was good enough for us.

Immanuel Kant:
The chicken, being an autonomous being, chose to cross the road of his own free will.

Martin Luther King, Jr.:
I envision a world where all chickens will be free to cross roads without having their motives called into question.

Jack Nicholson:
'Cause it ***** wanted to. That's the ****** reason.

Saddam:
I don't care. Catch it. I need its eggs to make my omelet.

You can read more funny answers here.

Image Credits: Wikipedia

Belly Button - key to sports success

Close your eyes. Imagine a sprinter. What do you see?

African origin, dark coloured, long legs and robust, vigorous muscles.

Ok. Another one. Imagine a swimmer. What do you see?

Essentially Caucasian, well streamlined physique.

Ever wondered why some athletes dominate on track while others in the swimming pool? Apparently, scientists have unravelled this mystery. It's the belly button stupid!


According to the study, the factor that influences the perfomance is the location of belly button, body's centre of gravity. Among West African-origin runners, the center of gravity is 3 cm higher than whites. This gives them a 'hidden height' advantage on the track.


"Locomotion is essentially a continual process of falling forward, and mass that falls from a higher altitude, falls faster" according to Prof. Andre Bejan who led the study at Duke University.

However, in the pool whites have the advantage because of 'longer torsos'. "The swimmer who makes the bigger wave is the faster swimmer, and a longer torso makes a bigger wave. Europeans have a three-percent longer torso than West Africans, which gives them a 1.5 percent speed advantage in the pool" he said.

Image Credits: Wikipedia

Indian Football

With the soccer season upon us I recently wrote about the 2010 World Cup on my Hindi blog. After having finished the piece, I experienced a moment of sadness and frustration on our country's soccer prowess (or the lack of it). With the second largest pool of people in the world can't we produce a decent team that does well at least at Asian level (considering most of the top ranking countries are from Europe, Latin America and Africa). All we hear about is India drubbing hapless Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan, Bangladesh or Sri Lanka, if not getting a whack from them.

India was fourth placed at the Melbourne Olympics in 1956. It was the runners-up at Asian Nations cup in 1964.So what went wrong? Is it that others progressed while we just sat on our bums?


For the 2010 qualifications, India lost in the first round to Lebanon. India's current FIFA ranking is 133 (as of May 1010); its lowest ever ranking was 165 (March 2007) and highest was 94 (Feb 96). Nobody can say for sure what's wrong with the Indian football but the apex body that runs football in this country has to take majority of the blame.

Glory of Indian Football
I am not the one to cry over split milk and don't want to bore you with stories of babudom and bureaucracy crippling Indian Football. Instead, lets look at some of the finer moments of Indian Football.

Mohun Bagan Athletic Club or simply Mohun Bagan AC is one the oldest Football clubs in Asia. It has been chosen among the top 11 clubs, alongside Bayern Munich, River Plate and Manchester United, by FIFA to form an Elite Task Force for club football. Some interesting facts on MB (source Wikipedia):

• MB was the first Indian team to defeat a European team (East Yorkshire Regiment at 1911 IFA Shield).
• When Maradona visited Kolkata in 1998, the only club he visited was Mohun Bagan.
• Pele, one of the legends of the game played against MB for his club New York Cosmos in 1977. The match was drawn 2-2 with Pele scoring in a penalty kick.
• Bayern Munich played a friendly against MB in May 2008 during their Asia tour.
• MB played against and defeated Manchester City 1-0.
• MB are the third club (after Barcelona and Manchester United) in world to have launched a co-branded credit card in their name (ICICI Bank Mohun Bagan Credit Card).
• MB have a postage stamp issued after them to celebrate their 1911 victory (only club to have this honour).

You can read about Mohun Bagan's exploits in detail here.

Royalty free image source: 123rf.com

PAC-MAN redux

I wrote about PAC-MAN about two years ago and since then its popularity has increased multifold if anything. Last week Google launched a 30 anniversary PAC-MAN doodle. Google has a tradition of putting up special logos (doodles) on its webpage for various occasions.

Google blog says PAC-MAN is a natural fit for the Google homepage as they are both "deceptively" straightforward, hiding their complexity under the hood. Now, Google has made the game permanently available here. Wow my search engine can play games too! :)

So go ahead and play. I just did!

The Enigma of Pakistan Cricket

Pakistan Cricket is not stranger to controversies - from Woolmer's mysterious death to the terrorist attack on Lankan team bus, from ball tampering to drug tests, from Afridi's ball eating adventure to the fiasco on Australian tour - its a never ending story for the talented yet ill-disciplined team.

Now former Pakistan cricket coach Intikhab Alam has called the national players 'mentally retarded'. An inquiry comittee was set up by PCB to investigate the reasons behind the disastrous tour of Australia where they failed to win even a single match. Intikhab was the coach of the Pakistan team on that tour. While Younis and Yousuf were banned for life, others like Shoaib Malik and Naved-Ul-Hasan were banned for a year. These bans, according to Wasim Akram had made a laughing stock of Pakistan (as if it wasn't already).


Intikhab was quoted as saying,"I felt that they are mentally retarded people....There is a mental problem with our players. They don't know how to wear their clothes and how to talk in a civilized manner."

He revealed that six to seven players had taken an oath on the Quran that they will remain united against their captain Younis Khan.

Shoaib Malik, meanwhile has been practicing at the Gymkhana ground,Hyderabad with his Indian wife since he is not being allowed to do so at Pakistan. While not fetching tennis balls for his Indian tennis player wife, he along with Rana Naved have also been busy belting gully-cricket bowlers at Bangladesh.

Image Credits: Wikipedia

Go(ld) Australia

Australia is a beautiful place. The Great Barrier Reef, the Uluru Rock formations, the Gold Coast never fail to lure tourists from all over the world (only if it was not so far!). Visiting Australia has become a financially lucrative option now with the news filtering out about the gold riches in Victoria.

GeoScience Victoria, a government agency that maps the geology of the region has reported "gold deposits still waiting to be discovered". An estimated 500 tonnes of gold, worth 20 billion USD lies in the north part of the state. During the Victorian Gold Rush of 1850-60,the population of the state experienced a seven fold increase. Victoria became the world leader in gold output. This event reshaped the society and politics of Victoria and led to emergence of Melbourne as one of the greatest cities of the world.



This event has also raised concerns about the environmental impact of increased mining activity. However all said and done, Australia is sitting on the precipice of another Gold Rush. Travelling to Australia was never more rewarding!


Image Credits: Wikipedia

Made in Bangladesh

With the onset of summer, I realised that I needed a new baseball cap after having left the last one on a bus. So three weeks ago I walked into the Reebok showroom at Jubilee Hills. Now this showroom was quite swanky and glitzy. In fact it happened to be the world's biggest retail outlet, spread over 15,000 square feet.



As usual, a sales guy followed me around the entire 15,000 sq ft of pricey real estate. I zeroed upon a nice and dainty sky-blue cap. After relieving myself of 800 bucks I walked out smugly.

Period.

Yesterday I was fiddling away with the cap, biding my time. I turned it under and found a black strap underneath. It had something written on it. I looked at closely, unconsciously hoping to find the washing instructions. Here is what I found:

Made in Bangladesh.

China is common these days, but Bangladesh? Would I have bought it if I saw it at the showroom? Would you?

Talent hiring

I am a big fan of Eric Lippert and his blog. If you don't know about him already, you could go to his About me page. Although he usually writes about stuff that I barely know about (VBScript, JScript, C# among others), I have a deep interest in his writings. Even his non-technical write-ups make up for interesting reading.

He recently wrote about attracting talent into an organisation. I am going to discuss about it a bit here in next few paragraphs. Essentially he wrote about things that make a job posting unattractive/attractive to a prospective job-seeker.

Things that make a job posting un-attractive:

1. Technology vomit/alphabet soup
EIGRP, SOA, HSRP, OMG, BBQ, WTF....Vinay Khosla from Fashion would cringe "Spare me the horror!". I can't recall the number of times where I have been annoyed at the spit of these alphabets!

2. Over-emphasis on specific existing knowledge Vs. ability to learn new
"Imagination is more important than intelligence", said Einstein and with good reason. Ability to grasp things quickly and effectively is more important than cramming it up. Intellect minus experience catches up with experience minus intellect pretty fast.

3. Full of jargon / too few specifics
"A worldwide leader, A premier IT service provider, Fortune 500 company seeks ...." oh gimme a break. I would like to see, clearly, what are we talking about here and not in cryptographs please.

4. Asking for things that ought to be assumed
I recently came across an advertisement by a 'leading provider of IT services' for a Developer/ Lead. It stated that "the candidate must be able to do coding". How's that!

5. No indication of work environment
Do they have fresh beans or stale powder? As a rule most of the job postings don't give any insight about the work culture of a company.


Things that make a job posting attractive

1. Challenging work
Work is challenging, requires innovation. A ex-colleague mentioned that the most challenging work he did during the whole day was to "sort out which bus he had to take back home". Needless to say how much he abhorred office. Also, being involved in design process is a huge encouragement.

2. Work life balance
Many of us, including me, wouldn't like to spend their weekends at office - not for any dole of $s. I have already turned down job offers that required me to work in shifts. The job should allow opportunities to pursue their own interests. If you are real good, stretching after office hours won't be necessary (unless you're cleaning up someone else's mess)

3. Chance to work with industry leaders
When you work with the best in business, some of it rubs off onto you. Working with leaders is a big incentive. I, for one, would forgo couple percentage of hike for a prospect of working with a leader in the technology.

Having said that, the above factors are not really important in Indian job market. Indian IT industry is relatively raw and inexperienced. There is a huge amount of young engineers being churned out every year. There is no dearth of software developers around. However, I believe that over a period of time, as the current crop matures into 10-15+ years things are bound to change. Till then, IT companies can get away with their shitty ads :)

Kashmir

Nations fight. Over land, water, oil, women, drugs,crime,women and sometimes ego. India and Pakistan fight over Kashmir. Like kids squabbling over a lollipop. Only this time the kids have missiles and nuclear weapons. They make a lot of hullabaloo. Whenever they meet, they manage to fight; embarrass themselves and others.

One day the Great Himalaya raised its hands and said, "Enough! I gave you this beautiful land of milk and honey,but you fight on it. You shall repent it". Lo and behold! He opened his mouth and swallowed Kashmir.




News was conveyed to the kids who were still locking horns at the UN. Not sure how to react, they ignored it at first. It was only when other nations maintained that K was no more, they retreated and vowed to fight for pride. The carpet had been pulled beneath their feet. What could not be achieved by years of talking, mediation and killings - was actualized in a whiff.

This piece was provoked by a recent news article that a tiny island in the Bay of Bengal, which was claimed by both India and Bangladesh for years was engulfed by sea.

Image Credits : Wikipedia

Just Wondering...

In the past they used to say - "Don't judge a book by its cover". In the current age of E-books, will they say - "Don't judge a book by its CRC"?

Good or Bad?

"Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong."
- Ayn Rand (1905-1982)

I think the scientific community is a confused lot. Every now and then they publish some research which is contradictory to past publications. Prime examples:

• Is alcohol good or bad?
• Is coffee/tea good or bad?
• Is chocolate good or bad?
• Is egg/chicken good or bad?
• Is milk good or bad?
• Is chicken good or bad?
• Is sex good or bad?
• Are birth control pills good or bad?

And many more like chillies, cannabis, extra-fat, maggi and what not! I understand that there is a continuing research and much more needs to be discovered. Our collective knowledge keeps evolving and gets updated every now and then. However the opinions of scientific community are considered seriously by the general public and often put into practice.



See the following :

Women who take birth control pills live longer
Vs
Birth control pills cause breast cancer in women

Drinking alcohol helps women stay slim
Vs
Alcohol damages brain

They are just a couple of examples. I hope the scientific community is much more decisive when publishing their research. The "cans and mights" should give way to "wills and should" ;)

A Frog and the Princess

"Before you find your handsome prince, you've got to kiss a lot of frogs." - Dutch Proverb

We all have heard the story about the frog who upon being kissed by the princess magically transforms into a handsome prince. I bet many other frogs rode out of their holes that day to fancy their chances.

However they were not so lucky, some had to contend with spending the night on the princess's pillow while others had to endure being smashed against the wall.

I am not sure if the frogs were all males, just imagine the princess's disgust when she discovered that her frog-to-be-charming-prince evolved into a princess! Not sure if she had a prior information on gender-identification of a frog. The frog-princess could even consider suing the Princess for gender-based discrimination. Gay right activists could raise a furore over this - take to the streets, march in parades and who knows what.

Meanwhile, biologists at the University of California had a mind of their own. They have managed to turn male frogs into female just with the sprinkle of some holy water. The holy water here contains 2.5 parts per billion (ppb) of Atrazin (a widely used Herbicide). The converted-females have since then mated with other males and produced eggs despite being born a male.

The princess now needs to think twice before kissing a frog =)

Image Credits: Wikipedia

End of Internet?

Just found this while reading items on Google Reader. Funny!

Click on image to enlarge.

Please Rob Me!

"When it comes to privacy and accountability, people always demand the former for themselves and the later for everyone else." - David Brin

We are born in a free world, a free nation and open society. With the advent of internet, information can be shared across the globe almost instantaneously. We love to chat, email, tweet, blog, scrap and share our 'status updates' on social networking websites. While doing so, we also reveal our personal choices and interests.

"Off to Mauritius for a week" - seems like an innocuous update on twitter out there for every Tom, Dick and Harry to quip at. But would you really hang a sign on your door saying that?

Ok! Before you think I am being a dork I am out of here. But give it a thought!

Still not convinced? Have a look here.