Biggest B'day party in HYD !

Last Sunday, 24-04-2011, I have been to the biggest party in Hyderabad ! A birthday party celebrated by close to 45k people in a cricket stadium at Uppal, Hyderabad. Sachin Tendulkar turned 38... But SACHIN IS IMMORTAL ! As they say "age is just a mind over matter, if you do not mind it doesn't matter!!". This is definitely true in Sachin's case.. His passion for the game is unmatched...



Huge banners said it all... crowd cheered every run that came off his bat, yelled every time the ball went to him while fielding... gone mad for a few seconds when he fielded at the mid wicket boundary fence for a ball (I repeat - only for ONE BALL)... roof would have blown away with the noise made when he dived across to stop a single!!... sang birthday song... took snaps...






Majority of the crowd supported Mumbai Indians!! such is his charisma. I doubt if any other cricketer (or any other sportsman for that matter) has such huge fan following where ever he goes. Since I don't really believe in the existence of god, I hate when somebody calls him god. But yes... I do believe in his supernatural abilities & skills !! Really happy to have watched the master bat for over 8 overs and score 28 off 24.

A lot has already been said and written about this great man... and a lot more will be for sure in future... but, the more said, the less it will be !!

Racing God is back !

I have been itching to pen down my thoughts on the mega/super/block-buster/ultimate comeback of Michael Schumacher aka Schumi :-) & finally here I am !

I was first introduced to this sport by one of my (now) old buddies :P Srinu way back in the year 2002 during the summer break. Though I haven't followed it much for the next 2years, it got on to my head in past 3-4 seasons. Having watched Schumi rule the world's most glamorous sport for few successive years, I couldn't digest the fact that he retired so early (early for me... as it was just 2 or hardly 3 seasons of Schumi for me).

His much hyped comeback this season as a replacement for injured Massa has put a smile on my face and I was on cloud 9. Believe me I was driving my bike like never before for the next 2days :P. But unfortunately his comeback hit the road block as Schumi was not able to get himself fully fit to race in such a short duration. Heart break for fans like me :-(

Never mind... I hope this time the plan will definitely materialize and I can see him on race track again ! But yeah... he will not be in REDS.. still... WHITES are not really bad. Once again ROSS - SCHUMI will spill their magic all around the world :-) It will be a cut throat competition next season as there are 13 teams and more than half a dozen prospective champions !! Alonso, Massa, Hamilton, Button, Rubens & of course the baby Schumi (Vettel).... Its going to be a cracker of a season. I just wish to see Schumi on podium at least once :-) If he manages to win the drivers championship(the chances are very unlikely), then, then there is nothing like it !! this come back would be considered next only to Lance Armstrong's.

The sadness of KIMI's absence this season is overshadowed by SCHUMI's come back !!

Hit the Top gear.... Go all guns ... Go Full throttle... :-) GO Schumi :-)


Just in case if any one of you is wondering why I am a crazy Schumi maniac :P Here is a factfile -> courtesy - ESPNSTAR.COM

17K in HYDERABAD ?? !!

As I write this post India is crawling towards the target of 251 set by Australia. Match is nicely poised at this stage with India at 134/4 in 29overs, needing 117 more in 21overs... thats close to 5.5RPO.

Sachin was out at 40 sometime back... which means he is just short of 7runs to cross 17k !! another feather in his cap. Next ODI is in HYDERABAD... this is where Sachin made his highest ODI score of 186* few years back against NZ. Hopefully he will cross 17k in his next match... HYD crowd will go crazy when he does that.

Rise of the Phoenix

F1 season has begun! 

If at all you are a follower of F1, you might be aware that Honda has opted out of F1 because of slowdown. The axe was hanging on the necks of almost all its employees specially the two drivers of Honda F1 20

08 season - Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button. Ever since this news was officially out way back in Nov 08 it was a huge suspense whether someone is going to buy this team. There were few rumors of takeover by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim and the Virgin head Richard Branson. Finally late february or so it was announced that Ross Brawn (former Ferrari principal also Ho

nda F1's 2008) has 

bought it and the team will be renamed Brawn GP ! Finally a sigh of relief for Button and Barri

chello. A new team was formed overnight with the old management..... remember there are hardly any changes in the team except its name. Ross Brawn is an innate talent in F1 history. Having worked with teams like Benneton, Ferrari he has a huge experience 

in racing. He is also considered to be the brain behind the 7 time world champion Schummi ! 

Till y'day morning the fate of Brawn GP was still unclear. No one even knew whether they are participating in this season. Brawn has made an official statement y'day before Friday' practise that 

they WILL race this season ! But they dont have an

y sponsors yet :-( They had real tough times and even tough times ahead.... hey wait .... here comes the flamboyant Richard Branson. Virgin became the major sponsor for Brawn and even the label of Virgin was imprinte

d on the car y'day night !! and today morning it was the Aus GP qualifying session ! 

Guess what made me write all this stuff ? Today's qualifying was dominated by BRAWN drivers - Button and Rubens ! In what was amazing qualifying BRAWN made it up 1, 2 wh

ich means they are going to race tomorrow from the start of the grid. Button took the pole. Seldom you get to see this kind of stuff. It was aweful ! Whr are these giant teams? the so called front runners for constructors ? Ferrari, Mclaren, BMW, Renault etc.. ? these 4 teams were reigning the world of F1 for the past few decades. Looks like change has come to F1 too... small teams making it count. But F1 by itself is highly unpredicable... things change overnight ! Nevertheless ....this was an amazing start by Brawn and I hope(Massa hopes !) that they continue doing so to kick the a***s of Ferrari and Mclaren. 

Brawn has already set the pace in qualifying. It would be interesting to watch if they can continue the same in tomorrow's race! Looks like they are the strongest contenders this season unless the Ferraris and Mclarens work seriously on their engines and the car aerodynamics for the forthcoming races. Cheers Ross Brawn..... 

Mumbai... a city that never sleeps

One night... 9 serials blasts... close to 200 dead & over 300 severely injured... hundreds of hostages... NSG, Police, Army, Navy are on ground zero... LIVE coverage in almost every TV channel..... 60hrs ON. The city was gripped in terror... but the life continues. What was called one of the biggest, strongest, well planned and most effective attacks in the Indian democratic history. The plan was executed to perfection. Interestingly... there are no demands from terrorists - no ransom, no demands to free the so called Jihadi's, absolutely none. The mission was to claim as many lives as possible.

Bombay is well known as the financial capital of India & for obvious reasons it 'was, is & will be' always the primary target for terrorists. After 1993 blasts, the Mumbaikars have lived in peace for few years. But the serenity & calm were taken over by a storm called 'blasts' over the past 2-3 years, courtesy terrorism. This city has taken quite a few blows in the recent past. I truly bow to all of them living in Mumbai from the bottom of my heart for their spirit. No matter how severe the magnitude & intensity of the attacks are..... the city comes to normal the very next day as if nothing has happened ! Call it thats the way of living or say they have got used to these kind of attacks. But one thing is for sure..... they are brave, certainly. The rest of the nation came to a standstill but Mumbai kept moving. A mumbaikar is no less than a soldier, he goes to war everyday. None of the blasts can take away the spirit of Mumbai & Mumbaikars.

The stock price of Indian Hotels has tumbled by over 15% in friday's trade ! Sectors like Tourism, Aviation & Hospitality are the most susceptible to these kind of crises. No wonder why. Chance to white wash England in the ongoing ODI series has gone down. Test series too is under threat. T20 Champion's League is postponed. F**K terrorism.

Time and again terror strikes... & each time it strikes it takes away few hundreds of innocent lives..........BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM. But the government is still sleeping. If there is one field that needs immediate attention, then it has to be terrorism(not global warming, not industrialization, not a nuclear treaty, not power, not education, not money... it has to be the fight against terrorism). No active measures were taken. Political parties keep cribbing on silly things like....(u know what are they) but no one is bothered about terrorism. Voices are heard on TV sets for a maximum of 2 days after these attacks happen & ppl tend to forget these as something new pops up! Then they remember to bring some stringent rules & strengthen the judiciary. Take my word..... the same thing is going to repeat as the next term central elections are within the sight. People will be mostly seen fighting in the media throwing verbal attacks at one another. I am sure these meets, talks & bonds with neighboring countries are not going to work out. 'The' most important thing to be done as the first step to protect our citizens from these silly & cowardly acts is to 'work on improving the infrastructure & intelligence sources'. 'Actions speak louder than words'..... please wake up....... we don't want INDIA to be still a developing country.

I am sure, this real story will be very soon projected on the silver screen(the only +ve thing about these blasts). There are already few movies on this genre this season(Mumbai meri jaan, Aamir, A wednesday .... to name a few) & most of them were blockbuster hits. Get ready for another dose probably next season.

A rocking week

Last week was full of drama,glamor,glitter,action,class,thrills,suspense & adrenaline rush ! The 3rd test match between Ind & Aus was just too good if you are a Hyderabadi or a Delhite. Initially there were 2 double tons for the very first time in the history of Indian cricket - one from Gambhir's bat & the other from Laxman's blade. Laxman's knock was as usual a classy one, full of drives all around the ground. It happened time and again. Just when the knife is on the throat of VVS, he delivers a wonderful knock & silences all the critics!! This time it was no different. There were many debates on India's fab 4 before the beginning of this Border-Gavaskar series.

On day 5, after TEA of the 3rd Test there came a news which almost shook the complete cricket crazy nation - "Anil Kumble announces retirement !!!". I feel Anil has done a right thing by retiring - not because he is 38, but bcoz he has lost that spark in his bowling ever since he has taken over the captaincy. It was shocking as no one was expecting it to come so early. Nevertheless, I am sure his 19 years service to the INDIAN cricket will be remembered forever and he will remain as a source of inspiration to many upcoming young bowlers. The best part of his career is that he was never ever involved in any kind of controversies ! Its a known fact that, when it comes to cricket, Sachin is still treated as God in India. He has overshadowed almost every other player. We miss Sachin if he is not there in the squad. Lets see if we are going to miss Anil from tomorrow :( Next test match is supposedly Sourav dada's last test match. So another farewell speech is in the offing :( But I sincerely feel he should not retire so early, at least from tests. Test matches is all about having a good temperament & patience. and I think dada still has it in him. Sourav is known more for his captaincy than his skills & will be remembered forever as one of the strategist, as a thinking captain. Dhoni is going to takeover his legacy(not from Kumble or Dravid.... from Sourav!).

Out came the newest sensation, the wonder kid, the prodigy - Saina Nehwal ! This 16 year old girl has already created a storm in the world of Badminton. After reaching Semis in the Beijing Olympics she has won two back to back championships & now she has also won the world junior badminton championship. She is definitely going great guns.... jaise guru(Gopichand) waise sishya! Kudos young lady.... keep the spirit alive.... you still have a long way to go! Another Hyderabadi pro in the making. Hyderabad has stampeded its position in two major sports - BADMINTON & CHESS. Badminton is one of those sports which I play & love it to the core..... so the joy of being a Hyderabadi is even more ! I have absolutely no doubt about her creeping into the top 5 in the next few days. Its just a matter of time ..... she is already @ 12 !!

Then came the RACE DAY ! Huhuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh !

BRAZIL calling......! This race is considered as the best race in the history of Motor Racing by many people. I feel proud to have watched it LIVE completely (@ midnight 12 IST) even without missing a single lap!! Believe me guys.... it was AWESOME.

Hamilton arrives with a comfortable 7 point lead over Massa. Everyone believed this time only a miracle can steal away the driver's championship from Hamilton. F1 2007 season's last race was also @ Brazil & it has decided the fate of championship. This time around it was a repeat of 2007. But there was slight difference.... last time Kimster(of Ferrari) has snatched victory from Hamilton(of McLaren) & this time it was the other way around.... Hamilton(of McLaren) has pulled the championship from the jaws of Massa(of Ferrari). Massa was at pole and Hamilton was at 5th & Hamiltion needed to finish just 5th to win the title(no matter where Massa finishes) & it was a must win for Massa. There were at least a dozen twists in this race. The end result has become highly unpredictable with each lap! It started with a slight drizzle, so all the team came out with intermediate tyres then changed to dry tyres after few laps as the weather became normal. Few pit stop errors & bad driving from Trulli costed him 5-6 places & Alonso once again showed his class to reach 2nd spot ahead of Kimi!!! After a lot of interesting laps the real drama happened. Hamilton was comfortable at 4th position. 5more laps to go..... in comes rain ! All Cars into pits to change the tyres except one ! That one was Timo Glock(of Toyota) & he decided the fate of this year's championship. 1 more lap to go..... Massa inching closer to the chequered flag.... Hamilton slowly cruising away at 4th position to win the championship. Rober Kubica(of BMW) was a lap down and was just behind Hamilton but still tried to overtake him ! Right behind Hamilton is Sebastian Vettel(of Torro Rosso). Hamilton lost his nerves and went to the insider corner... Vettel took the opportunity to overtake him!! and has done that with ease. The whole scene changed in less than 5 seconds. Suddenly Hamilton is down to 6th from 4th ! 4th is still Glock who decided to stay on track with dry tyres. Meanwhile the top 3(Massa, Alonso & Kimi) have finished the race(almost 30secs ahead of Hamilton & Vettel). Then came the last turn of the the last lap of the race...... this was truely nerve wrecking! F1 @ its very best. Timo Glock has slowed down just before the chequered flag and let Hamilton finish 5th :( All the celebration is Ferrai camp were shattered in seconds. I still doubt if Glock has done it purposefully. Massa wins the race but Hamilton celebrates !


In all..... it was a fabulous week. Hey guys... Renault is planning for a F1 road show in Delhi this Sunday. They are expecting to draw a crowd of approximately 3 lakhs!!! Now thats HUGE....This is going to be a mind blowing one. Now I wish I am a Delhite ! :-)

Bill Gates clicks on "LOG OFF"

Its been quite some time now that Bill Gates thought of bidding farewell to Microsoft. He's been in charge of Microsoft for over 3 decades now. He is one of the best business men the mighty US has produced. Now he called it quits! He has topped the Forbes list consecutively for over 13yrs. We all know him as the world's richest man. But very few people know about the other side of this legend. He along with his wife Melinda Gates has started a charity organization named Bill & Melinda Gates foundation. Mr. & Mrs. Gates will be working full time for this good cause from now on.

Almost every one is aware of the cold war between Steve Jobs & Bill Gates. I have been always a huge fan of Steve Jobs. "Bill Gates always wanted to be an innovator but remained to be a Business man, Steve Jobs always wanted to be a Business Man but remained to be an Innovator!!" Mind you...by saying this I am not degrading Bill Gates! He is the one of the best and will remain to be....

Warren Buffett....another legend, a role model, a classic example, God of stock markets is an unsung hero. Buffett has just taken over the world's richest man tag away from Bill Gates. He is over 76 now and still going strong. Though this news is a lil old, it deserves a mention in every scene! Warren Buffett has donated about 75% of his wealth to Bill & Melinda Gates foundation. Can you believe it !! A person slogs his entire life and makes close to $ 50Billion and gives away three-fourth of his wealth to charity!! Hats off Buffett...


I am sure Bill Gates deserves a much better post than this... But....


Wishing Bill Gates a very good luck for his second innings!

Steve the iCON

Steve Jobs

Steven Paul Jobs....the human whom i adore the most,the human who is the source of inspiration for many,the human who motivated millions around the world,the human who fought with death and won the battle,the human who is responsible for today's GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE(GUI), the KING of technology,the EMPEROR of brand marketing,the GOD of innovation,the impetus for APPLE, an innate genius,a MAVERICK, a pure soul & an iCON.

After mentioning this much about him if i still say he is just a normal human-being,it is definitely injustice! For me he is not just a human,he is a perfect living LEGEND & PURE SOUL!!

STEVE STEVE STEVE in my blood !!
STEVE STEVE STEVE u ROCK !!

APPLE-MICROSOFT rivalry still continues......

Both the companies are the best in its kind....but...the fact remains. Fact is that Bill Gates' WINDOWS is the copied version of STEVE JOBS' MAC OS !!

MAC OS X 89 = WINDOWS 95 !!

MAC TIGER 10.5 = WINDOWS VISTA !!

This was the first time these two appeared together on stage since 1983. In 1991 they were photographed together for an interview. In 1997, Gates appears via satellite during a Jobs talk. The New York Times was unable to get a photographer into this 2007 event so The NYT online ran this picture.