SRI'S Blog

One holiday company screamed out a banner that laid down 14 instances during the year 2015 , where you could use the holidays with weekends to get away and wanted you to plan in advance . Very impressive – What more can you want – You do not need to take vacations but can still do your holidays. But beware – Looking at my recent experience over the long weekends , I would not plan any holidays during the long week end opportunities. Instead , would take a holiday and go for vacations.  Here are my reasons  : Having done four  around trips using NH 45 and NH 205 during the last six weeks’ time frame , I can tell that I no longer enjoy the drive – Just one reason – traffic --  nearly bumper to bumper  and the traffic eases off only past Tindivanam or Vellore ( that is like 100 Kms away from Chennai ) – In the past these drives  were nice-- I just loved driving on the NH 45—with road getting laid till Dindigul , it was a pleasure to ride these roads....

The score line reflected the performance of the Indian team. Typically, during the past , for  a series played  away from home , it has been familiar 4-0 blanking out for the Indian team. However , this time, it looked much better although it was still a 2-0 in favour of the Aussies.  The Indian team threatened  in the first test at Adelaide , faltered at Brisbane but were at par at Melbourne and Sydney that led to the  two draws. I agree it could have gone in favour of the Aussies but India did hold on and that was a good result . Some thoughts on the series : MSDhoni : While I  continue to say that the timing of his retirement was brilliant , some figures will tell us how the man played the game and  how he viewed results from his perspective and did not chase records. He played 90 tests , scored 4876 runs and had 294 victims as a  keeper.  Now any cricketer  with this scoreline under his belt, , to me will go for Glor...

The last day of 2014 , my wife had to undergo a  procedure .. It was kind of a in and out   and the  Doctor who would do the procedure , runs a full-fledged maternity hospital.  There was some amount of prep before the procedure , so we had a room to ourselves in advance of the procedure . Nice little hospital – not swanky but neat and very efficient. The rooms were all close to each other and so  basically one will hear out anything that is discussed in the corridor unless it is done in hushed tone.   As we were in  the room allotted us , I could hear the voices in the corridor. The man was telling the Doctor that he had seen an auspicious day and the Doctor would need to  do the C Section surgery to get the baby out  only on that day and the date he choose was a week away.  The baby was ahead by  eight weeks. The Doctor explained that she respected his sentiment but firmly said that they were going to take the baby...

A Boxing Day Test match is always a big deal … So with holidays , it was the best time to just follow the test match  on Television between Australia and India just like any other Indian Cricket fan.  The match was intense and India matched the Aussies in some sessions and played poorly  in others. Overall Aussies could have pressed for a win on the final day. They did not which surprised many including me . It was not the typical” Go get them “ attitude  that you expect from the Aussies. A delayed declaration meant India could save the test.  But India is known to give twists and they did till MSD and Ashwin played out towards a draw . Aussies did an another  shocker surprise . Like a game of Chess they offered a draw with four overs to go and with every chance for them to WIN.  If one thought that this was a big discussion item, the biggest surprise was the one that came through the BCCI news . MSD was retiring from International test cricket wit...