New Stadium in Pune

Had to chance to visit new stadium in Pune. Lovely stadium. Good ambience and facilities. Its bit away from city but at manageable distance. Public transport is pathetic anyways in Pune so private vehicle is only possible mode (though PMPML initiated special buses) .
The match vs the champions CSK was good. PWI bowling and fielding restricted total to 155. Jessi Ryder stayed anchor inspite of pathetic running between. He never let asking rate climb to unmanageable number. And find of season steven smith completed the hitting and winning. Crowd was electric and behind home team. I dont know why some mature adults behave insane when they see camera. That has been my pain point for all stadium matches. Also the family men and singles were so crass ogling at guest cheerleaders. The comments to players though were witty (eg. when raina came to field someone asked where is rames, the sures-ramesh jodi famous from cadbury or their rivals i dont remember. ad recall lost due to emphasise on humor), but most of the time comments were not so dignified esp to foreign and away players. Ashwin had torrid time esp after his fight with smith. The PA system though is not upto mark as it is in some other venues. Music played was good and added to fun quotient.
The problem is see with this stadium is they have planned only for night matches. ifwe have ODI, for the first half crowd excpet those in main section have to face direct sun rays. Another is the parking management. we had to wait 2 hrs to even imagine we could move our car. some better management can help as they have good parking space. Even stadiums like wankhede which is in the heart of city has better systems. I remember when i was in korea during WC soccer 2002 in Busan. The entire crowd of 90,000 was cleared in 30 mins falt. ofcourse they had metros directly having station on ground and private vehicles were parked at 4 directions with guranteed access to each car parked to exit.
But the field, other facilities are good. Food people were moving around with infated (300%) prices. ofcourse thats their logistics. They dont have change so i lost some money as guy promised to return change and never was seen.
Anyways good match and support for Dada boys. Road ahead midway seems tough but dada had given the team a purpose and inspite of not being able to partcipate in auctions they have posed good challenge to top teams like Mumbai, delhi, chennai. With clarke joining things can definitely improve. I cannot wait for match at eden gardens where dadas boys play KKR . i am sure PWI will have home support.

General Vs Government

Just heard from press release from indian govt that the news which reported that Indian army had marched towards delhi in jan12 is false and imagination by media. That news itself had made many wonder that if Indian Army would have really intended to take over government in sort of coup or so, it would have not been a worst case scenario. India would have joined ranks of banana republics in asia, africa, south and central africa (all geographies excluding so called developed western world) including the most banana and treacherous neighbours we have in east and west.But comparing that to current democracy which does not exist in India. We have a govt which wants to control internet, wants to damage elite institutions of learning, which lives by mega corruption, is driven by foreign antinational agenda, is not decisive to make indian economy transparent and effective for survival, is blaming diverse coalition politics for all ills, is bent on divisive politics of minority appeasement, which undermines democracy by votebank politics, is casteist (though in reverse fashion), which has no policy to fight terror except coloring it by religiuon and obsfuscating investigation, it rolls back its policies, it has no clue tp naxalism who rule roost in dominat areas, it has let down its farmers, it has let down cities by means of unplanned development, damaged environment , uncontrolled mining, lot more..... We have opposition which is non existant, opportunist and though has good governance track record due to past leaders, present seems dicey. we have a civil movement which is much maligned by govt and media and seems like have inconguous agenda. the judiciary is accused and proven of corruption and the appointments are managed by executive. least said about police will be better.so only establishment left unscathed in defence...
And thats where enemies of india (i will name them EOI in short) found and decided to malign last establishment which has respect. EOI is a cult mostly with leftist background, claiming secular but having hidden imperialistic agenda of restoring pre british and post hindu scheme of things where those corrupt rulers could plunder , loot without any fear of law. EOI is sympatheic to beurocracy and corrupt system which have looted india in past for defense procurement deals compromising india's securiy. 1962 war was disaster owing to bad politics and this machinery who had leftist sympathy for communist china. We had a pro-national primeminister in Indira Gandhi who had luck and guts to allow great generals like sam makekshaw to operate and help us win in 1971. She had a great international resolve during pokharan1. We had well meaning prime minister in rajeev gandhi though accused in bofors case hampering army, still he was few distances away from EOI. Now that he was eliminated in srilankan tangle. Rest of his clan now appear to be in control but the relation between EOI and first family is still matter of surmise. Then we had a change in government and he had combination of best PM and President in Atalji and Kalamsir.
It will be tough to blame the EOI within army which resulted in kargil blunder as it can be termed most as treachory by pak and negligence of our establishment. Though coruption and EOI mattered. The much maligned bofors gun and sheer guts of our army and leadership by men at control in kargil led to a very difficult and costly victory. I had a chance to speak to a captain during my trek in himalayas. We spend a whole evening amidst mountains with this brave man who shared all those insights of kargil, defence working and lacunae. But hats off to sheer bravery by army. its the corruption and EOI intervention which is hampering army. The stablishment is rotten that its difficult for honest man to survive. thats what seem to have happened in the VK singh espisode. He must have taken on system. and EOI has made his victim for that. Thats my analsys. Suprisingly media except DNA has joined EOI to malign hi,. TOI had a skew opinion poll, Express suggested a coup in very irresponsible manner. The leakage of document to DNA was a tacit act of EOI to malign indias only respected entity. The points raised by Gen seem valid and no one talks about them as concern. Its disaster to keep such documents in public and DNA should have been more responsible. But mole seems to be part of EOI. Thats my take on this. I feel General is victim and we should support him. Even opposition join govt in maliging general. Dont know about stand of Team Anna or civil society on this. Ofcourse proven EOI usual suspects have blow trumpets like media moguls like burkha clad queen, annoy roy, arnab know it all goswami, dileep pakigaonkar, dileep saradesai's karte, bacchan of express, then the antinationals like NBA stalwart, Goddess of mean things, anti modi brigade, thinkers of bollywoods with pak sympathies, those who run aman ki asha campaigns with terrorist state.
Those who do corruption, those who undermine india, those who divide people of india on caste and religion are ruling the country. Its call for someone to take them on...
The talk of coup though seems mischeiveous and its high time we end this EOI reign over India. India has a great future , its a great country and we will make change as people of India...

GA Vs PL

I grew up watching , listening, viewing PL literature, drama. PL has demi god status esp in our circles. I appreciate PL for his life and value him as a person more than his work. His work is accused of being based only on middle class experiences. Thats another story that the incidences, minute observations , characters are universal and have great human values. His style, langauge is wodehousque. Humor is intelligent and subtle. PL's biography is that of man who has lived 100% . Always seeking full value and enrichment ( not physical riches though he has great philanthrophy track record). he had able support from sunitabai. Be it music, drama, movies, novels, doordarshan/AIR stint, role during emergency, harmonium: a truly versatile geniuos.
On other hand of spectrum is GA. I got sucked into GA much later (as usually happens with serious authors). The names of his novels are mysterious. The stories are dark. The human values explored by GA and 180 degrees opposite of those depicted by PL. But these human experiences are real for sure. If PL is 100% optimist tohuman life. GA is 0% towards life. Life seems an etrenal journey of suffering, pain, mystery, quest.
Both are real aspects of life. Take any morning for example. You start your day expecting day to be fulfilling for your quest. Each one has quest. Quests differ. One can have two ways of looking. PL way when you think that today will be yours. or GA way is that your day is full of drudgery and your quest is meaning less. Dont you agree that our moods swing from one spectrum to another depending on ones inner strengths, outlook and situation. Example you drink for pleasure or to reduce pain. each way of looking is true. You become addicted to each and every thing. Be it pain, success, enjoyment, love , hate : name an emotion and human mind will be slave. Thats GA 's take. For PL is journey of happyness.
That does not mean that PL did not have his share of pain or GA never had happiness. It upto you to define your life.
for commonore like us Life is combination of pain and happiness . Grass is always greener on other side. you feel everyone else apart from you is fine. Facebook adds to that feeling. You start feeling dark. Then you get ray of happiness and feel life is yours for that moment. You are chasing moving target. But the chase can be worthy if you enjoy it. You keep fighting most of the time against your own self. sometime you are your most danagerous enemy. But its your strenghts which have defined life for you till now. Its complicated. Thus life is a novel half written by GA, half written by PL and pages mixed randomly.

Are you Rahul Dravid of your team?

In our close circle of friends we have a character who goes by rules/procedures so much that we call him rahul dravid. He is so meticulous that sometimes it hinders the functioning due to over indulgence in technicalities. of course that was a social service work. But i am sure many of us come across such individuals professionally. whether calling such guys rahul dravid is derogatory or honourable?

Having seen the career of rahul dravid, more often than not it helps team in long run. Sehwag style people might be aggressive and game changers.Tendular types people may be all conquering by means of talent, there will be fighters like ganguly or silent performers like kumble or artisitic players like vvs, but having studied impact of performance someone has comeup that dravids contribution to team is supreme. Cricket like Business is team game and oragnization needs all these skills.
But what motivates normal people looking upo dravid that people with normal skills can be winner by means of continuous hard work, study, dedication, determination and discipline. You dont have to be genius like Tendulkar to get those many runs.
another aspect of dravid is abilty and willingness to do anything for team cause be it opening on greentop or keeping wickets.
sometimes he might have got bogged down and sometimes you wonder purpose of batting is to score runs and not just block but more important is context of game. More than often you will find dravid meeting the requirement.
so that completes my eulogies to big 5 of indian cricket.

Domestic Problem in Indian IT

Some laws which govern behaviour of indian domestic customer for an IT services companies...
1. You can download any software for free from net or get for Rs 400 max from' 'market' so why buy licence or build custom sofwtare paying money to vendor.
2. Vendor and and his employees are your personal slaves now that you have paid some money to him
3. Vendor should spend his own money to make specifications of project and after that you have all rights to decide and discard the project. Everybody does this in sales you know....
4. Vendor personell have transport option like 'engergize' in Star trek serial and can report you anywhere anytime and it costs nothing for vendor
5. Final payment always needs discount as favour while blaming the software not working as expected by him even though he has signed and accepted features.
6.You need to negotiate with vendors saying 'I can develop same project using your graduate relative'
7. Vendor takes responbsibility of maintainng your desktops, O/s , network and webservers depending on type of software you develop.
8 You make your vendor followup for payment atleast thrice before you pay.

there are many more but above ones are very important if you need to be a good IT customer in India...

New lessons in life

Every moment in life teaches you something. This knowledge is sometimes mistaken wrongly as experience. Experience is something you observe and feel. Lesson is something you use for future reference. Each moment gives you experience as well as teaches you new lesson. I used to strongly recommend hostel experience for each individual. Hostel life makes you independnat, gives you new perspective about life, undertsand diversity of opinions, thought proceses, capabilities. All the while your parents and families shield you from these useful experiences and lessons as well when they cocoon you in good intentions of proetcting you from big bad world.
Just as i feel hostel life is must, so is hospitalization.
Surprised, though there is saying in marathi that you wish such calamity should not befall even on your enemy, this hospitalization experience teaches you a lot.
lessons in brief:
1. Take nothing for granted in life : any silly thing can affect your health. you abuse body and body answers for sure. so hence forth follow best practices as much as possible while sitting, reading, working. esp for those in IT like me.
2. Hospitalization puts near ones in total disarray. more the people around you this chaos and load is divided. Thus value your near ones and dont take them from granted.3. Health insurance is comforting. insurance is must.
4. Some people comeout when they hear abt your plight and help you. these people surprise you . These people can be termed as near ones. while some whom you expect to help you keep distance.
5. you are bombarded with advice from all and sundry. Though sometimes irritable, it shows concern. But when you visit someone in hospital you should take care to not irritate someone. some people become emotional and irrational. so avoid being that.
6. it teaches you how to behave when someone else is hospitalized.
7. Doctors can be confusing and two opinions sometimes contradict. But second opinion is must. Decision is yours....
8. Music is only saviour to kill time. you can read but esp those with my plight, music was only saviour.
9. Sleep is only releif from pain.
10. Food can be entertainment.
You are welcome to add more points.

Giant Wheel

It was april 2nd 2011. Kulasekhara bowls to M S Dhoni, and he slams a big six over midwicket, rotates the bats and hugs Yuvraj who was at other end. Tears all around. Teammates carry SRT over shoulders. World cup has been won. Nation waiting for this moment for last 28 years since that gloious june evening at lords. Nation had seen heartbreaks at koklata, debacles in Eng and aus, disaster in carrebean, final capitulation after some good cricket in SA. More than anyone it seemed like SRT has acheived all that one could as a cricketer . that includes highest runs in both forms, highest no of centuries in both forms, world cup, champions trophy and finally No1 test team member for 18 months or so leading till WC. we believed we had seen it all since we started watching cricket except maybe 100th 100 and a triple century from SRT(wishlist always add up). ofcourse series wins in SA and Aus which still was the final frontier....
with two difficult away tours all that that turned into a giant cycle. we are at lowest point in our cricket history of 8 successive defeats in test. No other team has faced this ignominy. what has happened in just an year. same time last year we fought well in difficult away series in SA. Team remains the same. Only change has been Duncan flethcher instead of Gary Kirten. So does it undermines important of a good coach. Chappel was disaster and we started fighting overseas under john wright.
This is a matter of concern. or is becauswe of bad selection or bad scheduling, IPL, or our legends have passed sell by date. Or is Dhoni disinterested in longest form of game along with new indian players... Or is sehwag overrated flat track bully , or gambhir doesnt belong, Indian bowlers lack consistency, planning and fitness. or we dont have good spin replacement for Kumble....
Or is it combination of all above factors.
or are we panicking a bit more than required. So lets pull up stats
We have lost one one home series in last decade after that famous kolkata test in 2011. (ag aus in 04) , where as all other teams has lost atleast 3 home series.
we have won one series in Pak, Eng , NZ and won two in WI. We drew 1, lost 1 closely in SA, we drew one(alomost won)lost 1 under very controversial situations in Aus. all this was prior to nightmare started in Eng.
No other team has won more than 2 away series. So why is india accused of being home bullies.
why is spin inferior to pace in terms of batmen ability to face that.
But ofcourse we need better planning of managing 3 formats of game for sure going forward to turn the wheel again... Here is my suggestion.
1. Horses for courses
2. Testing Young blood and phasing seniors
3. Picthes in balance for domestic tournaments
4. Coaching and phyiscal training
5. scheduling.

So i believe we still have great future. But need men with vision like Ganguly and kukble in helm of things.....

Rejuvenation

Time to change calendars, planners, diaries. Time to make resolutions and break it. Time to get into the most non happening part of year from Jan-apr till summer vacations for kids. In student life this was exam time; a crunch time. Winter turns into spring and then into hot summer. Only festivity on horizon is Holi. All parties stacked up in last quarter of the year are over and back to work now.

This is the time one can make it count. Human mind has a great weakness to find excuses and get adapted to situation. I think thats the main problem all us face. We are so comfortable in the day to day existence, routine, job that we lose focus on doing something new, solving problems that we really have to. Instead we dwelve upon day to day actions , fighting todays fire and do that repeatedly. These mundane problems occupy 80% of our time. And we find excuses to do avoid doing something new. Lack of ability to take calculated risks and sheer laziness are two elephants in the room.
Here is my idea of approaching this.
List out things troubling you most. The things you consider as main problems hampering your happiness.
Find solutions to each of those
Try to spend 80% of your time on solving those.
Thats half way towars happiness is to solve all your worries, botherations, problems.
Work towards solving them diligently. Never lose focus as these are real problems. They may take great efforts, hrs, days to resolve but never say quit till that problem is eleminated from your list.
Make small plans, fine tune them, change plans if need be, you might feel that by doing this you have aggrevated your problem, in that case reverse the plan. Dont feel sad about temporary setbacks. Be happy and focussed. One day this list will be erased.
Having solve your problems, now you need to unwind , remove your hackles. Try thinking what is my wishlist now that i have removed my problems. what i want to do with my life at this stage. List them. Plan as to how you will accomplish them. Dont be averse to taking risk to achieve them as in worst situation it may not work out but you will be one step ahead in your quest now that you know one way not to do it.
Take review and change plans. Be creative and think various possibilities to achieve your goals. Never stop till you realize.
In both above actions, one thing is important that you have to put in hard work. Hard work never kills anybody. You have to be persistent and you have to believe in your selves. In both above plans one thing is very important to keep your near ones a part of process. They will value this.
Bit heavy ? Yes but time to be serious and rejuvenate your existence....