Latest Updates

Baught a (used) Maruti 800 this Saturday. Medison Blue in colour, 1999 model, 76K Km running. Will post the snaps soon.

Also travelled to my city of origin Nagpur to attend a friend's marriage. Travelled to Amravati on the way to attend a family function.

Back to cricket! Missed a lot of cricket due to these trips :-) The Aus-SA series is generating good interest. SA put up a good fighting show in the first match but are looking down the barrel (As Expected) in the second match. The Australians are consistently scoring many more runs in their second innings as compared to the first - A sign of true champions. In Brad Hodge and Mike Hussey, they have found the next generation middle order. They along with Michael Clarke, I think, will tore the bowling attacks of the world apart in the decade to come. Talking about their current matches, the SA is putting up a real good fight but I am sure the Australians are going to edge them over. SA have a major problem in the sense that they do not have a match winning spinner while Aus have two. This will make a huge impact on the second innings.

In the meanwhile, India as expected, comfortably won the third test match with Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka also missed the killer instinct when they allowed scores of 97/5 and 102/5 to go past 300 every innings. That spoke a lot about the strength of the Indian lower and lower-middle order and is a major reaosn why I think India will remain a force to reckon with in the coming months. With away series to go against Pakistan West Indies, South Africa & New Zealand and a home series against England, this seems to be a fascinating season for Indian cricket fans.

It has not doubt begun on a wrong note with the whole Ganguly affair. The latest move to select him for the Pak series might have two justifications. One - give him a nice farewell (I would be glad if this is the one). Second - Politics. West Bengal assembly elections are coming up in the next 3-4 months and Left is a supporter of the central government in which Pawar is a minister. No doubt the Left who are desparately looking for a continuation of (mis)governance in Bengal, want to score a few brownie points and win a crazy crowd support. Sucks, ain't it?

The Pakistan series is gonna be one heck of a tour. I think on current form both teams are equal. I would say the test series will be a 1-1 draw and one day series is too close for me to predict. Lets see what happens.

The BJP in the meanwhile is at its lowest with charges of corruption, sex abuse etc etc hitting them hard at their 25 year celebrations. With Advani making way for another leader, there is no consensus on the man to follow him. I would blame the current situation on lack of vision and inability to keep Sangh in control. I would love to see either Pramod Mahajan or Arun Jaitley named as the President as soon as possible.

Till next,
Good Bye.

Politics, Corruption, Media & Stocks

A few days ago, 11 Indian parliamentarians were caught red handed on camera while taking bribes to ask specific questions in Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha. Shocking, as the news came, there were many reactions and responses to the "Breaking" news. Most of them cried foul about the way all the politicians and parliamentarians work and earn. Many to the ridiculous extent like the one below : I heard this from one friend: "Yaar, I wish the bomb hoax would have been a real bomb. It would have killed all the corrupts". Quite a shameless comment, I think. While thinking about the whole catch-bribery-on-the-cam operation, I came across a really nice article in the Sakal newspaper. It talked about the 11 corrupt parliamentarians and how the media was using them to create a wrong impression of the entire political establishment. The argument was that it is not correct to generalise such things. Agreed that those 11 people were corrupt and their acts must be denounced. However, the parliament has 8-900 members. And just because a few were caught on camera, it does not mean that all of them are equally corrupt and the whole system is rotten. It will be very unfair to many of them.

In the meanwhile, we really need to understand the role of media in a society. Such sting operations are used to increase the channel ratings. Of course they expose a corrupt angle of India's political system. But then, do those same channels spend some time showing the positive side of the coin? The Indian governance system is one of the best democratic and respected establishment in the world. Should not these things too be imprinted on the minds of the youth? What pride is the young generation going to have in the country, if the only thing they see on TV is such targeted yellow journalism? I think this is quite a serious allegation and the TV media must take steps to ensure that they behave in a responsible manner in the society and not just increase their own viewership. As compared, the print media, in my opinion is really good and I have begun to prefer newspapers like Indian Express and Sakal, a lot more than any news channel.

Talking about corruption, I think it starts at the base, with every citizen. Let's take a common example. You don't carry a driving licenense one day. A cop catches you. Fine is 400/-. He offers you a short cut: A bribe of 100 and you are let off. How many people would take the pains of paying 400, going home, producing the license, and so on? Is the person giving the bribe not as guilty as the one accepting it? This will be seen in so many places like passport verification, customs check after foreign visits, & so on. Unless the corruption is driven out of the mind of the common citizen, it cannot be driven out of the whole system.

In the meanwhile, I got 50 shares allocated from the ICICI bank FPO. Its the first time I got shares in an IPO and so I am hapy. However, the immediate returns are not as high as the other issues, so it will be interesting to see if it makes sense to sell these shares right now. In general, the stock market is on a huge roll. It has set aside all speculations for the last few months and set newer records every month. Let's see how it behaves from now on up until the Year End. That will be a big test for the emerging Indian Markets. Happy Trading :-)

Cheers,
- Tosh

C r i c k e t

Its that time of the year, you know. December. The season of cricket. So many international teams are busy at this time of the year.

Let's start with the India Sri Lanka series at home. With the 1st test drawn and second easily in India's pocket, it will be interesting to see the approach of Indian batsmen in the third. Will they attack or defend? Will they try to squueze in 2-0 or try to defend 1-0. Looking at the current form, it seems unlikely that SL will be able to beat India. Now about the second test.

It all started with the century by Tendulkar. There is no doubt that this country has been hit with the Tendulkar mania since that day on. Every TV channel and newspapers carried big stories on him on the day he became the first person to score 35 test centuries. In my opinion, focussing too much on such individual records is not correct. And especially when it is done with a bias, it sucks. Take for example, the time when we won the test series in Zimbabwe a month or two ago. It was India's first win outside the subcontinent in about 15 years. Did the media glorify this fact as much? Or, the time when Kumble took his 30th 5-wicket haul in the 2nd test - The only Indian to have done it so many times (By far & Long). Did the media sensationalise this personal achievement? No. Why? Because Sachin sells more than Kumble or sometimes even more than Team India. These facts certainly gives a sad impression of the India media.

Media apart, it was a good overall show by the Indian team. Sachin, Kumble, Pathan, Bhajji, Gnguly, Yuvraj, Dravid and in the end Dhoni all played well sometime or the other. Kumble was no doubt the star performer. It is just impossible to imagine an India test win without him contributing. He will leave a big hole when he stops playing. Other Indian bowlers need to pick up wickets more frequently before that happens.

Gambhir and Agarkar were disappointing to say the least. I will put my money on these two playing very well in the third match as that will be a very important match for their careers. Gambhir is just not getting decent starts and Agarkar not getting the consistency that he found so well in the one dayers. Agarkar is my favourite fast bowlers nowadays. His confidence after returning to the one day team was amazing. His ability to bowl the yorker and to reverse the old ball is spectacular. However his consistency in tests remains a big question mark. He will have to do much more if he wants to retain his place in the team where he will soon face fierce competition from guys like Zaheer, RPSingh etc.

On the dropping of Ganguly. Let's say that he played very well in this match before saying that he does not deserve a place in this team right now. The time is ripe for him to hang up his boots with pride. His career had finished the moment he took the press conference after the century in Zimbabwe. However, I do feel that it was wrong to drop him for the 3rd test. He should have been told that this series would be his last. Or else, he should not have been picked in the squad for the series. India have a tradition of looking down at their past captains starting with Azharuddin and now at Ganguly. Even Steve Waugh was dropped from the Aussie team, but that was with pride. He was not cornered the way Azhar and Ganguly were. It will be interesting to see how well Saurav plays in domestic cricket to plan a comeback now, which seems near to impossible.

Another gripping series is on in Aus with SA. SA looked a handsome ODI team but tests are different. And very difficult in Aus. I predict that Aus will crush SA without much trouble. But SA have some new and exciting players to watch out for and their fight will be interesting to follow.

In another series, Pakistan defeated England very easily in ODIs as well as tests. It shows that the game is a great leveller. Now so long ago, England was branded as next best only to Aus, only to be mauled in Pakistan. Yousuf Youhana (I will always call him by this name) and Inzamam Ul Haq, in the meanwhile, continue to impress with their every knock. Inzy by far is my most favourite cricketer on the planet right now. The command, ease & elegance with which he plays is quite beautiful and at the same time his consistency is amazing. He is on a huge high right now and I hope he stays there for long. When he came on to the international scene, he was branded by Pak as the answer to India's Sachin. I think with his recent consistency and captaincy, he has definitely outclassed both Lara and Sachin.

That's all for now. More after the 3rd test.
Cheers,
- Tosh

The Other Side of the Coin

Mother nature. It can be beatiful, breathtaking, wonderful, and enjoyable. However, it can be fatal. The past few months have seen some really horrible natural disasters in this world. And I am speaking only for India and America. There must be many more of them, which I have not even heard about.

First came the Tsunami. Then the rains and the floods. And the latest killer is the Hurricane Kartina on the Gulf Coast of the USA. It will be very interesting to find out if the Green House effect or the pollution is in any way linked to any of these. Even if there is a small possibility of that being true, then we, as responsible citizes of this planet, must take drastic measures to control pollution. It is for the good of our and our future generations. It will always be a raging debate as to how much pollution should we (and can we) avoid. Less pollution means more efforts and less comforts. While I agree that it is not possible to eliminate pollution completely, at the same time I also want to make the point that we need to devise smart and simple ways to avoid whatever little pollution we can. An example is to use a bicycle instead of a bike whenever commuting, wherever possible.

That having said, I want to show you an email that I got as a forward from someone regarding the comparison of Hurrican Katrina with the Mumbai rans. The email is pasted below. Below that is my response to that email. The email really made me go crazy. As I have said, this email was a classic example of how readers can be fooled by using skillful words, stats and an unfair conclusion. As we keep reading such things in the future, we must reserve the conclusion of the topic till we have seen both the sides of the coin. Thats the point I wanted to make.

The original Email :
Subject: Mumbai Rain Vs. Katrina Hurricane in New orleans
18 inches of rain in new Orleans due to hurricane katrina...
37.1 inches of rain in Mumbai (July 27th)

population of new Orleans... 484,674
population of Mumbai.... 12,622,500

deaths in new Orleans within 48 hours of katrina...1000s
deaths in Mumbai within 48hours of rain.. 370

number of people to be evacuated in new Orleans...
entire city.
number of people evacuated in mumbai...10,000

Cases of shooting and violence in new orleans...Countless
Cases of shooting and violence in mumbai.. NONE

Time taken for US army to reach new orleans... 48hours
Time taken for Indian army and navy to reach mumbai...12hours

status 48hours later...new orleans is still waiting for relief, army and electricity
status 48hours later..mumbai is back on its feet and is business is as usual

USA...world's most developed nation
India...third world country..

JAI HIND.

My reply :

Its easy to forward emails like this. You should do some more
research before sending this thing out.

Lets see what happened in Mumbai and then in NO. Mumbai got
rains. The record before July 27th was 300* mms per day. On
July 27th it was 900* mms. Thats a lot of rain-water. All
drainage systems choked and water level raised on the streets.
It was unplanned, unknown and shocking. Thats why lives were
lost on the streets.

On the GUlf Coast in the US there was a STORM. It was a
hurricane. Not just rains. What that means is very high wind
speeds. Winds that uproot houses. Winds that break glasses of
most of the buildings. Winds that carry with them (to a height
of a few meters) cars, trees, whatever they find. And worst of
all, winds that drive the sea water into the coastal cities.
It was known, planned and hence many people evacuated the
city. Those who were rich and had cars left the city before
the hurricane hit. The poor ones stayed and were drowned.

New Orleans has these Levis (I don't know the correct spelilng
but basically they are some very powerful and force-resistant
walls which protect the city from the sea water). These are
needed because NO is located BELOW sea level. Probably whether
or not - and how much if at all- Mumbai is below the sea level
and how much is NO below the sea level would have been an
interesting stat but not surprisingly, it is missing from the
email! So the Hurricane broke these Levis and the water from
the Sea entered the city - a city which is below sea level.
Note, this is not just the rain water, it is water from the
sea, driven by storm winds moving at a speed of hundreds of
KMs an hour. In Mumbai, there were only rain waters.

This email is a classic example of how to fool readers using
irrelevant stats. The stats are correct but they are not
enough and have been interpreted in a wrong way.

Please tell me the address of the authour and the source of
this email. And do not draw conclusions unless you see both
sides of the coin.

Apologies for marking a reply-all but I just couldn't resist it.

- Ashutosh

My Ongoing US Visit

Hi There. Long time no posting!
Yeah I actually forgot about blogging :-)
Since the last few weeks I have been on a client visit to the USA. I am staying at Pacific Inn which is a nice little apartment. It does not have the feeling of being in an overly crowded huge hotel but has all the needed facilities. I had stayed at the same place for a few weeks last year too.

I am a member of an offshore team for a client based in Bellevue. They have a couple of products in the market. So far, my company Persistent was involved in working on the old product. Since this month, we have also started working on the second product, which is why I am here. Another colleague will join in a couple of days.

The climate here is changing fast. It was the last few days of summer when I arrived. The rains have now started. The fall will be showing its beauty in a few weeks. And I am hoping badly that I can see some beautiful colours of trees before I head off back to India. The weather in Seattle is generally cloudy for the next 7-8 months. It rarely sees sunshine during this period. Due to this gloomy and sad weather, Seattle has the highest suicide rate in the country! (I don't know if this is actually true!)

That apart, its a very nice place to stay in, as I have learned from a few of my friends here. Its a beautiful place with the snow covered Mount Rainier standing nearby. It is also not as expensive as the other happening cities in the US are. It houses many software comanies including Microsoft and Amazon and hence there are many Indian faces to be seen everywhere. An Indian store named Mayuri is very famous. Its the place from where we get the Rotis that are such an essntial part of the diet. This part of the country also has an awesome bus service which makes it very easy for non residents like me to travel.


Since there is not much else to do here, I will be blogging with much higher frequency than before. I already have a couple of subjects lined up on which I plan to start writing. My next few blogs will be on sports and books.

Till Then,
Cheers,

- Tosh

Hi There! 

Weekly Update

Here’s a log of what all happened in the current week.

STOCKS : Since I started investing in May 2005, this was the best week for my stocks. A lot of profit and an IPO subscription. My Allahabad Stock has been doing pretty well consistently. However, it shot up this week after it was ranked as the second best PSU bank. The good result also helped the boost. The most special was the leap of Radhe Developers. Just when I had started doubting my decision of buying this one, they declared results. A profitability of more than 70 % ! No wonder the stock rose almost 100% this week. I also subscribed to IDFC IPO. I am hoping that I get allocated.

Good news on the work front too. We had been working to optimize an OLAP query since the past few weeks. This week we got a small breakthrough.

The weekdays are over and the weekend now starts. A movie (most likely) Sarkar and a trip outside Pune is planned. Equally interesting is the cricket match going on : The first test between England and Australia. Though England did well in the first two sessions yesterday, Aus are well on top of the match right now. Kevin Pieterson played magnificently yesterday. Australia beat England easily in the last two one days to win the series and now look really confident to easily defend the Ashes.

I have been reading a book called “Vyakti Ani Valli” by P. L. Deshpande. An excellent book written by a great man! Highly recommended for those who haven’t yet read it. I actually hated the chapter “Ek chaukoni Ghar”, though. But overall, the book is a classic.

Philosophy

In a discussion that we had sometime back, we came across a situation where there was a comparison between two persons/families. Later when I thought about it, I found it extremely unfair to compare individuals. And the reasons are as follows :

- Different people have different expectations/objectives of their own lives. Given that, it is not correct to judge a person X from the point of view of person Y.
- Everyone sets his/her own rules that govern the way he lives. When the rules for two players are different, there cannot be a winner or a looser. The game is not at all a competition.
- Whenever a person X takes an action A, there are many reasons because of which he takes that action. These are his style of living, his preferences or definition of correctness and joy and also the constraints that he has imposed on himself. All these reasons for a person X can rarely be understood by a person Y.

While thinking about this I remembered a cool quote that I had come across sometime back. It says :
"Never get into a rat race. Because, even if you win, you are still a Rat!"

Some similar thought is also expressed in the Interview with God, a nice presentation, I think. Many of the quotes in the presentation are my favourites.

Cheers,
- Tosh

C r i c k e t : Latest

Hi Guys,

With Wimbledon and the Confederations cup over, all eyes are set on
the most awaited Ashes series in the history. Australia proved why
they are a champion side in the Natwest Championship after coming down
from two straight defeats from England and Bangladesh. However, there is no
doubt that they are playing far below their potential. Its the first
time for the past few years that this best and dominant team appears
to be losing its shine, slowly but surely.

While batting has been Australia's better department always, they have
failed miserably with the bat this season. This could be a temporary
lack of form from the big players like Heyden Ponting and Gilchrist,
or it could also be the start of end of the older players in their
team. The relatively newer players like Hussey and Symonds have been
stealing the show of late. Clarke, who was a big hit last season is off colour
nowadays.

Bowling has been a common weakness of this team. McGrath and Warne are
on their way of ageing out and Warne's reluctance to play in the ODI
puts a question mark over their bowling strngth - as could be seen from
the recent one day matches.

Its a funny game this, Cricket. A few days ago Australians had made
lots of comments about the England openers. They had specifically
pointed out Trescothick saying he had never fired against Australia.
Come Thursday and he cracked a smashing century! I saw the yesterday's
match and it was totally and completely dominated by England. It just
goes on to prove that England is now a huge force to reckon with in
International Cricket, the first time it has happened in more than
10-15 years. It has made the remaining two matches of the Natwest
series very interesting since Aus will go all out for a kill.

All said and done, its a perfect setup for the Ashes. I just love it
when someone kicks the Aussies, because they had become a giant and
unbeatable force for way too long. Thanks goodness England are
challenging them this big! Its good for the game.

Some comments about the recent changes in the One day rules by the ICC

1. The reasoning put forward is to bring some change in the age old
rules and also to increase the popularity of the game. I have lots of
objections here. The game is already gaining in popularity. Popularity
of ODIs has really not been an issue. Record crowds attend one day
matches at almost every venue in the world. Regarding the test
matches, their popularity has soared over the past few years I think.
The number of draws has reduced dramatically in the 4-5 years which
has led to a steady rise in the Test matches' following. Then were
these changes made just for the sake of it ?

2. The Powerplay. Now the field restrictions will be on for 20 overs
instead of 15. This I think is totally ridiculous. All they are trying
to do is to make life difficult for the bowlers and easier for the
batsmen with the hope that the audience will love the scoring. But its
simply not fair to the bowlers. All the rule changes in the past few
decades have been in favour of the batsmen. While the 15 over
restrictions makes it a lot of fun, 20 overs is a bit too much I feel.

What say others?

Cheers,
- Tosh

The First Posting...

Hi People.
I have been reading up a few blogs of some friends, relatives, etc. Thought of starting a blog of my own where I can post my thoughts, stories, favourites, experiences, advices and so on.

From the last few years, I have been experiencing a strong desire to write and write something meaningful. In this aspect, I think Blog is an excellent place to start with. Keep watching for a lot of serious stuff here in the future.

I love Cricket and there will be many postings here on Cricket. Other areas of interest are Politics, science, astronomy, Stock Market, Books, Sports in general and so on...

In the meanwhile, let me refer the people whose blogs I have been reading and who introduced me to this amazing virtual world. Here's the list :
http://namoona.blogspot.com/ [Mahesh Soundalgekar]
http://www.blurty.com/users/ashutosh [Ashutosh Joshi]
http://hitagooj.blogspot.com [Vivek Shende]
http://letsreason.rediffblogs.com [Rhishikesh Agashe]
http://outsourcee.blogspot.com [Sudarshan Purohit]
http://kharadpatti.blogspot.com [Mukul Joshi]

Thanks to you all,
- Tosh