From Chennai with love

He was 'Nawab of Najafgarh' in the beginning, he hit the Ranji circuit and became 'Delhi Dasher'. The 309 in Multan made him 'Sultan of Multan' and today, on 28th of March 08, he became 'Chennai's Champ' with another milestone in his kitty, the fastest triple century in the history of test cricket. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present you all, the ever unpredictable, maverick indian batsman Virender Sehwag, whose charismatic, unorthodox hard-hitting showed him the highest of highs and lowest of lows. Today, I followed him ball by ball (not exactly, might have missed a lot in between) and his majestic, supremely sublime touch saw him through 200 first and then 300 with quite an ease and in process, made statisticians and cricket historians busy, breaking several of records, viz, highest individual score by an indian, highest individual score by an indian in India, fastest triple ton, two 200+ consecutive partnerships, only person after legendary Sir Donald Bradman and Brian Charles Lara to go past 300 twice. The list goes on. At the end of the day's play, he was unbeaten on 309, with 41 fours and 5 sixes, that too with an strike-rate of more than 100. Wow! that's quite a record ! I can't say he looks as fluent as a Sachin Tendulkar on song, or as classy as Brian Lara, and today too he played some risky shots by the test cricket's standards, but then again, it's Virender Sehwag we are talking about, who attacks from the word go. Out of all the attacking batsmen I've watched playing, I regard him only behind Gilly (Adam Gilchrist), and that's not because Sehwag lacks on hard-hitting, it's because the way Gilly plays his shots, with an elan, with a majestic authority and quite frankly I never saw Gilly out of form. What a pity, now I wont be able to see him in international arena.
Anyways, Sehwag's still there to provide the firecracking effects. After today's play, what I desperately wanted to see was the reaction in AajTak. One thing about AajTak I like is the way they project the news to the viewers. Well, you need to see it to believe it.(Headlines Today too is not far behind these days. May be that's called competition.)
So I came back home, tuned in Aajtak(that's what I do most of the days), as expected, the host was present with a panel of experts talking about Viru's innings. Same Breaking News was flashing at the bottom of the TV screen, 'Viru's 309*, will it be a 400 tomorrow?'. I specially liked the way that host put it, here is how: Sehwag ne aaj naabaad tin sau nau run banaaye, jisme ekchaalis karaare chauke aur paanch gaganbhedi chhakke shaamil thhe'(Sehwag today made unbeaten 309 runs which included, 41 cracking fours and five sky-piercing? sixes) The discussion went on and on. They discussed about absolutely everything that had Sehwag to relate with, from his family to he getting dropped in the past to will he score a 400 tomorrow and break the record. But I thought of only one thing, paanch gaganbhedi chhakke.

PS: I sincerely wish that he scores that 400 and goes past to post even higher score.And I also wish to come up with an exclusive blog on Aajtak, so watch out for this column, and dont forget to tune in to Aajtak.

My first go at carting

When we reached Patel's Inn, everything was calm and silent, so boring I thought while getting down from the vehicle. A few, countable people were here and there, a medium sized car park area and a few coconut trees overlooking it, what a waste, I thought again. After the heavy lunch at The Beach, I had already started feeling sleepy and ambience of the place was so grasping, I nearly somnambulated. :)
But when I turned to the right, the asphalt was calling. A topsy-turvy, serpentine, black asphalt, guarded by colorful tyres on both the sides, looked quite exciting. The call was undeniable, excitement unstoppable.
The same adrenaline rush that Schumacher, Alonso and Hamilton feel, though not of same degree, but yet, I felt this afternoon. Man, this was my first encounter with the go-carting and of course first time behind the four-wheels. Felt great, at first I was a bit hesitant but the way it was zipping past us, it surely made me ready to have a go. So my turn came, my first seven laps behind the wheels, in driver's seat. My lap started after I handed the ticket to the instructor/coordinator. First curve came, I conquered it with ease, second came, third came, then came fourth, fifth curves, I managed them, but when the sixth curve came, I lost the balance, the car skidded and slam! it hit the pile of old tyres and got stuck. The person who was roaming around the track came, leaping the track boundaries created by the old tyres, pulled my car and helped me to be back on the track. I raced away, again the same adrenaline rush, the heat of the gen-set behind my seat, screeching of tyres, everything added to the excitement. Completed one lap, again the same curves, I crossed, again I hit the same place(sixth turning) and got stuck, same guy came and pulled me(along with my car) from the pile of disarrayed tyres, I raced again. I lost the measure of time and the number of laps and the race was over, the person flagged a stop sign and my race of excitement was over. Poor me!
Liked the experience, and I remember I hit the same pile of tyres four times in total during my seven laps of happiness. :)
When I came out of track, my friend asked, were u drunk? how many times did you hit the same pile of tyres? I simply smiled! :)
Everybody completed their share of race/laps and we were happily back in the vehicle, all of the reckless drivers. While coming back I fell asleep, woke up only when the destination had arrived. But the experience was unbeatable, I wish to visit the place some other day and soon.

An artificial hope

About the picture: One of the most boring days of my life, and click! this photo makes it to my camera's memory card, and makes a journey from memory card to PC to internet to this very blog. Now a days, I've started appreciating the boredom, for it brings along the moments when I think, examine the surrounding, the every object I throw my sight upon. And in process gives me a heck lot of subjects to experiment with my photography. So, it looks like boredom is vital for me to evolve as a photographer. And so far, I'm setting my foot on right direction! :)

The waterboy

About the picture: Have you ever wondered how life can become so very utterly boring sometimes? - are the exact words I have written in my journal. The 3 days off came as a wasting-curse for me, only I know how boring were those three days. Nevertheless I watched two good movies during these three days, Ocean's eleven and Ocean's twelve, good movies, the first one ever better.
And only thing I did during this weekend was watched movies or slept, as the weather pulled it's uncertain curtains upon itself, calling off my brave plans to go out. I stayed put at home except for going to the nearest shop for a puff or two and occasionally clicking the surroundings when the sun-god offered some light.
This picture was taken during the evening. People come at that very place for filling up the water. Old, young, men, women, everybody comes there with their containers. I was trying to capture the shot from long time ago but, there are few cables(electrical) which were obstructing my view, but on saturday I found out another angle to capture this shot sans electrical cables.

Stairway to heaven

About the picture: A fine saturday morning, with an overwhelming 'don't-have-to-go-to-work' feeling, I start off the day in vigor. Now that a contradiction to my earlier post, isn't it? And yes, I've been, wont say out and out successful, but yes quite successful in changing some of my habits and this 'getting-up-early-on-saturday' is one of them. Reason behind these change in my routine being my health, can't say I'm not keeping well these days, but still there's always something there which makes me feel I'm not 100%. So health has become a prime concern for me these days. Saturday, always feels good when I think about it, feels better, always, for the next day too is an off-day and you do what you wish to do on these days. I'm particular about saturdays here because sundays mark the end of the weekend and what follows it is, well, you yourself can run into conclusion.
Okie, so saturday, oh saturday, my lovely saturday....
And last saturday I was simply killing my time as going outside was kind of hard with all that sun(read heat), I came out with this idea about how it would look if I take this picture. So without further ado I clicked, result is in front of you. My friend, who's far more better than me when it comes to photography, told me it would have looked better if had been taken from a bit higher place. But right now, it looks good to me. Watdyasay?

Captive forever

About the picture: Another day, another subject. This subject looks so very ordinary but the way it has withstood the apathy of its owners surely makes it one of the toughest, most robust, and hardest to bring down doggy. From the time I first saw it for the first time(at very same place) behind that wrought-iron grilled gate, it has seldom failed to occupy that space. It serves a purpose for us too, for it's absence(from that place) is warning-bells for an imminent rain. I had always thought about putting it in my blog, very uncharacteristic to be a dog, it's four-fifth of life has already been spent behind the bars :)
Yesterday when me and my friend were were enjoying our evening tea on our balcony, my friend happen to see that dog(you can't fail to notice it standing on our balcony) and instantly he uttered, Kaiid(as in kaiid-e-azam) mein hai bul bul. I too thought, what a perfect title for my blog ?!

Rise and fall of Big Brother

He came, he saw but he failed to conquer, that's how one would say after the recent debacle, crisis he's going through. And why not, it was in making, his eccentric thoughts and imagination paved the way for his collapse. Now he rests, with future full of uncertainty, near from home yet so away, amidst his people but as a stranger, lost, cast off. The future of the one who unified the Gorkhas now rests in the hands of the very people who he first brought together, then led them and took them nowhere, with a result worse than he himself had imagined.
The fall was indeed in making. An article, found talking about the same.

Ghisingh's pride, hunger for power did him in
13 Mar 2008, 0424 hrs IST,Anand Soondas,TNN

If one looked at Subash Ghisingh closely, gaunt, bare-boned, unsmiling and perpetually wrapped in the sartorially killing feather-jacket and tie combination, nobody could remotely imagine he was capable of such atrocious lies or flabbergasting flights of fancy.
A sample: Gautam Buddha was 18 feet tall and each of his ears weighed 10 kg.
Another sparkling gem: Earthquakes occur when gods angrily stomp in the heavens and so it’s essential to periodically get Ganesha drunk on tongba, the local beer.
Ghisingh, who’s just stepped down as the strongest, often meanest, power centre in the Darjeeling hills, lording over 20 lakh people for 20 miserable years, could well have been India’s own version of Papa ‘Doc’ Duvalier, the Haitian dictator of the 1950s who believed more in voodoo than vox pop and once got all black dogs killed in his country because someone told him Clement Barbot, his rival, had turned into one to avoid prosecution.
In the years since Ghisingh marched for Gorkhaland and got Bengal to submit to a settlement that was half way between independent state and autonomy, the Gorkha Hill Council, no dogs were killed in Darjeeling. Darjeeling went to the dogs instead.
"There was nothing to look forward to except Ghisingh’s bizarre take on life, history and religion," says Deepak Pradhan, a businessman in Darjeeling. "People initially didn’t complain because they were too busy putting together pieces of their shattered lives after the violence of the 1980s. Later, when they did, GNLF (Gorkha National Liberation Front) goons physically throttled protest voices."
By the time Ghisingh finally relinquished power, all that the former soldier of the elite 8th Gorkha Regiment was left with was a legacy of eccentricities, a long list of corruption charges, horrifying tales of excesses and, as his cohorts say, a severe bout of diarrhoea.
The man who once unified the more than one crore Nepalese in India and had grand, if suspicious, visions of Greater Gorkhaland, a warriors’ swathe that would straddle Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim and Darjeeling, had by the end of his eventful but abject rule become a caricature of himself. He was his own mascot. The Ghisingh mystique had morphed into burlesque.
"Who said Durga has 10 hands," he would thunder during Darjeeling’s famous Dussehra festivities. "She has 18." The goddess metamorphosed, too, as artisans implanted extra limbs, the new ones clutching frightful weapons.
At other times he harangued about evolution as hapless audiences feigned interest.
"The earth was formed on June 20," he said, without either care or concern for Darwin. "And in 15 years there won’t be any mosquitoes in the world."
Not that he spared anthropology, theology, medicine and quantum physics. "Some of us," he announced earnestly, "have come from Ukraine." In more adventurous moods he would insist global warming happened because Shani had made the sun its home. The solution: Rubber plantation.
When he got tired with flying rocks that became nations, he would take on medicine and ask people to clap their hands if they wanted to beat tuberculosis. But one of his most bizarre and fantastic notions revolved around a folk singer from Nepal called Ani Tshering Doma. "Three lakh restless spirits have found peace after hearing her spiritual songs," he told a gathering once.
"That’s what it became finally," says Roshan Giri, general secretary of the rival Gorkha Janmukti Morcha. "Our hills became a fool’s paradise. There was no talk of poverty alleviation, unemployment, corruption and the dying economy." Another GJM leader, H B Chettri, sees this as the beginning of the end of Ghisingh and his GNLF.
"There’s finally light in the dark mountains," he says. A GNLF man, who changed sides timing it with the changing mood, said it was Ghisingh’s pride that did him in. "Just like the foolish emperor and his new clothes, our leader was blinded by power. And he had no one with courage to advise him better."
It’s almost certain Ghisingh’s maddening run of the hills is over. The 72-year-old, who’s still not dared to return to his land, may have given the Nepalese identity, unity and dreams of Gorkhaland, but there’s little hope for himself. He could get back to writing—he’s written 21 novels, many distinctly titillating and, pen an autobiography that could be called Nothing Hill.
Unless, of course, Durga with her 18 hands comes to his rescue or a flying stone miraculously turns into a kingdom he can rule, naming it ‘Ghisinghland’.

Courtesy : The Times of India

Reality that weighs you down

I came face to face with my moment of truth, yesterday! The information was crystal clear, written all over, in front of me....
I don't know whether I should be cautious, happy?!, sad, alarmed... I don't know how to embrace this situation. I had always known this was inevitable with the daily schedule I go through, but this soon? I hadn't even imagined.
Yes sir/ma'am, I gained, but I guess gain isn't always synonymous with profit, or for that matter benefit. Without further suspense, I, here, announce that I stepped from over-weight to obese zone. :) I was astonished to see my process of rapid progress, the journey from 73 Kilograms to 81.1 was in fact a very short one, hardly of 3 months, and increased frequency of junk food, mini-meals per day colossally helped the cause. And now I've become the thing(remember Fantastic four??? :) ), nemesis for weighing machines. It all started with the tummy problems, and to counter the upset-stomach I started grubbing several times a day, feeding myself with the junk food. And today morning, when I faced myself(in the mirror), I thought someone was looking at me, someone obese, someone who had just been pumped with air all over. So, now time for me to do a round up, a physical introspection, for if it is not restrained I have a feeling I'll blow myself up... :)
The were times when I used to hold a cup of water in my each collarbone, and now hehe... let's not divulge the secrets.
I accelerated upwards like the rocket, now I need to descend decently, for I know the rapid descend is the possible symptom for incurable disease.
So anybody with fool-proof idea can post the comment(s), because I desperately want to be an overweight again! :)

Ghisingh resigns, a new era begins in hills

Ghisingh quits, split in party

March 10: GNLF chief Subash Ghisingh today resigned as caretaker administrator of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC), ending a 20-year rule that had swiftly lost popular support in the last few months because of its failure to push the statehood demand.
In the Assembly, three GNLF legislators raised the demand for Gorkhaland during mention hour and staged a walkout. Later, two of them — Pranay Rai and Gaulan Lepcha — told reporters that they had resigned from their party and formed a group called GNLF (Rebels). The third MLA, Shanta Chhetri, said she would remain with the GNLF.
Ghisingh, down with a flu, signed and handed over the resignation letter addressed to Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to Darjeeling district magistrate and DGHC principal secretary Rajesh Pandey at the WBSEDCL Inspection Bungalow at Second Mile off Sevoke Road in Siliguri around 11.10am.
“I cannot speak on the content of the letter. I will forward it to the state government”, Pandey said after coming out of the bungalow where the GNLF chief has been staying since March 6.
In Calcutta later in the day, the chief minister said he had received Ghisingh’s resignation letter and accepted it. He added that Jalpaiguri divisional commissioner B.L. Meena would take over as the DGHC caretaker administrator tomorrow.
A source revealed that the 10-line resignation letter, drafted by Pandey upon Ghisingh’s instruction, mentioned that the GNLF chief was eligible to continue in the post till March 24. “He has said in the letter that considering the current state of affairs in the hills and a request from the chief minister, he preferred to step down,” the source said.
The district magistrate said the GNLF leader would continue to get Z-category security cover from the state.
The septuagenarian leader stayed away from reporters. “He is likely to leave for Darjeeling on Thursday and is expected to talk to the media before that,” the source said.
This is the first time since the formation of the DGHC in 1988 that Ghisingh is not in any administrative post of the council. “All these years, he was very busy with administrative duties,” said Dawa Pakhrin, the president of the Kalimpong branch of the GNLF. “From today, he is free and can devote more time to the party. We expect a meeting soon where our future course of action to fight for a separate state will be planned.”
However, leaders of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, currently spearheading the movement for Gorkhaland, said Ghisingh would find it difficult to garner support in the hills.

Courtesy : The telegraph, Calcutta


Ghisingh's 22-yr rule ends

KOLKATA/DARJEELING: Virtually hounded out of the Hills by the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM), Subash Ghisingh on Monday stepped down as caretaker administrator of Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council.
The Gorkha leader left Darjeeling in the first week of February and since then, he could not go back to the Hills due to GJM's agitation. Even on Monday, when he tendered his resignation, he was in Siliguri. A senior official said he was not likely to go to Darjeeling in a day or two as he was indisposed and would take rest in Siliguri for some time.
Darjeeling district magistrate Rajesh Pandey went to Siliguri to receive Ghisingh's resignation. "Yesterday, Ghisingh complained of health problems. So, I decided to come to Siliguri and take the resignation letter. We will provide security to him as soon as he is well enough to travel," he said. Later, in the Assembly, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee announced that he has accepted Ghisingh's resignation.
Jalpaiguri divisional commissioner B L Meena was appointed DGHC administrator in the evening. He is likely to take charge on Tuesday.
There was jubilation in the Hills as soon as news reached there that Ghisingh's rule as DGHC chief had ended. "People have given their verdict and it is only right that they celebrate their ‘mukti' today," GJM president Bimal Gurung said. "We will not stop Ghisingh from coming to Darjeeling now that he has resigned. We can concentrate on our future agitation programme for Gorkhaland," he said.
People from all sections of society came out in droves after the news of Ghisingh's resignation reached Darjeeling. Their faces smeared with abir, the locals chanted: "Jai Gorkha Jai Gorkhali, hamro maang Gorkhaland." Firecrackers were burst throughout the Hill town.
There were celebrations in the other subdivisions of Darjeeling, too. All India Gorkha League and Communist Party Revolutionary Marxist also welcomed Ghisingh's resignation.
Events in the Assembly during the day, however, indicated that Ghisingh's resignation would not end the problems in Darjeeling. For, after many years, the demand for a separate Gorkhaland state was voiced on the floor of the House by three legislators from Darjeeling.
The demand was raised separately by GNLF MLA Shanta Chhetri from Kurseong and two others, Pranay Rai and Gaulan Lepcha from Darjeeling and Kalimpong. Rai and Lepcha announced that they had already resigned from GNLF and joined GJM. They also submitted a memorandum to the chief minister, detailing the demand for Gorkhaland.
As opposed to the Gorkhaland demand voiced by GNLF in the 1980s, the new demand for a separate Gorkhaland state included not only the hills of Darjeeling but also large areas of Dooars.

Courtesy: Times Of India

The result of my utter boredom

About the picture: As the title suggests, work of art comes out of utter boredom too... :) and it does come from a most boring person as well. :)
During weekends, I often visit my cousins who stay at the other side of Bangalore, South Bangalore to be precise. Our daily routines, time-tables are exactly opposite, say mutually exclusive. Time I sleep they wake up and when they sleep I work. So it is implicitly understandable that I'm an alien(time-table wise) when I go there, still I try to match their time-table foot-by-foot. And when I lose it, I come up with such shots. This image was taken when everybody was sleeping, well.. except me. This guitar has become a mere entity of decoration. And after taking this shot, I saw some cobwebs in it as well. :) If this guitar had been a living thing, it would have ran away long time ago, and nobody would notice, such unattended it is.
Anyways, the shot I have here is taken from the edge of the body and I feel it is a pretty good shot AFA my photography is concerned. :)

Adding a favicon in your blog

Inserting a faviocn for your blogger is easy if you know where to look for. :)
First you need to create a favicon from your existing image. There are lots of online websites which will make a favicon provided you feed them with an image. One of such site is here.
Now the steps:
1. Go to above mentioned site and feed an image you have chosen for your blog's favicon.
2. Make sure you click the check-box which says, Animate Favicon, before pressing the button Generate FavIcon.ico.
3. Download the favicon and unzip it.
4. Now upload your animated_favicon1.gif which is inside folder extra to some image hosting site like picassa or flickr.
5. Copy the link for that favicon in some textpad.
6. Now go to Dashboard of your blogger. Click on Layout. And then click on Edit HTML tab.
7. In the code window, search for </html>.
8. Once you find it, insert this code just above it.
<link href='YOUR-URL' rel='icon' type='image/x-icon'/>
9. Replace YOUR-URL with the address of your image. Click on Save Template
10. Voila! you are done.

A lovely piece of comment, found somewhere in net.

I liked this person's idea of keeping things straight. This is how a comment should be. I specially liked the way he's ended it. :) Read on

Just Get the side right. Hopes is the LUCKIEST player going around in WORLD cricket..Why he is even in the side? He can't play spin - What goes on there. How ridiculous at this level. Where's the State cricketer of the year?? The Bradman Medalist - What's the point of having that award if you don't get a Guernsey?..Where's' Dave..Where's Ash?? And SYMONDS getting regular games is a joke..is it just me that cringes every time I see him walk to the crease..He is the biggest scam of international cricket since Greg Ritchie or Dirk Wellham. Seriously thou, I am still in shock that he gets a regular Test match gig. One dayers - yeah I guess I can understand the idea of Symonds is nice (a batting all rounder that can field brilliantly), but the truth of the matter is he's just an excellent fielder. If he scored runs REGULARLY(& by that I mean 30/40+) then we wouldn't need his fielding. At the end of the day he's not a batting all rounder, he's not a bowling all rounder. He's a fielder.

The despised

About the picture: This one was taken on 23/02/2008. The underground sewage system renovation work had just finished when I took this one. Mind you, the renovation work was done under the road(rather, on the road) where it(the tow-wheeler) now rests. That two-wheeler got it's share of contemn then(it was almost buried when excavation was in progress), and now again it's bravely fighting the debris and bricks that surround it. It has seen many months of sunshine and has faced numerous bursts of rain, but still it stands majestically(not really :) ) against the each and every odd. And everytime I wonder who its owner is...

The first among equals

May be I get bored with things pretty soon or may be I prefer to see the constant changes around me, that's why I'm standing against my previous (not-so-brilliant)idea of blogging different facets of my posts into different blogs, and now going through the blogs, it looks cumbersome to blog different posts in different blogs and besides the same distinction can be brought in using a category list. So I plan to post all my posts under one roof(read blog) and that is here.
Hope you all will appreciate the change too or will bear with it.
Luv
D