5 points that could win Team-India the 2015 cricket world cup!

Hi there,

With ICC cricket world cup 2015 around the corner, just thought of writing some pieces that formed in my mind.

I’m sure I’m not the only Indian who laughed at the Team-India promo for world cup with caption “won’t give it back”.  – Polite answer – as if someone is going to ask you to give the cup back. We ourselves are going to keep it there and come back without turning back.  Yes, Very optimistic.

So, as most of us saw the recent ODI’s that India played in Australia , it is evident that they are not quite in the boom-boom form which will guarantee them a place in the world cup quarter-finals. I thought they can work on a few areas which will help them, atleast outside the game.

    1. Men with beards:

It is very evident from history that men with long beards have all been very popular and wonderful at their work. Be it poet Vaali or fictional character Santa Claus, or Ex-prime minister Mr. Manmohan Singh. Cricket is not different these days. We have Hashim Amla in South Africa, Moeen Ali in England etc., So, we need to be having a similar guy in the Indian team – preferably an opener.

So, can some please tell Mr.Shikhar Dhawan to stop growing mustache, and start growing Beards ? It can probably help his footwork, if not technically, atleast  tactically! - dhaadi vecha dhawan, ada!

     2. Tattoo:

Well, Team India seem to have adopted this point, but only in the batting department (V.Kohli, M.Vijay etc.,). So, now when we see a Brendon McCullum, Kevin Peterson, we can be satisfied that we have a few in the team to match with. (But don’t ask me why Murali vijay – with a tattoo – in form of his life – is not in WC squad. Hell, I don’t know).

However, it is the bowling department that needs this. Look at Dale Steyn, Mitchell Johnson …forget about their bowling, they just look terror.  And look at our bowlers – Mr. B.Kumar – looks like he didn’t eat food for 3 weeks. (paeru vecheengle, Soru vecheengala’da ?) and Mr. Ishant sharma – when he runs up to bowl – it looks like if someone turns on a portable fan, he will fly back to India. They need to get some tattoo work done, (and probably Vadivelu style muscle like in movie Kadhalan ;-))
- this might work - If not technically, atleast Tattoo'ically!

      3. Spiked hair style:

Recently watched one bingo mad angle advertisement, where the guy puts some grains on his head and when the birds eat them, automatically a spike hair style is formed.

Reason I’m saying this – Most of the spiked hair style cricketers– like Steve Smith, Joe root are excellent fielders. We only have, again Mr. Virat Kohli, sometimes Mr. Raina.. not enough  - order one lorry of hair gels , we need 10 good fielders.  Give the first one to Mr. Ashwin (if he plays) for slip fielding.

People like Stuart Broad, Sunil Narine also sport spike-hairs and are great bowlers. So, maybe, Mr. Umesh Yadav & spring-hairstyled Mr. Jadeja can apply some of those gels too. They might get good swing or spin. Again - if not technically, atleast spike-hairly!

       4. Dancers:

Look at the west Indies team – whenever a wicket falls, or a six is hit, they all dance happily with simple good moves.  While their only problem is with their board and payment etc., - the players are highly talented. Like – Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo (who even danced in a Tamil movie), Pollard etc.,

The last dancer in our team was Mr. Shreesanth who , by-the-way, is still not 100% accused in spot –fixing. He will be raring to drop the towel and make dance moves on cricket pitches. Mr. Murali Vijay did some Caribbean style cameo dance appearances during some CSK matches, but then don’t again ask me why he is not in the squad – I don’t know yaaaa….

        5. Dhoni's signature-club-soda-master-mind-lucky-charm:

Like this Vaastu, Fengshui, Dhoni has his own brand – “lucky charm”

To be successful, you have to be different –That’s the excuse we have for bowling Mr.Joginder Sharma during that T20 finals last over. Whatever.

Sreeshanth – another lucky charm – was in the squad for 2011 WC, played first and last match , bowled 13 overs, gave 130 odd runs, no wickets. India won the cup!

But in this squad, I don’t see any one like that –may be is it Binny ? Or Ashwin ? well ,lets see.

I'm not a cricketer - so I cannot pin-point too much technical changes for the players, I can only write the above as a laymen cricket fan. But, in all, going by the above, its not going to cost a lot to get some aspects in our favor. 

Going by the current form of Team India, I honestly don’t expect them to win more than 2 matches in the tournament.

The below cartoon sums up the AS-IS status of 'wont give it back'.

Recently Misbah-ul-Haq was quoted saying – this time Pakistan will surely beat India.

A fan’s reply was – This is the weakest, out-of-form, out-of-sorts Indian team, in uncomfortable conditions that you will ever get to face. If you can’t beat India this time also, then you are really a horrible & waste team. - Pressure is off.

Fine then, lets see what this world cup has got to offer.  

I will be cheering for South Africa – very good team, talented , well settled team, but very very unlucky….. so far.!

See you later,

bye for now.

update on 28th March

Well, the world-cup 2015 is not over yet. But as India is not in it anymore, just thought of updating this blog. I must say that my anti-Jinx almost worked out !!  Just that i should have extended it to Kohli also.

The only problem was one Mr. Jadeja, who allegedly followed my blog and changed his hairstyle for the semi-finals and India lost. :-(

If someone had told in the beginning of the tournament that India would finish 3rd (SA lost to India, so being semifinalist, we will be No.3), any of us would have taken it blindly.

I don't think any Indian fan will complain of this performance, having won 7 games continuously, taking 70 wickets, setting a new benchmark. And those 70 wickets include 20 of Pakistan and South Africa - Wow!

As most of friends said,
If they win, we are happy that India Won.
If they lose, we don't care, as they are just a BCCI team and not even our national team!

Wat ? er !

Hello there,

Wish you all a happy new year 2015! Hope you have started the new year on a healthy note.

So, that blog which I mentioned earlier, is finally here. Potti vandirichi, Potti vandirichi.. :-)

As the name suggests, this is about water. But this is not to give gyan about how not to waste water, but rather to share about one technique which I implemented.

Because,

How not to waste water – is more of behavioral approach. Like for example – not to leave the tap open while brushing teeth, not to leave the shower on while not standing there etc. These are known to all, and no matter how many ever blog is written, unless the attitude is right, this cannot be achieved.

But the one I’m sharing here – is a one-time setup.

The idea is to save the outlet water from the water-purifiers that usually goes into the kitchen sink.

Water purifier industry in India is growing day-by-day.  People feeling the importance of hygienic water, consequences of water-borne diseases, low prices of purifiers – have all influenced it.

Around 35,000 water purifiers are sold ONLY in Bangalore, each year. The overall volume in India is expected to be 1.5 Crore units by end of 2015. (Currently 78 lakhs).

The CAGR (Compound Annual growth rate) for water purifier is expected to be 25% (currently at 22%).

Okay, here is how it looks:

Usually, one tube goes into the water purifier for input, whereas one come out to dispose the waste water.

All we need to do is to get extension tubes and divert the outlet to a different destination where that water can be used. Now, this waste water is obviously not fit for drinking, but can surely be used for utility purpose, like washing vessels, watering the plants etc.,

The extension tubes are available with the water-purifier servicing fellow for an average price of Rs.100 per 2 meter tube.

In my case, the bedroom balcony where I have a small garden, is just 3 meter from the kitchen window (structure-wise), and I just needed a 4 meter cable to connect both. Now, the outlet water reaches balcony through the kitchen window (from outside the building) which is very convenient to water the plants.

And as the original water is from bore-well (with a mix of ‘so-called’ cauvery water), the water purifier just takes the drinkable part of it, and leaves the remaining which is nothing but mud and other common elements obtained from the ground. So this is just good for the plants.

Roughly, in Bangalore, the water purifiers, at an average, throw 1 litre of water for every 1 litre that is filtered in. So, if you consume 8 litre of filtered water in a day, then 8 litre of water goes out through the outlet tube as well. This is a huge quantity and can be used extensively.

If you live in an independent house, this also saves your personal electricity expenses where the water that is pumped up to the overhead tank is used for household purpose. This activity will no longer be required if you use the outlet water smartly.

I implemented this 6 months back and it has saved a lot of water for us. The maid uses this to wash the floor, to clean the bathrooms, we water the plants with this – every day.

.

India has 17% of world’s population, but only 4% of its water.

And out of that 4%, only 5 % is given for municipality purpose (88% goes for irrigation).

Just thought of sharing this. I would be more than happy if atleast 10 people adapt this, thereby saving around 80 litre of water every day.

The above is just one idea, I’m sure there are many (lik Rain water harvesting). If you know other simple-to-implement ideas, please put in a comment for the benefit of others (or email me).

ta ta bye bye for now..

Linga Movie Review

Hello,

Don’t be surprised if you did not get an email from me that I have updated my blog with Linga movie review. This review must not come as a news or shock to most of you – whether you’ve seen the movie or not. But I still wanted to register my view of the movie as a normal movie watcher.

Straight to the matter:

I feel that the flashback portions are the actual movie. As there is absolutely nothing before or after it. Within 20 minutes into the movie, the flashback starts. The interval arrives at a crucial portion in the flashback. 2^nd half begins with flashback continuation. Once flashback is over, within 15 minutes, movie is over.

Any commercial mass masala movie is good only when there is a cat & mouse game between Hero and Villain.  Here, there are 2 such scope – Old Rajni Vs Britishers, New Rajni Vs Politician. The second one lasts for hardly 10 mins. Better, they could have released this as a period film instead. Successful dam opening should have been the climax.

Songs By A.R Rehman are simply pathetic. Despite playing 1000 times a minute through TV trailers, one can’t remember even a line from the lyrics or music. Have you heard the original Spanish Gasolina song ?

Santhanam and Karunakaran are relief to some stupid things in the movie. Sonakshi Sinha & Anushka Shetty just behave like commercial movie heroines. The latter has some role to play, but the former was not at all required actually. Cinematography is too good. This compensated the lag in editing.

Despite all these depressing factors, Rajni looks stunning throughout the movie – infact, out of his last 10 movies, this is the best he has looked. But all that is wasted by everything surrounding it. If it was for some other hero, this would have become like a Perarasu movie. But they will for sure do the collections, using the Rajni mania as a trump card.

(The best punch dialogue in the movie was the one from Britisher to Rajni" Unna paatha Dam katra maari therla, andha ponna katra maarithan iruku") :-)

Linga is purely for “hard core ISI AGMARK BIS 916 Hallmark ISO 9000” Rajni Fans.

Note: That blog i promised in end of Kathi review, is still on its way.. Potti varala, Potti varala, Potti varala...

Kathi - Very sharp !

Hello Good people..

Nice to meet you after a good gap.. (well, actually its bad gap, coz its long ;-) )..

Its been months that i wrote a blog, its been an year that i wrote a movie blog..  I watched more than 15 movies in various languages in the last 2-3 months.. ( you must be wondering what kind of life i'm in - for watching 15 movies .... well..stuck in a winter cum rainy weekend in Germany, with free unlimited internet access, what else can a guy do - apart from drinking Bavarian Beer that is.. lol)

Ok, straight to the matter - i saw one movie today in theater, making it the 16th movie, but this movie made me stretch my Sunday night to sit and write a short blog on it..

The movie is Kathi (Tamil movie), meaning Knife.

Director - A.R. Murugadoss; Lead Actor : Vijay (in dual role).

A Movie with a good social message.

Over the last few months, I've become a fan of RJ Balaji.. so i will phase this in his style..by splitting my feedback into 1) Ada..!  ( WOW moments)  & 2) Che  (Shit! - not the literal one)

The 'Ada' moments:

1) Vijay: I've never been a Vijay fan at any given point in my life  (dont ask me if i'm an Ajith fan for that matter.. nope.. i'm just a fan of Quality movies and not any particular actor, which indirectly makes me a Kamal Hassan/Aamir Khan fan most of the time , hmm tk tk pk pk ).

But, I can say that I've never seen Vijay act and emote like this in any of his previous movies..great performance from an experienced artist, that his fans and public were waiting for..  The first time he did a dual role was a pathetic failure. but this time though its double treat. He is the highlight of the movie - though script is good, you need the right person to take it to the public.

2) A.R. Murugadoss

Through the Hindi version of Gajini, people all over India know Murugadoss and his style of film making. This time, he has included a good social message on how MNC's occupy agricultural lands and destroy natural resources like water and spoil the livelihood of farmers.

The detailing that he shown in each subject or event in the movie is too good..

And this guy has made Neil Nitin Mukesh 'act'!! what more..

3) Dialogues & detailing:

To say about this - in a scene in the movie, a village girl asks the hero - what is communism, help me understand in one line, in simple language. The answer is : assume you are eating idli's. Once your hunger is satisfied, the next idli you have, belongs to another person. - wow! Crisp!

There is a scene where he tells about a Beer manufacturer (whom we all know) and compares his loan/bankruptcy to the loan the farmer borrows. Excellent scene.

Lines such as "the farmer's agricultural product reaches the city people's plates, but their problem dont reach " and the list goes on..

In the second half, lot of statistical details on number of lakes, rivers, ponds, agricultural lands lost to MNC's , indirectly poking a few cool drink giants is simply superb.

now, "Che" moments:

1) Samantha -

She doesn't really have any role to play in this movie.. You must be asking me - in which commercial movie does heroine have a role to play?  .. yes, i agree.. but atleast the heroine's existence brings out some reactions - like the villain kidnapping her to get to the hero..or trying to misbehave with her.. or following her to know hero's plans etc.,../ nothing of that sort happens here.. she is there, and she is just there..

What this has done to the movie : 3 songs were added just because there is a heroine. Some useless flirt scenes and horrible dialogues and so-called comedies were inserted..making this movie stretch upto 3 hours.. which otherwise would have been a crispy 02:20 movie..

2) Music - mainly songs -

Anirudh - the Kolaveri guy.. has composed several mind blowing albums in the last 6-8 months for many movies most of which were pretty average ones.. and for a good movie like this, sadly the songs are not good enough.. if you remember any one song, one line, after the movie, you should be having exceptional memory power..!

(Double Dhamaka - I happen to watch this movie at Comet Cine center (Mönchengladbach), along with my Srilankan Tamil friends.. happen to interact a lot with them and know more - and realise how big a fanbase Vijay has in Srilanka, and that they do Milk Abhisekham on his cutouts there!. )

Overall:

A.R.M continues his trend of making quality movies, but sadly he also continues inserting commercial elements, which i'm not too happy about.. IMO, directors should grow-up and avoid unwanted characters and situations from the movie..

But, i'm happy that - an actor, who has concentrated mainly on mindless masala movies over the last decade, is finally back to "acting".

Do watch this movie , for Vijay, for ARM, and mainly for the social message it carries.

And don't just stop with that - please try your best to save water at the maximum possible way at your level.. !

a hint - my next blog is going to be based on that message.. coming soon..!

Dankie,
;-)

Come online :-)

Hello there,

I believe this is the longest gap I've ever had in-between two blogs of mine. Needless to say – I’m no more in South Africa, but back to India!  I had to wait for some good topic to write something, and I believe I've got the content – the order of the day – Online shopping.

To start, what are the Benefits?

The primary objective of buying things online, for me, is the time & energy that is saved. 

Assume you need to buy a water purifer – you visit shops like Pai, VGP, Vivek’s, Girias, E-zone etc., to understand different models, offers, price difference etc., This consumes around 3 hours easily, and includes the commute, roaming around, finding a parking (if in Car, on weekend) etc., If you stay farther, 25 % of your weekend is gone!

In online, It's just the matter of entering the preferred model name or item name in Google and you get the list of models, offers, cash back offers, etc.,  For high value items, most shippers offer transit insurance as well.

Next, convenience

In the same case of buying a water purifier, in online, you can buy it during any time of the day – even at midnight or even from remote location. This helps those who are in night shift or arrive home late.

Things that you miss?

By buying a stuff like water purifier through online, you miss the demonstrations they do in stores. You cannot see in person how big or small the item looks.

-          So, what we can do is – to visit one shop, get the demo, note the model number and look for it online. Even if you are not getting the same price online, you can always go back to the same shop.

Some blame that this online thing makes people lazy. The point is, if you need to do shopping over the weekend, you have a schedule – to get ready in the morning, to plan the day with items to shop, shops to visit etc.,

 - But then, If we manage to get that done within an hour, under the fan, and use the rest of time well – like to play with kids or go for a walk or to a movie, what’s wrong ?

I wouldn't list cheating as a dis-advantage in online shopping, because it is mostly due to the carelessness of the buyer than the bad intention of the seller.

Now then, shopping effectively - ?? Well, below are some points that I've noted - 

What to buy?

First, in my view, you need to draw a line on the items that you can buy online. You just cannot click on every item you see in the site. For ex: I’m don’t like to buy clothes or shoes online, because the touch and feel of the material, the size (each brand has different sizes for same person) etc., are missing online.

In case of groceries, like Dal or rice or other Flours, you cannot see the quality of the items.

And also fragile items like glass, lampshades can get damaged no matter how good they are packed. It’s just unwanted time & energy wasted in dealing with customer service, ordering refund or replacement etc.,

Deal or No deal ?

Secondly, i.e., once you have decided what to buy , the question is the price. Major cheating happens at this point.  You MUST know what the M.R.P of the item is in the market. If not, then do not take a chance. A website posts Rs. 999, then slashes it and says Rs.499, offering 50% discount, whereas the actual MRP of the item will be Rs.399. You would feel you could have bought it in a local fancy store.

A major contribution to this is the brand name.  For ex: if you are buying a lunchbox, famous names are Tupperware, Cello, Milton etc., and have prices in the range of Rs.700 – Rs.1000. Now, you see a brand called “John utensils, since 1895” offered at Rs. 400, without discounts. As the difference is upto 60%, it makes you think that , perhaps you need not spend a lot for these items, and go for it. But it might end-up to be a local product, made in some corner of the city with poor plastic and sold in K.R market for Rs.250.

Good seller?

For online shopping, there are two types of websites. One where the website sells the items, ex - Firstcry, Babyoye and the other where various sellers list their items on a website, ex - Snapdeal, Flipkart.

The difference is that – in case of former, there is one uniform set of rules for the website company, but for latter, rules like replacement, refund, insurance all depends on the seller of that item.

In this case, most websites have a customer feedback like points or % of satisfaction tagged to the seller. So, when you note the seller, a figure in the brackets is displayed, like 87%, meaning 87% of the customers who have purchased from them have expressed satisfaction.

Don’t go by the photo:

Marketing of the product is at its peak when it comes to online shopping. The picture of the item will be very colorful, big and tempting. But make sure to read the features and specifications. 

For ex – Kitchen storage boxes. In the picture, it looks very big and great. But it might just be having 1 Ltr capacity & made of some thin plastic (which can be found under features tab).

Where does this all end-up?

A common question. I've heard a lot of them complain that this online shopping has become a habit or even more an addiction. There are people who've spent a lot of money online for unnecessary & unwanted things. What about that ?

Well – This one’s easier answered than done.

The mantra is – Don’t look for discounts, then items and shop.  But Look for item, then discount.

People tend to get carried away seeing 80% discount, and end-up buying an item totally use-less for them.

Also, try to identify the items that you might require in a short term, and to start searching for deals say 2 months in advance.  For ex: A gift for kid’s birthday, a water heater for winters etc.,

Regular customer?  Known shop keeper?

This is one valid point. But it all depends upon how well, and for how long you know the shop-keeper. That defines the percentage of margin that he is ready to fore-go or compromise for you.  You must take this into consideration as well, when evaluating the online deal. If you've established a good relation with a shopkeeper (most women have one with a nearby stainless steel shop), then you must utilize that to get good offer. Some websites also do issue loyalty points every time you shop with them..

Now, when our very own government has started implementing online-based activities like R.T.O, PF etc., why don't we try this world ? Come Online :-)

But end of day, there is one MAJOR & IMPORTANT benefit that most of my friends would agree with me:

This online shopping option is sure to ease the life of several husbands who spend time waiting outside the shops, mostly with the kid in hand, while the lady browses through the variety inside, patiently!

Hope this helped you in some way..!

Shubh Shopping !! ;-)