Lords of Indian Cricket failed at Lords

Indian batting flopped once again in a crucial match. Lord of indian cricket "Trimurty" - Ganguly, Sachin and Dravid, could not contribute in the final crucial match.

It was pleasant to watch indian openers coming to bat after winning the toss. Yet it was disheartening to see Saurav Dada finding it difficult to play short balls (once again). And after riding on its luck, Dada played a short to slip fielder (seems like doing some catching practice).

After Dada's departure, all eyes were on the talented Gambhir and he fell for superb fielding. Responsibility to stablise Indian scoreboard was on Sachin and Rahul Dravid. But, Umpire Aleem Dar has a surprise for the Indian captain aka The Wall and for the batting Mastero. Rahul Dravid and Sachin both were given out caught behind when the ball didn't touch the bat. It was pity to see the faces of our two heroes and there was hardly anybody can do other than filling pity.

Anyways, there comes the hero of famous chase of 325 in Lords Yuvraj Singh and another hero of last match Robin Uthappa. But soon both of them fell for cheap shots, again doing simple catching practice to England fielders.

Dhoni tried to hold the fort at one end and he was the last one to fell. At the end Indian scorebroad reads 187-10 (47.3 overs).

Waiting for Indian bowlers to fire all cylinders to English batsmen and show them what they deserve or else.....

Oh.. yes there was some drama in the match again.. and that was bound to happen. It seems England players can't live without the controversies in the match.

Pastor's A.s.s

A pastor entered his donkey in a race and it won.

The pastor was so pleased with the donkey that he entered it in the race again, and it won again.

The local newspaper read:
'PASTOR'S A.S.S OUT FRONT'

The Bishop was so upset with this kind of publicity that he ordered the pastor not to enter the donkey in another race.

The next day, the local newspaper headline read:
'BISHOP SCRATCHES PASTOR'S A.S.S'

This was too much for the bishop so he ordered the pastor to get rid of the donkey.
The pastor decided to give it to a nun in a nearby convent.

The local paper, hearing of the news, posted the following headline the next day:
'NUN HAS BEST A.S.S IN TOWN'

The bishop fainted. He informed the nun that she would have to get rid of the donkey, so she sold it to a farmer for $10.

The next day the paper read:
'NUN SELLS HER A.S.S FOR $10'

As a last resort the bishop ordered the nun to buy back the donkey and lead it to the plains where it could run wild.

The next day the headlines read:
'NUN ANNOUNCES...HER A.S.S IS WILD AND FREE'

The bishop was buried the next day....

The moral of the story is...being concerned about public opinion can bring you much grief and misery ...and even shorten your life.

So be yourself and enjoy life.....

You'll be a lot happier and live longer

Men cry equality on women’s day

August 26 is Women’s Equality Day. And this time it will see men crying for equal rights on the streets.

Hundreds of “harassed” husbands, including IIT and IIM grads, engineers, doctors, lawyers and NRIs, will gather at Jantar Mantar on Sunday as part of the countrywide protest against dowry harassment and the more recent domestic violence laws. "We are all victims of these biased laws,” says Swarup Sarkar of Save Indian Family Foundation, the organiser.

Men argue that these laws have exposed them to harassment at the hands of their wives. “A woman simply has to utter ‘dowry harassment’ and everybody she names is promptly put behind bars without any evidence, investigation or witness,” says NS Das, a product of IIT Delhi and IIM-A, who is now fighting dowry charges.

"Guilty until proven innocent — that’s the gist of Section 498A of the IPC, the dowry harassment law," says another IITian Ved Prakash.

Terming the protest a "malicious propaganda", Ranjana Kumari, director of Centre for Social Research, says, "Section 498A is the only provision under the dowry law that allows a woman to save her life. Other sections come into force after the woman is killed."

Walk in the sky.... from your home

Many people like to just sit outside at night and gaze up into the heavens. Picking out the constellations or just wondering about what else is out there, it's something that most of us have done. Well now, thanks to an update to Google Earth, you don't even have to leave your room to check out the sky.

"Today, I'm excited to announce we are launching Sky in Google Earth," said Google Earth Product Manager, Lior Ron. "You can now explore the universe from the comfort of your chair. Zoom in to distant galaxies hundreds of millions of light years away, explore the constellations, see the planets in motion, witness a supernova explosion; it's like having a giant, virtual telescope at your command -- your own personal planetarium!"



A Sky button on the toolbar will enable you to switch from Earth to Sky mode where you can view 100 million stars and 200 million galaxies. If you begin your Google Earth session with the your current coordinates, you'll be able to see the sky just as it is right above you.

If you'd like to get a good idea of just what kinds of cool things you can find, there are plenty of of examples over at the Google Earth Gallery.

The Ant & The Grasshopper..

Ant & Grasshopper

The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The Grasshopper thinks the Ant is a fool and laughs, dances & plays the summer away.

Come winter, the Ant is warm and well fed. The Grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.


Modern Version

The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The Grasshopper thinks the Ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering Grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the Ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering Grasshopper next to a video of the Ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor Grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the Ant's house.

Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other Grasshoppers demanding that Grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter.

Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticizes the Indian Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the Grasshopper.

The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the Grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance) .

Opposition MPs stage a walkout. Left parties call for "Bharat Bandh" in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry.

CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among Ants and Grasshoppers.

Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'.

Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the ' Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act' [POTAGA], with effect from the beginning of the winter.

Arjun Singh makes 'Special Reservation ' for Grasshoppers in Educational Institutions & in Government Services.

The Ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes,it's home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the Grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.

Arundhati Roy calls it 'A Triumph of Justice'.

Lalu calls it 'Socialistic Justice '.

CPM calls it the ' Revolutionary Resurgence of the Downtrodden '

Koffi Annan invites the Grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly


Many Years Later...

The Ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi-billion dollar company in Silicon Valley …

100s of Grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India ...

As a result of loosing lot of hard working Ants and feeding the Grasshoppers, India is still a developing country…!!!

Dear Friend

"The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when s/he discovers that someone else believes in her/him and is willing to trust her/him with friendship."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

People who love you, people who you love back, people who will always be there for you, through the good times and the bad, they make you happy when you are sad, they are angels that have yet to earn their wings, they are your dear friends.

Legal or Logical?

After having failed his exam in "Logistics and Organization", a student goes and confronts his lecturer about it.

Student: "Sir, do you really understand anything about the subject?"

Professor: "Surely I must. Otherwise I would not be a professor!"

Student: "Great, well then I would like to ask you a question. If you can give me the correct answer, I will accept my mark as is and go. If you however do not know the answer, I want you give me an "A" for the exam. "

Professor: "Okay, it's a deal. So what is the question?"

Student: "What is legal, but not logical, logical, but not legal, and neither logical, nor legal?"

Even after some long and hard consideration, the professor cannot give the student an answer, and therefore changes his exam mark into an "A", as agreed.

Afterwards, the professor calls on his best student and asks him the same question.
He immediately answers: "Sir, you are 63 years old and married to a 35 year old woman, which is legal, but not logical. Your wife has a 25 year old lover, which is logical, but not legal. The fact that you have given your wife's lover an "A", although he really should have failed, is neither legal, nor logical."

The Truth

At school, a boy is told by a classmate that most adults are hiding at least one dark secret, and that this makes it very easy to blackmail them by saying, I know the whole truth -- even when you don't know anything.

The boy decides to go home and try it out. As he is greeted by his mother at the front door he says, I know the whole truth. His mother quickly hands him $20 and says, Just don't tell your father.

Quite pleased, the boy waits for his father to get home from work, and greets him with, I know the whole truth. The father promptly hands him $40 and says, Please don't say a word to your mother.

Very pleased, the boy is on his way to school the next day, when he sees the mailman at his front door. The boy greets him by saying, I know the whole truth. The mailman drops the mail, opens his arms and says, Then come give your FATHER a big hug.

The Meaning of Peace

There was once a king who offered a prize to the artist who could paint the best picture of peace. Many artists tried.

The king looked at all the pictures, but there were only two that he really liked, and he had to choose between them.

One picture was of a calm lake. The lake was perfect mirror for the peaceful towering mountains all around it. Overhead was a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. All who saw this picture thought that it was a perfect picture of peace.

The second picture had mountains, too. But these were rugged and bare. Above was an angry sky from which rain fell, and in which lightening played. Down the side of the
mountain tumbled a foaming waterfall. This did not look peaceful at all.

But when the king looked, he saw behind the waterfall a tiny bush growing in a crack in the rock. In the bush mother bird had built her nest.... a perfect picture of peace.

Which of the pictures won the prize?

The king chose the second picture.

Do you know why?

"Because," explained the king, "peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. Peace means to be in the midst of all those things
and still be calm in your heart. That is the real meaning of peace."

iShare a.k.a Desi YouTube, is here....

Rediff.com, one of India's leading online portals, recently launched iShare a.k.a. Desi YouTube, which enables a user to share music, videos or exchange profiles along with other features.

With broadband becoming affordable and social networking taking off in India, iShare will provide users a context to connect and enjoy a more comprehensive multimedia entertainment experience on the Internet.

Rediff.com has also tied-up with Zee TV with a view to reach out to the TV audience and launched an initiative to enable the aspiring singers to showcase their talent and be a part of Zee's 'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa' contest by uploading their videos and audio files on iShare.

The best thing is that this new platform comes with a utility tool, which can be installed on the PCs and upload multiple files from various sources like mobile phones, digicam, camcorders and mp3 players, ipods etc..

I tried my hands on it. Although looks cud be more appealing but its really fast and user friendly. What r u waiting for..? Here it goes..

Secret Of Success

Sir, " What is the secret of your success?" a reporter asked a bank
President.

"Two words."

"And, Sir, what are they?"

"Right decisions."

"And how do you make right decisions?"

"One word.'

"And, sir, What is that?"

"Experience. "

"And how do you get Experience?"

"Two words"

"And, Sir, what are they?"

"Wrong decisions ."

"Apne to apne hote hain" - Power of three deols

It was not a usual morning, there was heavy down pour and the water can be seen on the road. We postponed our day's work and planned to watch Apne in the Fame Adlabs, Malad.

We reached there on time and there was hardly anybody for the movies in morning shows (10 am), may be because of heavy rain. We were 10-15 inside the theatre for Apne, seems like we were watching some special screening :-)

Finally, the wait is over to watch Dharmendra along with Sunny and Bobby. Dharmendra's performance was so powerful that others around him look really small. Dharmendra's actually made his character live and never looked like he is acting (he was so natural).

Dharmendra is the central force of ‘Apne’. Without him the movie would lose its soul. It is both surprising and pleasing to see Dharmendra deliver a powerhouse performance

The movie starts slowly and the story started building up. APNE is rich in emotions and a number of sequences, especially those between Dharmendra and Sunny, are electrifying. Also, the boxing matches [Chris Anderson] are pulse-pounding and you clench your fists tightly due to the tension that's depicted on screen.

Having seen the film, it is clear why it is the best flick to cast Dharmendra and his two sons (Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol) together. The reason is its story and the three main characters in it. There is no doubt that the three Deols drew a lot from their personal lives into their performances in the film. That is why the emotions and the kinship show on the big screen, too.

APNE is a movie you can watch with your entire family including your eldest member of the family to the youngest one.

The only thing in which movie lacked behind is its Music and why did all the songs are sang by Himesh himself?

After a long time we got to watch a movie like this. Director, Anil Sharma, has done brilliant job as well.

How to Surf Anonymous?

Many times we arrive at a situation when we need to surf anonymous. Anonymous surfing hides our identity. It also helps in keeping Hackers away as it hides your actual IP Address.

So how can we actually surf anonymous. There are number of sites and softwares available which mask your IP with a fake one.

Softwares
Softwares generally sets your machine's IP address to fake one. So your actual IP is hidden while surfing the net. Problem with these softwares is that they limit you to one IP address and there is no possibility of chaning that IP address.

Proxies
Another way is to use the concept of proxies. In simple terms, Proxy is a middle man which takes a request from you send it to the target server, gets the response and send it back to you. So your IP address will not be visible to the world but of Proxy Server.

You may face problems like some scripting error or may be pages of few sites not coming up. But I guess this is acceptable as compare to the benefits given by Free Anonymous Surfing.

Following are the few sites, which provide anonymous surfing:

http://www.anonymization.org/
http://www.proxyindex.com/
http://www.anonymizer.com/
http://www.the-cloak.com/anonymous-surfing-home.html
http://proxify.com/

Rupee rise to affect IT firms' profitability: Nasscom

Software industry association Nasscom today said profitability of IT companies will be affected by the recent rupee appreciation and needs to be checked in time.
"Its is a case of too much too quick. An 8-9 per cent rise in the value of rupee is definitely a cause of concern. The impact will be felt on the bottomline of IT firms," Nasscom Chairman Kiran Karnik said here.

The topline, however, would continue to be strong since margins are still higher, he added.

The rupee has appreciated about 8 per cent against dollar this year.

Karnik said the industry is ready for small appreciation like 1-2 per cent in the rupee but the kind of increase witnessed in the last few months is certainly very harmful for small IT companies.

Asked if this would anyway affect the overall growth guidance, he said Nasscom is yet to release its growth guidance for 2007-08 and "we hope dollar would stabilise to a higher level in the near future."

(Source: PTI News)

Rains lash Karnataka, Maharashtra, toll rises to over 130

Torrential rains today lashed Karnataka and Maharashtra, throwing life out of gear while the situation improved in worst-hit Andhra Pradesh and Kerala even as the toll in these states mounted to over 130.

Mumbai and its neighbouring areas bore the brunt of the monsoon's fury, which claimed five lives since yesterday. The weather office said "heavy to very heavy" rains and gusty winds would continue to hit the metropolis. Several flights from Mumbai were delayed and rail traffic disrupted.

The monsoon continued to lash Karnataka, claiming six more lives and taking the toll in rain-related incidents in the state to 39.

A partially demolished building collapsed at Grant Road in south Mumbai last evening, killing two persons, while three persons died in two wall collapses today. In Nasik, two persons died after being struck by lightning while another died when a wall collapsed on him.