5 years on

The other day i realized that it was 2 years since i stepped my foot on Antarctica... getting all nostalgic , i decided a small exercise to identify what i have done .. this week in last year .. and results have been very interesting and surprising ...

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So here it goes ..


Nov 2010 : India :   i came back from my first business trip to New Delhi  Walmart India office , worked in a Distribution Center ( Think Amazon Fulfillment Center)  and was getting ready to head to Hong Kong , Asia’s world city
 
Nov 2009:  Antarctica :Was somewhere in the middle of nowhere  in Antarctic Peninsula with Rob Swan, Craig Bowen , Anant, Le Tuan ( Mr Highlight of the trip) , a rich Sheikh and the rest of the gang  getting a fever of Football manager and experiencing the awesomness called Antarctica..I did a polar plunge during the that week.

Nov 2008 : Austria : I was in Kohlstattgasse, Innsbruck , planning for the first big solo trip Denmark , Poland and Malmo winter trek with Anant ... first snowfall experience… viewed  Mumbai  26/11 from my innsbruck room in shock...

Nov 2007 : Portugal : I was in Coimbra gatecrashing erasmus parties with lanka Sridhar and trying to figure out how do to C# programming . Experienced my  first Diwali Outside india at a lisbon temple.. 8 Euro meal at a temple will still remain as the memory as one of the best dinners ever ..

Nov 2006  : SNIST Engineering College , Hyd  I  came and went out of CAT 2006 exam and was wondering was the 14K INR on Time Hyd well spent or not? ( On hindsight, its been mixed, met some people and kept in touch ever since) . Also thinking who in the wide eyed mind would understand and read 4-1 Language processors .Survived 4-1 and dreaming of holidaying semester of 4-2 was an  interesting feeling


Interesting Lifetimes… screwing up GRE CAT and studying ( hardly studying) LP , Network Security to C#.Net programming to being accountant/analyst title for 2 years in snow laden village before being working out finance and understanding supply chain has been interesting experience.

Looking back , i get a feeling CAT screw up was one of the best things happened to me ...



Here's to hoping for many more stories to come in next 5, 10, 15 , 20 years ...

Adios,
Silent Cacophony

World Cup is Here

Alritey folks, after 4 years of wait , the biggest spectacle of cricket ( yes , twenty20 is NOT ) is back and is back in Indian Subcontinent , ( rewind your memories of 1996 and 1987 Eden gardens was in center of attention on both occassions and so is this time for being given a miss :) ) .

This is the first time i will miss it seeing it live on Tv  , but will  still following it through internet , annd other avenues..  So who are the favourites to win the title ?

lets do a short review of each team and their chances in WC. 3 teams  a post


Kenya : 2007 was a dream run for them  with reaching a top 4  , possibly will be their best run for some years ,  Strangely i still see Steve Tikolo knocking runs around ( for those who dont know, Steve Tikolo has burst into intl scene in 1996 back in his hey days was the best kenyan  player and had created a sense of for for other teams ( ok fear is  exaggerating!! ) , but 40 year old might be past his prime and it might be  last time we might the  kenyan  Kenya might face Canada and Zim but their chances unlike 2003 dream run  will end in group stage  . World Cup  2011: group stage exit

Australia : 4  world cups , including last 3 consecutive wins  , 4 consecutive final  appearances in last 4 world cups dating from 1996 , 29 unbeaten match streak ( last one losing 12 years ago  against pakistan 1999 WC group match at headingley) , Aussies travel back to Sub continent with not being favorites to win !!! . This is huge relief ofcourse for battered captain Ricky Ponting . 12 years of dominance in world cricket coupled with 3 ashes losses in the same period has questioned Aussies chance at winning 2011 world cup .  Inspite of losing their sheen and losing their golden generation after 2007 WC , they have lost only 28 odis out of 98 odis in last 4 years and come to play  2011 tournament as world's  no 1 in ODI.

Yes they lost Gilly, Haydos, Mcgrath, Warne . Yes Ponting , Clarke are woefully short of form. Yes They lack a good slow bowler to exploit the sub continent conditions but to write off them  will be a mistake teams  will pay  . They still have  a great opening pair of inform Shane Watson and Brad Haddin , Michael Hussey maybe injury struck m but he is still a force to reckon with, David Hussey , Cameron White are still handful for most teams and if Clarke and Ponting hit the form , god save the opponents . Their bowling unit alos looks formidable although lack the grittiness of 2007 and 2003 . Still Lee, Johnson, Tait can be pretty destructive , Weakest link is still slow bowler but  i wil not write them off.. Remember this was the team who won 1999 world cup from jaws of defeat ( defeating windies in 1999 set the tone for the rest of decade ) , 1987 they have done the same thing coming with struggling team . 1996 was when they were still not favourites and yet were close to win  (if not for the histronics of Da silva and Jayasuriya ) , 

I will still put my money on Aussies to  make the semifinals and maybe even finals , not because they are favourite team but because they are  side with  enormous history, spirit and attitude .

Watch out for Punter and his new crop of people . My bet : Semifinals appearance the least,  wining the world cup at best

India : yeah my  national team , the best test team in world, and 2nd best team in Odis,  after 28 years , India finally are arriving Wc as tag of  favourites. Tendulkar playing his last world cup has one trophy missing from his cabinet , and he is desperately trying to avoid the  tag of greatest player not have been part of world cup  squad( Ponting was part of 4 world cup campaigns just to put into perspective) .. Luckily for Tendulkar, not only his form  , but also the team he is part of can be considered India;s best chance to win the world cup . 2003 was the golden generation which missed it by a huge error in the final ( Zak was an idiot  !!)
2007 was lost even before it  began . 2011 they  start off as favourites and the most formidable team in the world .
Yes batting looks phenomenal . Sachin, Sehwag , Gambhir, Yuvraj, Kohli and Dhoni are  major forces and they can create havoc , add in Yusuf Pathan and you  have a beast of batting lineup on paper ( yes papertigers ! but it remains to be seen how they can hold up at home with pressure to win .

Bowling is not too bad although it can be little pale when compared to batting . everything revolves around Zak , who i am sure has learnt his lesson from 2003 , He remains  the best bowler of  this decade for India amd everythung depends on him. Bhajji can be good option although i am never sure how good wicket taker he is .. with Praveen Kumar , nehra, patel, Indian bowling looks a little weak and if team can thrash 2 of them , India is in trouble..

with no spare wicket keeper, Dhoni is under strain to bat , keep and captain and if he misses one of them, India is in spot of bother

While This is the best indian team to have graced a world cup start , It could well be decided by one man perservance to bring the one thing he cherishes  the most now : Sachin  Tendulkar.
His last outing in a tournament which has seen him take his aura to next level ( be it his 140 against Kenya on dusty cuttack pitch in 1996  or swashbuckling 98 against Pakistan at Centurion in 2003) , This is the one thing  his billion followers want him to grab and hold.    India;s chance to win the world cup depend on one man : Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar .

My prediction : Semi final berth atleast and then rest depends on other factors, 

Football Musings

Jan 30/31st always is exiciting day for all football fans across the world.  Transfer  deadline ends in less than 36 hrs and its great to see Telegraph , news of the world, espn , guardian, and many others sucking on the any news they get from the "sources".

Suarez hogs headlines as Liverpool snap up the Dutch Giant Ajax striker  . from 30,000 Ft it looks a great buy , Suarez is in awesome form for Ajax and his world cup form ( saving his howler againts ghana, which was ofcourse shadowed by Gyan ) was something of a  phenomeno, Liverpool finally has woken up from slumber , It was high time Liv'pool  get a quality signing and owners stuck with their original theme to wanting to buy new players ..

But they recieved a "jhatka" less than 24 hrs with the talisman Torres wanting to move away to my team Blues.. Now ofcourse the reds rejected  his transfer request , but nevertheless , it brings in an interesting end to this transfer window , with less than 48 hrs to go , Torres, Anelka, would sweating as to where their futures would lie( fyi : Livpool asked Chelsea on 50million pounds buyout and anelka to start the negotiating the buy of Torres, now tats big money! )

My opinion : Chelsea should go for one last gasp.. Torres is still young when compared to Anelka and is hungrier to play  in UCL , which Liv pool doesnt lool like playing until 2013 ., Naturally he is determined to move , Part of the reason is Torres  moving away could be this . He is one guy who stuck to Livpool during the crisis apart from Gerrard ( diff is Gerrard is Livpool man and Torres moved to  Merseyside outfit from Atletico Madrid to just play for that and get into  big league, no offence to Los Colchoneros fans )
Thus with Livpool moving to 7th last year and  no signs of making better than that , Torres move is very much understanable

And from Chelsea side, its still a good move, mind you chelsea is still looking  for a 3rd good striker to team with Drogba who at 32 is no longer that potent force he was couple of seasons ago, With neymar bid failing, and with David Luiz deal collapsed  chelsea atleast needs to improve the strike for the second half of the season and work on  improving the midfield and defence in the summer, thus torres would be great addition to the blues, he knows english football  and  he is used to pressure of the big clubs, on negative is his injury pronnes , but hey i would still put him better bet than Neymar, who lets face it might be a prodigy but is unproven in English Football arena ( except in fantasy football where he is a legend in makiing :)  )

 David Luiz deal falling off is a big disappoint ment for me , He is a young gun and future star in making , Although  i hoped Chelsea would have done better than that , They could have gone for Simon Kjaer , who in my opinion is the one of the best young defenders in the continental europe .  I hope ancelotti rises to occasion coming season and improve the defence. Midfield is what i am worried as a fan , Lampard will be 33 in June , We need some young guns as long term replacement for lampard.. Eden hazard is great prospect , but i suppose wenger is looking to snap another frenchman to his pseudo french boys team


Finally I hope... Chelsea kick off their campaign to attack  the leaders man u in their pursuit of what i think could be last win for Sir Alex( Man u wont win in 2012 :P) . and as i type this my mouth dropped open as i read Spurs try to secure Aguero in a failed 38.5 Mill GBP bid.  Holy Cow.. what is redknapp thinking ??

Looks like its all set for an exicting end to the finish line? who will  be most content? most rich? most exhilirated ? . We need to wait until 11pm CET

Arvind

P5 Veto

Just skimmed this post was wondering . why in the hell is france still P5 ?
http://turtlebay.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/20/germany_makes_its_case_to_join_the_p_5_america_shrugs



France and UK ( 2 Euro nations comprising of 120 mil popln is not the force which it was in mid 20th century ... Time for upgrade .
Japan, India, Brasil , Germany .. One of them should be included ? which one though should be Interesting one

Personally in my opinion instead of expanding p5 , france and Uk should be replaced by single EU seat
and thus it should look something like

1. USA
2.China
3.EU( France, Germany and UK to leadthe way, EU policy should design  this change on how it should be lead)
4.India
5.Brasil

(Thus this way , world popln of almost 3.3 Mln is represnted and also would include all major regions.. Japan maybe also be not a bad choice considering their economy but with their weakining of global clout , it brings out a difficult choice.. )

But high time France substantiate itself on why it should be in P5 .