Some Pics from the India-South Africa ODI encounter at Bangalore

Byline crazy

Somelines i repeat often oflate

"ET page 1 is no longer the same. It's shallow and CFM is no more worth its salt."

"Business Standard would be crap, if not for its edit page."

Retrospecting, i find reporters are increasingly lured by the "expansion spree" or as some fondly refer to it as the expansion binge!

What the heck! It's a rapidly progressing economy and to keep pace with it, firms need to expand.

Some reports call a Rs 20 crore capex an "major expansion" that is likely to go onstream by 2008/9! Such copies hardly add any value to the reader.

Investors look for stock moving news and not company propoganda!

Next is the mushrooming stories on unlisted entities. Who are these reporters writing to? The unlisted firm, its PR agency?

When i stare at such stories in the morn, i remember just one rule." Damn everyother fact, just follow the money."

Masters are missing at the Tennis Masters

The semifinal line-up for the year ending Masters cup reads like, Federer Vs Gaudio and Davydenko Vs Nalbandian.

The bigticket's , Hewitt, Roddick, Safin, Nadal and of course the mercurial Agassi are all missing.

Hewitt- to be with his wife, or is it still GF, when she gives birth. Safin is perennially injured, Roddick aint know.

Agassi and Nadal withdrew citing injury and the grapevine is Federer is nursing a sore ankle.

Wow, a lot of respect for the year end masters cup. Once a prestige, today players give a damn to it.

But legacies stay, tradition holds forte. For instance when it comes to Wimbledon the top ranking Gentlemen , including Safin who abuses grass, shrug away all excuses. They Shed colours, adorn white and daintliy swing their racquets hoping to emboss their names on silver gilt cup.

Blog tag

A tag! probably something like the chain mails, which essentially end like ..." If you don't forward it to x many asses by x many hours ur ass will be blown out!"

Anyway, as this supposedly 'blog tag' exudes humour more than anything else, have tried my hand at it.

7 things i plan to do

1) Retire to a cosy corner of the Nilgiris and smell tea leaves for eternity
2) Shave without a mirror
3) Strap a rolex to my wrist and drive an Audi, buts thats after i manage to sell my 9 year old Splendor
4) Adorn a boyish cut wig, dust my tennis bag and armed with them pass, repass my erstwhile sweetheart's home
5) get porn movies and watch them on a sunday morning while my wife is still asleep.
6) rig the stockmarket and feel elated when ET, CNBC have got it all wrong
7) wake up on time for sunrise

7 i'can't do

1) Retire just yet (Dad read that, give me the money)
2) Shave without a mirror
3) Understand the funda behind philosophy and the philospohical books
4) Why listening to carnatic music is considered "archaic"
5) use a laptop, and a make a powerpoint presentation filled with jargon
6) Comprehend why Germany lost WWII
7) Wake up on time for sunrise

7 things i keep repeating

1) saniyan (an abuse in Tamil)
2) Bastard (s)
3) What the heck
4) Abey
5) Ghothu (understand in Kannada)
6) I have another appointment, can we reschedule our meet, when am sure i'm gonna be late.
7) I will lose weight

And i call on ramz, rubaru

East Europe

The next decade could be East Europe's. Nay am not just braying about its economic potential, but its impact on world culture.

Kids from countries (Like India, China), which are tipped to dominate the World, are flocking universities in these countries.

Of course not to learn Marxism, but because the standards are quite high and fees are mighty low in these institutions, compared to their western counterparts.

Imagine if a clutch of students returning from Yankee land can westernise us, i guess one can safely assume we will also tread the 'easternised way.'

Honey I just shrunk your face.? didn't I?

Adrian Newey quits Mclaren again

Mclaren Mercedes's technical director and F1 design guru Adrian Newey has finally quit Mclaren. He joins Red Bull, formerly Jaguar racing- a team he said he'd join a couple of years ago.

Mclaren had then managed to hold him back, but knew Adrian wasn't there forever for them. Mclaren claims to have restructured their design team since then, with Newey just giving advice to members roped in from the now defunct Arrows and home grown designers.

Mclaren believe their current team is strong enough to earn them more championship.

But Newey is a legened in his own right. The best cars of the 90's, the championship winning Williams' between 1991 and 1997, and Mclaren's after that till the much praised Mclaren in 2005 were his creation.

Newey says a smaller team offers him a challenge and hopes to play a role in designing a non-works team (Other than factory based outfits like Ferrari, BMW, Renault) win a championship.

All the Best Newey!

Finally, I just pray my team Mclaren is as strong as it claims to be without Newey.

F16 saga refuses to die down

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has said he will postpone the purchase of F-16 fighter planes from the US, saying funds are needed to reconstruct the earth quake devasted state. The quake killed over 70,000 people, the BBC reports

Pakistan had been expected to buy more than 50 planes at up to $40m each. Quake reconstruction is put at $5bn.

This could spell doom to the U.S and the F16 maker Lockheed Martin. In fact, the Bush administration had lifted sanctions on F16 sale to Pak, in a bid to keep the F16 line afloat and save a few thousands jobs at Lockheed Martin.

Am interested to see equity analysts comments on Lockheed Martin next week.

Rainy day

Rains have lashed across Bangalore and I have been at the receiving end several times. Especially when driving a car, one's concentration needs to be at its zenith.

A couple of days back, amidst pouring rain felt too cosy in the car. Why? I was a passenger, the car felt too cosy and the music was soothing.