July 20th weekly updates
Quotable Quotes of the week
This menace called naxalism is spreading due to large scale corruption in our society -- Nitish kumar Bihar Chief Minister
An 18 year old girl and a 21 year old boy who haven't achieved anything in life are not meant to get married. They also have to understand the world to realise what producing babies mean - Ghulam Nabi Azad Union Health Minister
A female too , can be a Dalai Lama. It is for Tibetan people to decide - The Dalai Lama
If talks are on pause , it benefits only the terrorists -- Yusuf Gilani -- Pakistan PM on Indo - Pak dialogue
THE IPL --- a insider perspective
I had the good fortune to listen to J.Krishnan ( JK ) who was the CEO of Deccan Chargers team for 2008 and advisor for 2009-- I say good fortune because the talk by him really gave a inside in to the functioning of the IPL and some close news as he was at the dugout as well --- The IPL cannot be just treated as a sports event alone , it is becoming a sports business and this is one of the reasons you have people like JK work as m CEO ( JK is a IIT/IIM product and know his cricket as well )
JK lined out three golden principles that guided the tournament and its success
1. Outcome of each match should be uncertain ( is this not a normal rule for each game that is played -- wait for rule 3 to get the relevance )
2. Participation of world players
3. Restriction on the team's ability to buy players up to a cap of US $ 5 mils -- this process ensured that teams were balanced and not one team having all the good ones and others just the opposite -- This rule played its part for implementing rule 1- Of course there were exceptions like Sachin had to play for Mumbai and Sehwag only for Delhi.
JK talked about Deccan chargers being the strongest team on paper and yet it finished at the bottom in 2008-- This he said resulted in two changes , asking VVS Laxman to step down from captaincy of the team ( Gilchrist took over ) and bringing in Darren Lehman in place of Robin Singh as coach - he was diplomatic in saying that the Captain and coach did not play well and understand their roles as well in 2008 leading to the change - He talks very highly of Adam Gilchrist as a captain , leader and a fine human being -- he talked about the cultural issues that the team faced in terms of communicating -- The Aussie understood a Yes from a player as agreement to execute plan whereas the player understood the plan but did not agree to execute it-
JK talked about how the seniors were able to handle the twenty twenty and as a example shared Adam Gilchrist's anecdote on a Don Bradman interview -- here is the interesting discussion with Don by a reporter that was repeated by Gilly :
Apparently, this discussion happened with Don in 1994 when Brian Lara broke a 36 year old record of Gary Sobers and made 375 beating the 365 held by Sobers for the highest score in tests- A reporter went to Don and asked him to comment -- Don just responded " ok " -- the reporter was surprised and asked Don " what do you mean by ok ? Lara has broken a record that stood for a,long time-- Don's response was again a "ok " -- the reporter was not impressed and explained the record to Don again-
Don responded " It was fifth day of a drawn match with the series decided and no one had interest in that game and the track was placid and so no wonder that Lara broke the record" -- The reporter was irritated at this and asked Don " how much would have you made on the same track ? - Don's response " 260 or 270 "
Reporter " Now , you would have made only that many but Lara had 375 and you are not accepting it ? -- Don quietly " i am 86 years old'
Now Don said at that age he could have made that many runs -- interesting comment from the great man !!
JK answered question on how the cheer girls are chosen as well and the intent of providing a wholesome entertainment and not just cricket alone !! JK had lot of good words for Lalit Modi the Chairman of the IPL-- he talks about him as a gutsy decision maker and all his decisions may not be a consensus one but they work -- He gave the example of Modi's decision to move to South Africa for the second edition and how it clicked -- JK tells us that Deccan Chargers is yet to break even after the second edition but they are on their way and this is the area where professionals would help...
The Week end Rotary Fellowship with the theme of "back to School"
I and my wife chickened out on this one -- I went dressed normally but was in for a pleasant surprise and shock -- Surprise because most of the elderly Rotarians took it very seriously and shocked to see how one's getup could change if you start wearing clothes that you do not wear regularly -- Most of the Rotarians came in shorts , ties and shoes -- they looked gorgeous in their school uniforms -- the only issue was the size of the tummy and the receding hairlines that gave them away -- Anns ( ladies ) were more serious -- some of them ( cannot say their ages ) came in half saris and in hair that were combed to two plaits !! Some in churidhars that were worn in leading schools of Chennai -- overall the atmosphere was so schoolish -- Joining in was a 83 year old school boy as well -- that was the spirit of the theme !!
We had one of our ex Rotarians who has now settled in Mysore post retirement, come all the way to Chennai to attend this first fellowship of the golden year of the club-- he is good musician as well and came with his own lyrics and a composition of our Club and its activities -- Sometimes , the power of friendship and fellowship that Rotary does is amazing and this person coming all the way from Mysore to attend was simply outstanding --
One event that we kicked off was to have the Rotarians celebrate their Wedding Anniversary with a orphanage during this year and may be just carry with it -- This way we would be able to do at least 50 small projects during the year-- All of us welcomed this initiative .
I am the lead for this event and my job is to coordinate the wedding anniversary of every Rotarian in the club and have them tagged on to a orphanage that has been already identified -this Sunday I spent time at the Netaji Mercy home velachery with one of the Rotarians and his family ( they had their wedding anniversary this week and decided to spend the Sunday sponsoring the entire day food for the children of the orphanage )- How much satisfied you are to spend time with children who are looking up for support and in addition to the time spent , if you can let them have a decent meal , it is just great !!
This menace called naxalism is spreading due to large scale corruption in our society -- Nitish kumar Bihar Chief Minister
An 18 year old girl and a 21 year old boy who haven't achieved anything in life are not meant to get married. They also have to understand the world to realise what producing babies mean - Ghulam Nabi Azad Union Health Minister
A female too , can be a Dalai Lama. It is for Tibetan people to decide - The Dalai Lama
If talks are on pause , it benefits only the terrorists -- Yusuf Gilani -- Pakistan PM on Indo - Pak dialogue
THE IPL --- a insider perspective
I had the good fortune to listen to J.Krishnan ( JK ) who was the CEO of Deccan Chargers team for 2008 and advisor for 2009-- I say good fortune because the talk by him really gave a inside in to the functioning of the IPL and some close news as he was at the dugout as well --- The IPL cannot be just treated as a sports event alone , it is becoming a sports business and this is one of the reasons you have people like JK work as m CEO ( JK is a IIT/IIM product and know his cricket as well )
JK lined out three golden principles that guided the tournament and its success
1. Outcome of each match should be uncertain ( is this not a normal rule for each game that is played -- wait for rule 3 to get the relevance )
2. Participation of world players
3. Restriction on the team's ability to buy players up to a cap of US $ 5 mils -- this process ensured that teams were balanced and not one team having all the good ones and others just the opposite -- This rule played its part for implementing rule 1- Of course there were exceptions like Sachin had to play for Mumbai and Sehwag only for Delhi.
JK talked about Deccan chargers being the strongest team on paper and yet it finished at the bottom in 2008-- This he said resulted in two changes , asking VVS Laxman to step down from captaincy of the team ( Gilchrist took over ) and bringing in Darren Lehman in place of Robin Singh as coach - he was diplomatic in saying that the Captain and coach did not play well and understand their roles as well in 2008 leading to the change - He talks very highly of Adam Gilchrist as a captain , leader and a fine human being -- he talked about the cultural issues that the team faced in terms of communicating -- The Aussie understood a Yes from a player as agreement to execute plan whereas the player understood the plan but did not agree to execute it-
JK talked about how the seniors were able to handle the twenty twenty and as a example shared Adam Gilchrist's anecdote on a Don Bradman interview -- here is the interesting discussion with Don by a reporter that was repeated by Gilly :
Apparently, this discussion happened with Don in 1994 when Brian Lara broke a 36 year old record of Gary Sobers and made 375 beating the 365 held by Sobers for the highest score in tests- A reporter went to Don and asked him to comment -- Don just responded " ok " -- the reporter was surprised and asked Don " what do you mean by ok ? Lara has broken a record that stood for a,long time-- Don's response was again a "ok " -- the reporter was not impressed and explained the record to Don again-
Don responded " It was fifth day of a drawn match with the series decided and no one had interest in that game and the track was placid and so no wonder that Lara broke the record" -- The reporter was irritated at this and asked Don " how much would have you made on the same track ? - Don's response " 260 or 270 "
Reporter " Now , you would have made only that many but Lara had 375 and you are not accepting it ? -- Don quietly " i am 86 years old'
Now Don said at that age he could have made that many runs -- interesting comment from the great man !!
JK answered question on how the cheer girls are chosen as well and the intent of providing a wholesome entertainment and not just cricket alone !! JK had lot of good words for Lalit Modi the Chairman of the IPL-- he talks about him as a gutsy decision maker and all his decisions may not be a consensus one but they work -- He gave the example of Modi's decision to move to South Africa for the second edition and how it clicked -- JK tells us that Deccan Chargers is yet to break even after the second edition but they are on their way and this is the area where professionals would help...
The Week end Rotary Fellowship with the theme of "back to School"
I and my wife chickened out on this one -- I went dressed normally but was in for a pleasant surprise and shock -- Surprise because most of the elderly Rotarians took it very seriously and shocked to see how one's getup could change if you start wearing clothes that you do not wear regularly -- Most of the Rotarians came in shorts , ties and shoes -- they looked gorgeous in their school uniforms -- the only issue was the size of the tummy and the receding hairlines that gave them away -- Anns ( ladies ) were more serious -- some of them ( cannot say their ages ) came in half saris and in hair that were combed to two plaits !! Some in churidhars that were worn in leading schools of Chennai -- overall the atmosphere was so schoolish -- Joining in was a 83 year old school boy as well -- that was the spirit of the theme !!
We had one of our ex Rotarians who has now settled in Mysore post retirement, come all the way to Chennai to attend this first fellowship of the golden year of the club-- he is good musician as well and came with his own lyrics and a composition of our Club and its activities -- Sometimes , the power of friendship and fellowship that Rotary does is amazing and this person coming all the way from Mysore to attend was simply outstanding --
One event that we kicked off was to have the Rotarians celebrate their Wedding Anniversary with a orphanage during this year and may be just carry with it -- This way we would be able to do at least 50 small projects during the year-- All of us welcomed this initiative .
I am the lead for this event and my job is to coordinate the wedding anniversary of every Rotarian in the club and have them tagged on to a orphanage that has been already identified -this Sunday I spent time at the Netaji Mercy home velachery with one of the Rotarians and his family ( they had their wedding anniversary this week and decided to spend the Sunday sponsoring the entire day food for the children of the orphanage )- How much satisfied you are to spend time with children who are looking up for support and in addition to the time spent , if you can let them have a decent meal , it is just great !!
Comments