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

…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.

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.

A Serene Lakeside Evening…

It was drizzling and there was a slow and smooth breeze across the lake. As i moved far from the daily traffic, far from the crowded cities, far from the hurrying roads, far from the developed world, i found my footsteps becoming slower and the air around me fresher. There were no more horns and sounds of roaring motor engines and the only waves hitting my ear drums now were from those tiny water droplets falling over the lake and the humming of those occasional birds. Far away, there were the luxuries of modern life in the form of beautiful hotels with eye catching lights and wonderful gardens with more lightings and fountains. But on this side of the lake i was just surrounded by the moist tender grass all over in a moon lit evening beside the silent lake. There were no massage girls here as it could have been the case in those luxury hotels across the shore, but these tender grass tickled my feet and i could smell the mixture of mud and water and the smell of grass and the smell of fresh water, those smells very much of the nature and not of those costly perfumes. In front was the amazing lake and across this lake stood the attractive club houses and hotels with attractive lightings. On the right and left far ends i could see the city looming from far and the never ending array of tall buildings seemed like stars and constellations up in the sky, from this distance. As i continued to walk there were occasional couples crossing me and they were talking and feeling their love for their partners. I never made any sound, so that i don’t disturb this silence of the nature.


As the road at the other end started getting closer, the horns of vehicles and the sounds of hurrying people were again present and even the pure smell of nature was diluted with the smell of fuels and metals. I was till now, as if in a dream and all these thoughts of enjoying the silence had to be left behind, because in this world everything rested on how quick you moved and how quickly you thought and how quickly you did things. There were no place for the slow movers and lazy thinkers and i feel that's why as time goes forward fewer people believes in the fancy stories and the fantasy worlds because if you have to believe all those, you have to enjoy the slowness at least once in life to get to feel how it is!!


I am not trying to say that the development and innovations the human race has so far achieved are not good enough, but to be a better human being you also need to understand the nature and enjoy its beauty, you have to slow your steps at times and think of the things you see at your front, your back and your sides and smell them, feel them and enjoy them. After all, all these beautiful sights and smells and feelings and sounds could sometimes cheer and satisfy you more than the money you earn.


Now i had no other option, but to walk faster or else i will have to wait for 90 seconds at the traffic light.

The Verdict – A Master Fake!!

Please go through the article The Most Shocking Photo of the Decade or a Master Fake before reading this one.


If you look into the viewers comments for the last article, you will be quite content that the image is a faked one. I searched the internet for further details of the Sept 11 Attacks on the World Trade Center towers and came across this interesting article. A fireman had recorded the video of this flight hitting the tower and some experts had later done a thorough research on the Aircraft that crashed into the building. What interested me is that the flight path was not straight or it was not travelling in a straight line as seen in the picture, and as a matter of fact, it was losing altitude fast and the nose or the frontal part of the aircraft was very much pointing downwards, which is not the case in that picture. So that’s enough to rule out all the possibilities and note it is a Fake Image.





The flight was coming from above the building and hit at somewhere over the middle of the building. So the nose has to point downwards and that’s contrary to what you saw in that image in the below post. So it is sure to be faked. For further reading on report from the “Fireman’s Video”, click here .


Incase you are wondering what I am talking about, go to the post below this!

The Most Shocking Photo of the Decade or a Master Fake?!

This picture was one among those 19 that i received today as a forward and the subject read “Rarest of rare pictures”. I didn’t spend much time on it at the first go declaring it instantly a Fake! But then i came back to this photo and watched it closely. There were certain things about this picture that caught my eye and i searched about it for sometime wanting to prove it a fake out on all equations. Here i am presenting those things i found out.





First let me explain this picture thoroughly.
The picture is of a tourist posing for a photo on the top floor of one of those World Trade Center buildings that collapsed on 11th September 2001. If you look closely you will find in the right bottom that the date is in fact 09-11-01. Now if your eyes are to trust, this photo must be clicked seconds before that plane crashed onto the same World Trade Center building.


I will present the things i found out here. The ones supporting the genuinity and the ones that could oppose it. I used the theory of contradiction here and tried to prove this is a fake. So lets take this step by step!


Point One
So the 1st thing i did was to check if place in question is the top of World Trade Center or not. A No to this question will put an end to this whole debate. For that i searched “top of world trade center” in Google Images. I was shocked to see that the railings in the image resembled the railings at the top of the World Trade Center or for now lets call it the “Watch Deck” of the WTC. Here I am including 2 photos to prove it looks alike the railings of the World Trade Center.
 

  Now you will accept railings seen in the photo of our question is indeed similar to that of the real World Trade Center that collapsed on 11th Sept 2001. You will also notice that all the pictures are apparently at the same height. This just furthur strengthens the case because you can have the same railings for other buildings as well but you don’t have buildings as tall as this everywhere.
So now its evident that the picture is that of the top of the World Trade Center beyond all doubts.


Point Two
At the right bottom of the picture you can quite clearly see the date which says 09-11-01. I am not an expert on these Photoshop’s but i have heard its not possible or its tough to re-create or edit the date shown in a picture. As i said i don’t know how to use this Photoshop and this thing is something i have heard.


Point Three
Now let us postmortem the aircraft that seems to be approaching the building. I  will say that’s exactly the aircraft that crashed onto the building. Wondering how?


As you all know that the World Trade Center or the WTC consists of two towers. The North Tower and the South Tower. The North tower was hit 1st at 8.46 AM and the South Tower at 9.03 AM. So if you are to believe this picture, you will have to assume that he was standing atop the North Tower, because once the North Tower was hit, this man posing for a picture atop the South Tower is even out of question. Now you know that the North Tower was hit at 8.46 AM, but you have no details about the aircraft. So i searched Wikipedia for those and found out that it was a Boeing 767 aircraft flown by American Airlines. Now you might want to see how a Boeing 767 flown by American Airlines looks like.


Now go back to the picture in question and you will see that the livery or the outer look of the aircraft matches, so does the model of the aircraft. Boeing 767 is a twin engine flight and so is the flight in the picture that we are talking about.


Now its evident the flight in the question is same as in the real incident.


Point Four
If you notice the way sunrise is falling over him, its coming from one of the sides and not from directly over his head. The way and the depth of the shadow falling over his face shows that its either quite early in the morning or a its quite later in the evening. The crash on the 1st building happened at 8.46 AM and the shadows falling over supports it.


These are the four points i found out supporting the genuinity of the picture. Now lets see what goes against this picture!!


Point One
I searched for the average temperatures of New York during the mid Septembers every year. I found out from Wikipedia that it ranges around 60-75 degrees Fahrenheit  or around 16-24 degrees Celsius. Considering it was quite a sunny day, i would like to assume that it would have been around 23 degrees. So what doubts me is what makes him wear a jacket with fur on such a warm day. If what i see is right, it has a hood with fur and he wears another black banyan inside which surely wouldn't have been my choice on such a warm day.


Point Two
Now as you see the aircraft is quite near to him and the building. Don’t tell me he didn’t know that there was an aircraft behind his butt. If he didn’t see it because he is not facing the aircraft he is sure to hear it with two aircraft engines roaring just meters away from him. And I am pretty sure there was another guy with him, the guy who must have taken this picture. At least he should have seen it. Or else you will have to assume the worst case that the guy who took was blind and both these guys were completely deaf to miss such a flight! Or incase they saw this flight, they wouldn’t have been there posing for a photo, they would be thinking how to save themselves. Or being optimists their thoughts could have been that of some random pilots showing off their piloting skills in front of the Epic Twin Towers and they could have been taking this rare photo to show and boast of to their friends. Or else they could have been sure of their fate and this crazy guy would have wanted his picture to live forever provided the memory card survived.


As you see numerous theorems could be proved and disproved and points noted. What if i wasted my 2-3 hours on yet another fake image? If it’s a fake, it’s a well created fake image by an expert with some senses.  Or what if this really is a genuine image?? How did it survive when the big towers fall apart and thousands lost their lives?? We will just have to assume that out of fear the camera fall out of their hands and the memory card was found undamaged among the debris. We will have to believe that it survived to tell a tale. The tale of a tragedy!


Do you have the answers for all these?? Feel free to throw in your comments and thoughts!!