Cast & Credits (in order of appearance)
Cathy - Sr Mgr Financial Systems (from yesterday)
Tim - My manager
Bob - Visiting Instructor
Joe - Resident SME for Global Safety
Pat - External consultant working for Finance
Sally - Mgr Financial Systems
Kathy - I don't know who
Tom - External ETL guy working for external contracting company
Ben - Resident ETL team lead
Dave - Director of Operations, Manufacturing Facility
Rick - Resident Sr DBA 2
John - Resident Sr Architect
Annie - Resident Sr DBA 1
Note: All names have been changed to protect identity.
I got to my cubicle around 10 till 8 today morning, prioritising the things I had to get done. Ofcourse there was the string of emails from Cathy last night which had to be taken care of. Cathy is the kind of person, who despite being a business user, likes to play very hands-on (a little too much as I found out to my horror) and wants to be involved in every detail related to reporting and planning applications. So as that string of emails with the little red exclamation mark goes, Cathy here, was having issues saving her changes to the metadata model (!). The moment I read that email last night I called Tim and expressed my surprise as to how a business user was involved in modifying metadata models. I mean all the reports could break down if she effs things up! Tim replied helplessly that this was a battle he had lost a long time back. So business users can modify metadata as and when they like, and when their reports dont work like they should, we get BlackBerry'd in the middle of the night. Joy! Obviously Cathy also does not like to wait for such things, so by the time I got to my desk she had sent another email in the morning asking me if her access privileges had been modified yet.
Then I docked my laptop and realised I had to pick Bob up from front desk at 8-ish. Sure enough 8:00am I got a call from Frontdesk telling me Bob's here. Scrolling through emails, I got to frontdesk and brought Bob along. Bob is the trainer for a day long session we have organised tomorrow for the Global Safety folks and is here a day earlier to study the data and setup samples for training. After the 'so how've you been? Good! How about you?' I walked Bob to his cubicle for the day. Then I realised that the loaner laptop that I had requested for Bob had not yet reached there so I called up Heldesk to get that fixed. Till then I walked Bob to my cubicle and started explaining to him how our environment was setup and things we expect he'd go through during the training session tomorrow. The loaner reached my desk as we went through this and now it was time to set Bob up with Joe. Joe would explain the backend database which would help Bob understand the metadata model better and design effective samples for tomorrows training. That done I started walking back to my cubicle.
On his way to work, Tim called me up to discuss the scene with Cathy's request. He told me that he granted the requested privileges and asked me to speak to Cathy about it specifically stressing that this took time because Finance wasn't the only group we are working with and requests are dealt with in the order they are received. Getting back to my desk I got this out of the way and read through more emails that'd been shot during that time. Some more time and I started working on that long overdue report request. Before I realised it was 11 am and time for me to run into a meeting with the Finance users Cathy, Sally, Kathy and the consultants Pat and Tom. This was a meeting that had been postponed by 10 days, so I had no clue what to expect when I walked in. There was a big discussion about some ETL changes that needed to be done and an hour later I walked out of that room feeling, 'Gosh, that was a waste of time!'. I walked by Ben's cube and asked him why none of the resident ETL guys were in on the meeting, turned out he had no clue these changes were being planned!
I was getting hungry now and I drove Bob along for a quick lunch to the Quiznos down the street. It was a gorgeous day and felt great sitting outside nibbling on the Cabo chicken. While having lunch Bob regaled me with stories of his surfing adventures and his various successful career gigs. Post lunch, I was cruising along on my report when Tim stopped by and pulled me into a meeting with Ben, Dave, Rick, John and Annie. This was to discuss the design of a scaleable database system to support our new manufacturing facility and enable advanced reporting off the SCADA systems. All the people in the meeting, except me, have been working for about 8 years at the least, so one can only imagine how much of the discussion I was involved in. Silence is golden indeed!
That done, I got back to work and Cathy sent another email with the little red exclamation mark in the corner. Apparently one of her ETL loads was failing on her and she needed to get that fixed and in the meanwhile needed the Dev environment pointing to the production database so she could carry on with her work. This was my 2nd shock of the day. Why was Cathy modifying ETL jobs?!? Why did she even have access to do this? So I leaned over into Ben's cube searching for answers. Ben went, 'I have no frikkin' idea dude!'. Wow! I decided to not bother about this and kept chipping away at my report. I checked for time and it was 4:45 pm already. Frick! I had to implement and test user security for tomorrows training! 45 minutes later, with more ridiculous emails floating around, I completed this task and called it a day.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Goodbye Country (Hello Nightclub)
While this is the name of one of Groove Armada's albums, it also happens to be the theme of Mr Hot & Mr Kool.
Yes, my unfortunate tryst with B grade Bollywood movies continues. Now B grade might conjure up mental images of a skin flick with Payal Rohatgi (who else?!) in the lead role, but dont raise your eyebrows just yet. This one is B grade stricly for the quality of the movie and is devoid of sleaze. Ofcourse, when I 'picked' this movie up I was mostly aware of what lay in store. Like all other times, my sole objective for watching this movie was getting through 2 hours.
The movie stars all newcomers in lead roles and some familiar support cast. And so the story goes that two good for nothing losers from some dehaat in India land up in London overnight listening to advice from a local quack. They land up a job in some company called LeLe undergarments (why am I writing this?) whose owner, Shahbaaz Khan, is always hitting on one of the employees Pooja De. Time for Corny joke 1 -> Mr LeLe: Pooja De De .. Pooja: Kya du? While you go 'Jeez!' listening to this you can tell that there are more of such corny jokes coming along and thats the only aspect where the movie does not disappoint =))
Back to the story, Zulfi Sayed (who?) aka Lakshmanprasad something becomes Lucky and Yash Pandit (again, who??) aka Prem Amar Tripathi becomes Pat after they land in London. Now that they have a job they start looking for the 2nd most important thing that they'd set out in search for - a woman in their lives. Lucky thinks he is geting lucky with a girl but suddenly loses interest in her after Pat cons him into believing that she is indeed seeing Pat and not Lucky. Along the while, Pat actually falls for Pooja (yes Pooja De De) and then the movie winds up after sorting out all the confusion.
Khalid Mohammed, my favorite movie critic and columnist, once wrote reviewing for Anupama Verma, 'Anupama should stick to modeling; clay, that is'. I'd say the same for Zulfi Sayed. He carries a deadpan face throughout the movie and delivers all dialogues without bothering to emote once. Yash Pandit on the other hand emotes like he's filling in for Zulfi too and ends up hamming most of his scenes. The ladies are extremely forgettable, both in the looks and acting departments.
To sum it up, I got what I was looking for from the movie, something to kill 2 hours with. Watch it if you have absolutely nothing to do;)
Thus ends my first attempt at reviewing a movie. Ripping it apart to shreds feels good!
Yes, my unfortunate tryst with B grade Bollywood movies continues. Now B grade might conjure up mental images of a skin flick with Payal Rohatgi (who else?!) in the lead role, but dont raise your eyebrows just yet. This one is B grade stricly for the quality of the movie and is devoid of sleaze. Ofcourse, when I 'picked' this movie up I was mostly aware of what lay in store. Like all other times, my sole objective for watching this movie was getting through 2 hours.
The movie stars all newcomers in lead roles and some familiar support cast. And so the story goes that two good for nothing losers from some dehaat in India land up in London overnight listening to advice from a local quack. They land up a job in some company called LeLe undergarments (why am I writing this?) whose owner, Shahbaaz Khan, is always hitting on one of the employees Pooja De. Time for Corny joke 1 -> Mr LeLe: Pooja De De .. Pooja: Kya du? While you go 'Jeez!' listening to this you can tell that there are more of such corny jokes coming along and thats the only aspect where the movie does not disappoint =))
Back to the story, Zulfi Sayed (who?) aka Lakshmanprasad something becomes Lucky and Yash Pandit (again, who??) aka Prem Amar Tripathi becomes Pat after they land in London. Now that they have a job they start looking for the 2nd most important thing that they'd set out in search for - a woman in their lives. Lucky thinks he is geting lucky with a girl but suddenly loses interest in her after Pat cons him into believing that she is indeed seeing Pat and not Lucky. Along the while, Pat actually falls for Pooja (yes Pooja De De) and then the movie winds up after sorting out all the confusion.
Khalid Mohammed, my favorite movie critic and columnist, once wrote reviewing for Anupama Verma, 'Anupama should stick to modeling; clay, that is'. I'd say the same for Zulfi Sayed. He carries a deadpan face throughout the movie and delivers all dialogues without bothering to emote once. Yash Pandit on the other hand emotes like he's filling in for Zulfi too and ends up hamming most of his scenes. The ladies are extremely forgettable, both in the looks and acting departments.
To sum it up, I got what I was looking for from the movie, something to kill 2 hours with. Watch it if you have absolutely nothing to do;)
Thus ends my first attempt at reviewing a movie. Ripping it apart to shreds feels good!
S'more 10dulkar bashing
That's right, it's Tendulkar bashing time once again. Almost every desi who has ever played cricket fancies taking a dig against Tendulkar blaming him for team India's dysfunctional performance in World Cup 2007. Such are times. Like I said in one of my earlier posts, this is going to be hard to get over so soon and sooner or later I had to write again on this topic. Alright, alright, I know cricket is a teamsport and it is unfair, almost idiotic, to blame an individual and it requires a collective effort for a team to win such a big tournament, but then blogging is all about freedom of expression, innit?
So what prompted me to write once again about this? Kobe Bryant! Yes, he of LA Lakers fame. Following the NBA on and off, I have always been a big fan of Kobe. Not so much of the Lakers as much as Kobe though. Infact a few years back while I was rooting for the Sacramento Kings I had a hard team keeping loyalties when the Lakers played the Kings. Years later, the Lakers are a different team but Kobe is still the same, if better. If anyone's been going through news you might have read that Kobe has been averaging 54 points per game over the last 5 games! That's what I call a team player, that's what I call a champion. One who takes the onus on himself to make things happen to take his team to victory no matter what the circumstances. Not one who walks off the pitch clean bowled the third ball he faces when his team is in dire straits. How many times have we seen Kobe rain jumpers and lead the Lakers to a victory? Endless. How many times have we seen Tendulkar play an innings of substance and lead India to victory when it was most needed? Can't really tell, can ya?
Now it is beyond doubt that Tendulkar has the numbers behind him to warrant a place in the team, but how long can Team India bank on a player who clearly appears to be past his prime? Everytime Sachin is written off he comes and scores a big hundred, adding to his humongous tally, piling on personal records and his critics go a hiding. But where does that leave the team? Does it get them back on the winning track? Does it make them feel good as an outfit? Does this one hundred warrant that Sachin is 'back' and that he will be firing on all cylinders in all the matches to come? NO! Some might say, such is the game of cricket, the game of glorious uncertainties (Note to self: Stop using cliches). But when Sachin is getting out cheaply, do we see any intent on his part to make things happen and lead his team to a better position? Cut back to Kobe man who dishes the ball around (more nowadays post-Shaq) when he realises his jumpers arent quite kissing the net. I have never seen a man more win-hungry than Kobe; except for a certain Schumi, that is. Everytime Kobe walks to the middle his eyes burn with intent, you can almost see in his eyes how much he hates to lose. A lot of times critics have blamed Kobe to be very selfish, not being a team player; but why complain as long as the team is winning? After all, its not really about how you play the game, it IS about whether you win or lose. That's what makes great players, champions of the game. The Dwyane Wade's and the LeBron James' may try but I don't think they can quite match Kobe in what he does.
And Sachin? I think I've made my point(s) already. I just hope he does not go through the ignominy of being forced to retire from the game, being dropped, 'cos that would be a huge shame.
I'd love to end this post with a hilarious fwd that I received this morning.
Two people to blame for India's world cup failure:
1. Indira Gandhi (for creating Bangladesh)
2. Hanuman ( Not destroying Lanka completely)
So what prompted me to write once again about this? Kobe Bryant! Yes, he of LA Lakers fame. Following the NBA on and off, I have always been a big fan of Kobe. Not so much of the Lakers as much as Kobe though. Infact a few years back while I was rooting for the Sacramento Kings I had a hard team keeping loyalties when the Lakers played the Kings. Years later, the Lakers are a different team but Kobe is still the same, if better. If anyone's been going through news you might have read that Kobe has been averaging 54 points per game over the last 5 games! That's what I call a team player, that's what I call a champion. One who takes the onus on himself to make things happen to take his team to victory no matter what the circumstances. Not one who walks off the pitch clean bowled the third ball he faces when his team is in dire straits. How many times have we seen Kobe rain jumpers and lead the Lakers to a victory? Endless. How many times have we seen Tendulkar play an innings of substance and lead India to victory when it was most needed? Can't really tell, can ya?
Now it is beyond doubt that Tendulkar has the numbers behind him to warrant a place in the team, but how long can Team India bank on a player who clearly appears to be past his prime? Everytime Sachin is written off he comes and scores a big hundred, adding to his humongous tally, piling on personal records and his critics go a hiding. But where does that leave the team? Does it get them back on the winning track? Does it make them feel good as an outfit? Does this one hundred warrant that Sachin is 'back' and that he will be firing on all cylinders in all the matches to come? NO! Some might say, such is the game of cricket, the game of glorious uncertainties (Note to self: Stop using cliches). But when Sachin is getting out cheaply, do we see any intent on his part to make things happen and lead his team to a better position? Cut back to Kobe man who dishes the ball around (more nowadays post-Shaq) when he realises his jumpers arent quite kissing the net. I have never seen a man more win-hungry than Kobe; except for a certain Schumi, that is. Everytime Kobe walks to the middle his eyes burn with intent, you can almost see in his eyes how much he hates to lose. A lot of times critics have blamed Kobe to be very selfish, not being a team player; but why complain as long as the team is winning? After all, its not really about how you play the game, it IS about whether you win or lose. That's what makes great players, champions of the game. The Dwyane Wade's and the LeBron James' may try but I don't think they can quite match Kobe in what he does.
And Sachin? I think I've made my point(s) already. I just hope he does not go through the ignominy of being forced to retire from the game, being dropped, 'cos that would be a huge shame.
I'd love to end this post with a hilarious fwd that I received this morning.
Two people to blame for India's world cup failure:
1. Indira Gandhi (for creating Bangladesh)
2. Hanuman ( Not destroying Lanka completely)
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Je kya hai be?!?
Youtubing for a bit last night I came across this video :)
I miss thee Channel [V]. The Channel [V] of yore, the one with all the SS Sodhi ads, Banjo Macho ads, Punjabi Santa Claus', Udham Singh, Laila Rouass, Kamaal Sidhu, Sophia Haque, Nina Manuel ... the one which played 'good' music ... not the crap that is being dished out today :x
I miss thee Channel [V]. The Channel [V] of yore, the one with all the SS Sodhi ads, Banjo Macho ads, Punjabi Santa Claus', Udham Singh, Laila Rouass, Kamaal Sidhu, Sophia Haque, Nina Manuel ... the one which played 'good' music ... not the crap that is being dished out today :x
Monday, March 26, 2007
Transliteration - एक नम्बर!
नुक्तेच ब्लँग्विश्वात पदार्पण केल्यामुले मी अजूनही बरयाच गोष्टिंशी खेळून पाहत आहे आणि एखाद्या लहान मुलाला खेळणयांचया दुकानात मोकाट फिरताना जो आनंद मिळतो तशीच काहिशी माझी अवस्था आहें ॰ जरी ही विन्ग्र्जी मधे लिहून त्वरित मराठीत भाषांतर करण्याची सोय असली तरीही एक गोष्टं नक्की की ही प्रक्रिया आहें भलतिच किचकट॰ ह्या एवढ्या ४ ओळी छापता छापता माझा बिचारा जीव सुकला!
मराठीत ब्लॉग लिहिणयाचया माझ्या उत्साहाला तात्पुरते तरी विरजण लागले आहें , पाहुया पुढे काय होते ते!
रजा असावी ...
Fact of the Matter: Typing these many lines and correcting the spellings, trying to get the finer nuances of the language right, took me well over half an hour। Even now the Marathi is not completely up to the mark in some places but I just ran out on patience। I should try installing the Baraha editor and blogging in Marathi but I'll leave it for some other time. Besides, I just realised the fact that I am starting to struggle with the language :(( For evidence, check out the verbatim translation of the sentence : 'One thing is for sure, the process is very cumbersome.' Not at all happy about this!
मराठीत ब्लॉग लिहिणयाचया माझ्या उत्साहाला तात्पुरते तरी विरजण लागले आहें , पाहुया पुढे काय होते ते!
रजा असावी ...
Fact of the Matter: Typing these many lines and correcting the spellings, trying to get the finer nuances of the language right, took me well over half an hour। Even now the Marathi is not completely up to the mark in some places but I just ran out on patience। I should try installing the Baraha editor and blogging in Marathi but I'll leave it for some other time. Besides, I just realised the fact that I am starting to struggle with the language :(( For evidence, check out the verbatim translation of the sentence : 'One thing is for sure, the process is very cumbersome.' Not at all happy about this!
Who tastes dog food? How do we even know its good?!?!
Regular viewers of Seinfeld would possibly laugh right out of their chairs remembering Elaine mouth these lines. While this post has nothing to do with dog food or its taste or Elaine or Seinfeld, it does have a similarly irrelative question that crossed my mind browsing through the news this morning.
And the question is : Who works in banks these days?
This is a time when every other guy you know seems to be working in IT or something related to it. Mind well that it is not necessary to have a technical background to get a freshers job in any of the IT companies. Infact (surprise surprise) some companies actually run print ads asking specifically for people with non-technical backgrounds. Within all my friends on orkut I can only point out a few who do something radically different and I envy those guys for it. I would say it is safe to generalise that ours is a generation whose income is driven mostly by the IT boom and its widespread reach into even the smallest of corporations. Today the scene back home is such that straight out of school grads pocket jobs anywhere around the Rs. 25k per month mark working in an IT company. Anyone having such a good income can be easily considered financially stable and .. ahem .. marketable. Very unlike the generation of our parents. If you look at those folks, a very wide cross section of people they know would most probably be working in banks or some kind of a financially related institution. Naturally, at their time I'd assume, a bank job was considered to be a very good job. So, if 2 and 2 indeed make 4, yesterday's job in a bank is today's job in an IT company!
Which brings me back to my original question, who really works in banks these days?
Update: When I read the news earlier this morning there was something which said Citigroup was opening up more banking centres in India. By the time, I got to the end of writing this entry, news is they're actually cutting down on abt 15,000 (!) jobs.
And the question is : Who works in banks these days?
This is a time when every other guy you know seems to be working in IT or something related to it. Mind well that it is not necessary to have a technical background to get a freshers job in any of the IT companies. Infact (surprise surprise) some companies actually run print ads asking specifically for people with non-technical backgrounds. Within all my friends on orkut I can only point out a few who do something radically different and I envy those guys for it. I would say it is safe to generalise that ours is a generation whose income is driven mostly by the IT boom and its widespread reach into even the smallest of corporations. Today the scene back home is such that straight out of school grads pocket jobs anywhere around the Rs. 25k per month mark working in an IT company. Anyone having such a good income can be easily considered financially stable and .. ahem .. marketable. Very unlike the generation of our parents. If you look at those folks, a very wide cross section of people they know would most probably be working in banks or some kind of a financially related institution. Naturally, at their time I'd assume, a bank job was considered to be a very good job. So, if 2 and 2 indeed make 4, yesterday's job in a bank is today's job in an IT company!
Which brings me back to my original question, who really works in banks these days?
Update: When I read the news earlier this morning there was something which said Citigroup was opening up more banking centres in India. By the time, I got to the end of writing this entry, news is they're actually cutting down on abt 15,000 (!) jobs.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Template Woes
I'd started off the blog without bothering too much about the decor, in line with my usual way of keeping things functional. Last night I had some time on my hands and I started tinkering around with the look and feel of the blog trying to 'personalise' it. No wonder then that even one template failed to catch my eye. This was bringing things to the other end of the spectrum, from mere functional to hoity-toity.
Most of the standard templates that Blogger provided had one or the other point which went against their favor (Robert, इनमें से एक भी ठीक नही है! किसीकी नाक टेढ़ी है तो किसीकी आँख!!) I almost always hate the plain jane looking interface with a black background, hell I dont even like black backgrounds on my desktop! So getting that look on the blog was out of the question. Towards the end of an hour and having had enough sifting through atleast 10 templates I finally settled for the current one. Not that I am all too happy with it but this one's atleast about okay. This one has too much grey in it. Grey, to me, is too dark depressing and gloomy. I can go on and on about how I hate overcast grey skies, gloomy weather and the rains but I'll try and stick to the topic for now.
Maybe on another day when I have some more time to kill I'll look around and pimp my blog up ;) Tic Tac Blue it is until then!
Most of the standard templates that Blogger provided had one or the other point which went against their favor (Robert, इनमें से एक भी ठीक नही है! किसीकी नाक टेढ़ी है तो किसीकी आँख!!) I almost always hate the plain jane looking interface with a black background, hell I dont even like black backgrounds on my desktop! So getting that look on the blog was out of the question. Towards the end of an hour and having had enough sifting through atleast 10 templates I finally settled for the current one. Not that I am all too happy with it but this one's atleast about okay. This one has too much grey in it. Grey, to me, is too dark depressing and gloomy. I can go on and on about how I hate overcast grey skies, gloomy weather and the rains but I'll try and stick to the topic for now.
Maybe on another day when I have some more time to kill I'll look around and pimp my blog up ;) Tic Tac Blue it is until then!
Saturday, March 24, 2007
(What's the Story) Morning Glory
Last night a forgettable Friday was capped up by an even more forgettable movie. For some reason, I decided to watch the new desi movie, Hattrick. Now most desi movies are forgettable but this one had that little extra special element. I dont know what irritated me more about this movie - the fact that I stayed up late to watch a crappy movie, that it was really a bad movie or that it had such a bad print that I felt like cracking the screen on my laptop.
Honestly, I cant even remember the last time I watched a rip which was so terrible in quality. And not that it was one of those low size rips, it was a full 700MB, yet it failed the bar. Dont get me wrong, there's been so many good rips out there with low size, like Anthony Kaun Hai, 350 MB yet really good but this was just an utter piece of sh!te. After crawling through the movie, I checked back on DT, and there were loads of comments echoing the same. Which reminded me to always look through some of the comments before greedily snatching any new movie that is on offer!
The movie itself was nothing great. The theme was quite boring, more so after India's dismal exit, and though the cast was great they could only do so much to hold together a paper thin storyline। Rimi Sen was all about the hotness as expected and she did a fine job - at looking good ;)
Rewind to a couple of hours back this morning when I woke up to James Blunt's You're Beautiful (more about this tragedy in a later post) After going through the usual strings of emails and news and hanging around a while on orkut, here I am blogging listening to BF & N in the background. Now I have to decide what I want to get done this weekend (which usually amounts to nothing much). One thing I definitely want to do though is get to Walmart and get that dart board I've been wanting ever since! After last week's fiasco, when the set did not contain any darts at all, I hope I get a better one this time and spend some time honing my skill at darts :D
Later!
PS: 12:30pm on a weekend IS morning. It's morning according to the MDT timezone, the MY Daylight Time timezone LOL
Honestly, I cant even remember the last time I watched a rip which was so terrible in quality. And not that it was one of those low size rips, it was a full 700MB, yet it failed the bar. Dont get me wrong, there's been so many good rips out there with low size, like Anthony Kaun Hai, 350 MB yet really good but this was just an utter piece of sh!te. After crawling through the movie, I checked back on DT, and there were loads of comments echoing the same. Which reminded me to always look through some of the comments before greedily snatching any new movie that is on offer!
The movie itself was nothing great. The theme was quite boring, more so after India's dismal exit, and though the cast was great they could only do so much to hold together a paper thin storyline। Rimi Sen was all about the hotness as expected and she did a fine job - at looking good ;)
Rewind to a couple of hours back this morning when I woke up to James Blunt's You're Beautiful (more about this tragedy in a later post) After going through the usual strings of emails and news and hanging around a while on orkut, here I am blogging listening to BF & N in the background. Now I have to decide what I want to get done this weekend (which usually amounts to nothing much). One thing I definitely want to do though is get to Walmart and get that dart board I've been wanting ever since! After last week's fiasco, when the set did not contain any darts at all, I hope I get a better one this time and spend some time honing my skill at darts :D
Later!
PS: 12:30pm on a weekend IS morning. It's morning according to the MDT timezone, the MY Daylight Time timezone LOL
Friday, March 23, 2007
How I saved $60
Like countless of my desi brethren out there I sit dejected tonight. The feeling is still sinking in, India dropping out of the World Cup without even qualifying for the Super 8's is not an easy thought to digest. They had been labeled 'commercial favorites' (whatever that term means) to win the World Cup after all. I mean, I am one to call a spade a spade, so realistically speaking India was going to drop out sooner than later. Looking at the previous few games India had played, it would take a fool to bet his horses on this Indian team. But still, given India's on-paper strength, it would've been another audacious foo' to write them off so early in the tournament.
Pakistan had already ensured on their part that this would be a boring World Cup. They played themselves out of the competition way too early and denied us the privilege of whooping their a$ses out of the World Cup. For most, the best part of the World Cup had been lost. We know most times our team isn't in the capacity to actually win the World cup, so defeating Pakistan in a World Cup match serves as our comfort blanket. Most Indians would agree, that given our team strength, beating Pakistan is more important than winning a World Cup. This time this wasn't to be. Little did we know that the Indian team was going to put up a show that would make Pakistan look like the best team in the world. They got snapped up by Bangladesh and returned to spank poor hapless Bermuda to all parts of the ground. In another part of the Caribbeans, a spin wiz was smacking his fingers anticipating the contest to come. India were, again only on-paper, the best players of spin.
India had the privilege of playing 3 of the best one-day players of modern times in Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly (hats off for his great comeback). Uthappa was looking fairly comfortable and promising at the top along with the big three. They had a dependable middle order with the return of Yuvraj Singh and the big hitting Dhoni. The tail had shown in previous games that it could wag and do its bit. The bowling was as has always been (read, not that great). Given this, it is hard to analyse what really went wrong. First the capitulation against a bunch of teens and then this - making a mess in a do-or-die match. I'm sure reams and reams of paper will be wasted on this, experts making a comment and another, trying to express their POV; to no use nevertheless.
Due credit to Sri Lanka though. Murali has always been one of the best spinners and the way he made easy meat of some of our players only provides further evidence why the man commands respect no matter what kind of a pitch he plays on.
Unfortunately, I wasnt able to watch the match (and do NOT intend to watch the highlights) so I cannot comment on the quality of cricket that was played, but with a reputation at stake one would imagine that both teams would have gone and played their hearts out in the middle. Not true with one big man though, Tendulkar. I am too insignificant to talk in dishonor against the great man but I cannot help but express my discontent. Historically, Tendulkar has never stood up and counted for the team when it has mattered the most and today was no different. Getting out on the 3rd ball he faced in a do or die match is not taking responsibility. When so much is at stake one would expect the senior players to stand up and take charge. Here, our man walks in and out. I'm sorry, but that is just not becoming of a man who is regarded as the greatest Indian player to have picked up the cricket bat. What plays on his mind in such big games, only he can tell. I was at work following the match and when Tendulkar was out I was .. I was .. I cant really express in words what I felt .. that feeling was well beyond words. The only thing that came to my mind, after getting over that shock, that could come any close to what I experienced was Ramgopal Bajaj in AAA going "रवीना की माँ, मैं आ रहा हू!" Jokes apart, from then on, it was just a matter of completing the formalities for the Sri Lankan team. With the Murali threat looming large, none of the middle and lower order batsmen could have done much and thats exactly what happened. Oh well!
All said and done, I am not angry, nor am I the least bit frustrated. I feel sad. Sad for the 3 best players of the Indian team who took India to such glorious heights over the last decade and a half. For them to bow out of the game without a World Cup against their name is utter injustice. I will never say that the team did not try their best and this pic below speaks for itself.
My heart goes out to the big 3.
R.I.P Glory days of Indian cricket ...
Ohh, and I almost forgot! I'd promised myself earlier this week that I'd pay to watch the matches online after India advances into the Super 8's . Waiting for the outcome of today's game, I saved $60 ;)
Pakistan had already ensured on their part that this would be a boring World Cup. They played themselves out of the competition way too early and denied us the privilege of whooping their a$ses out of the World Cup. For most, the best part of the World Cup had been lost. We know most times our team isn't in the capacity to actually win the World cup, so defeating Pakistan in a World Cup match serves as our comfort blanket. Most Indians would agree, that given our team strength, beating Pakistan is more important than winning a World Cup. This time this wasn't to be. Little did we know that the Indian team was going to put up a show that would make Pakistan look like the best team in the world. They got snapped up by Bangladesh and returned to spank poor hapless Bermuda to all parts of the ground. In another part of the Caribbeans, a spin wiz was smacking his fingers anticipating the contest to come. India were, again only on-paper, the best players of spin.
India had the privilege of playing 3 of the best one-day players of modern times in Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly (hats off for his great comeback). Uthappa was looking fairly comfortable and promising at the top along with the big three. They had a dependable middle order with the return of Yuvraj Singh and the big hitting Dhoni. The tail had shown in previous games that it could wag and do its bit. The bowling was as has always been (read, not that great). Given this, it is hard to analyse what really went wrong. First the capitulation against a bunch of teens and then this - making a mess in a do-or-die match. I'm sure reams and reams of paper will be wasted on this, experts making a comment and another, trying to express their POV; to no use nevertheless.
Due credit to Sri Lanka though. Murali has always been one of the best spinners and the way he made easy meat of some of our players only provides further evidence why the man commands respect no matter what kind of a pitch he plays on.
Unfortunately, I wasnt able to watch the match (and do NOT intend to watch the highlights) so I cannot comment on the quality of cricket that was played, but with a reputation at stake one would imagine that both teams would have gone and played their hearts out in the middle. Not true with one big man though, Tendulkar. I am too insignificant to talk in dishonor against the great man but I cannot help but express my discontent. Historically, Tendulkar has never stood up and counted for the team when it has mattered the most and today was no different. Getting out on the 3rd ball he faced in a do or die match is not taking responsibility. When so much is at stake one would expect the senior players to stand up and take charge. Here, our man walks in and out. I'm sorry, but that is just not becoming of a man who is regarded as the greatest Indian player to have picked up the cricket bat. What plays on his mind in such big games, only he can tell. I was at work following the match and when Tendulkar was out I was .. I was .. I cant really express in words what I felt .. that feeling was well beyond words. The only thing that came to my mind, after getting over that shock, that could come any close to what I experienced was Ramgopal Bajaj in AAA going "रवीना की माँ, मैं आ रहा हू!" Jokes apart, from then on, it was just a matter of completing the formalities for the Sri Lankan team. With the Murali threat looming large, none of the middle and lower order batsmen could have done much and thats exactly what happened. Oh well!
All said and done, I am not angry, nor am I the least bit frustrated. I feel sad. Sad for the 3 best players of the Indian team who took India to such glorious heights over the last decade and a half. For them to bow out of the game without a World Cup against their name is utter injustice. I will never say that the team did not try their best and this pic below speaks for itself.
My heart goes out to the big 3.
R.I.P Glory days of Indian cricket ...
Ohh, and I almost forgot! I'd promised myself earlier this week that I'd pay to watch the matches online after India advances into the Super 8's . Waiting for the outcome of today's game, I saved $60 ;)
Here I come ...
... finally an entrant into the world of blogging. One of the things I've always gone back and forth about for a long time now has been writing a blog. Gosh, I dont know, must've been atleast 6 years now that I've wanted to, but never really did start blogging.
Like I'd once mentioned to Rohan, blogging is the natural effect of someone having a lot of free time on their hands. Go make your own assumptions =))
As with most bloggers, I will try and update frequently, but it's not really done till it's really done, now is it;)
Like I'd once mentioned to Rohan, blogging is the natural effect of someone having a lot of free time on their hands. Go make your own assumptions =))
As with most bloggers, I will try and update frequently, but it's not really done till it's really done, now is it;)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)