Happy New Year - 2008

BEST WISHES
FOR
A
HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS
2008

Diet plan for whom?

Joke of the year 2007. Guess for whom this diet plan is for ?

Avoid ice-cream and chocolate as well as fried and spicy stuff
Avoid tea and coffee
Cut back on sugar consumption
Be careful of over consumption as snacks
Do not have dinner later than 9 pm
Lay your hands off biryani
Lay your hands off red meat
Lay your hands off traditional Indian sweets
Lay your hands off butter
Lay your hands off Mayonnaise on sandwiches
Lay your hands off deep fried dishes with visible fat/oil
Lay your hands off creamy sauces
Lay your hands off sodas, unless diet, but 'water is still better'


You have the liberty to have "one free day per week where you can eat whatever you want"

OK - Check it out here and Laugh.

Sahib Indian Restaurant - Murder

Ravinder and Paramjit

( Mercury News )

I've not slept well the last few days after hearing/reading about the shootings at the Sahib Indian Restaurant in Richmond California that left two brothers, Ravinder and Paramjit kalsi dead.

Sahib was one of the restaurants I used to go to for lunch the last few years while I was working at Richmond.

I've always known Ravinder and Paramjit as hard working brothers living their American dream. They were always very kind and smiling.

I remember, during my last visit to India they had requested me to bring some memento from Chennai !

God bless their souls!

Melbourne Cricket Test - My thoughts

Once again, Australia trashes India. I was expecting this to happen considering the composition of the Indian team.

Australians once again proved that test cricket doesn't mean one run per over. India approached that way and failed. It was pathetic to see Dravid struggle.

I was laughing at the miserable fielding of the Indian team and their running between wickets, especially Ganguly and Laxman. Dhoni and Yuvraj - I feel are good one day cricketers Amen.

With mediocre bowling, batting and fielding - this Indian team can't do much outside India.

Not sure why, the body language of the team was pretty bad. The bonding and closeness among players is very superficial I must say. Something is seriously wrong !


This is what will probably happen for Sydney , my guess.

Yuvraj out - Sehwag in ( Dravid goes down the order )
RP Singh out - Pathan in

If I were the selector I'd go one step forward and say ' Dravid out - Dinesh Karthik in'.

Like I always felt

The way India lost yesterday with her top players, what's wrong in losing with a brand new young team ? Let's throw the 30+ year olds out and bring young blood. We'll lose a few games but in the long run it will be good for India.

Vijay Antony - Lifts Rihanna's - Unfaithful

Photo courtesy : Vijay Antony's Website

I like Music director Vijay Antony. He has given us quite a few hits in Tamil. The ones I like are 'Suppose Onna', and 'Nenjan koottil'. There are lots of fans for his 'Dailamo' song.

I was listening to his latest album 'Kadhalil Vizhundhen' this evening. When I played the song 'Unakkena Naan', kids ran to me and said 'Dad this is Rihanna's Unfaithful'. I was surprised.

They played it for me and Voila, it was indeed a direct Tamil remake.

The song is good no doubt but I doubt if Vijay would give the credit to Rihanna.

Here is Rihanna's song

Taare Zameen Par - A must watch movie

Picture from : The official Website

How often do we get our money's worth when we go for a movie? My experience so far has been around 25%.

I watched TAARE ZAMEEN PAR, this evening with my family and I came back very satisfied. All of us liked it.

Simple yet powerful story, wonderful acting by the little boy ( He will get a National award, I'll bet on it ) and Aamir Khan, crisp script and very nice music by Shankar Ehsaan Loy are some of the pluses of the movie along with the Cinematography and other technicals.

We live in a world where children are judged by their grades and not by their creativity. Kids who don't get good grades are branded. This movie is an eye-opener in every way and I wish all parents and teachers see it.

Personally after seeing this movie, my ratings on Aamir Khan have gone sky high. Not many people would dare make such a movie. Aamir's has acted really well. The parents of the child have done a great job as well.

Please don't miss this movie. Must see for all parents and to-be-parents. Masterpiece

Congratulations and Thank you Mr. Aamir Khan for a great movie.

Sourav Ganguly - Proof will be in Australia

Sourav Ganguly's come back has been hailed by everyone. I applaud him too. It's a good comeback indeed.

But, having watched him play the last series in Australia a few years back I feel the real proof of his form lies in the series ahead. I'd like to watch him play Bret Lee and Co. who tore him apart in the last series.

If he plays well and scores, It will be the real proof. Let's wait.

My thoughts on Senior Players

I've always felt that Sachin , Sourav, Dravid and Kumble must retire and give way to youngsters ( even if they are in so called 'Form' ). Well, even if we lose a few games/series with the youngsters so what, we'll groom them for the longer run.

Thanks to these senior citizens in the team youngsters don't get a chance and they fade away. Unfortunately Indian cricketers don't retire ( very few exceptions ).

They'll keep playing until they are thrown out. We have seen it happen all along. We've also seen a lot of youngsters fade away.

I am happy to see Ishant Sharma and Pankaj Singh in the Indian team. I wish them well.

MSG aka AJINOMOTO

What I knew about MSG until today

• MSG Mono Sodium Glutamate
• Flavor enhancer
• Not good for health
• Might cause cancer
• It is also known as Ajinomoto ( Why?)

What I read today in Wall Street Journal

• MSG was first manufactured by the company Ajinomoto in 1909
• It is made through a complex process that involves fermenting corn glucose and other raw materials.
• Today, an estimated 95,000 metric tons of MSG are sold in North America each year, according to Ajinomoto.
• It appears in everything from some McDonald's sausage and chicken meals to supermarket items like Campbell's soup, Doritos chips and Kraft macaroni and cheese.
• In fact, many studies have found that MSG doesn't cause ill effects. "I don't see normal amounts of MSG as posing a risk to the vast majority of people," says Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington food-safety advocacy group.

Blogswara - 4 - Dec-12-2007

BLOGSWARA is back with a bang for their Version-4

Please check out the teasers and spread the word around!

Song: Eri Venal (Malayalam)
Lyrics: Sreeja Balraj
Music: Praveenkrishna G
Singer: Divya S Menon



Song: Kaathirundhen (Tamil)
Lyrics, Music: Vijay S
Singer: Murali Ramanathan, Sindhuja Bhaktavatsalam
Orchestration: Ajit Gopalakrishnan
Rhythm Programming: Bharath Venkatesan
Mixing: Nandu Mahadevan



Song: The Rain (Hindi)
Vocals, Lyrics, Composition: Kamini Natarajan
Lyrics, Composition: Uma Natarajan
Guitar, Bass, Keyboards, Programming: Andrew Behla
Violin: Deepak Ramapriyan
Supporting Music: Jojo and Dean



Song: Aanakal Ompathu (Malayalam)
Lyrics: Preethy
Music: Joseph Thomas (Jo)
Orchestration: Nishanth Mani
Mixing: Nandu Mahadevan
Singer: Sreekanth



Song: Ithu Varai Enn (Tamil)
Lyrics & vocals: Ramesh Chellamani
Music: Nandu Mahadevan
Guitars: Anup Nandialath



Song: Tu Kahaan (Hindi)
Lyrics: Karthik Chandan
Music: Jay Krishnan
Singer: Shiva



Song: 20:20 (Instrumental)
Composer: Vijay

Show cause Notice to BCCI

Subramaniam Badrinath
Born - August-30-1980

Photo courtesy: REDIFF

I am wondering if someone can file a case against BCCI. Wondering if I can do it sitting here.

The team for Australia has been announced and S.Badrinath isn't in the probables.

The probables for the Australian tour’s Test squad


Anil Kumble
M.S. Dhoni
Sachin Tendulkar
Rahul Dravid
V.V.S. Laxman
Sourav Ganguly
Wasim Jaffer
Dinesh Karthik
Yuvraj Singh
Gautam Gambhir
Harbhajan Singh
Zaheer Khan
R.P. Singh
Munaf Patel
Ishant Sharma
V.R.V. Singh
Ranadeb Bose
Irfan Pathan
Pankaj Singh
Murali Kartik
Piyush Chawla
Ajit Agarkar
Parthiv Patel
Akash Chopra

Wonder what the selectors and BCCI have in their minds.

Maybe they are waiting for him to turn 35 so that he can find a place like the grandpas in the team who will never retire unless they are forced to !

Badri - I feel sorry for you

PS - I HOPE HE FINDS A PLACE IN THE ONE DAY SQUAD FOR AUSTRALIA