Thoughts of a Rambler

Choosing a baby name - Easier said than done

noreply@blogger.com (Rajaram S) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:58:00 +0000

Maho Arnaha Saraswati Pra Chetayati Ketuna Dhiyo Vishwa Vi Rajati.
Asmantsu Tatra Chodyendra Raye Rabhsthavaha TuVidyumna Yashsthavaha

What do the above lines mean to you?
If you are a follower of/believer in the vedas, you would recognise the above as lines from rig veda and would start on trying the understand the meaning conveyed by the lines. If you are a quizzer, you would look at these lines as a probable source of esoteric questions which you as the quiz master would only ever know. But, if you are an expecting parent, then these lines would be a treasure trove of possible unpronounceable names which you would carefully note down in your "Big book of names for my baby"!
This is where Confuso-Kiddo-Name-o-graphy, the art of getting confused by writing down too many baby names, comes into the picture. Recently, my friends had a kid and when we visited them in the hospital, i saw a fat book lying beside the bed. On picking it up and looking inside (i didn't see the cover), i saw lot of strange words and their meanings. I was wondering as to why she was reading Rosenblum's word-list for GRE. Then, on seeing the cover , i realised that it was not the rosenblum book, but a book on Hindu baby names written by "I-shall-unlock-all-the-cages-in-zoos" Menaka Gandhi.
The book was in fact, more confusing that a GRE word list. I guess what Menaka would have done is to copy over the english transliterations of all the holy writings of Hinduism into Excel, then sorted them and then added a random meaning to each one of them. Well, a normal person wouldn't anyway know what a name such as "Caksusa" really meant. He would just go by what is written in the book. It must be the easiest book she must have ever written!
Sometimes, being born an Indian has many disadvantages - for the parents. They have the unfortunate task of naming the child according to zillions of naming conventions. Imagine if the child is Cypriot, they have just few names like Andreas, Christos, Nicos and the feminine forms of them. So, it is pretty easy to choose amongst them. Parents who are a bit religious and want to do things the traditional way would rely upon numerology, the baby's horoscope, vaastu (the location where the baby was delivered and the direction the mom was facing when delivering the baby) , vedic mathematics and few other dozen rules. After doing all the above calculations, if they end up with a restriction that the name should start with the letter "Q" or "X", they immediately turn modern and name the child Pinky, Rocky, Sweety etc.
Americans have it easier still. They can name their children bush, gate, forest or based on practically any word taken from a regular dictionary. Take the case of Tiger Woods. Earl and Kutilda, tiger woods' parents were going for a walk in the remote forests of Vietnam. Kutilda was heavily pregnant at that time. When they went around a corner, Earl suddenly saw what he thought was a tiger and yelled out "There is a tiger in the woods". Kutilda went into a shock and delivered a healthy baby. Considering it a good sign, they named the child "Tiger Woods".
Back to our case - We Indians have to consider a lot of things other than the above mentioned factors in naming a child.

In today's global village, we have to even consider how americans would react to the name. What if the name was "Manish Bhatt". Americans would be talking about Manish's butt whenever they refer to him. We can't even name our kids with our favourites like Raghunathan Ramakrishnan or Somasundaram Pattabbiraman, as americans find it difficult to pronounce anything more than 2 syllables.
We also have to think about the possible nicknames that could arise from the name when your kid goes to college. If there are many possible nicknames, rest assured that the one with the most vulgar meaning will be the one with which your child is christened in college.
You also have to attend french classes, german classes and classes of few other popular languages to check if the name you have thought of doesn't have any unintended meanings in these languages.

After all this confusion, many parents give up and name their kid some shit, i mean Samchit!

Technorati Tags: baby names naming a child hindu names

Tips on Filling Fuel in Your Vehicles

noreply@blogger.com (Rajaram S) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 09:31:00 +0000

I don't usually post email forwards, but this one seemed useful and interesting to know too.

------

ONLY BUY OR FILL UP YOUR VEHICLES IN THE EARLY MORNING WHEN THE GROUND TEMPERATURE IS STILL COLD. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground, the denser the fuel, when it gets warmer petrol expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening…. Your litre is not exactly a litre. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the petrol, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products play an important role. A 1 degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps.
WHEN YOU’RE FILLING UP, DO NOT SQUEEZE THE TRIGGER OF THE NOZZLE TO A FAST MODE. If you look, you will see that the trigger has three (3) stages: low, middle, and high. In slow mode, you should be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapours that are created, while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapour return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapour. Those vapours are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you’re getting less worth for your money.
ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT TIPS IS TO FILL UP WHEN YOUR TANK IS HALF FULL. The reason for this is, the more fuel you have in your tank, the less air occupying its empty space. Petrol evaporates faster than you can imagine. Petroleum storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the petrol and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation.
IF THERE IS A FUEL TRUCK PUMPING INTO THE STORAGE TANKS, WHEN YOU STOP TO BUY, DO NOT FILL UP - most likely the petrol/diesel is being stirred up as the fuel is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom.

------------

Technorati Tags: oil price increase petrol pump petrol diesel

The ordeal of eating at Hotel Saravana Bhavan

noreply@blogger.com (Rajaram S) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 08:21:00 +0000

Hotel Saravana Bhavan started in Chennai in the year 1981 (almost as old as me!) with the K.K.Nagar branch. We moved to K.K.Nagar in the year 1990 and from the first time i tasted the famous Saravana Bhavan sambhar, there was no looking back. I was addicted to it.
Back then, when there was no concept of pocket money/allowance, it was hard work trying to "collect" enough money for a visit to the hotel. There was a tacit understanding with my mom that any "unattended" coin with a value of <= 1 rupee could be claimed by me as mine. There were other sources of income too. I would always immediately respond to anyone's call for help in recovering coins which would have fallen behind tables/shelves. I would attempt (or rather attempt to attempt) to recover those coins, but ensure that i make back-breaking groans and moans when i do so. This would immediately prompt my mom to say "It's ok. Leave it if you cannot reach it" and the coin would be forgotten. But the location would be promptly stored in my mind and when the time/need arrived, i would go over and, with the slightest of ease, recover the valuable 50 paise. So, once i had collected 7 rupees (the price of a sada dosa back then), I would run over to Saravana Bhavan and enjoy a sada dosa with the three types of Chutney, the sambhar and the Molaga Podi. Pure Bliss!
But, when my brother started growing older, there was competition for the stray coins. My mom, realising the rising inflation along with the competition from my brother, increased the threshold of coins defined as "stray" to 2 rupees! So, from then on, the only hotel i swore by, the only hotel which i considered worth visiting has always been Saravana Bhavan.
So, it is no surprise that i look forward to this whenever i visit Chennai. I was in Chennai last week and had been to Saravana Bhavan. Then began the ordeal!
It was around 7 in the evening and the place was full of people. So, it was tough to find a place. I had to wait a few minutes to find one empty seat on a table of four. But, considering the humidity in Chennai in summer, this place was a wrong choice as it was far away from the reach of the ceiling fans. So, i didn't place my order and was on the lookout for a better table. To my luck, a place on the other side of the room (just below a fan) was vacated. So, i jumped up and walked across the room. But, it looked like i was not the only one with this idea. Another guy, who was unfortunately nearer, occupied this seat before i could go over. Disappointed, i turned back to go to my place. But, even this was gone now as it was forcible occupied by the family on the next table who decided to give a separate chair to a child not even tall enough to reach the table. No wonder there is so much competition in India for everything! So, i was back on the waiting list. Luckily, all this action was seen by a waiter who was kind enough to come over and volunteer to find a good place for me. True to his words, he found a good seat - right under the fan. After thanking him a lot, i sat down to enjoy a good meal.
Now, i had to order stuff. In the past, when i had been on month long home leaves, i usually start ordering based on the serial number on the menu and go one by one. But this time, I was in India for just a week and it was already the 4th day into this week. So, this concept would not work. I had to go for plan B which was to either choose according to my likes or according to availability. If i were to go based on my liking, it had to be one of the dosas accompanied by the sambar. What i meant by "availability" is the probability of getting that particular item back in Cyprus. Yes, we do get Dosas in the Keralam restaurant in Cyprus, but i have to drive a 100 kms and pay a humongous 14 dollars for a single masala dosa, but theoretically, dosas are available and so they are out of consideration. Then, it had to be the famous Parotta kurma. So, i ordered it. You can never have only one dish in saravana bhavan. So, for the next item, i chose the 14 idli sambhar dish. Nowadays, you might have to request for a magnifying dish as an accessory to see the "mini" idlis. The main course was done. A dinner at Saravana Bhavan is always finished with the famous "Masala Milk", yellow in colour with the "paal edu" (that which many hate to have in their glass of milk, but which i love!) floating on top.
So, after having ordered for the Masala Milk, i went over to the wash basin. When i returned, the inevitable happened. My seat was gone, taken over by the next saravana bhavan enthusiast. Now, do i just leave and hope that my bill will be paid by this guy? But, i havent had my glass of masala milk!! There is no way I am going to leave without it. So, not knowing what to do, i slowly wander near by hitherto seat. The friendly waiter comes into the picture again, smiles and offers another seat and even brings over my water glass to my new seat.
One hour and three seat changes later, i finish my dinner. Yes, it was an ordeal, but it was worth every bit.

Introducing Drahul Dravid

noreply@blogger.com (Rajaram S) — Tue, 13 May 2008 11:15:00 +0000

Yes, it is official now. Rahul Sharad Dravid, the ace Indian cricketer has officially changed his name to Drahul Dravid. Drahul called a media conference yesterday and announced this to the world. A few days back, Rahul Dravid and his family had gone to their native temple in Indore, Madhya Pradesh for this name-changing ceremony.

Rahul was very emotional about this ceremony and he wanted to attend the function in his Indian cricket wear. As seen in the picture above, the moment the priest confirmed that the name had been changed, Drahul burst into tears. Few of his Indian cricket team colleagues (who wanted to remain unnamed) also attended the ceremony. When asked on why he started crying after this ceremony, Drahul said that the thing that worried him the most was the expense that his fans have to go through to purchase posters of him with the new name. Drahul also said that once the IPL was finished, Drahul would personally add the D to all his posters owned by his fans, as he felt that he would anyway have nothing else to do after the IPL finishes.

Drahul also said that numerological or astrological reasons were not behind this name change. He said that he had to change the name to indicate clearly his style of cricket. He didn't want his name to be just because selectors thought that he could play an aggressive style of cricket. Drahul also said that he had always learnt batting as an art form where the face of the bat should point towards the pitch such that the ball, on hitting the bat, falls within the pitch (and within half a metre of the batsman) and rolls to a stop within a metre. (Given below is a photo where Rahul Dravid was expressing his frustration because of Sachin Tendulkar's inability to understand this concept)

He said that this talent was limited to very few cricketers around the world and this is the talent required to produce a draw in test cricket. So, by changing his name from Rahul to Drahul, he was clearly communicating that he should be included in the squad only if the required result was a draw. He also added that his dad had recognised this talent in him the moment he was born and hence put Dravid as his last name. But the world had failed to see the draw in dravid and that is why he had to change his first name to drahul to double-emphasize. Drahul felt that this name change would bring about a change in his image.

Technorati Tags: rahul dravid IPL Bangalore royal challengers

India's very own dumb blondes

noreply@blogger.com (Rajaram S) — Mon, 12 May 2008 08:12:00 +0000

Okay, they are not blonde, but they do represent what "dumb blondes" are supposed to be famous for - their dumbness. Yesterday's episode of "Kya Aap Panchvi pass sey tez hai" was a special episode with stars from TV soaps making their appearance on the show and wining money for charity.
Sarah Khan(Sadhna) and Parul Chauhan (Ragini) of “Sapna Babul Ka….Bidaai” were on first and right from the start, they seemed to be perfect candidates to fail a 5th class exam. Usually on the show, insets are shown about the educational achievements of the participants to embarrass them further if they don't answer a question. But, this was not the case for these two. Maybe, the producers knew that even after "preparing" them for the show, they would make a fool of themselves, that he decided not to embarrass them further. Or, they became models at such an early age that they didn't have time to complete class 5. How else would you explain the following responses:
Question 1 - Find the number of common nouns beginning with the letter "B" in the following sentence: In Bombay, I met Billoo with a basket in a blue bus.
So, the stars (the two girls) start thinking aloud. Parul says, "Basket and bus must be the two common nouns". But, the smarter Sara says, "What about Bombay, it is a common place, so it must be a common noun"!!!!
The producers then realised that their questions would prove too tough for this pair, but it was too late. Maybe they should have put Timbuktoo instead of Bombay, then Sara would have said, "Timbuktoo is not such a common place, so it cannot be a common noun"

Question 2 - Neil Armstrong was the first person on the moon. Which country does he belong to?
Parul is quite confident and she says "America". Shah Rukh, who is aware of their dumbness, wants to take them for a ride and says, "That is the name of the continent. I am looking for the name of the country". Immediately, the smart Sara says, "New York?". Shah Rukh then realises that any further discussion would embarrass the entire TV fraternity, so he accepts America and closes the question.

Question 3 - Which is the only mammal which can fly like a bird?
Parul, who has until now been overshadowed in being dumb by Sara, decides to take matter into her own hands and confidently says, "Kangaroo". Shah Rukh, desperately containing his laughter, goes to the center of the stage and imitates the movement of a Kangaroo and asks, "Are you sure that a Kangaroo flies like a bird?".

The producers by then had decided that they had had enough of this smart duo and decided to end their round and call on the next group. Now, i realise why TV soaps are so slow and prolong each and every scene. It is not the intention of the director, but it is the adaptability of the TV stars that is the problem. They seem to be so dumb that it takes them forever to understand and show an expression and the director has no other choice, but to capture the entire thing on camera!

Technorati Tags: kya aap paanchvi pass sey tez hai shah rukh khan are you smarter than a 5th grader quiz star plus

Indian Premier League (IPL) is a success

noreply@blogger.com (Rajaram S) — Mon, 05 May 2008 14:12:00 +0000

Why do i conclude so? Because i "feel" so. When Chennai Super Kings lost their matches, i felt bad and was wondering as to what they could have done better. When the Chennai team gets a wicket, i applaud and feel happy, though that wicket might be a player whom i would love to watch any other day.
This was what the organisers of IPL wanted, this was what Lalit Modi would have hoped for and it has happened. IPL has become an addiction. I spend seven hours both days of the weekend watching both the matches. Somehow, my earlier argument that 20-20 matches are just 3 hrs long doesn't seem to hold good with Vidhya any longer and i get admonished every time i put on the channel to watch IPL.
No, I was never a cricket-crazed person. I love to play cricket and given an opportunity, i don't mind playing it all day. But, watching cricket for extended periods not for me. I consistently used to fall asleep on the sofa between the 15th and the 40th overs of an innings.
I was never a fan of test cricket with the exception of Ashes. Getting up at odd hours of the night to watch the first ball being bowled in the boxing day test match, that is something only a true cricket fan would understand! Maybe it is the green grounds, maybe it is the telecast quality, maybe it is the commentary team, i don't know the reason, but i can watch the entire three sessions of an ashes test match without taking a break. The other test matches, i care a damn. An india-sri lanka match happening in Jaipur, chennai wherever, I just hear about it from friends. At the other end, there are people (there are!) who watch the ball-by-ball commentary on cricinfo of even Ranji trophy matches! I wouldn't even recognise the names of most of the guys on the team.
But, IPL is different. The cricket is entertaining (not just the cheerleaders), it is fast and furious. The new talent knocking on the national team would surely give the jitters to the experienced indian players. I am addicted to IPL. What about you ?
and ...Chennai Super Kings rock!

Doing Dubai!

noreply@blogger.com (Rajaram S) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:17:00 +0000

I am currently in Dubai on a short vacation! Thank goodness that Cyprus celebrates Easter yearly, so that i get an opportunity for a mini-vacation.

The vacation in Dubai got off to a good start. This is what i have been "experiencing" in Dubai: Saravana Bhavan's Idly, Vada, Sambhar; sangeetha's mini-tiffin; Woodlands' rava Dosai and Pongal and of course the must-have masala-milk.

No, i am not on an epicurean vacation, but a trip to dubai cannot escape the delicacies that these south-indian restaurants have to offer. I go to Chennai yearly, but i don't feel the same there. maybe it is because of the fact that there are only two restaurants (that i know of ) near my house: Saravana bhavan and Data Udipi and they are more than half a km away from my house and it would involve a short drive rather than a walk to get these. But, in Dubai, in the the place when my in-laws live, all of them (yes, all of them) are just at their doorstep. All i have to do is to use the lift to go down from the 1st floor (why waste energy) ans then walk right into any of the restaurants.

But, it is not so easy. One's brain easily gets clouded and confused when given so many options. Imagine trying to answer a multiple-choice question with more than 10 answers! So, i have decided to make it easy for my brain. I started 2 days back with the first one on the road and then moved on the next one yesterday and so on. But, there is another problem like today for example. I went into woodlands today and wasn't very satisfied with the sambhar given along with Pongal and regretted a lot that i had passed over saravana bhavan for this one. But, rules have to be followed and there is no way i am going back to saravana bahavan until i finish with the last restaurant down the road and start over with the loop again.

The new mumbai Indians cheerleader costume

noreply@blogger.com (Rajaram S) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 05:07:00 +0000

An exclusive sneak peek at the new costume that the cheerleaders would wear at the Mumbai indians - deccan chargers match today in Mumbai. These costumes were designed by the famous gay (oops, guy) Karan Johar.

Technorati Tags: cheerleader costume ipl cricket

Are these games still played?

noreply@blogger.com (Rajaram S) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:52:00 +0000

The post "Games we forgot" on hawkeye was one of those posts that you back to your childhood days and bring back fond memories. There are a lot of games mentioned in his post and i remembered having played many of those. If you can't recollect any of the games mentioned below, check out his post.
Kings: I remember having played this game event until the end of high school. It is a fast paced game and i was good at it, as it required the person inside the circle (or whatever field) to be pretty athletic in avoiding the ball. Of course, I have had embarrassing moments in school when, out of over-enthusiasm, i do too many acrobatic stunts and end up with my pants torn in all the wrong places!
Chains: This game was very popular in my apartment, but only when the girls were also present. Contrary to other games in the same category, there was a great demand to become the catcher, because the catcher would first "choose" the girl who he wants to hold hands with, make her out and enjoy the rest of the game holding her hands!
French Cricket: This was played when we didn't have the required strength to play a proper game of cricket. A good cricket player would have lot of fun in this kind of game, as it was almost impossible to get a good cricket player in this form of the game. The others, pity them, as they would be spending the entire time running to all parts of the "open" field, as there was rarely a n"end" to the field.
Hide n' seek (Kannam M/Poochi): This was a standard game, but we used to play it on our terrace. Thinking of the places i used to hide in gives me the jitters now, as our terrace was the fourth floor and i used to climb on top of the tanks and even down the water pipes by the side of the building to the sunshades on the windows of the third floor flats.
Hand Tennis: The usual rules of tennis, except that the racquet is replaced by the palm. Our moms used to be the water-moms. The water was not for drinking, but for cooling the reddened palms.
Chalk Cricket: We used to play this at school, where a ruler replaced a bat and a chalk replaced a ball. The chalk (usually 1/2 a chalk) was placed vertically on the table (serving as a pitch) and it had to be flicked towards the batsman (which constitutes a delivery). We even had different scores based on which girl you managed to hit, ranging from +6 (the highest) to -2(the lowest). Few of the girls also knew this scoring system and we have had many an argument for the validity of the rating.
Unfortunately, the games which people (from the South) usually recollect are Goli (marbles) and Gilli-Danda, both of my which i have never played! I am sure that there are many more that i have played and forgotten and i hope that some blog post comes along the way which refreshes my memory.

Man-Mosquito war: A true story

noreply@blogger.com (Rajaram S) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 08:44:00 +0000

Why does a mosquito always hover close to me ear and disturb my sleep? Is it because

It is checking whether I am in a deep sleep or not, so that it can plan its strategy of attack?
It is trying to draw blood from the sensitive part of my ear?
It is trying to communicate to me that I am doomed for the night?

I don't know the reason for this, but the fact remains that my sleep was ruined. Any number of attempts at chasing away the blood-sucker didn't work. All i managed was to slap myself on my ear many times and also almost fall off the bed in a desperate attempt to outwit the devil. At one point, i decided to act like an ostrich and pretend that the mosquito did not exist. So, rather than chasing away the devil, i tried to ignore it.
Well, it was obviously difficult to sleep with my back on the bed and also cover both the ears with my hands (imagine such a posture and you will understand why it is difficult). So, i tried sleeping on my side with one of my ears firmed lodged on the pillow and the other one covered with my hand. Still, he was hovering close to my ear. So, i smartly pulled my blanket over my head. Still, i heard his noise. Then fear struck me! Had he penetrated the impervious domain of my blanket or did he have accomplices inside as well as outside? But, Vidhya was sleeping peacefully seemingly unaware of the crisis i was in. Why was the mosquito discriminatory in his actions?
All this while, I was praying that the mosquito was a male (referring to him as "he"), as i didn't want to get into trouble with the fairer sex of the mosquitoes, the dangerous female anopheles type!
Now, i wasn't sure whether he was alone or with friends. I also started scientific doubts whether the sound of the mosquito flapping his wings can penetrate the cover of the blanket. This was an issue, as it was not the prospect of getting bitten which was bothering me, but the prospect of spending a sleepless night listening to his flapping wings which was troubling me.
Suddenly, as fast as he had come, he vanished. There was no more sound. I even sat up to look for him. When you are half-asleep, you think you can do things which you normally can't. So, i sat up on the bed and looked all over and concluded that i had won the battle. I was even looking forward to finding his dead body by the side of the bed the following morning. So, i went back to the usual posture of sleeping with my back flat on the bed. It was calm, peaceful and wonderful.
But, little did i know that this was just the calm before the storm. A few minutes later, when i had drifted into 3/4th sleep from being half-sleep, i was rudely awaken by a sound, a sound so deafening that it couldn't belonged to the original mosquito which was a whimper by comparison. Then, i realised that the worst had happened. The original guy (and probably his accomplices) had called for reinforcements. These reinforcements were not more of their kind, but they were the big guns of the mosquito world, akin to the F16s and the falcons. They were big, they were loud and almost impossible to intercept in air. War had been declared!
The noise produced by these big guns were like the sound of the army helicopters and they reached the depths of the inner ear. Neither the hand nor the blanket could block this sound. I was doomed! It was then that i realized the extent of the invasion. The big guns were attacking my body all over. The t-shirt was a very thin line of defense which didn't stand any chance against their all-penetrating blood-sucking missiles. I gave up. I didn't even have time to raise the white flag.
Few minutes later, it was all over. The raid had finished and it was very successful, for them! I started to evaluate the damages. When i tried to sit up on the bed, I heard a cracking noise. Had the mosquitoes drained my body of blood that the bones were hitting against each other? I was paralyzed with fear. Too afraid that i fell back on the bed and went to sleep!

Chennai Super Kings beat Punjab Kings XI at Mohali

noreply@blogger.com (Rajaram S) — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 14:48:00 +0000

Way to go Chennai Super Kings. Dhoni and his men couldn't expect a better start to the tournament. Though this defeat wasn't as convincing as the way King Khan's Knight riders smashed the Bangalore Royal Challengers, it was good enough to get the players into the groove for the rest of the tournament.
Mike Hussey showed the way for the Chennai Super Kings with a brilliant hundred. When the Punjab Kings were chasing and Kumar Snagakkara and James Hopes were having a partnership, things looked to be pretty even between the sides. But once hopes was dismissed, it was pretty easy for the Super Kings.
Great start Chennai Super Kings, keep it up. Vijay and Nayanthara will be proud of you! On the other hand, someone should teach Preity Zinta hot to cheer in cricket. The moves Preity Zinta were making would fit better in a boxing ring and not in a cricket stadium and it looked so artificial!

Technorati Tags: IPL cricket indian premier league cricket chennai super kings punjab kings XI mohali chandigarh cricket

Kolkata Knight riders beat Bangalore Royal Challenge in the first IPL t20 match

noreply@blogger.com (Rajaram S) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:46:00 +0000

badly, very badly, in fact miserably! But, what can they do? Poor Vijay Mallya. When he purchased the Bangalore team in the Indian Premier league, I guess that he wouldn't have had an idea that his iconic player in the twenty 20 matches, the player for whom he would have to pay the highest money, would have been Rahul Dravid, of all the cricketers!
Yes, Rahul Dravid is a good cricketer, but this is 20-20, not the bend-forward-show-the-full-face-front-foot-defence game! Even i wouldn't have Rahul Dravid in my team for the Galli cricket 6 over matches! When the Bangalore team went in to bat today at the Chinnaswamy stadium, I almost fell off my sofa seeing Dravid and Wasim Jaffer walk out. What are the two test players doing in a wham-bham-thank-you-maam kind of game?
But Vijay Mallya, you have something to rejoice. There are lot of Bangloreans going to get drunk today with the sadness over this miserable loss and you can hope that they buy your liquor! You can also hope that Shah Rukh Khan and his Kolkata Knight riders will purchase your liquor in the party tonight.
I am obviously a supporter of Chennai Super Kings and i hope that the combined power of Dhoni, Muralidharan, Mathew Hayden and Fleming would be enough to crush the other teams.
Long live IPL, Long live Chennai Super Kings!

Technorati Tags: IPL indian premier league bangalore royal challenge Kolkata knight riders chennai super kings Vijay Mallya Shah Rukh khan

Water water everywhere, but not a drop to drink!

noreply@blogger.com (Rajaram S) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 16:11:00 +0000

This is the situation in Cyprus. Even though Cyprus is a small island and you are less than a 100 kms from the sea in any direction, Cyprus is facing a water problem now. The Cyprus government has gone into crisis mode and is rationing water supplies much to the dislike of the citizens.
Now, people have started talking that Cyprus should have planned for desalination plants and should have foreseen such a crisis. I don't think there are even any plans for desalination plants. This water crisis will indirectly have an adverse effect on the tourism in Cyprus, though the government has promised not to ration the water in the tourist areas. But, most of the tourists don't just stay within the tourist areas. They rent apartments throughout the city limits and would definitely not be pleased to know that the hotel they are staying in would be rationing water! Why would i want to "store" water and do such regular-day chores on a vacation ?
There are also many other side effects to this problem. Read about them at the Cyprus Blog.

Technorati Tags: water shortage desalination plant cyprus water crisis

4 signs that you are addicted to EntreCard

noreply@blogger.com (Rajaram S) — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:35:00 +0000

Note: This post might not make any sense if you have not heard of EntreCard. But, if you are a blogger and you still haven't heard of EntreCard... God bless you!

4 Signs that you are an EntreCard Addict!

You visit a blog. But, without reading any of the content first, you scroll all the way to the bottom and then all the back up, and then say "Damn this blogger. Is he from the stone-ages ? He doesn't have Entrecard on his blog!"
You go late to work. Your boss asks why. You say that you didn't sleep well as you were busy making drops all night. Your boss then says "Oh, its alright. Hope your stomach trouble gets okay soon!".
You keep a window always open with the "Recent Entrecards" page loaded. Every few minutes, you refresh it and immediately advertise for 2 ECs on the new ones.
You visit a blog and your eye immediately notices the 125 ad with the stripe on the bottom as the Entrecard and your hand immediately moves the moves to the stripe. But, the mouse pointer doesn't change as the "DROP" has not yet appeared. You start swearing in all the languages you know, as you see all kinds of crap being loaded in other parts of the screen. Finally, the mysterious DROP appears and you still cry as to why it was the last thing to load.

No, I am not addicted to EntreCard. Oh no! My PC has become slow. I guess i have to close the 300 windows that i have opened for dropping!

The Cyprus Carnival Parade

noreply@blogger.com (Rajaram S) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:33:00 +0000

The Annual carnival a big affair in Cyprus. It happens over a fortnight in Spring and ends with a long parade on the main road in Limassol, Makarios Avenue. The parade is a visual spectacle and is a good opportunity for photographers looking for colorful subjects!

For more photos from the carnival, check out the post on the Cyprus Blog.

The past, present and the future of America

noreply@blogger.com (Rajaram S) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:15:00 +0000

Technorati Tags: bill clinton barack obama george bush american president election

Powerdropping your entrecard

noreply@blogger.com (Rajaram S) — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 09:16:00 +0000

For those who are addicted to dropping on the "entrecard" cards of other blogs, I have created a special, super-fast page for you to drop often. Well, you could call this power dropping. As of now, my page is the fastest page on the power dropping list. So there is no reason why you should not favorite my page and keep dropping your card on it. So, go on, favorite my power dropping page and keep dropping!

Beg, Borrow or Steal: Huge List of Scavenger hunt items

noreply@blogger.com (Rajaram S) — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 09:19:00 +0000

Ok, I didn't call it Beg, Borrow or Steal. I wanted to be a bit more politically correct, so I called it Beg:Borrow: Blackmail - B-cubed 2008. I had been wanting to conduct a scavenger hunt here in amdocs for a very long time. It finally materialized last week.
It took around a week for me to prepare the list of items for the hunt. I thought that it would be relatively easy to oraganize a scavenger hunt and didn't ask for any support in doing so. I was wrong. Throughout the 4 days which had been given to the participating teams, i had to spend at least 5 to6 hrs every day consolidating the items submitted and preparing the scores. But, it was a fun event and was received well.
Given below are some of the items on the list:

A black teddy-bear
A live house-fly
A string-less tennis racquet
A wig sewn out of biscuits
A pack of bourbon biscuits with all the chocolate cream licked off
A coin from a country which no longer exists
An egg-holding apparatus capable of holding an egg unbroken even if thrown from the second floor
A red post-it note
A photo of 2 of the team members, fully clothed, fully wet, in the shower with the water running. Bonus points if they are hugging each other.
A team member fully covered in post-it notes
a team member taking a bubble bath with 5 rubber ducks floating in the tub
A TM taking a picture of another TM taking a picture of another TM taking a picture of another TM taking a picture of a flower
The full team wearing their clothes like superman, with you-know-what on the outside
A video of two TMs rocking a seesaw with two children looking on
A video of a TM proposing to a dog with a red rose in the hand and the dog should reply by barking once as if saying "yes".
A song composed and sung by the full team about the event
Do it like they do on the discovery channel

If you want to see the full list of scavenger hunt items, go over to this page. There are over a 160 items in this list! Enjoy!

Technorati Tags:

scavenger hunt item list beg borrow steal party game

Fun in the snow on Troodos

noreply@blogger.com (Rajaram S) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 17:49:00 +0000

First trip to troodos this winter and it was great fun! It was too crowded, but we persisted and managed to find a parking place. Then, it was the usual dose of fooling around on the snow. This time, it was not just restricted to the sliding, but also a bit of target practice, reaching for the snowball with a kick!

See more pictures of even more crazy antics (and even a video) on the Cyprus Blog.

Technorati Tags: troodos snow cyprus mountain

Indian Premier Cricket League - IPL player auctions today

noreply@blogger.com (Rajaram S) — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 06:12:00 +0000

The auctions for the players to play in the different teams of the Indian Premier Legue (IPL) will be done today. It is expected to start at 11 am today (Feb 20). The auction is under the observation of many international auctioneers also, as it has an interesting format with various limitations.

There are a total of 77 players to be auctioned off.
Each owner has to spend a minimum of 3.3 Million USD and a maximum of 5 million USD on his/her team. This maximum cap is what that makes this auction interesting. You have to get into a lot of permutations and combinations to compose your team, much like playing fantasy cricket online.
bids up to $100,000 – in increments of $5,000, bids from $100,000 to $250,000 – in increments of $10,000, bids from $250,000 to $500,000 – in increments of $25,000, after this, no set increments.
Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly and Yuvraj will not be auctioned as they are icon players for their respective areas.
Each squad must have a minimum of 16 players per squad. This will include a maximum of 8 currently available foreign players per squad. Each team can have a maximum of 4 foreign players in the playing XI for each match.
The squad will also have to consist of a minimum 4 under 22 players from that area.

I shall keep updating as soon as the news come out!

The teams so far:

Anil Kumble	Bangalore	USD 500000
Jacques Kallis	Bangalore	USD 900000
Zaheer Khan	Bangalore	USD 450000
MS Dhoni	Chennai	USD 1,500,000
Muttiah Muralitharan	Chennai	USD 600,000
Jacob Oram	Chennai	USD 675000
Matthew Hayden	Chennai	USD 375000
Stephen Fleming	Chennai	USD 350000
Daniel Vettori	Delhi	USD 625000
Chris Gayle	Delhi	USD 800000
Shoaib Malik	Delhi	USD 500000
Mohammad Asif	Delhi	USD 650000
Adam Gilchrist	Hyderabad	USD 700,000
Andrew Symonds	Hyderabad	USD 1,300,000
Herschelle Gibbs	Hyderabad	USD 575000
Shahid Afridi	Hyderabad	USD 675000
Shane Warne	Jaipur	USD 450,000
Grame Smith	Jaipur	USD 455000
Younis Khan	Jaipur	USD 225000
Shoaib Akhtar	Kolkata	USD 425,000
Brendon McCullim	Kolkata	USD 700000
Ricky Ponting	Kolkata	USD 400000
Mahela Jayawardene	Mohali	USD 475,000
Kumar Sangakkara	Mohali	USD 750000
Brett Lee	Mohali	USD 900000
Sreesanth	Mohali	USD 625000
Sanath Jayasuriya	Mumbai	USD 975000
Harbhajan Singh	Mumbai	USD 850000

Technorati Tags: IPL cricket indian premier league cricket ICL player auction

South Africa beat Bermuda in ICC women's cricket with 296 balls to spare

noreply@blogger.com (Rajaram S) — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 13:48:00 +0000

Anyone who knows a bit of cricket must be astonished to see "with 296 balls to spare". Yes, it is true. In yesterday's ICC world cup women's qualifying match between South Africa and Bermuda, Bermuda women batted first and played for 18 overs to score .... 13 runs! Of these 13 runs, 10 were from extras!
Usually commentators would say "Only three of their batsmen managed to go into double figures", but here they had to say"Only three of their batswomen managed to get off the mark with each of them scoring 1".
The South African women finished off the match in 4 balls (from the only over bowled) that included 9 wides and 1 no ball. Probably, the women from Bermuda were learning cricket during this game.
The scorecard from the game can be found here.

Btw, have you seen the new cheerleader costume for the Mumbai Indians after the existing one was banned by the moral police? Check out the exclusive photos here. If you didn't manage to get the scoop behind the monkey-calling episode of Harbhajan and Symonds, check out the research done by the lawyers of Harbhajan here.

Hindu is a religion; Hindi is a language

noreply@blogger.com (Rajaram S) — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 09:19:00 +0000

Oh! westerner, please understand this. We don't speak Hindu, neither are Indians Hindis. Hindi is the most widely spoken language in India, but that doesn't make us Hindis. A majority of Indians are Hindus (acc to the latest census) , but that doesn't mean that we speak Hindu. We also don't speak Indian, by the way!
I understand the situation that you are in, with the people of Spain speaking Spanish, people of Germany speaking German , the English speaking English and so on. But, we don't ever ask you "Do you speak Christian?", do we?
I am an Indian first and everything follows after. The religion i follow is Hinduism and you know what, i don't speak Hindi! Not all Hindus speak Hindi. Similarly, not all Hindi speaking people are Hindus!
I am sure that you must now be in the exact situation you were in, before reading this post. But, the main idea was to convey the message that Hindu is a religion and Hindi is a language. Don't mix these up.
But, why this post suddenly ? I have recently become a big fan of the Jeopardy Quiz Show shown on MBC 4 every morning. Yeah, this is not the same season as in the US but a rerun of old seasons, nevertheless, the topics are interesting and the questions, smart. One of the questions today morning was

Hindi faithful make regular pilgrimages to & bathe in this 1,560-mile river of Northern India.

The answer to the above was obvious. "What is the Ganges?" But the point is, it is not the Hindi faithful who go there, but the Hindu faithful. How can such a reputed quiz show ask a question like this? But its ok, they are pardoned. They set thousands of questions, so one mistake can be ignored.

Technorati Tags: jeopardy quiz show hindu religion india hindi language india

All you wanted to know about South Indian Weddings

noreply@blogger.com (Rajaram S) — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 16:11:00 +0000

or to be more precise, a tamil wedding ceremony. Head over to Krishashok who took time off from doing jalsa and showing jilpa (not to be confused with Shilpa) to write an excellent article on Tamil Weddings. A must read!

Did harbhajan say maaki or monkey to Andrew Symonds?

noreply@blogger.com (Rajaram S) — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 13:52:00 +0000

Now the issue is whether Harbhajan Singh said maaki (in Hindi) or monkey (in English) to Andrew Symonds. To the casual reader, this issue might see very trivial and not worth the exposure it is getting. But, there is lot more to it than is visible on the surface.

Harbhajan had indeed referred to Symonds as a monkey, but he wasn't aware that this would be considered racist. So, his team of lawyers along with BCCI had decided to take the approach that Harbhajan had in fact referred to Symonds as a white monkey and not a black monkey, but the Indians didn't know how the australian legal team would twist the case to a racism abuse. So, for the past two days they were investigating alternatives for their defense.

This somehow leaked to the media and they started talking about it on television. One person who was watching this felt that he could help the Indian team in this situation. He was Javed Akhtar, the noted bollywood lyricist and scriptwriter. He felt that he could help because he was so much into writing rap crap in english for bollywood movies, that he could definitely could come up with some alibi in English for Harbhajan.

So, Javed Akhtar started searching for homonyms for monkey in English. The only one he could come up with was mucky. But mucky meant dirty and australians would consider this more offensive than monkey as they were known for maintaining cleanliness by covering all the dirt on their faces with sun-screen lotion.

Then, out of the blue, an idea struck him. Why not look for a homonym in hindi? It was much easier to form words out of the given syllables. So, the first word he got was makki, meaning a fly. But, he didn't want to use this, as he wanted to bring the australians down to earth and not on cloud nine like a fly. Javed was frustrated and the team working with him started swearing at Harbhajan, as he was the one responsible for all this mess.

Like all hindi speaking people, Javed started referring to all the relatives of Harbhajan as he started swearing. The moment he said "Saala Uske Maa Ki" , a BCCI member jumped up from his chair and shouted "Eureka, monkey mil gaya". Then, Javed realised what he had said and jumped up in joy.

Thus, the indian defense panel decided to use "Maa Ki" as an alibi. And the rest is history...Harbhajan was not charged with racism as swearing at one's mother or any other relative, in Australia was all in a day's work for their citizens.

QED.

Technorati Tags: harbhajan singh andrew symonds ricky ponting australian monkeys racism symonds monkey maanki maaki

Batch Renaming of files/photos in Windows XP

noreply@blogger.com (Rajaram S) — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 09:53:00 +0000

Though it was a pretty simple thing to do, I didn't know this until today. If you have a folder full of photos/files to be renamed in the same format, then Select All, right-click on the first file, Choose rename and then give the name you want e.g. Aphrodite trail.jpg. Press Enter. Then, automatically all the photos would be renamed in the same format e.g. Aphrodite trail(10).jpg and so on.