bid adieu Freddie…..

 

This man probably had the broadest shoulders in the cricketing world, and the expectations over them were incredible & in accountable every time he crossed the boundary ropes. His sheer presence in the ground raised the spirits of the whole team. If there’s a man whose stature & credibility stands far above his achievements & statistics, it is Andrew Flintoff.

A hard smasher of the cricket bowl and a hostile hit-the-deck-hard bowler, Andrew Flintoff surely has been the greatest all-rounder I have watched in this game of cricket, and beyond all doubts, one of my favorite players. Watching the 2005 & 2009 Ashes series, where he steamed up to the bowling crease over and again with the whole crowd cheering behind him, chanting one & only name…“Flintofff,Flintofffff”, was much more exciting than even many T-20 matches. He might have been suffering from pain, so intense that he barely made it back to the bowling mark, limping, but then no pain in this world stopped him from his express-run, back to the crease and each delivery went past the batsmen as a fireball. Today after being at the receiving end of many a injuries, he has called it Quit.

A career which was hit hard by series of recurring injuries, his achievements are limited, considering the enormous talent he is. Andrew Flintoff probably was never a legend with his cricketing figures; there are not many centuries/five-wicket howls to talk about. But once fit, he was one of those bowlers of his generations that any batsman wouldn’t want to face, for his hostility & accuracy. A captain's boy in every aspect, a go-to man in any situation, he would present you a gem, when you had just dreamt of one. 

His passion for the game ensured that even his opponents spoke highly of him, clearly knowing that they will be at the receiving end of it all, his spirits, his powers and most terrifying; his fireballs. Now that the legend has finally come to terms with his body, the whole cricketing world shall miss him, shall speak highly of him, and will remember his monumental postures and power packed fist thumps for years. Let the smile in his face, remain for ever!

Andrew Flintoff’s profile at Cricinfo.

Andrew Flintoff’s page in Wikipedia

Happy Engineer’s Day! A Tribute.

 

Happy Engineer’s day to you mate~!

I know you are quite confused as like, ‘there is a day for the engineers too?’

Yeah dude, there is one and it is today. The 15th of September is regarded as the Engineers Day in India, as a tribute to one of the first and finest engineers India has produced, Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya. Today is his 150th b’day and let us, with all the pride, wish our fellow engineers a Happy Engineers day.

When i accidently came across this piece of knowledge, that of today being the Engineer’s Day, i knew nothing about him except his name, courtesy the Visvesvaraya Science & Technology Museum, Bangalore. Google and wikipedia helped me expand my knowledge of this great man and here are a few lines about him, a tribute.

Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya was born on 15th of Sept 1860, 150 years prior to today, at Muddenahalli village in the present day Karnataka. He earned his B.A. from the Madras University in 1881 and later completed civil engineering from College of Science, Pune. Upon graduating he took up some tedious projects under PWD & Indian Irrigation Commission. Visvesvaraya achieved celebrity status when he designed a flood protection system to protect the city of Hyderabad from floods. He was also very much responsible for the Krishna Raja Sagar Dam across River Cauvery in Mysore & upon completion, it was the biggest reservoir in Asia.

Upon retirement as an engineer, he was made the Diwan of Mysore and he was made the Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire by the British, for his invaluable contributions to the public. Sir Visvesvaraya was conferred with the honorary membership of the international Institution of Civil Engineers ( London based ), a fellowship of the Indian Institute of Science ( Bangalore based ) and several other honorary doctorates. He also received Indian Republic's highest honor, the Bharat Ratna, in 1955. He passed away on the 14th of April, 1962 in Bangalore. A true marvel who had lived for over 100 years.

I remember this true legend on his 150th birth day and i wish everyone a Happy Engineer’s Day!

Engineers are the ones who create this nation, structurally. Respect & support them.

…Reporting live from the Stadium…

Few days back, I made it  to the first ever International football match of my life, in a stadium. China was taking on Paraguay in an International friendly at Nanjing Olympic Center. A visual treat even though the match neither created the kind of excitement an Argentina-Brazil match would create, nor were there the players like Lionel Messi & Kaka to create an Awe-moment.

…About the Stadium…

(The pics are both that of NOC – Nanjing Olympic Center)

It was the greenest of the turfs shining under a well-lit flood light, a sight in itself which beholds your breath. Now how about being surrounded by a sea, or rather an ocean of seats, red & blue in color, some 65,000 of them. The giant screen at the far ends of the pitch, up above the goal posts kept on flashing advertisements & right at the center of the pitch, 8 people stood with a big banner, above their heads, that of the main sponsor’s, the KIA Motors. The KIA motors had also arranged something like a motor exhibition outside the stadium where the newest models of cars were lined up.

I might not be able to stop the outflow of words if I start explaining the stadium & the facilities outside. There was a huge, a really huge swimming pool, there were signboards to the tennis courts, the warm up fields & huge underground parking lot, even though we never made it to any of them!

It’s not every day that an international football match got hold in any stadium in this part of the world & that ensured a decent audience of over 10,000 inside the stadium, many with & without flags, many in & out of their team jerseys, many with & without lays packets & the most popular of all, many eating & not eating barbeques.

So all in all, it was a night to remember, at least until I have a better experience of an international match, be it football, cricket or the upcoming F1 races in Delhi.

…Before you leave, hold on!…

….Hey, did I mention that I was in the stadium? Oh, no. Never! I am not crazy enough to spent $25 just to watch a crazy match between the retarded Chinese & unknown Paraguayans. We just visited the stadium to know how it feels to be in a stadium & we watched all the proceedings from out of it, there were more than enough space for you to stand and there was just enough openings between the stands were you could take a peek at the proceedings. Yes, I would have been happy enough to spend this $25 had there been a Messi or Cristiano or at least a Rooney ;)

Our positioning was such that we could clearly see the center of the pitch and not the wings & we almost cursed the Paraguay players for cruising into the Chinese defenders only through the wings. Our curse payed off too, with Paraguay breaking the deadlock as early as in the 8^th minute.

Three pair of tiring legs and a goal - which was nothing compared to exceptional, we decided to leave or rather gift our balcony stands to those Chinese who were positioned behind us, eagerly following all the see-able moves of their national football team, National Heroes- may be!

The much talked about screen in our “minds” came into being again, and this time rewinding our memories to those awesome goals by the greats of the game. A long walk to the bus station, a silent nap in an empty bus and we were back in our hostel rooms in less than 40 minutes!

 

This post was selected as one of the Tangy-Tuesday posts by Blogadda.

Lend your Voice for the Nature.

Introduction to Environment Engineering is one of my subjects for this semester and at the end of the first lecture, the teacher asked all of us to write an essay, citing those things that we can do in our day-to-day life, to protect the environment, which in turn enhances the chances of some pleasant living conditions for the future generations. So I thought, how about publishing the same essay here and enlighten those who read this blog, about those little things they can do, to preserve our Mother Earth.

 

As per Wikipedia, the earliest forms of human beings took shape from Apes about 200,000 years ago and for the last 200,000 years human beings have been exploiting our earth in one way or the other. It all started with human hunting down other animals for their food and cutting down forests for shelter and other uses. As the race progressed, we became ambitious, striving for a better life, a better tomorrow and this ambition alone has been responsible for the comfy chair you sit in now and the computer you use now and the dress you wear and the car you drive and the posh flats you live in. But 200,000 years of exploitation of the natural resources have taken us to an irritating juncture, for now we are aware that the temperature is rising across the globe in a never-seen-before rate, the climate is changing all across in a never-expected manners, the reserves of those natural resources like the petrol,the diesel & the natural gas, those which fueled our vehicles for over a decade now are fast diminishing. Deforestation across the globe results in more and more CO₂ in the atmosphere and results adversely in the form of Green House Effect & Ozone Layer Depletion.

It must be noted that almost all the actions we do now a days destroys the environment in one way or other, and to live a life 100% environment friendly, you will have to boycott all automobiles, usage of paper, mobiles, electricity, wastage of water….well the list shall go on for ever. People are so used to all these luxuries that people starve for a day and they survive, but their mobile phones out of charge for a day and they might become mad. So lets look into those tiny aspects of life, which can be taken care of by a little concern.

1. Everyone quite know that wasting resources like electricity and water are not the best things you are doing as a citizen of this world, so please make it a point to switch off any un-wanted bulbs, fans & unattended computers, and ensure all the water taps are closed, when not in use. Use CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs) that draw almost 75% less energy than standard incandescent light bulbs.

2. Paper is one of the most widely used materials that you come across anywhere and almost everywhere, from your textbooks, bank cheque books, newspapers & magazines to the toilet paper. The list for sure goes on and on. Do you know the adverse effects of this paper? Paper is made by cutting down trees, which in itself is one of the big problems, called Deforestation. The next issue is that, the emission of Sulfur Di Oxide contributes heavily to air pollution, and this emission is largely due to burning coal in industries like that of petroleum products and paper production. So reducing the amount of paper you use could very well make a change. Recycling used papers is also a very economic solution.

3. Smoke contributes to air pollution heavily and some sources for this smoke like the heavy industries cannot be controlled by us, but we can do bits too. Please make efforts to use the public transportation system available in your town, instead of taking out your own personal car or motor bike. This not only reduces the air pollution, but also ensures the roads are lesser crowded, which in turn reduces the fuel consumption & occurrence of accidents too.

4. Every year one day is celebrated as the World Environment Day and each year, a new theme is proposed to be followed across the globe on that day. Last year, save power was the theme and the message was spread across to shut power at homes for one hour, voluntarily. Instead of shutting power for that one hour and utilizing the saved power the very next hour, make it a point to save an hour’s power every day. Similar to the “Save Power” are themes like “Plant a Tree”, “Save a Drop of Water” etc.

5. This might not be applicable to a student now, but keep this in mind. Airplanes burn 70 gallons of fuel per minute. So once you grow up and become a big business tycoon, teleconference can be an option for you, considering the amount of fuel saved.

6. Physical hygiene is as important as cleaning your room and saving the environment. Simple habits like washing your hands before & after meals, using a handkerchief, and staying indoors when you are sick, are little things that you can do to ensure that you do not pass on infections to others, as well as protect yourselves from other infections that might come by your way.

7. Keeping your home clean is one thing, but that doesn’t mean that you clean your home and throw the waste into your neighbor's courtyard. Treat the whole street as your own and don’t litter around, spit around or urinate. Try to keep it as clean as your own courtyard.

8. Reduce the use of plastics, and never burn them. It can destroy the Ozone layer and as a result, the earth could become one burning Oven.

It must be understood that the effects of you burning a piece of plastic here and someone cutting down trees in Russia & someone else polluting the water in Brazil, is not going to be faced by them alone, but by the whole earth.

I am sure you are aware of all the above mentioned problems and what you are supposed to do, this is just to remind you of your duties again. Understand them clearly and try to make all these simple steps practical, and spread the message to those who still exploit the nature for even their simplest needs, so that you can hope your children & your grandchildren also have the privilege to feel the nature & live in an environment like the way you do. Make a few adjustments to your life, be a responsible son of the Mother Earth and a responsible citizen of our great globe, or else, the future generations may curse us saying “ They destroyed everything and kept apart nothing for us, they destroyed the earth.”

My Camera Speaks!!

Its not very often that you stand face-to-face with something that takes away your breath in an instant. This photo-album contains photograph’s taken by me, on a trip to Mysore & Ooty, two exotic tourist locations in South India.
I believe that these pictures shall speak for me, and that this will serve as a better travelogue than any written compositions.


Click on the photos to view it in full size.

Flora & Fauna, Mysore Zoo & Goa – Rose Garden

   

Sacred & Historic Monuments in Mysore

Sceneries in Ooty

All the photograph’s are either taken by me or taken on me. Do not copy them without consent.

I Pledge to the Nation, You?

This Post is a new entry to the Mera Bharat Mahan contest in Blogadda.com , sponsored by Pringoo.com

Two weeks to the 64^th Independence Day, take a quick look at where you are. Not personally, look where India as a nation has reached. Remember those leaders whose struggles won India our independence like Gandhiji. Would they have been happy seeing this India through your eyes? An India of Naxalism, an India of Political mishaps, an India were the problems like Poverty and Illiteracy haven’t been answered fully yet, an India you live in now.
Another Independence Day is looming on us; the 15^th of this month will be the 64^th of its kind, marking the independence of the nation from all foreign states, troops, lords and rules. Back then a colonial state or rather a colony which had internal kingdoms fighting out the British for their individual glories, a handful of selfless national leaders rose above others and as struggles continued and as lives were taken, on the 15^th of August 1947, the foreigners stepped out from our land. The struggles for survival and independence unified people more than anything and India as a nation was born and sadly broken away from it was the Muslim state- Pakistan. 
Surely enough, the story has changed over the past 63 years and now, with increasing number of governmental talks and military deals between India and the world powers like USA, many get a sense of feeling (or a wrong sense?) that we as a nation is being wanted and more attention is coming from the international fraternity than ever back in the history, we start questioning ourselves, are we a Superpower now?
I wish there was a gauge like in those computer games, that printed out in the screen, “Mission ‘India a Super Power’ – 49% completed”. Because people are more interested to know if India has crossed the line or not, in becoming a super power, many without even knowing what the two words jointly meant.
To the question, are we a super power now, all I have to say is I wouldn’t want another nation to become a super power if becoming super power is about reaching the juncture India are in, right now!
Naxalism taking lives in the north east, cross-border terrorism and insurgency in Kashmir, an ever degrading national airline- Air India which finds the headline space of every newspaper and news channel for a wrong reason or the other, and so far and so forth. Let alone the Naxalism and Terrorism and Insurgency and an Air India which can be improvised with improved management and better budgets, there is another thing which is much more dangerous than all these, Politics.
Politics, day in and day out, is becoming the cheapest game in the nation, one in which the citizens have lost their faiths in. The politicians now are not ashamed to play the worst of the tricks for bulking their pockets but then a question arises in my mind. Would the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, A R Rahman & Shahrukh Khan have all been this famous and loved by the whole nation but for their wealth and the amazing cars that they drove? Of course!! They are stars and they have this stardom as a result of their hard works and efforts over a prolonged period of time and our politicians should take a leaf out of their lives and start doing something sensible, honest for the betterment of life in this nation, and not for improving the furniture in their own homes. Then, only then shall the nation start believing in their politicians, only then shall a politician be respected. One billion people shall cherish the names of those sincere politicians who bring about a change to this nation.
There is a Malayalam folk song about the days of Mahabali in power; it goes on like this,
Maaveli naadu vaaneedum kaalam…. (When Mahabali used to be the king of this land….)
Maanushar ellaarum onnu pole…. (People all are equal, no rich man, no lower caste….)
Aamodathode vasikkum kaalam…. (When people lived happily….)
and it went on…
Would it be too much of an ambition for me to see such a dream? A day, when India as a whole is united to the tiniest of aspects, when people live happily beyond all doubts. Will we ever have such a national leader, a President or a Prime Minister who unites us all, like the legendary Mahabali?
We the people of India have to make the change, speak the change, induct the change and feel the change, by and through our actions. Filmmakers should make meaningful and thoughtful films, because we the people watch them. Writers have to write the change because we the people read them. Singers should sing the change and poets should rhyme the change. Radios, Tv’s & newspapers have all to spread the change, not as just another option, but as their Choice. Leaders have to come up and take up the responsibilities and work for the future, not to bulk up their pockets, but to make the nation a better one, for the wealth of the nation and then the state shall salute him, the people will respect him and his stories shall be told for generations by mothers and grandparents to the kids, for them to watch and grow.
I ask every one of you to pledge to this national cause, to initiate the change, not just to make India a super power, but more importantly to ensure that a father can send his daughter to a faraway university without fear, to ensure that the morning newspaper no longer have stories written in blood, to ensure that everyone, despite their color and creed and religion and caste and sex gets a chance to study what they like, do what they like and live the life they dreamt of…
Jai Hind!!

A Philosophy called LIFE!!

A crying baby, more like a doll comes out from a mothers womb, days and months pass by, you start crawling, standing, walking, talking, playing, you go to schools and colleges and then do a work, you get married, have kids and go to office day after day at the same time and return at the same time, you get money, you lose sweat, you make friends, you turn your back at some, you watch your kids grow, you parents grow, your friends come, go and many change, your hair changes colors, your skin loses freshness, your eye sight deteriorates, you become slow and shallow and you lose your parents, friends, mates , the faces that smiled and cried with you, the mouths that ate and talked with you, the eyes that saw you and the ears that listened to you, the legs that walked with you and the palms that you shook once, all perishes into the soil, into the mother earth, and the ones left back cry and weep, remembering them, the days, the time and tide they shared together. A Journey which started in a cry and ended in a breath, knitted together by the seasons and the times and the relations and the prayers and dreams.

Seconds…Minutes….Hours….Days….Weeks….Months….Years….Decades….A cycle whose tires never gets punctured, it goes on for ever and ever and ever.