Kerry wins now?

Alright...here we are. It just gets interesting. Isn't it?
Washington Redskins have lost the game to Greenbay Packers 14-28. So according to the Washington Redskins Rule President Bush should lose the elections and Kerry should win.
But, hold on. Two things happened this year.
First, Red Sox, broke the jinx of losing against Yankees and they won the series. Second, New England Patriots' 21 winning streak, the longest in NFL history, was ended today by the Pittsburg Steelers. So, this seems to be a season where records and jinx are broken. So will the Washington Red Skins rule jinx be broken this year and will Bush get re-elected to the White House?
It just gets interesting. Isn't it?

Young blood replacing young blood ?

It's over. A record held for more than 3 decades by India was smashed last week. I'm glad to know that BCCI is bringing in new players like Gautam Gambhir, Dheeraj Jadhav, paceman Shib Shankar Paul and wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik. I'm all for it. We need some young blood. BUT,huh...we need young blood to replace the old, not other young. I felt so bad that Akash Chopra, Yuvraj Singh, Ajit Agarkar and Parthiv Patel were dropped and VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble are still in the team. With bat, Parthiv Patel performed better than the 3 of them. Akash Chopra, Yuvraj Singh and Ajit Agarkar performed in par with these 3 seniors. So why are they still in the team? I'm not asking to sack these 3 seniors. But they definitely need to be dropped for few matches so that they can get their acts together, learn the basics and gain some confidence. I just can't understand the selectors. They always seem to take decisions with just the next 1 or 2 matches in the mind and not think about the future, say the next 3 years or 4 years.

Remember, sometime back I told that I laid foundation for something...well...now it's official. Iam glad that it's happening.

"I have a plan".
"Hope is on the way".

-John Kerry, October, 2004

Is he talking about Indian cricket team?

The jet thunder over Richmond yesterday afternoon was comedian Carrot Top in an F-16 fighter jet. Carrot Top, who was performing last night in Richmond, took an afternoon "familiarization flight" with a Virginia Air National Guard pilot, said 1st Lt. Mark Widener, a Guard spokesman.
The noise startled a number of Richmonders as the jet passed swiftly over the city about 2:15 p.m.

Richmond Timesdispatch

Was he insane?

What a day!

Today afternoon at around 2.00 p.m. I heard the sound of a plane very close to our building. It sounded as if the plane was heading towards our building. I work at 20th floor. Almost all my friends in the floor got kinda jittery and started to look at the window. But we couldn't see anything. One of my friend told he saw a B-2 bomber flying just on top of our building. Another friend told that he saw a fighter plane, more like an F-16. Then at the same time the alarm went on for building evacuation. Even thought it was a routine evacuation drill, and we were announced about this drill a week before, the timing made it really look like a real evacuation.whew... what a day!

Few days back I had sent an email to ICC (International Cricket Council) proposing some changes. Today I got a reply from them. Hope they implement my suggestions.
I copied the email below.

From : Enquirys Email
Sent : Tuesday, October 26, 2004 3:15:39 PM
To : "Vimal"
Subject : RE: ICC Feedback: (Proposed changes to Cricket to make it more interesting)


Thank you for your email and your ideas, the ICC always appreciates
receiving new ideas from committed cricket fans.

Kind regards

ICC Corporate Affairs

-----Original Message-----
From: CricInfo system account
[mailto:cricinfo@web1010.london.uk.cricket.net] On Behalf Of Vimal
Sent: 10 October 2004 18:09
To: icc-site-reply@cricinfo.com
Subject: ICC Feedback: (Proposed changes to Cricket to make it more
interesting)

Name: Vimal
Email address: vimal_n@hotmail.com
Subject: Proposed changes to Cricket to make it more interesting

Comments:
I propose 3 changes, which is sure to make the game of cricket more
interesting.

(1) Challenge : The teams should be allowed 2 challenges. When the
umpire gives a decision, which the team/coach feels is an incorrect
decision, they should be allowed to challenge the decision. And third
umpire should come into the picture.

(2) Distribute Field Restriction : One day matches has the field
restriction for the first 15 overs. I believe making the field
restriction more flexible, just say, make it 3 session of 5 overs each,
and the fielding team captain can choose when to apply each of the 3
sessions. This will definitely make the game more interesting by having
an additional strategy to think about.

(3) Timeout or Communication : The coach, should be able to communicate
with the team by timeouts, say 2 for each team, or should be able to be
in touch with the captain by wireless.

These 3 changes will definitely change the game for better and make it
more interesting.

Thanks
vimal

Today morning my friend Rahul met with a minor accident. Boy was he lucky? Yes he was. Look at this.
1. It was a minor accident
2. No one was hurt
3. The car he hit had 2 young beautiful ladies
4. The first cop who arrived at the scene was a young beautiful lady officer
5. The second cop who arrived at the scene was a young beautiful lady officer
6. The cop did not give him any ticket for the accident
7. The cop did not give him any ticket for not having the state inspection sticker

Will India level the series?

Alright. Here we are. Third test between India and Australia. Will India level the series? Will the Aussies go ahead 2-0?

Wicket : Initial reports say the wicket still has considerable amount of grass on it. Is that a good news for India?
I can only think of two things.
1. India played very well against the Aussies in Australia, in bouncy wickets. India did not play well in both the test matches here in India in spinner-friendly wickets. Did Sourav and the team think that may be they should try a wicket which looks like an Aussie wicket and see if they play well?
2. Is Sourav going to ask the groundsmen to shave off the remaining grass the night before the match and make it more spinner-friendly?

Openers : Even though Sourav says that he prefers experienced batsmen opening, I have a feeling that he may go ahead and ask Parthiv to open with Sehwag.

Whoever wins the toss will elect to bat first and put up a huge score and try to bowl the opponent twice.

விமலின் முதல் தமிழ் வார்த்தைகள்- இனய தளத்தில்

விமல் எழுதும் முதல் தமிழ் வார்த்தைகள். இது ஒரு சோதனை வாக்கியம்.
வாழ்க தமிழ்!
வளர்க தமிழர்கள்!

Saturday I took my friend Dixita, to Lotus Temple Ashram. I've been here zillion times, but even then every time I go here, I feel new and fresh and calm and energetic. What made this trip more interesting was the fact that the drive, in addition to being in country roads, was so beautiful with fall colors.

India TEAM

TEAM(Team for Educational Activities in Motherland) helps the society better by providing basic amenities to poor elementary schools, especially in rural India. Please let me know if you would like to be a part of it.

http://www.indiateam.org/

Thanks
vimal

Team America - World police

Last night I went to the new satire ' Team America - World police'. It was hilarious. Some of the scenes in the movie is little bit 'awkward' and the lyrics funny but definitely not printable. But overall it's a fun movie to watch.

Washington Redskins decide who becomes president?

THE WASHINGTON REDSKINS RULE. This one has an impressive winning streak--for 72 years, the victory or defeat of the Washington Redskins in their last game before the election has predicted whether the incumbent party holds the White House. If the Redskins lose or tie, the incumbent party loses the election. If the Redskins win, so does the incumbent party. By any measure the accuracy of the Redskin rule is notable. It has correlated with presidential electoral outcomes in 18 of the past 18 elections back to Franklin Roosevelt in 1932. The probability of a Redskin victory or defeat correctly forecasting the presidential election 18 elections in a row has been calculated to be about one in 260 million. The Redskins’ last game before the election is with the Packers on October 31.

Mysteries in Veerappan's killing

The police say, Veerappan and his aides were traveling in the ambulance van, and as soon as they got that intelligence they chased and compelled them to surrender. But as Veerappan and his aides started firing back, the Special Task Force (STF) was forced to retaliate. But according to some locals and local newspapers, there seems to be some confusing elements in this story.

First, the police says the STF chased Veerappan’s van in a lorry, and when Veerappan started firing at them, they retaliated. But no bullet is said to have penetrated the front of the van. Instead, the front of the van, without a bullet mark, from windshield to the top has crashed severely.

Further, if a vehicle is shot from outside the bullet hole should be protruding inside the vehicle. But in the van in which Veerappan came, most of the bullet holes are protruding outside. That means, those bullet holes were the result of shooting from inside. If Veerappan and his aides were firing at the STF, they should have fired through the glass window and not through door and rest of the parts (Unless Veerappan and his aides had decided to fire-at-will without aiming).

While we are debating if the bullets originated from inside the van or outside, the people who were inside such a bullet ridden van should be carrying many bullet wounds. But that’s not the case. Veerappan’s forehead alone has 2 bullets. Reports say it looked like he was shot from a point-blank range. The lorry which was said to be under fire, has just 3 bullet holes in it’s diesel tank. The STF searched for all the bullets under torch light and retrieved all of them. As a result, the type of bullets used also remains a mystery.

The van, in which Veerappan came, was covered. Reporters were allowed to take pictures of the van only from outside. The screen inside the van was pulled to cover the inside.

Some unconfirmed reports say that Veerappan may have been caught at least 3 days before this event. As he had diabetes and poor eye sight, he was unable to even walk and the police is said to have used this opportunity to take him to hospital. In the hospital he is said to have talked about many ‘truths’, which would have created a political turmoil if revealed to the public, and in order to prevent that he was killed and this fake encounter was setup. There is also a talk that this encounter was arranged in order to divert the attention of public from Jayalakshmi case which has been a big headache for the police department recently.

Veerappan’s wife Muthulakshmi has told reporters that her husband would never have surrendered to the police and he must have committed suicide by shooting himself. There is also a speculation that in the van, surrounded by STF, Veerappan may have asked his aide to shoot him so he may not be caught by police alive.

The police was very adamant to burn Veerappan’s body, but the locals opposed it and in the end the police had to bury him. When the police was asked if the DNA test was done to confirm Veerappan’s identity, they said it was not done and was not necessary as the fingerprints matched.

Was Veerappan really killed during the encounter?
Did Veerappan's van have a head-on collision with a lorry coming from the opposite direction? Was he killed in that accident? Is that why the front of the van was crashed without any bullet mark?
Did Veerappan commit suicide by shooting himself in the van?
Did Veerappan ask his aide to shoot him inside the van, surrounded by STF?
Did the police catch him days before and killed him and set this fake encounter?

Last week when I was cleaning my apartment I found this book on Nostradamus, which I had bought earlier. Today morning I was flipping over the pages and came across this particular Quatrain(C2Q2)

"The blue leader will inflict upon the white leader as much evil as France has done them good. Death from the great antenna hanging from the branch. When (he is) seized, the king will ask how many of his men have been captured"

The particular phrase which caught my attention was "Death from the great antenna hanging from the branch"(A death is broadcast on TV? ).

Are they talking about the Iraq beheadings shown in TV ?
Did not the French behead people with Guillotine?

Immediately I scrambled the Internet to see other translations of this quatrain. This is what I got.

"The blue head will inflict upon the white head as much evil as France has done them good: Dead at the sail-yard the great one hung on the branch, when seized by his own the King will say how much."
Is the word sail-yard actually a 'tower or aerial or antenna'?

I created a record :-)

'Kungumam' tamil magazine is advertising today in Sun TV that their latest issue sold more than 1 million copies and it's a record. Man... I thought I was the only addition to their subscription this week. Well...let's say that I became their subscriber and brought good luck to them :-)

Popular votes

Today while driving back from work, my friend Pat and I were discussing the electoral college vote in US, and how the president is elected. We were thinking whether it is really a democratic way of electing a president because the president is elected by proportionate vote and not people's vote directly. Then I realized that even in India, we do not elect the prime minister directly. Yes, even we do not have popular vote. We vote and elect members for parliament and whichever party or coalition has majority of parliament members, gets to decide on the prime minister and run the administration. Of course, the president of India is elected by electoral college by both houses of the parliament, but then, our President’s post is more of a ceremonial post. Then I asked Pat which countries have popular vote, and elects its chief or head directly. He said Finland is one. Then later I came home and did some research on the Internet and found few countries which elects its chief or head by popular vote. These are some of the countries : Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Mexico, Finland, France, Russia. Interesting!

How is the President elected in US?

Some of my friends from India were not aware of how exactly elections in US work. It's different from how it works in India. So here I try to explain the process in simple terms.

Everybody votes, and whoever gets the most votes becomes president, right? Nope. That method, called the Popular Vote is not used to elect the President of United States. Instead an indirect system called the Electoral College is used to elect the president. This isn't really a national election -- it's a whole bunch of separate state elections.
Each state gets a certain number of electors (Electoral Votes); one for each senator (which means two, because there are always two senators) and one for each representative (which depends on the state's population as determined by the census). So in almost all cases, whichever candidate wins a given state wins all of that state's electoral votes, and it takes a majority of the electoral votes to win the overall election.
For example, Florida has 27 electoral votes. Just say Bush wins 15 of those 27 votes, then he wins the state and all the 27 electoral votes goes to Bush. Got it?
There are total 538 electoral votes. A candidate must receive 270 of the 538 votes to win the election. So, while winning the popular vote may not ensure a candidate's victory, a candidate must gain popular support of a particular state to win the votes in that state.
Some states like Utah, Wyoming, Idaho mostly votes for the Republicans. But some states like Florida, Iowa, Wisconsin etc are called swing states (also referred to as battleground states). Swing states are ones in which recent presidential elections have been decided by a narrow margin -- in some cases, less than one percent. That's why you see the candidates, Bush and Kerry, campaigning in these states often. The goal of any candidate is to put together the right combination of states that will give him or her 270 electoral votes. Hope I didn’t confuse more :-)

hmm, It's 1.00 am here.I don't know why, but I couldn't sleep. This is the first time I remember getting up like this at this time. I was just flipping over the channels...comedy central(Jon Stewart's Daily Show) is making fun of Bush and Kerry...MSNBC is talking about Bill O'Reilly...Sun TV is flashing the news that Veerappan has been killed while Prabhu and Kushboo are busy dancing for a song...followed by the song from the movie 'Puthu puthu arthangal'. Ilayaraaja is great, he is a genius, even now his songs are so melodious, love to listen to them...I've noticed that AR Rehman's songs are hot when the movie is just released, but after like 50 days, they don't seem to sound so good...whereas Ilayaraaga's songs even now are so good.Anyway, it's a new song now and my favorite Reema Sen is dancing for the song 'Dai Kaiya vechukitu summa iruda' from the movie 'Giri' ...Aaaha...here we go...Veerappan is in CNN Home Page "Police kill India's 'Robin Hood'" ...Oho it's 2.00 am ...what am I doing at this time of the night blogging...let me go catch some Zzzzzzzzs.

Veerappan killed

Just heard that Sandalwood smuggler Veerappan has been killed. Waiting to hear more on this...

Rain rain go away

GREAT!!!
It's raining now in Chennai. 70% of the ground is under cover and it's still raining. Don't know when it will stop, when(if) the ground will be ready. Maybe I should ask my sister or mom to give me a wakeup call when(if) the match starts in Chennai. This test is so interestingly poised, and I wish there is a win-lose result.
It's good to see almost 70% of the ground covered, as opposed to having only the pitch and it's surrounding covered. Also I see a Super Sopper. Hope all this helps to get the match going asap when the rain stops.

Will India do it?

One more day. 90 overs. 210 runs for a win. 10 wickets in hand. Will India do it?
Well. They better do it, as I have been watching the match sincerely for 3 consecutive nights without sleeping. I don't know how many cricket crazy guys have ordered the pay per view in dish and watching, but I am. If India loses again, then the players should start paying viewers to watch the matches. Iam sure they make lots of money in endorsements. Anyway, Viru Sehwag looks to be in form. If 2 other guys play well, that should do it. Let's see who all we have. Viru, Yuvraj, Saurav, Rahul, Laxman, Kaif are the 'specialist' batsmen. Yuvraj, Laxman and Parthiv are being closely watched by the selectors. If they fail to perform tonight, then Iam not sure if they will be selected for the next test match.

Magazines from India

Whenever I see the ad of 'Kungumam' tamil magazine in Sun TV, I used to wonder if I will get a chance to read that magazine, as some of their articles are interesting(at least that's how they advertise). I searched for an online version, but unlike 'Kumudam' or 'Vikatan' , they aren't online. Then I googled for a while and found a website to subscribe all magazines for delivery in US. Surprisingly, the website was coimbatore based.
http://mall.coimbatore.com
I've ordered from here earlier and I was very satisfied, so I confidently went ahead and subscribed couple of mags.

Coimbatore has largest textile, jewellery outlet in India

Kalyan Jewellers of the Kalyan group based in Kerala, famed for its jewellery and textile outlets, made it's entry into Tamil Nadu today by a grand opening of it's textile and jewellery outlet in Coimbatore. With 75,000 sq ft carpet area the outlet is the largest in India(that's something to be proud of, as Iam from coimbatore) and has spacious parking area with accommodation for 100 cars. But, the same Kalyan group is planning to open an outlet in Chennai in the near future. I believe that will be even bigger than the one in Coimbatore. At least coimbatore will hold the record for a while :-)

Presidential election issues

Today, when I was having lunch with my friends, we had a heated discussion on the presidential candidates and on their policies. When it came to the discussion of Social Security, I was more in favor of Bush and some of my friends were in favor of Kerry. I was doing some research on Internet and came up with the following resources which might help to understand the issues more clearly.

Washingtonpost
Money Magazine

Final Presidential Debate

I saw the last debate between Bush and Kerry last night, even though I wasn't feeling well. I got cold. Anyway, after having some sweet corn chicken soup (which I made for first time, and it came out OK) and my favorite Vicks NyQuil (this thing works fast on me, I felt lot better after 10 minutes) I sat and watched the full debate. In my opinion, Kerry was a better debater, in that he spoke well, clear and crisp. But I felt it was very polished and not so natural. Whereas Bush, looked to be speaking from his heart, and connected with the people well. Many polls recently put Kerry ahead of Bush. In my opinion, if Kerry wins, it will mainly be because of anti-incumbency factor.

Today in History: October 13

The cornerstone of the White House was laid on October 13, 1792 by George Washington. In 2004, on the same day, today, I laid the cornerstone for 'something' which will be revealed later.

Mani Ratnam directs Sachin

Sachin Tendulkar has agreed to appear in Mani Ratnam’s documentary for a social organization called Shakthi Foundation on physically challenged kids. The shooting commenced at Chennai Nungambakkam Tennis court yesterday. Apparently, another cricketer, Anil Kumble who has been actively involved with Shakthi Foundation had requested Sachin to appear in this documentary.

Presidential Debate: Season Finale

The latest polls from CNN/USA Today/GALLUP shows Kerry (49%) having lead over Bush (48%). Let’s see what happens tonight. The final debate, in Grand Canyon State, is going to be mainly on domestic issues like homeland security, education, economy, environment and health care(including stem cell research). I don't think Kerry will bring the name of ‘Superman’ Christopher Reeves in the debate tonight. Economists say both candidates' plans falls short in combating the problems that are impeding job growth: skyrocketing budget and trade deficits, and soaring costs for health care, oil and gas.

The Supreme One

Last night I saw the movie 'A Beautiful Mind' for the second time. Masterpiece, is the one word I have to describe the movie and Dr. John Nash. Dr. Nash looks everything in nature as a pattern, and tries to find an algorithm to describe the pattern. I, for one, believe in it 100%. There is nothing called coincidence or luck in this world. Everything has a pattern and happens for a reason. It’s funny, when I was in school I thought about the following which I thought was incredible. (Don’t ask me what my friends thought about me when I shared this with them). Imagine, at the micro level, an atom consisting of a nucleus and electrons rotating around it in an orbit. At the macro level, a solar system consisting of a sun and planets rotating around it in an orbit. Go further up, imagine a galaxy, say a spiral galaxy, where all the suns and stars and solar systems rotating around the galactic center. Maybe some day in future we might find that all the galaxies rotate around, just say, Universal Center. I was just wondering, if this whole universe was a big Personality (may be the Supreme God), and our solar system was just an atom of a cell in His body.

October Surprise

Second debate is over. There is a wide-ranging opinion on who won the debate, many of them leaning towards Kerry. I was just little surprised when Bush told that he too is not in favor of draft. I believe that a year or two in service will only help an individual to shape himself mentally and physically, to face the challenges of the world. Anyway, with the results of the second debate also leaning towards Kerry, many feel that unless there is some ‘October Surprise’, Kerry may have an upper hand and is favored to win the elections. The ‘Surprise’ of catching Osama Bin Laden just before the elections has been rumored so much, that it’s no more a surprise, and worse it might put the thought in the voter’s mind that it might be a staged event. How about this for a ‘Surprise’? What if, suddenly the US Army finds evidence of WMD in Iraq, just before the elections?

Should injured Sachin play in 2nd test

Sachin Tendulkar wants to play the second test against the Aussies in Chennai even though he has not fully recovered from his injury. He himself says he is 50-50 fit but still would like to play. Though it is a highly debatable thing, whether to play an injured batsman which by the way will never happen in a team like Australia, considering the performance of the top order batsman in both the innings of the first test it may not be such a bad idea to try Sachin. After all he is the guy who, in the middle of 1999 World Cup in England, was forced to return home due to the death of his father in Bombay, came back to score a century against Kenya. Can't question his commitment and passion towards cricket.

My Proposal

So, as expected, India lost the first test against Australia.

Sehwag, who clearly had an inside edge, was given lbw my Mr Bowden.
Sehwag, clearly showed his disappointment by brushing shoulders with the umpire, and now he has to pay 65% of his match fee as penalty for his 'mis-behavior'. This reminds me again, of some changes that has to be brought into cricket.

I propose 3 changes, which is sure to make the game of cricket more interesting.

(1) Challenge : The teams should be allowed 2 challenges. When the umpire gives a decision, which the team/coach feels is an incorrect decision, they should be allowed to challenge the decision. And third umpire should come into the picture.
(2) Distribute Field Restriction : One day matches has the field restriction for the first 15 overs. I believe making the field restriction more flexible, just say, make it 3 session of 5 overs each, and the fielding team captain can choose when to apply each of the 3 sessions. This will definitely make the game more interesting by having an additional strategy to think about.
(3) Timeout or Communication : The coach, should be able to communicate with the team by timeouts, say 2 for each team, or should be able to be in touch with the captain by wireless.

These 3 changes will definitely change the game for better and make it more interesting.

Presidential Debate : Reloaded

Today, George Bush and John Kerry meet again.

During a speech in Nashville, Bush's script called for him to say, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." But the words that came out of his mouth were, ""Fool me once, shame . . . shame on . . . you," followed by a long pause, then, "Fool me—can't get fooled again!"

Making final plans for a first presidential debate devoted largely to Iraq, John Kerry said Wednesday, "We should not have gone to war knowing the information that we know today."

Vice Presidential debate

At the Vice Presidential debate, I expected a straight forward answer for 3 important questions.

(1) What is the exit strategy for Iraq?
(2) What is the plan to increase domestic jobs?
(3) What is the plan to cut US Deficit?

Honestly, I did not get a comprehensive answer to any of the 3 questions.
If someone did, please brief me, I will try to understand.

In my opinion, as of today, neither Bush nor Kerry has a comprehensive exit strategy for Iraq.
It is a big mess in Iraq. There is absolutely no doubt about that.
Who has a better plan to fix the mess and exit gracefully?

Rather than talking about that, both Bush/Cheney and Kerry/Edwards were just accusing each other, pointing fingers.

If you have watched war movies you would have noticed one thing.
In battle scenes, when a company is under heavy enemy fire, or caught in an ambush, because of a mistake by a lieutenant, and when his captain or major, joins them amidst the chaos, he neither asks who was responsible for the mess nor sits there blaming and pointing fingers. He just thinks and works out a strategy to get the hell out of there.

I see the situation in Iraq as the same, in a macro level.
The priority now is to fix the mess and get the hell out of there.
You can blame, point fingers, fight, investigate, or do whatever later, when you are out of there.

But neither Bush/Cheney nor Kerry/Edwards thinks like that.

The next debate between Bush and Kerry is supposed to address questions (2) and (3) in-depth.
Let us wait and see if that happens.

Elin Nordegren

Elin Nordegren(swedish model) weds Tiger Woods in Barbados on Tuesday in front of 120 guests. To guard against intrusion, Woods spent a reported $1.5 million to book all 112 rooms at the luxurious Sandy Lane complex for nine nights. Still, he saved some cash when Oprah provided all the guests with free rental cars.

Elin Nordegren 
Something says me, Elin is going to be in the news often, in future.

Warne does it again

I woke up at 5.00 am today morning.
When I get up early morning, it means only one thing.
There is cricket on TV :-)

This is the frst test match between India and Australia, at Bangalore.
I saw the score in Internet, India was batting, I called dish network at 5.00 am and ordered India Vs Australia pay per view. It cost me $140.00.

As Iam typing this post, Shane warne did it again.
He bowled a super leg spin, deceiving VVS Laxman, and took his off stump off.
It pitched around leg stump and turned and took the off stump.
How often does he do that? Very often, trust me. That too in the last few overs of the day.

India is chasing Aussies 474 first innings score.
India is 140/6 now.
Still needs 135 to avoid follow on.

Before the match began, the forecast for Bangalore was, heavy thunderstorm for 3-4 days. Then I wished it should not rain and play spoil sport. Now, I wish we get some and rain, and help India. India is really missing Sachin Tendulkar.

Help save Aparajita

Aparajita Bhatia, 32, suffers from a rare blood disorder with factor X deficiency and active hepatitis C infection.
Her continued treatment over the last 14 years has depleted her family's modest financial means.

Her current treatment at New Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences involves regular blood transfusion at a cost of Rs 50,000 per month for at least a year.

What has compounded matters is that her father has had to take premature retirement since he is suffering from terminal stage IV cancer.

Aparajita needs financial assistance and appeals for help on humanitarian grounds.

Cheques payable to 'The Director, AIIMS' may be sent directly to her at D-5A, Single Storey, Vijay Nagar, Delhi 110009.

Source Rediff Help save Aparajita

Shark Tale

I saw the movie Shark Tale which opened this weekend.
Very funny movie. Will Smith and Robert DeNiro were awesome.
Just came to know that Shark Tale opened this weekend as the highest October box office draw in history.

Mount St. Helens volcano webcam

Heard about Mount St. Helens volcano?
It's expected to erupt today.
Live webcam Mount St. Helens VolcanoCam

Post-debate polls.Kerry leads by 2 percent

Post-debate polls are out.
Kerry-Edwards leads Bush-Cheney.
It's now 47 percent for Kerry and 45 percent for Bush.

October 2 Gandhi Jayanthi

You must be the change you wish to see in the world. -Mahatma Gandhi.

Tips for skin care from CHANEL

Got this information from one of my friend.

Cleansers
CHANEL Précision Système Hydration Le Lait Nourishing Cleansing Milk, 5.0 fl. oz. $35.00

Toners
CHANEL ACTIVATEUR JEUNESSE Time Fighting Revitalizing Lotion $32.50

Intensives
CHANEL Éclat Originel Radiance Revealing Serum, 1.0 oz. $65.00
CHANEL Performance Anti-Taches Dark Spot Corrector, 1.0 fl. oz. $75.00

Essential Moisturisers
CHANEL ULTRA CORRECTION CREAM Anti-Wrinkle Restructuring Cream SPF 10, 1.7 oz. $70.00

Moisturisers for night
CHANEL ULTRA CORRECTION NUIT Anti-Wrinkle Restructuring Night Cream, 1.7 oz. $80.00

Sol for special needs
CHANEL CONTRÔLE IMPERFECTIONS Blemish Control, .5 oz. $30.00

Eye and Lip
CHANEL Ultra Correction Eye, .5 oz. $55.00

IAF sets up first foreign base

One of my friend, Vasukh, just forwarded me a link.
Looks like Indian Air Force has set up first foreign base at Farkhor, about 10 km outside Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/870253.cms

Aussie tour of India

The 15-man squad for the first two Tests of the four-Test series against Australia beginning next Wednesday, has been announced.

There was much speculation about Sachin Tendulkar's ( averages 63.33 in seven Tests against the Aussies when playing at home ) place in the squad because of of a tennis elbow. But he is IN :-)

The first Test begins in Bangalore on October 6, 2004.

The Squad : Sourav Ganguly (captain), Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, V V S Laxman, Aakash Chopra, Mohammad Kaif, Yuvraj Singh, Parthiv Patel (wk), Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, Murali Karthik, Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan

After the first debate

Day one after the first debate.
After thinking about the debate over a night, I now feel that the debate was "soft"
There was no "knock-out" punch.

I thought the issues were not covered in-depth.

Some of my friends also echo the same.

I learned something new from FOX News today morning. It seems that the ladies cannot wear white dress after labor day. While First Lady Mrs. Laura Bush was wearing half-white, Mrs. Teresa Heinz Kerry was wearing white. Mrs. Bush looked surprised seeing Mrs. Kerry on stage.

Transcript: First Presidential Debate

This is very interesting website. Open Debates : George Farah