SRI'S Blog

Federer lost his No1 ranking in June 2010 . It took him a good two years and lot of hard work to climb back to the No 1 ranking after his Wimbledon 2012 win. The All England Lawn Tennis tournament 2012 had great hopes for Federer and his rival in the final Andy Murray. While a Federer win would create a 7 -17 -1 record ( Seven Wimbledon titles , 17 Grand Slam wins and the No1 ranking ) , a Murray win, it would end the wait of 76 years for the British to see a home winner.( For a change , the crowd was not with Federer who is well liked and loved at Wimbledon) .Murray carried this great hopes in to the final only to be denied and the British hopes now would move to 77 years ! The path to the final was somewhat made easy by the early shock exit of Nadal. . Federer had a turbulent third round against Frenchman Julien Benneteau. The Frenchman played unbelievable tennis , returning so well and finding winners at will and he was up Two sets to love against Federer before Federer dug deep an...

Personal touch is something that has  been disappearing over the past years in our daily buysof vegetables or grocery. The whole process has become very organized and mechanical to an extent. You get in to the shop, pick your basket and pick up what you think looks fresh and nice . Off you go to the multiple billing counters, you get billed , no free kothamalli , pay the bill  and out. No recommendations , no discussions . A very plain experience. Rare interactions with the shop people or the people at the billing counter. I recall the days where this activity used to be exciting. It used to be the vegetable market and you had multiple vendors and each of them specializing in two to three varieties of vegetables. And you could pick the vendor that has the most fresh arrivals. As you go around , the vendors knew you personally , would enquire about your well-being and make recommendations. To an extent , they knew what was being cooked at your home and what would you buy depe...

I never imagined that this will be a great headache and a growing one. With just about everything to do on the internet and if you have to complete your transaction through the net , it becomes imperative that you have a User ID and a password. Having a User ID is no brainer . You can have the same User ID for N number of sites provided no one has beat you in registering the User ID before you. Password ?!—this is becoming a  growing challenge. Each site has its own recommendation to give you a taste of the headache. Some sites are not stringent – you can do a “123” as password and they accept it happily. Some sites make the task of setting a password difficult and for good reasons.. to enhance security… here are some hints and requirements on the password setting for it be Strong. • Length. Make your passwords long with eight or more characters. • Complexity. Include letters, punctuation, symbols, and numbers. Use the entire keyboard, not just the letters and characters you ...

The fifth edition ended with the Kolkata Knight Riders ( KKR ) defeating the defending Champions Chennai Super Kings ( CSK ) in an intense final . If CSK had won , they would have performed the great escape act to retain the title . Such was their position till the play offs. Their performance did not look like that of Defending Champions till that point of time. On the celebrations in Kolkata , no comments !! The current season had nine teams – Kochi Tuskers banned reducing the teams from ten to nine.. Did anyone miss them ? Of course not , such was their performance last year which was their first year and which never progressed beyond that.. Their best players all got picked by the other franchisees. On the Controversy scale ( how can there may be a IPL season without this ) , this season , it did not scale up to matching the earlier seasons. No Lalit Modi , so things were quiet till we had five players suspended for spot fixing and talking too much on the state of affairs of how ...

I looked at my blog posts during the last twelve months and it was surprising that I did not cover the football in any of them . However , the last round of matches that went through last Sunday was so absorbing, that it forcing me to write on this topic. The fact, that the winner of the title was not decided until the last round of matches ( 20 teams , each play against one other once at home and away and so 38 matches are played over the August – May time frame ) and until the last minutes of the injury extra time of the last round match , added intensity to followers of two Football Clubs – Manchester City ( ManC ) and Manchester United ( ManU). Both teams were on equal points before the start of their 38th match and final match of the season. Both needed to win their last matches. ManC was playing at home , playing Queen Park Rangers who were fighting to avoid relegation threat and incidentally , the man at the helm of affairs of this team was the ex Manager of ManC and a former ...

I am fanatical and paranoid of my morning walks. I feel upset and dull if I miss my morning walk. The Walk gives me space for myself and also brings in fresh air and helps me to keep myself fit . Most needed to keep me energized and excited. Most times, I walk alone but I do enjoy the bi weekly beach walk with my colleagues and week end strolls with my wife as well. Walking to me is a great stress reliever and when I walk alone I find it the best . I get lot of ideas for various problems that I come across. Some of these ideas turn in to solutions and so I like the walks that I do on my own. . My walk alone last week was very funny and interesting and at the end of the walk I had no ideas except thinking about why it went that way and for what reasons. None of the above things in my first Para applied to this walk . Totally diverted by a companion who wanted to walk with me ! I was walking alone and wanted to do more than I would walk on a normal day. I would have done up to a kil...

This Epic movie that was released in 1964 in its first version , was digitalized and was re-released in March 2012 -- after 48 years, with great work done on the tape by using Technology to the hilt ..With DTS version and fantastic sound impact , the movie was screened couple of weeks ago and drew full houses. That must be some sort of a record for a movie being screened again after a long gap and for it to run on full houses !I could not get tickets the first two weekends and the third time was lucky. My good friend Subram who helped me with the tickets tells me specifically, that i should mention that i watched the movie in "Couple seats" !! I must admit I was very excited to go and watch this movie. One must admire the effort on part of the team that converted the original version to its current form. The conversion gave the movie great shape and visual appeal.. I had watched the old version in my younger days and enjoyed the songs of this film , a great deal mostly enjoyi...

April 2011 Vijay Mallya , Team Principal of Force India Formula One team, announced the launch of the Force India F1 Team Academy, sponsored by ExxonMobil .The academy, based in India, is an initiative aimed at identifying racing talent in the country, and probably identifying an Indian F1 driver. 　 Now you must be wondering why am I bringing this announcement that happened eleven months back to everyone's notice. Great reasons -- Read on 　 I was coming back from a domestic trip and getting a cab to get to my residence late in the evening , is not easy . Most of the regular travellers would agree with me on this . The regular pre paid private taxi service will have close to 30 passengers waiting to pay and get a bill. Then you go outside and will have to wait further another ten to fifteen minutes to get a cab allocated to you. All this will take time and one would want to reach home quickly rather than wait . The situation was no different last week. There was a big queue at the...

Having written about my first flight experience, couple of weeks ago and comments on to that from my Onida colleague Nari as to whether I cut and pasted from my diary --I thought I should do more rewinds just to test my memory out . ( I did maintain diaries but stopped doing it since passing out from high school). I thought I should pen down my job interview and how I got in to my first job.. I had completed my Chartered Accountancy in July 1987 and had a more than three months of my internship to go till I could go and get in to a job. When you clear CA in your first attempt , you have many horns on your head !! I thought the company where I was an Intern , would make a offer to me . The company did make an offer to me but at a plant location that people do not go, unless there is no other alternative available . With little or poor transportation and Communication facilities , I was advised not to take up the offer and I took the advice. A little bit of history as to why I choose the...

I was travelling last week and used one of the call taxi services to get to the airport.. Not always you get this kind of a driver -- who was very courteous , had tons of innocence on his questions and happy and contented . He called up well ahead of his scheduled time to be at my residence and indicated he knew how to get to my place and that he will be on time. That was reassuring since it was early morning and other transport options may not be available so easily. Drove steadily , stopped at signals although it was early morning and kept me engaged. As he just got in to the airport his two questions made me go back in time. How long have you been flying ? That was easy.. I said "close to 25 years " . The next question was " do you remember your first flight ? " I stuttered and said yes.. He asked " was it exciting ?" .. I said I flew with lots of tiredness and did remember the first flight.. Rewind .. I was in my last couple of months of my Industrial...

The week end that went past ( Feb 11/12 ) was one of those hectic ones but I did have a good time. Plenty of things to do but I managed to do all of them and enjoyed doing so thoroughly. As I wrote down my week end check list of things to do during the mid week , I was overwhelmed with the things that I wanted to accomplish over the week end. The list had family lunch/ Dinners , visit to a temple, celebrations etc etc. It needed lot of planning , energy and enthusiasm , stringent timelines to be met , support of family and others. Here is the list that I went through over the week end. Saturday Morning beach walk with colleagues for one hour ( give another 45 minutes to get to the beach , yank , limber around ) Banking work post Breakfast - Enroute drop / pick up daughter from her class Noon - Lunch with In laws ( Acid Test ) at home so no travel time or ordering and waiting. All ready at home done by Mom and Wife ( how nice ) Post Lunch -- Fuel the car and do shopping for next week t...

The time it took for the match to complete was aptly summed by Nadal's address to the crowd post the match -- He addressed them with " Good Morning Everyone ". The final that lasted five hours and fifty three minutes ( a five setter ) was a thriller with demonstration of strength of physical stamina of both the Gladiators (Djokovic and Nadal ), missed chances ( more to Djokovic than Nadal in terms of break points converted ) , support of support staff of both players who sat through this period of time and the crowd. It was early morning on Monday when Djokovic came out as winner defending his title. Both the men gave nothing away and when it looked like one player was taking the match away , the other one will bounce back with greater energy . Both men traded ferocious strokes trying to out power the other. Rallies lasted longer but none of them ever gave up chasing the ball in their side of the court. Their physical strain was visible only at the presentation cer...

The India Australia Test Series The Indian team has got itself in to a position, that everyone can have a "Say" on them. No one expected the team to go out to Australia , win the series and come back. What was not expected was the way in which the team has performed. The first test at Melbourne one thought was close. It was not so, as the tests in Sydney and Perth revealed. Aussie won at Melbourne and then set the stage for Sydney and Perth to follow. We were thrashed in Sydney and humiliated at Perth and with the Captain cooling his time at the side lines for the fourth test at Adelaide , one can expect a 4- 0 whitewash and with that we would have maintained our overseas record of loosing all test matches that we play in the recent past , intact. It was disappointing that the team is not putting up a fight of any sort ( read batsmen ) This was coming . The trio that we relied on so heavily in the last decade were the ones who let us down. As we look at the way they were dism...

It was a great last week to sign off 2011. It could not have been better . The whole week went as per plan and was a delight and some sort of sadness as the week went off quickly . The holiday plan was to get to Rajasthan but due to late planning , it did not work both in terms of the time available to make the trip and the costs . Rajasthan has to wait …Hopefully , costs come down !! The next best alternative pointed us out to Lonavala -- a tiny hill station closer to Pune and motorable from Mumbai. Why Lonavala ? I promised my wife seventeen years ago that we will go for a holiday to Lonavala as would anyone who works in Mumbai would do . Lonavala is a quick getaway from Mumbai and people do week end trips to relax and recharge batteries and the place is cool and life is easy paced unlike Mumbai. Lonvala gets busy as the monsoon sets in -- it creates many streams and waterfalls . It is fact that I did not honour the promise made till now . So , I told my wife , this time for sure we ...

Men ( Young and old alike ) love the Kudi and Kadi on a daily basis.. Does not matter what time of the day it is for the Kudi… I see them having Kudi and Kadi most times at the numerous stalls that are on the road side near to their work place .These stalls come up there where there are people !! Sometimes, people have a smoke along with the Kudi and Kadi. Kudi and Kadi are a great refresher to many to recharge their batteries and they get back to work or any other business with great energy.World affairs are discussed , marriages are confirmed , relationships are strengthened/improved and brainstorming on various difficult topics happens as people have the Kudi and Kadi. The crowd at the stalls pan across economic divides for the pricing is attractive ( of late , the inflation seems to have hit them as well and prices have been on the upward trend but it is difficult to manage without Kudi at any cost ) and this seems to a great thirst reliever to all mankind. Women are a hesitant lo...

Recent Two Test series made a mark and impact on the future of Test cricket . While it is clear, that the shorter version of the game has more interest , is result oriented and pulls the crowds in to the stadium with added entertainment and hype, the longer version of the game has drawn lesser crowds and lesser following . But this may change not dramatically as one would think --- If Test Matches are played the way it was played in the recent South Africa - Australia Series and to a lesser extent in the final test between India and West Indies --- there are bright chances for the Test matches to survive and thrive to a extent the onslaught from the One day and the T20 version's of the game What made the two test series interesting ? The South Africa - Australia Test matches was a outstanding one .It had great intensity , players focus on the game and plenty of following. The bowlers of both teams did better than the batters. The first test was done and dusted in two and half days....

I get in to this nice laidback mood every year when I go to the place that I lived for over 36 years. We moved in to this lovely independent house in 1971 and till we moved out completely in Jan 2002 - this was my permanent home. I did move out to Mumbai for a period of time but this was the place that I always liked. I go there every year ( fierce banking need forces the yearly trip ) and after the banking work is complete, I, just go around the colony driving through the streets , looking at the houses and recollecting the residents …and all of my childhood The place has changed a lot but still remains very distinct . I have roamed on all the streets , nooks and corners , shortcuts and we all knew each other in the colony so well. When we moved in 1971 , there were hardly any dwelling. If I went to the Terrace of my house , I could see Villiwakkam the next Railway station about 6 KMs away ( I am not kidding ). There was so much empty space of land and then development took place. Tod...

The most expected and exciting sporting event for India , post the Commonwealth games and the Cricket World Cup of course, went off so well at the Budh International Circuit, India over the last week end. No dogged controversies ( there was one ), snakes in rooms , used bed sheets , leaking and stinky toilets ,over bridges falling down etc Etc. The media must have been disappointed on this count. The big difference was that this event was driven by Private sector and flawlessly executed . It was clear as to what went wrong with the Common wealth games. Politicians trying to arrange a event to suit their personal needs and overall as a fund raising event, could never make it a success. It showed up at various stages as the infrastructure crumbled due to deficiency of the base structures and we were glad and relieved when the Commonwealth games began and ended. So , India is on the Formula one circuit and with the successful conduct of the inaugural event , it is going to stay that way f...

I was waiting for the past two weeks before I wrote this post with immense satisfaction and the result of the third ODE was just wonderful to savour and so this happy post ! As Dhoni smashed Tim Bresnan over for a four that signalled the India's third successive win in the current ODI series, the crowd at Mohali launched in to Bhangra and with that the series was in the bags of the Indian team. Too much was spoken about England's win in the English Summer, couple of months ago and I think this sport is a great leveller and England are back to the ground. Virat Kohli said before the start of the series that we ( India ) did very well in England in the ODI but were done in by the Weather , Duckworth Lewis method and dame luck ! How true .. The weather gods did not intervene in Hyderabad , Delhi and Mohali and so no Duckworth Lewis and the luck factor simply went away from the English. Of course , the weather ( hot ) did influence the English performance …. Dhoni went through a le...

Episode 1 Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the Spirit of Cricket Award .Dhoni was chosen for the ICC Spirit of Cricket Award for his fine gesture of recalling Ian Bell after the England batsman was run out under controversial circumstances during the second Test at Trent Bridge in July.On what was the last ball before tea on the third day, Bell hit the ball towards the boundary. He mistakenly thought it had gone for four, left his crease and headed towards the pavilion assuming the session was over and the ball dead. The ball, which had not reached the rope and therefore was still in play, was returned to the middle, the bails removed and Bell was correctly given run out.Upon reflection during the tea interval and following a request from the England team, Dhoni withdrew the appeal and recalled Bell thus turning boos into cheers from the appreciative Nottingham crowd. Commenting on Dhoni's gesture, ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said, "While the initial appeal and um...