Week end was hectic but what the heck -- it was good to be hectic
Quotable Quotes of the week
I don't write for money or glamour. I just need a paper and pen. Lord Krishna takes care of the res -- Chetan Bhagat Author
Upinder has made us proud. I am thankful to God for having given us such gifted children -- PM ManMohan Singh after his daughter won the Infosys prize 2009
My secret of happiness is keeping my contact to the minimum -- Cyrus Broacha Television Anchor
This is not acceptable . And I will not tolerate -- Barack Obama on the recently precluded Al Qaeda attack in his country
I am boring and single. What to do -- Deepika Padukone after her break up with Ranbir Kapoor
Cricket
It would be unfair if I as a Cricket fan do not write about two test series happening one in South Africa ( SA versus England ) and the other in Australia ( AusVs Pak ) -
First let me come to the South Africa one
England seems to have found a specialist batsman batting at position 11 to save itself from defeats . Graham Onions their specialist no 11 batsman saved them from defeats not once but twice against SA.
England were starring at the barrel in the first test , with the SA bowlers steam rolling their middle order and getting to the tail but Onions held firm to ensure draw. The tables were reversed in the second test and England comfortably thrashed SA to go up One - Nil in the four test series. In the third test SA came back strongly and England on Day Five of the test match were doing fine till the last hour of the match . The new ball did the trick for SA and Eng were looking at its last pair to play out close to three overs. Onions played out the last over with ease of a specialist batsman and Eng go with their tails up in to the last test knowing that they cannot loose the series and in fact can fancy themselves to win the series . Strauss has led admirably and Eng derserves to be where they are today. I was disappointed with SA bowling at Onions. They were giving him short stuff and not making him come forward. Onions evaded the short ones , defended stoutly and lead Eng to the drawn game.
Side snippet was on Day one fo the Third Test ---when a couple entered in to Wedlock at the Stadium and it was a surprise to people in bridal dresses at the stands and this went on as SA were batting on day one . The wedding went on in the stands. Not sure if anything like this has happended . When Interviewed , the bridegroom was thrilled and happy about the whole thing and he did this out of his interest for cricket but the bride was honest and said she will learn the game post the wedding !! ( not sure if this was a tongue in cheek type remark )
The Pak debacle-
Pak was outplayed in the first test but their bowlers brought them back in the second test with some super swing , seam and pace bowling on Day one. Pakistan took a handsome lead and at the End of Day three when Aus were in the lead by 80 runs and with two wickets to go , everyone scented Pakistan Victory .. Except the Pakistanis themselves. Shoddy catching , some crazy fielding positions being set up ( the Captain had set the field as if Aussies were 500 for three !! ) and some resolute batting in the pre lunch session meant that Pak had a tricky score to chase . And as I followed this , my guts told me that Pakistan was going to loose and that was what happended. Pakistan lost by 36 runs chasing 180 odd and that was it !! Unbelivable win by Aussies
Side Snippet - On day two we had ten spectators who came to the stand dressed as Richie Benaud look alikes - As the Channel nine interviewed them , one of them as was asked to do a la Richie Benaud and I must admit he did a very good job of imitating Richie . Benaud for his part has signed up a new three year deal that when it finishes he will be close to 83 years. Amaxing for a person to keep contact with the game that he played with great skill and was renounced for his captaincy of the Aussie team.His voice is still magical and his commentary as exciting as it can be and his anlaysis of the match position and the game extraordinary !!
The Week end
It was hectic but it was good to be that way
Sat. Musical Evening
Saturday evening ( 9th ) we had our Rotary Fund Raising program titled " Singing Stars " - Rotary South in assoiciation with Inner wheel organised for this event . While intet of Inner Wheel was to use the funds to help establish a geriatric rehab block in the VHS hospital for destitute elders, our club had the mandate to expand the facilities at our Diagonistic Center.
The musical event had stars such as Sharath Kumar , Radhika Sarath Kumar Shakthi Vasu,Shrilekha Parthsaraty , Krish , Benny Dayal ( he created so much energy in to the show with just one rendering ) , Prassana , Venkat Prabhu , Premgi , Madhmitha , Pop Shalini. MC was Vijay Adhiraj -- It was a great organisational effort by the two NGO's to get funding for their respective projects . I did little for this program except enjoying the event with family. Hats off to all the Rotarians and Inner Wheel members who made the event a grand success.
Hindsight -- I could have done well in packaging tickets sales but ran short of ideas. Missed opportunity to be part of this event !!
Polio Plus
Sunday morning spent couple of hours early morning supporting one of the health booths assigned to our club- This is the thrust from Rotary to " End Polio " in India . Hopefully we succedd in this massive country wide effort.
Humour Club
Rushed from the Rotary Polio event to attend this . I had been missing the Humour club monthly event for the last quarter and I realise how much of a " recovery tool' it has been to get your energy back. Glad that I was able to make it this time and it was fantastic to listent to Mohan Ram ( Cine and small screen veteran actor ) . Mohan came up with a presentation that could be used for a corporate program. He went to describe Humour in various forms , the way it is performed ( verbal , slap stick , non verbal ) , impact , importance of communication , active listening , passive listening , body language . What made the presentation interesting was that he backed all his line items with humour clips from various movies (Tamil and English ) -- it was not one of the free flowing sessions but very structured and so the reason for my comment on this being similar to a Corporate presentation..
Well all the energy cells were charged back after the program which for this month was a morning session from 10 AM to 12 :30 PM.Hope 2010 many of you will turn in to this monthly meet and relish.
I don't write for money or glamour. I just need a paper and pen. Lord Krishna takes care of the res -- Chetan Bhagat Author
Upinder has made us proud. I am thankful to God for having given us such gifted children -- PM ManMohan Singh after his daughter won the Infosys prize 2009
My secret of happiness is keeping my contact to the minimum -- Cyrus Broacha Television Anchor
This is not acceptable . And I will not tolerate -- Barack Obama on the recently precluded Al Qaeda attack in his country
I am boring and single. What to do -- Deepika Padukone after her break up with Ranbir Kapoor
Cricket
It would be unfair if I as a Cricket fan do not write about two test series happening one in South Africa ( SA versus England ) and the other in Australia ( AusVs Pak ) -
First let me come to the South Africa one
England seems to have found a specialist batsman batting at position 11 to save itself from defeats . Graham Onions their specialist no 11 batsman saved them from defeats not once but twice against SA.
England were starring at the barrel in the first test , with the SA bowlers steam rolling their middle order and getting to the tail but Onions held firm to ensure draw. The tables were reversed in the second test and England comfortably thrashed SA to go up One - Nil in the four test series. In the third test SA came back strongly and England on Day Five of the test match were doing fine till the last hour of the match . The new ball did the trick for SA and Eng were looking at its last pair to play out close to three overs. Onions played out the last over with ease of a specialist batsman and Eng go with their tails up in to the last test knowing that they cannot loose the series and in fact can fancy themselves to win the series . Strauss has led admirably and Eng derserves to be where they are today. I was disappointed with SA bowling at Onions. They were giving him short stuff and not making him come forward. Onions evaded the short ones , defended stoutly and lead Eng to the drawn game.
Side snippet was on Day one fo the Third Test ---when a couple entered in to Wedlock at the Stadium and it was a surprise to people in bridal dresses at the stands and this went on as SA were batting on day one . The wedding went on in the stands. Not sure if anything like this has happended . When Interviewed , the bridegroom was thrilled and happy about the whole thing and he did this out of his interest for cricket but the bride was honest and said she will learn the game post the wedding !! ( not sure if this was a tongue in cheek type remark )
The Pak debacle-
Pak was outplayed in the first test but their bowlers brought them back in the second test with some super swing , seam and pace bowling on Day one. Pakistan took a handsome lead and at the End of Day three when Aus were in the lead by 80 runs and with two wickets to go , everyone scented Pakistan Victory .. Except the Pakistanis themselves. Shoddy catching , some crazy fielding positions being set up ( the Captain had set the field as if Aussies were 500 for three !! ) and some resolute batting in the pre lunch session meant that Pak had a tricky score to chase . And as I followed this , my guts told me that Pakistan was going to loose and that was what happended. Pakistan lost by 36 runs chasing 180 odd and that was it !! Unbelivable win by Aussies
Side Snippet - On day two we had ten spectators who came to the stand dressed as Richie Benaud look alikes - As the Channel nine interviewed them , one of them as was asked to do a la Richie Benaud and I must admit he did a very good job of imitating Richie . Benaud for his part has signed up a new three year deal that when it finishes he will be close to 83 years. Amaxing for a person to keep contact with the game that he played with great skill and was renounced for his captaincy of the Aussie team.His voice is still magical and his commentary as exciting as it can be and his anlaysis of the match position and the game extraordinary !!
The Week end
It was hectic but it was good to be that way
Sat. Musical Evening
Saturday evening ( 9th ) we had our Rotary Fund Raising program titled " Singing Stars " - Rotary South in assoiciation with Inner wheel organised for this event . While intet of Inner Wheel was to use the funds to help establish a geriatric rehab block in the VHS hospital for destitute elders, our club had the mandate to expand the facilities at our Diagonistic Center.
The musical event had stars such as Sharath Kumar , Radhika Sarath Kumar Shakthi Vasu,Shrilekha Parthsaraty , Krish , Benny Dayal ( he created so much energy in to the show with just one rendering ) , Prassana , Venkat Prabhu , Premgi , Madhmitha , Pop Shalini. MC was Vijay Adhiraj -- It was a great organisational effort by the two NGO's to get funding for their respective projects . I did little for this program except enjoying the event with family. Hats off to all the Rotarians and Inner Wheel members who made the event a grand success.
Hindsight -- I could have done well in packaging tickets sales but ran short of ideas. Missed opportunity to be part of this event !!
Polio Plus
Sunday morning spent couple of hours early morning supporting one of the health booths assigned to our club- This is the thrust from Rotary to " End Polio " in India . Hopefully we succedd in this massive country wide effort.
Humour Club
Rushed from the Rotary Polio event to attend this . I had been missing the Humour club monthly event for the last quarter and I realise how much of a " recovery tool' it has been to get your energy back. Glad that I was able to make it this time and it was fantastic to listent to Mohan Ram ( Cine and small screen veteran actor ) . Mohan came up with a presentation that could be used for a corporate program. He went to describe Humour in various forms , the way it is performed ( verbal , slap stick , non verbal ) , impact , importance of communication , active listening , passive listening , body language . What made the presentation interesting was that he backed all his line items with humour clips from various movies (Tamil and English ) -- it was not one of the free flowing sessions but very structured and so the reason for my comment on this being similar to a Corporate presentation..
Well all the energy cells were charged back after the program which for this month was a morning session from 10 AM to 12 :30 PM.Hope 2010 many of you will turn in to this monthly meet and relish.
Comments
You are absolutely right in describing England's dogged batting by Onions. Historically, teh English cricket teams have been known for gifting matches away. They seem to have become very resolute and have a never say die attitude these days. Credit to Andy Flower and Strauss. While the Eng SA match was going on, we had the one day match between India and Bangladesh and I was more interested in matching the last 20 overs of the test match. That seems to suggest that test matches can still exist, if tehy offer equal opportunities for batters and bowlers.
On the Pak-Au series, i think the Pakistanis were a little surprised they were going to win, and since they had not played test matches for some time, they were unsure of how to approach the target. A over cautious or a slam bang approach would not work in such circumstances. There is a wonderful piece written by Ian Chappel on hte Pak predicament at www.cricinfo.com
I am interested to join this humous club. I shall talk to you about it.
Regards
Venky