The Bourne Series

Recently, i watched the latest in the Bourne movie series, “Bourne Ultimatum”. Having read the original novel by Robert Ludlum, i felt that the movie script deviated a lot more from the original plot in the novel. After a few hits in the WIKI, i realised that the novel was published way back in the 80s and so the original plot needed a touch up to live up to the expectations of the current day movie goers.

Another suspense thriller that comes to my mind is the “Day of the Jackal” by Frederick Forsyth. It has a great plot and would keep its suspense quotient intact until the reader reaches the end pages. Frederick Forsyth’s “Odessa File” is another great read about the Nazi plots in modern Germany and a secret organization called Odessa. His latest one “The Afghan” is about the modern day terrorism.

Dan Brown and Michael Crichton are my other favourites. Brown’s “Angels and Demons” and the “Da Vinci Code” were an instant hit among the literary folks, more for the controversy they created and also for the amount of meticulous reseach involved. Michael Crichton has been a favourite among the hollywood producers for regularly churning out mind-boggling techno-thrillers. His “Jurassic Park”, “Sphere”, “Congo”, “Disclosure” have all been very successful films. “Andromeda Strain” and “The Terminal Man” have been techno thrillers which appealed a lot to me.

Dravid Dropped!

The Indian team’s selection for the Pakistan tour has evoked a lot of strong opinions. A lot of them are due to the dropping of Dravid from the team. I think that this was a right decision taken by the selectors. Start grooming the youngsters and gradually phase out the oldies.

Its great to see that the fans have not resorted to effigy burnings and protest marches. Tells a lot about the civilised behaviour of the Bangaloreans! There are a lot of other issues of national importance which require such acts. Neways, if either Ganguly and tendulkar were to be dropped, then there sure would have been a lot of profits for the effigy makers!
And coming back to the team, there are 6 openers, 5 bowlers, 1 wicket keeper and 3 middle order batsmen. Now the headache is to pick 2 openers from 6 and somehow get 4 middle order batsmen from the 3 chosen. A task only the Indian selectors can do! Dhoni, am sure, will miss Dravid against a tough opposition like Pakistan. And am sure that Pakistan will be happy to hear this news.

And coming back to the openers dilemma, Sachin will not bat anywhere else (his feelings are of paramount interest to the team management and the selectors than the results ) and Saurav cannot bat anywhere else. So, the other openers picked would probably be warming the benches on all the 5 matches.

Let the action begin. The build up to this series is quite encouraging for the Indians. They have done well in England, won the Twenty20 World Cup and performed up to their expextations against the tough aussies. Hope the better team wins! And that obviously is India on current form!

We are the World Champs ;) !

Finally we watched the culmination of the World Twenty20 Cricket Championship. And it could not have been better scripted for an Indian Cricket fan. The final match was worthy of the occassion. Any match between India and Pakistan is bound to attract a lot of attention. The fact that the two teams conspired to meet each other in the finals made the final match a lot more spicier. The final was a humdinger of a match and am sure that quite a few finger nails have been chewed all over the world.

Shoib Malik’s statements during the presentation ceremony have sparked off a lot of controversy. Those sort of comments were definitely not on during such an important occassion. Sports and religion are miles apart and mixing them will definitely produce sour results. Read this nice article about the Final match and the controversy - http://blogs.cricinfo.com/meninwhite/archives/2007/09/scenes_from_a_final.php

There were a lot things to remember from this World Cup. A few that come to mind are follows:

1) Australia losing their first match to Zimbabwe
2) India winning the Bowl out 3-0 against Pakistan
3) SriLanka slamming a record 260 against hapless kenya
4) Yuvraj’s six sixers

There are a lot of positives to take home for the Indian team. The youngsters took the oppurtunities and made them count. The future of Indian cricket does look a lot brighter now. Dhoni’s captaincy was of first grade. He has a nice, cool and a calm head on his shoulders and leads the team with a mixture of maturity and aggression. The series against the Aussies is definitely bound to challenge his leadership skills. The Big 3 are gonna figure in the scheme of things once again. Whether their inclusion is gonna help Dhoni or prove to be a hindrance in his execution of his plans is anybody’s guess.

Chuseok Holidays

Here in Korea, we had a long weekend last week because of a festival called chuseok. It is pretty much like our harvesting festival, called sankranti in South India. The koreans also do perform a ritual called thanksgiving, wherein they pay homage to their ancestors. A pretty nice ritual, but what i am more interested is on the five days of holidays these festival do bring along with them. As always, i had made some eleborate plans to visit some exotic places around Korea. But fate had an other story to tell and i ended up being in office on three of those five days ;(

On monday, i hauled my SUV out and drove to a nearby island called Wolmido. The drive was very soothing and i was pretty surprised at not seeing much traffic on a holiday. I had the whole highway for myself and my SUV and we both literally burned the rubber. Wolmido Island is not an exotic place by any stretch of your imagination. But it is very well maintained tourist spot with lots of hotels, pubs (tempting but wifey had a firm grip on me), souvenir shops, small fountains and what not.

Me and wifey had a great time and of course a sumptous lunch there. Btw, did i tell you that there is a small theme park nearby. But we decided that it is ill advised to sit on those thrilling rides with our fully loaded stomachs.

On tuesday, we went along with another desi family to a popular water park called Carribean Bay. Had a great time in the Wave Pools, Spas and Saunas. The water slide is the most exciting. The one in carribean Bay is a pretty long one and it takes you through a dark tunnel for around a minute or so. By the time you reach the ground Zero and splash in the pool you would be thoroughly thrilled and exhausted.

The remaining few days were spent in watching the 2020 live cricket matches, cricket highlights and of course discussing with friends about what Dhoni’s strategies should be, about the field placings, the batting orders, the bowlers etc etc..

Hey Ram!

Phew! Atlast some common sense prevailed and the UPA Govt and its President Sonia Gandhi did the right thing. A couple of weeks back, i was shell-shocked to hear in one of the popular desi news channels that the Govt nominated grave diggers a.k.a. archeologists (of ASI) proclaimed that Lord Rama is not a historical character (http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14526619) . He is more of a mythological character or more specifically a character in a fiction book written by Valmiki. I thought “Hey dude!..What the %&%# is happening here??”

What evidence were thse guys looking for when they said that they did not find any evidence that these historical characters ever did exist? They were perhaps disappointed that they did not dug out a monkeys tail, or a Surpanaka’s nose, or a fossil with ten heads (that of Ravana).

Come On men, Go around the country and look for yourself. In India, it is said that there are more temples than there are primary schools. Most of them are dedicated to Lord Rama, Vishnu or Krishna, who are known to be different avataaras of one God, Vishnu. Visit any of these temples and you will find hundreds of devotees paying homage and respect to the almighty and religiously performing the rituals with due diligence. Is this not proof enough! Are these ASI people suggesting us that our grandpops and grandmoms lied to us, cause, I recall my grandfather telling me stories of Rama, Sita, Anjaneya and Ravana.

Finally the affidavit was not filed and that the UPA Govt did the right thing, gives some solace. But the damage has been done. People’s sentiments and beliefs has been hurt.

There is still some action going on in these topic with Karunanidhi asking Who Lord Rama was and in which college did he study?? !!. Phew!! Being Indians, We are all used to these kinds of reactions from the politicians.

Hope, the politicians reconcile and people of all religions live happily in India.

Yuvraj's Sixers

Twenty20 Worldcup: I thoroughly enjoyed watching each of the six sixers that Yuvraj belted off Chris Broad. I enjoyed it partly because it came right after that verbal spat with Flintoff
And Broad is a pretty decent bowler and we saw that during the 7-one dayers Natwest Series in England. He was pretty much beating the bat every alternate deliveries in those helpful conditions. Those sixers sealed the fate of that match.
And the fresh news is that India defeated South Africe by a pretty good margin. Three cheers to the men in Blue.

But, my advice to the knowledgeable Indian cricket fans is not to go overboard and start jumping up and down. We know our cricket teams knack of snatching defeats from the jaws of victory ;( . Lets just keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best!

Dhoni as Captain

The latest news making the rounds among the Indian cricket fans is that of Dhoni being elevated to the captaincy. I personally feel that it is a brave decision and one that augurs well for the future. Dhoni seems to have right attitide and the aptitude that the job demands.

The job of Indian captaincy has always been a bed of roses. Dhoni though will have the luxury of seeking advices from the mentors like the Big 3. The big three Sachin, Rahul and Sourav have served the Indian cricket well for all these years. It is a pity that all three will be retiring almost at the same time in coming one or two years.

There is also a lot of speculation about the reasons behind Dravid’s unexpected resignation. Many do feel that this could have been postponed for a few more months or he could have given some indicators to the selectors that he wants to quit after another series or so. I also do fall in that category. Dravid’s decision though is understandably comforting to himself, is not in the right interests of Indian cricket. If he had given any indicators about his plan, the selectors could have groomed a new captain.

Although the entire Indian public was worried, for over a year now, about grooming the youngsters for the leadership positions, the BCCI was least worried. Their unprofessionalism was glaringly evident in the way they handled the selection of Graham Ford as the coach. And who do they appoint next as the manager of the Indian team - The 72 year old, young Chacha Chandu Borde. And, just keep in mind that we still do not have a coach!

Although assigning captaincy to Dhoni is like treading in unchartered waters, it is the right decision. For the first time i do feel that the BCCI and the selectors (or the bunch of jokers as Jimmy Amarnath calls them~) have taken the right decision. All the credits be given to BCCI for this - We need to give credits where it is due . Atlast, there seems to be a spark of light at the end of the tunnel. Hope it is not of the incoming train!