Reservations

God save India.

Reservation based on caste is mere Politics. Aide, subsidiary for the meritorious poor, downtrodden people will be certainly acceptable by any human. India to become a world power should look to make more meritorious people rather than making a person meritorious by his caste.

There should not be any compromise on quality. Mainly our IIT’s and IIM’s recognized abroad. But when the merit is at stake in these institutions due to these reservations, they soon are going to lose their credibility too

CB series

I am extremely happy and proud on seeing Indians winning the tough down under CB series. Kudos to our young Indian team. One should notice that we have won the series defeating the winners and runner-up of the last WC. To beat them and Aussies particularly in their own backyard is really creditable.

The seniors namely Dravid, Ganguly, Laxman can hit some astonishing boundaries and few sixes. But for seniors singles are hard to come by when Australia has Ponting, Symonds, Clarke and Hussey in the circle. This adds pressure to them and subsequently many times they have landed up in Silly run outs and failing to convert fights to wins. But this young team could not only run singles but twos when the same fielders are standing in the 30 yard circle adding additional valuable runs to total along with odd fours and sixes.

The young team fielded very well. They just didn't field but saved runs making the run gathering tougher for Aussies.

Last but not the least, our bowling was excellent and consistent. In spite of Zaheer's and RP Singh's absence, the bowling department never looked raw. The young lads kept their head cool and approached thier task professionally and troubled all Aussies batsman throughout the series. I feel this package surprised Aussies a lot. They knew well about the stardom packed India batting line up and would have never thought that Indian bowling will trouble them in Australia at all. It looks that they had appointed Symonds, Hayden and others to keep Harbhajan distracted so that he doesn' t trouble them too much.in the game. But the trick never worked mates, rather it made Indian team stronger and more determined to do well.

Generally India takes lot of time to settle in down. India would come closer to yield a draw in the last match (remember Azar's, Laxman tons). But in this tour we acclimatized to the Aussie condition quickly and started to play good cricket.

BCCI and the selectors should stick to this team and also give them enough rest. At the end after all they are humans too.

Aussie Sledging

I have been following the current down under series of India closely. I love Aussies for their consistent performance and high spirits. They play their game hard and tough. Well, I think it is gone beyond desirable levels.

After years of watching Aussies play, I have seen them using these three main weapons in a game:

1) Any bowler will be disappointed with himself if he bowls a bad ball or his ball is hit for runs. He can show his disappointment to himself and not on the opposition batsman. But Aussies bowlers always yell or utter a unwanted word at the batsman under such circumstances. Craig McDermott, Merv Hughes, Glen McGrath, Brett Lee to name a few.

2) Many times Aussies are found to be the adamant demanding child in the field with lots of
tantrums. When their appeal is turned down they question the umpires in a way that they are not
caught for showing dissent and keep staring at the umpires. Finally they will push the umpire to give
the next appeal in their favor.

3) Aussies are the only team who will wait for umpires to give them OUT even when they are
clean bowled!!!!. They claim that they try their luck with umpires to get a NOTOUT so as to
compensate for the times there were given OUT when they were actually not. Batsman having
a close decisions going for him is acceptable but the above quality of knowingly
suppressing the information that you are OUT from the umpires and not walking off is nothing but a
spoil sport.

Aussies recently have started sledging outside the field too. They have mastered the act of sledging.

A game can result in a winner and loser but without even the game, gamesmanship can be always the winner.

தாய் தந்நை

ஒரு வேளை "தா" என்று சொல்லாமலேயே நமக்கு
உடலும் உயிரும்,
அன்பும் அறிவும்,
பாசமும் அறவணைப்பும்
கொடுத்ததால் என்னவோ
அவர்களை நாம் தாய் தந்நை என்று அழைக்கிறோம்?

- முரளி

முதியோர்கள்

முதியோர்கள்
நீ எப்போதும் உன் தாய் தந்நைக்கு மகன்,
ஆனால் அவர்கள் மட்டும் எப்படி உனக்கு முதியோர்கள் ஆனார்கள்?

- முரளி

Hong Kong

Ocean Park




















Repulse Bay
















The Peak

















I had recently been to Hong Kong (HK) on a short official trip This is my second visit which was for 10 days. HK comprises of a peninsula and Hong Kong, Lantau islands etc.
Hong Kong island is a small island, very busy, noisy, polluted with many skyscrapers.
On the road you can see a mixture of modern and tradition, high raise modern skyscrapers and adjacent small typical Chinese style building. The skyscrapers are so tall and so close to each other that it creates a wall effect. People fear that even wind is suffering due to this.

HK has good public transport, entertainment, lots of shopping mall. I am not sure when people
sleep. The mall (eg Causeway Bay) are even crowded at midnight. During this visit I used cabs and trains(MTR) for public transport. Unlike Singapore, the trains are long. So each exit takes you to different places. My workplaces was at Taikoo place in Quarry Bay. Exit A of Quarry Bay takes me to the place directly. Exit C takes me three Tram (another mode of public transport) stops away from the Taikoo place.

The climate was very cold, foggy and cloudy. Temperature on average read between 14-19 degree Centigrade. No jet lags (same timezone) but my body had to undergo a severe and rapid change to withstand this temperature from the hot and humid weather of Singapore.
Winters is not new to me as I stayed in Bangalore for years. But the difference in weather I felt between HK and modern day Bangalore (they say old old Bangalore was much colder and greener) is that in Bangalore you feel cold during early morning, late evening and while vehicle driving and days are relatively warmer and manageable. But in HK, I felt chill weather all the time except on a Sunday when I went to Ocean Park.

Ocean Park, is an aquarium plus amusement park. Well organized, big and entertaining. A day can be easily spent in Ocean Park. Sea lions, sharks, walrus feature in the ocean aquarium. There are many other beautiful marine beings but these are the three magnificent creatures I wish to mention here since I am seeing them for the first time in my life (discovery+NGC+Animal Planets not included).

I also went off ground in a air balloon in Ocean Park.

Two other place I could cover in the trip - The Peak and Repulse Bay.

The bay is not as big as my Chennai (Madras) Marina Beach, but it has its own beauty. Mountains on three sides and the blue sea on the fourth side with tiny green uninhabited islands visible to our naked in the sea filling your mind with picturesque tranquility. Though the sunset is not visible since it happens behind the mountain on the right guarding the bay, the wait to see the turn of blue sky to orange red, waves and cold breeze keeping you entertained with their unison musical and dance performance is highly rewarding.

I took the peak tram to go to the peak. A peak is a small mountain near the city. It has a watching tower on the top of a shopping mall. It was very cold and windy there. You can get a amazing view of all the well lit skyscrapers, harbors, jetty terminals, highways etc from the peak. Madam Tussuad also afeatures in the peak's crown.

I was staying in Wanchai, Hong Kong Island. Wanchai is a place with lots of night bars, dance clubs, restaurants and SPAs with women freaking out in front of these and on roads gathering customers and clients. Not sure about the rest of HK, but this place is quite a happening place. I saw almost every European and Americans escorted by a local girl. hmm, in tamil we say Kalli muthi poe-ichu (simply it could mean as: things have changed a lot from the traditional, conservative and moral way).

Thought of seeing the Lantau Island giant Buddha statue and Disney Land, but did not find enough time to cover these places.

எப்படி காதல் வருகிறது என்று?

யாருக்காவுது தெரியுமா எப்படி காதல் வருகிறது என்று?
தெரியாது, காதலித்தவனுக்கே தெரியாது.
தெரியாத ஒன்றை கேட்டும், படித்தும், உண்ர்ந்தும் அறிந்துக்கொள்ளாம்.
அவ்வாறு செய்ய இயலாத ஒன்று, அது காதல் தான்.
காதல் செய்யாதவன் இருக்கிறார்களா?
இல்லை, கடவுள் கூட காதல் என்னும் காந்த அலையால் தாக்கப்பட்டவன் தான்.
இவன் ஏன் நமக்கு தெரிந்ததேயே சொல்கிறான் என்று நீங்கள் நினைக்காலம். ஏன் நானே கூட எப்படி தான் நினைக்கிறேன். என்ன செய்வது? காதல் என்னும் கடலில் தீக்முக்காடி முத்துக் குளிக்க சென்றவர்கள் இப்படி தான் ஊறுவார்கள்!