First & Second Anniversary posts

Above picture courtesy: Lovelife

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First Anniversary post

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“The Indian Premier League is becoming a big mafia that wants to control world cricket; it is not only endangering the existence of the International Cricket Council, but also the rest of the cricketing nations.

“It is my message to all cricket boards around the world that the IPL is the biggest danger for their future; if it is not controlled timely it will engulf all boards.

“India is trying to control the world of cricket through the IPL and wants to become a super power; India is trying it and India is doing it,” the Pakistan cricket icon told rediff.com in an exclusive interview, shortly after the players’ auction for the third edition of the IPL in Mumbai on Tuesday.

His reasoning is that “a number of players have refused to play for their own countries because they can earn more money overnight than they could throughout their careers”.

Saying the players are receiving money more than they are worth, he urged the ICC to form rules to curb the League’s expansion.

Mafia? err…ummm… Isnt your son married to the biggest mafia leader’s daughter Mr Miandad?

Full article here

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In 2008

I’ve always admired Madonna for the chameleon like traits she has in her character which makes her re-invent herself to the situation.  At a time when music and musicians hardly linger in your memory for a few days / months, you have a 50 something woman who still makes you groove.  Someone who’se songs still hit the top on the hit list even though she has been around for almost 30 odd years.

250 million albums sold in a career, 27 top 20 singles, earnings of $193 million in 2006 alone,  a networth of $850 million, Madonna is a once in a lifetime phenomenon.

There’s no such thing as the perfect soul mate. Your soul mate is the person that pushes all your buttons, pisses you off on a regular basis, and makes you face your shit.  Its not easy having a good marriage. But i dont want easy. Easy doesnt make you grow. Easy doesnt make you think. I thank God everyday that iam married to a man who makes me think. That’s my definition about true love.

- Madonna speaking about her love and marriage to British movie director, Guy Ritchie.

I have an iron will and all of my will has always been to conquer some horrible feeling of inadequacy…I’m always struggling with that fear. I push past one spell of it and discover myself as a special human being and then I get to another stage and think I’m mediocre and uninteresting. And i find a way to get myself out of that. Again and again. My drive in life is from this horrible fear of being mediocre.  And that’s always pushing me, pushing me.

Madonna – A Biography by Mary Cross

Even though its a small book, i took almost 2 weeks to finish it.  My wife picked up the book in the library, but it was me who managed to finish it even though am somewhere a few pages into other books that Iam reading simultaneously.

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Chennai was sweltering hot, i sweated buckets.  Coupled with that the scarcity of water and a city that is used by its citizens as a garbage dump.  You wonder where the municipal workers of the city are?  If at all they are doing the work.  Whether you are the middle of the city or at the outskirts, one thing that defines Chennai is the consistent crappy smell in the air.  The air stinks in Chennai and uniformly so.  Dont know why and how.  This is in addition to the dirt and filth all around.  Wonder which moron decided to name it a metro.

Velankanni was equally dirty.  For a piligrim town with such a potential for tourism, there are hardly any good lodge/hotels.  The only good ones are the dorms run by the church, but they too offer you rooms for the next day only.  And if you are the ones (like me) who just drop into the town with no reservations, hoping to stay at some hotel, be disappointed with the kinds of rooms you get there.  As for the restaurants, stay away if you dont want to come down with some extreme case of food poisoning or diarrhea.

If you have any plans of going to Velankanni, stay at Nagapattinam, a town near Velankanni.  Take a bus in the morning to Velankanni, see around and come back to Nagapattinam.  This was advised by my friends after i did my trip much to my exasperation.

Took a train from Chennai to Hyderabad.  Was travelling by the Indian Railways after more than 11 years and loved the experience.  Reached Hyderabad early morning around 6am on the 14th (our 1st wedding anniversary).   Was amazed at how clean the city of Hyderabad was at 6 in the morning.   Either the roads were swept clean or at some places the cleaners were hard at work.  Kudos to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and the people who work for them for keeping the city reasonably clean.

It was drizzling all through and there was a nice cool breeze.  Loved it. Since we were tired, we preferred to rest.  There was not much celebration for the anniversary as all plans were for wifey’s birthday which was 2 days later on the 16th.  Had a get together at home for friends and family for wifey’s birthday.

Later on in the week, went to the new mall in town, GVK-1.  Good place to hang out, but there was something lacking in the place.  I prefer Hyderabad Central or City Center.  Also the mall is pretty new and the shops are only coming up.  Maybe it will be good once it fills up.

Saw the movie New York.  Not bad i thought.  Better than the crap that Yash Raj is famous for churning out. Saw the movie at the new INOX multiplex at GVK-1.  The seating is good and so is the sound system.

Travelled back to Singapore via Chennai again.  From the superb airport of Hyderabad to a garbage can called Chennai Airport is a perfect example of what the private sector can do to our economy while at the same time, the Chennai airport run by the inefficient babus of Airports Authority of India have really screwed it up.

There were no seats at the international departure.  They simply disappeared.  For someone who’se flight is yet to start check-in, they simply have to stand there waiting for the counters to open.  Can you believe that?  What about the elderly and the people who need to rest?  Have the airport authorities ever thought about their comfort?

And the cafe’s selling stuff in Chennai airport are nothing but daylight robbery.  Tea is sold for Rs 30.  A samosa / aloo bonda costs Rs 60.  Whereas you get a good Cafe Coffee Day coffee at the Hyderabad airport for just Rs 15.

I can go on and on about the pathetic situation at Chennai airport, but its a waste of time.  Its a perfect example of why the airport needs to be handed over to a private player so that they can do a better job of the same.  Anyone with doubts can look at Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi and Bombay airports and compare them to the ones run by AAI.  There is simply no comparison.

Back at office and a mountain of work stares me in the face.  Time to get going.

Chennai picture courtesy: I’m seeing green ;  Hyderabad tank bund and NTR gardens picture courtesy: Hyderabad

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Doesnt feel like it, but a year has passed since i got married.  Its been a blessing enjoying the fruits of companionship and love of my beloved wife.

Am home, with family and friends, enjoying this special day.  Just cant express how happy Iam

Above pictures source: Flowersdubai & Englishcardsabroad

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With the decriminalising of gay sex by the Delhi High court last week, we have moved one major step towards being an equal and just society.  Ignore all the religious nuts and naysayers.  For them, anyone who doesnt believe in their religion is an adversary or a non-believer or someone who needs to be stoned to death.  And that’s true of all the major religions of the world.  So, all the false propaganda that religous leaders would like us to believe that all religions are peace loving and stuff is nothing but ‘false propaganda’.  Their love is simply restricted to people who belong to their school of faith.  Anyone else is either simply banished or is left to burn in hell.

A society is said to be a modern, progressive and liberal when everyone is equal under the eyes of law.  That’s what our founding fathers envisioned when they wrote our constitution.  They believed that no Indian will be discriminated on the basis of their colour, creed, religion, region, caste, political or otherwise belief and so forth.

We live in an ever changing world and we are supposed to change with changing times. People and societies which refuse to change are consigned to the dustbins of history.  Its indeed heartwarming that from now on the corrupt policeman can no longer harass two people in love (even though they are of the same sex) and try to extort money simply because a law created in the era of dinosaurs has been repealed.

It was high time the rule was done away with.  And kudos to the Delhi High court for that.  Three cheers for the NGO, NAZ Foundation that fought the case against the might of the Indian government for 8 long years.

And just that the rule criminalising homosexual sex was abolished, two men Amrit and Jeeta have gone ahead and got married in a temple.

This could just be the first real indication of a persecuted community’s sudden faith in the law safeguarding their lives — and loves post Article 377, and the beginning of a string of same-sex marriages in the country.

In perhaps the first gay marriage after the Delhi High Court in a landmark judgment read down Article 377, a law that made even consensual sex between adult homosexuals a punishable offence, two 18-year-old men, brushing aside protests from family and jeers from society, went to a temple near their house in Chandigarh and “got hitched for life”.

As a motley crowd of gays and a few well-wishers cheered the newly married couple, Amrit held his partner Jeeta close and said their union was possible only because of the rethink on the anti-homosexual section of IPC.

“I was so delighted after the court’s verdict that we both decided to get married,” said Jeeta, who fell in love with Amrit three months ago when he stayed in the latter’s house in Kajheri, Chandigarh, as a tenant. “We had been facing discrimination in public, at the work place and at home. But things may look up for people like us now.”

Full article here

We have finally started to take baby steps towards a truly just society where no one is discriminated simply because their sense of morality doesn’t agree with a bigger bunch of hypocrites.

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Brad Haddin lived upto his captain’s reputation as a cheater by dislodging the bails with his gloves instead of the ball and had the gall to question Daniel Vettori when his actions were questioned.  Pricky Ricky Ponting followed suit in defending his co-cheatmate.  I was waiting to hear a classic in the lines of

If you are questioning my integrity, then probably you shouldn’t be sitting here.

but, unfortunately no such pearls of wisdom sprouted from Ricky’s mouth this time.  In other news, Ricky Ponting has been asked to rest. Heh.  Great news.  If Australia are really serious about mounting any challenge to South Africa or India, they seriously need to get rid of Ricky as captain.  He’s still a good batsman and commands a place in the team purely on his batting and fielding.  But when it comes to captaincy, he often looks lost when the chips are down.

Roger Federer lost in the finals of the Australian Open and that’s something iam unable to come to terms with.  Rafael Nadal seems to be his achilles heel. Nadal has quickly moved from being a good player on clay to grasscourts too.  So, Federer has lost his monopoly in Wimbledon now having lost to Nadal last year.  Am sure Federer will make a comeback and break Sampras’ record of 14 grand slams, but the delay is the killer.

Watched Vicky Cristina Barcelona last weekend.  Scarlett Johansson is yummy and so is Penelope Cruz.  I still cant get over the evil role of Javier Bardem in No country for old men and had a tough time thinking about him as a casanova in this movie.

Meanwhile, i will have some great 2 weeks starting this sunday.  Biwi ji will join me here in Singapore

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Best thing to happen to me in 2008

I got married.  Is there anything better than this?

Travel in 2008

I made 4 trips to India this year and contributed my part to global warming.  So, other than the regular trips home, 2008 has been a pretty dry year when it came to travel.  2009 seems more promising as i already have lots of travel plans lined up now that i have my wife as my travel partner.

Movies in 2008

Have lost count of the number of movies i watched this year.  It should be more than 150.  That means around one in 2 days.  Fortunately, i dont restrict myself to any particular genre or language,  so i have had the honour of watching some truly remarkable movies across languages

Let me emphasize that all the movies mentioned below are not necessarily released this year.  These are just some of the movies that i saw this year which impressed me.

Aamir
A Wednesday
Mithya
Oye Lucky Lucky Oye
Jodhaa Akbar
Tahaan
Subramaniapuram (Tamil)
Dasavatharam (Tamil)
Gamyam (Telugu)
Slumdog Millionaire
Dark Knight
Children of Men
Death at a Funeral
Before Sunset
Taken
21
3:10 to Yuma
Transsiberian
Rebel without a cause
The Towering Inferno
In Bruges
Traffic
Gran Torino
28 weeks later
Rang-E-Khoda (Colour of Paradise) – Iranian
Bacheha-Ye aseman (Children of Heaven) – Iranian

Books in 2008

Kaoboys of R&AW – B Raman
Eleven Minutes – Paulo Coelho
Reluctant Fundamentalist – Mohsin Hamid
Freakonomics – Steven Levitt
Barefoot Investor – Scott Pape
Undercover Economist – Tim Harford
It happened in India – Kishore Biyani
We are like that only – Rama Bijapurkar
The World is Flat – Thomas Friedman
Intelligent Investor – Benjamin Graham

Investments in 2008

At the begining of the year even though there were predictions that the world economy was in for a rough ride, no one would have believed if the markets would be at a situation where it is now.  From 20,000 to 9000, the Sensex has been on a mother of all crashes.  My portfolio is totally in the red.  But then as some great soul said…

Buy when everyone sells and sell when everyone buys

Iam buying and have built up quite a bit of my portfolio by now.  I averaged out quite a lot of my losses and surely dont need the market to climb back to 20k to see a positive portfolio.  I still cant believe why people keep advising me that i should start buying only when the market is stable.

How does one judge when a market turns stable?  The worst thing you can do is to time the market.  Its practically impossible for anyone to guess the top and the bottom of the market. The only thing a long term investor can do is to religiously invest a bit of his savings in the market and cash out when he hits paydirt.

Career in 2008

Nothing interesting happened in my career during 2008. In fact, hanging on to the job one has is the mantra in this gloomy economy. In fact this is a good time to start studying and get certified in some courses that can make a difference when the economy rebounds.

My resolution for 2009

…. is to have no resolutions

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