My world of blog

Recycle - should I bother?

2008-03-30T12:12:00.000-07:00

After about a year of trying to recycle things, I am finally thinking if it is worth doing it. There are lots of things you can recycle: paper, plastic, cardboard, bottles, broken electrical items,etc. Now some of these are most common in our day-to-day lives like plastic, cardboard, paper. Almost everything we buy at the superstore is wrapped into one of these things.

At the flat where we are staying, we can recycle paper but not cardboard, we can recycle plastic bottles but not glass or plastic bags. I have been recycling plastic bags and glass bottles at the nearest Tesco extra store where I go for weekly shopping. I have also been recycling cardboard at Tesco all these days. Recently I got a letter from Glasgow council and I learnt that we cannot recycle cardboard at the flat bins. After carefully looking at the instructions at the Tesco bins, I found that we can't recycle cardboard there either.

So can we recycle cardboard at all? Yes, but it's not easy one, I would have to go to specific place and it is miles away. I don't think it is worth, the city council should really provide facilities to recycle cardboard and glass bottles at the apartment.

Considering the fact that most of the ready food is wrapped with a cardboard and many other items come in cardboard boxes, there should be an easier way to recycle.

William's Sisters in Bangalore

2008-03-16T07:47:00.000-07:00

Williams sisters were in Bangalore recently to play the Bangalore Open tennis tournament. They had a good fight against each other in the semis which Serena managed to win and eventually won the the tournament.

While in Bangalore, some one must have given this idea of dressing them up in Indian traditional dress. But I don't think they did a very good job of it. Take a look at the picture I got from Deccan Herald website.

Valentine's Day or Divorce Day?

2008-02-14T11:22:00.000-08:00

If you are thinking, just like me, that Valentine's Day is all about spending quality time with your loved ones or expressing your love then you need to take a look at this link.

www.wklc.com

This radio station is offering a free divorce to a lucky winner. what a irony!
I do not think any one would be happy to celebrate the day in this fashion or may be there are some frustrated people out there.

But I must say I am amused by this free offer!

Tracing spam...

2008-02-05T21:53:00.000-08:00

When I go to my spam folder to delete them off, looking at sheer volume of junk I have always wondered who on the earth can benefit out of sending spam emails. But it turns out that there are many people who would take the risk of opening these emails, not only that but order items of spammers website. They must be crazy to waste their money in this way and encouraging spammers to send more such emails.I saw this article on BBC recently and it is interesting how the journalist tried to trace the spammer by ordering some of the interesting items of their website. It's hard to trace them as you can see from the article but they did manage it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7140449.stm

I also learned from the article that there are many websites involved who use spammers to attract customers to their websites. Why can't be any action taken against such websites?

Ferrero Rocher laddoos

2008-02-03T13:48:00.000-08:00

Home made laddoos packed in Ferrero Rocher boxes, how cool is that.

Good idea to bring the laddoos safely from India.

Xmas Shopping!

2008-01-31T13:30:00.000-08:00

It is quite some time now but I haven't been able to post this blog.. but I guess it is never too late.

It was a weekday evening before xmas week and I went out shopping to Woolworths in the Forge Retail Park. I knew what I wanted to buy so I quickly went around looking for it. I was waiting in the queue at the pay till and I could see all the people in the queue were with their xmas shopping. Ahead of me in the queue was a gentleman dressed in suit with a boxed game in his hands. I was next in the queue holding my only shopping item, a toilet roll holder(!) which I wanted to be fitted for my new flat. When my turn came, I quickly paid in cash for the item and I was off the store. It wasn't my Christmas shopping but I sure did feel like one (so what if it's only a toilet roll holder) because of the atmosphere around.

New Team India Cricket Captain

2007-09-18T10:33:00.001-07:00

I saw this pic of Dhoni on BBC and thought I would share it here. Look at his flying hair...

Another interesting one from deccan herald...

Trip to Headingly

2007-09-05T12:52:00.000-07:00

It was a long drive but we managed to reach there after 4 hrs at 8:30pm on sat night, we did get lost a bit in Leeds city centre but my friend guided me all the way to his home. We got up early next day morning and decided to park a mile away from the Headingly Stadium on a less busy road so that we don't get stuck in the traffic on our way back.

When we got into the ground, the players of both teams were warming up for the match. We took some close up snaps of our cricket players. It was a bright Sunday morning and it was a good feeling to be inside the stadium. We were really hoping that India wins the match and make the day memorable and "paisa wasooli" for us.

My friend was trying to get autograph of some of the Indian cricket players but none of the famous players bothered to sign and they all went straight inside the pavilion to get ready for the game. Only Dinesh Karthik from Indian team stopped by to sign some autographs. From England team, Paul Collingwood and Mascarenhas were happy to sign the autographs.

Fame is such a interesting thing, many people in the crowd want to get autographs from only the famous players but not other new players in the team. I am sure the new players would have that kind of demand some day in the future, at least some of them.

It was India batting first and after the first 2 maiden overs we thought it was going to be a dull day. But it turned out to be a very entertaining day with India coming on the top. It was very eventful day including the rain breaks.

Monty Panesar was clearly a popular man with the Indian crowd. It was good to see the crowd cheering for him. Also when Sachin is fielding near to the boundary, people would normally shout his name and Sachin happily waved to the crowd. That was enough for the crowd to go happy. You also see so many cameras clicking when he is near to the boundary.

At the end of day, we had really enjoyed the match and the environment in the ground. It was definitely more than "paisa wasooli".

It was another pulsating match today and India have squared the series with a fashionable win which many people had not expected. So that puts up for a interesting series decider this weekend at Lords. It should be a great game and I hope it will be.

Bhagyada Lakshmi Barammaa - Hilarious

2007-08-07T12:43:00.000-07:00

This is a wonderful and hilarious comedy clip of famous Kannada song "Bhagyada Lakshmi Barammaa". Must watch...comedy at it's best!

Words, Pictures, Videos

2007-07-20T14:33:00.000-07:00

A famous saying says "a picture is worth a thousand words". It is certainly true but I feel it doesn't apply always! There are so many famous pictures I haven't been able to understand what they are trying to depict. May be I am dumb here but I have come across many people who think the same. So I feel in such cases words would defintely be more valuable.

If that is the story of words and picture, what about a video. Is it worth a thousand pictures? or worth a million words? A video is definitely made up of thousands of pictures (many frames per second) and it could be worth a thousand pictures. But again, I do not think it is worth a thousand or million words. It could be so in certain cases but not in most cases. Because I do not think a movie or video can depict a novel in its entire words. I am not sure how many people feel so, but I certainly felt it. Well, I hardly read novels but I managed to read one of the classic novel, Godfather. After a few days, I saw the movie and I really felt that the movie didn't not show many things. It is also difficult to capture all the emotions and other small things written in the novel in a 2-3 hrs movie. It could possibly be done if it was a 12 hour movie but then hey, I guess the cinema hall would be empty!

Abdul Razzaq!

2007-06-30T05:01:00.000-07:00

I was walking along the Argyle street in Glasgow city center today and I saw this man walking in the opposite direction. I walked past him thinking to myself it has to be Abdul Razzaq, I then decided to go back and talk to him. I walked back and stopped the two guys, then to ensure myself, I checked with him if he was Abdul Razzaq. He was Abdul Razzaq and I told the other gentlmen with Abdul I cannot recognise him. He mentioned he was no cricketer so that is ok. I then asked Abdul he was holidaying, he said no and he has come to play for a match. The guy next to him mentioned "Kya yaar, India Pakistan ka match hai, kya cricket fan ho". I then suddenly realised there is a friendly match in Glasgow on 3rd July. I told Adbul, I haven't got a pen otherwise I would have definitely taken his autograph and that it was nice to meet to him.

After I left the place, I was thinking "oh no, I should have taken a picture with him using my mobile". Nevertheless, I was happy to meet this great Pakistan cricketer and he seemed to be a really humble person.

I was then walking along the steet thinking if I am lucky I might be meeting some other cricketer. But that didn't happen!

Mungaru Male

2007-06-24T11:19:00.000-07:00

Watch the melodious song from latest Kannada movie, "Mungaru Male". All the songs are really nice and this one is my favourite. Sonu Nigam has sung the song very well, it is amazing how these singers manage to pronounce all the words right without knowing the language!

The movie was recently played in London, Bristol and few other cities in UK. I heard this is the first Kannada movie to make it to European cinemas and that is some record with the latest Kannada movies.

If you are a kannadiga, you would probably have listened to this song by now. But I am sure it is worth a watch again.

Pay as you waste!

2007-06-16T13:11:00.000-07:00

If you think you are already paying enough council tax then you have to see this news.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5074558.stm

We could soon be charged based on the amount of waste we are throwing away in the bins. This is a new measure to encourage people to recycle more stuff instead of throwing away everything in the bins. It has been tried in Austria and it has produced some good results. There is also a concern that land fill sites are getting filled up. There were also worries that people could dump their waste into some one elses bins to reduce their charges...that will be interesting!

While it might be a good idea to encourage people to recycle, I don't think there are very good recycle facilities at the moment at all places. I stay in an apartment right now and I can't recycle things as there is no separate bin for recycling. If I have to recycle then I have to take the stuff and put it in the specific bins near Tesco that go to for weekly shopping. I have been trying to do that regularly these days. I guess I am getting used to recycling already :)

Choco bars - back to vegetarian!

2007-05-20T11:59:00.000-07:00

Hurrah!! Masterfoods, the company that manufactures the chocolates bars like Mars, snickers, etc has decided not put animal rennet in its chocolate bars. There were many complaints received against the non-veg decision and they decided not to go with it. This is really great news.

Check this link...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6673549.stm

Apparently there are 3 million vegetarians in the UK, I didn't know that!

Almost cheated!

2007-05-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

It was time to buy a new mobile as I broke my P900. It had fallen several times but was going strong but this time around it refused to start up, may be it was too old and also ruggedly used.

So I decided to find myself a bargain on eBay. It was quite sometime since I had last traded on eBay. I was quite fascinated by Nokia N80 earlier when I was looking for a new contract so I decided to find a good deal on an unlocked N80. After a bit of digging around I found a deal.

I found the deal pretty good as the item was quoted as new and unlocked! In the item description, he mentioned he would prefer online payment for the item. eBay does say that is not safe and advices to use PayPal. But after looking at the positive feedback of the seller I somehow decided to take risk and chose the option to "buy it now". I received an email that I won the bid and it said I should send a bankers draft to the seller. I was thinking it would be online transfer, quick and easy. I sent an email back to seller why is he asking for bankers draft instead of online transfer. Also I was lazy to go to bank next day(Friday) to get a banker's draft. I decided to go to bank on Saturday but got up late and couldn't go. There was no reply from the seller, I was bit sceptical now and decided to look at the item I bought again. There is a surprise, the guy is not an eBay anymore! shocking! I was so close to being robbed by some one on ebay. I will always go with PayPal or something similar suggested by eBay from now on.

Just to check, I even sent an email to one of the guy who bought an item from the cheater and left a positive feedback but there was no reply from him as well although he was an active eBay member. May be he had made up the fake positive feedback!

Lessons learnt: Be careful and follow ebay guidelines :)

Non-vegetarian choco bars!

2007-05-14T11:59:00.000-07:00

Many of our favourite chocolate bars are changing to non-vegetarian, it's so sad and really bad for all vegetarians like us. I wonder why they have to add some non-veg stuff into chocolates.. it's strange, weird and what not!!

Check this out
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6653175.stm

So next you pick up a chocolate bar, don't forget to check the ingredients

Spring

2007-04-30T14:02:00.000-07:00

Spring is here or should I say summer as the temperatures are rising fast. It seems this April is the hottest in Britain since 300 hundreds, wow, that just shows the climage change due to global warming. It's already so warm and don't know what is waiting for us in the summer. While we have been waiting for the sun to shine all these days, we might be soon saying, oh enough of this heat and summer. But I must say that a sunny day really makes my day bright. I feel so fresh and feel good if it's bright in the morning unlike in the winter. I guess that's the case with most people.

Below is a pic of the trees blossoming in front of our apartment.

This pic was taken about 3 weeks back.

As you would have guessed, below is the pic taken during winter when they had shed of their leaves, they look bald :)

What am I thinking now?

2007-04-28T02:59:00.000-07:00

It's a big game today. Srilanka Vs Australia and same thoughts are lingering in my mind again. If Srilanka can bat first and post a huge total then ...

Yes! I think that's the only way any team can beat Aussies in their current form. I guess form doesn't really apply to them, they always play well. Form is what is required for Indian cricket players to play well!

This is what Murali had to say about the big match (source BBC)
"This could be the biggest moment in my life. In 1996 I was very young and didn't know much, Now I know about what it takes to win a World Cup. This must be my last World Cup and if we can win it will be the greatest moment in my life - more than my individual records."

And this what McGrath had to say (source BBC)
"I've got a lot of memories here in Barbados. This is where I took my first five-for in international cricket. To me a perfect way to finish would be another five-for, a win, walk off and happy days"
Asked to single out the best batsman he has faced, McGrath gave Brian Lara of West Indies the edge over India's Sachin Tendulkar.
"Obviously the two stand-outs are Brian and Sachin and I feel from bowling to those two guys that probably Brian was slightly in front of Sachin when they were at their peaks," he said.
He nominated West Indies great Curtly Ambrose and former Pakistan left-armer Wasim Akram as the bowlers he most admired.

What was I thinking?

2007-04-25T12:49:00.000-07:00

I was thinking if South Africa bat first today and post a huge total then they have a good chance of beating the Aussies. South Africa did bat first after winning the toss but ended up posting a very low total which they cannot defend. Aussies are well on course to another final.

Can they win again and make it a hatrick world cup crown?! or will it be Srilankans who will fight the best of Aussies? we will see soon.

ICC Cricket world cup highlights

2007-04-14T12:22:00.000-07:00

Below are the cricket world cup highlights according to me, I am listing them in terms of first ever and worst ever categories:

First ever...
1. Six sixes in six consecutive balls by Herschelle Gibbs, first time in the history of ODI. This is a great achievement against any bowler.

2. Four wickets in four consecutive balls by Lasith Malinga, first time in the history of ODI. This happened when South Africa required 4 runs to win the match with 5 wickets in hand. Unfortunately, Srilanka could not win the match and South Africa managed to pull the thriller. Otherwise it would have been one of the greatest victories.

Worst Ever...
1. Death of Bob Woolmer, this was really shocking and bad for cricket. Only a few days ago I had written blog in which I mentioned cricket as a gentlemen's game, but this sad incident has done no good to the game.

2. Shock exit of India and Pakistan cricket teams

There are other interesting things to observe...
1. Australia has come out very strong after their disastrous form before the world cup. They are looking good and has every chance of retaining the title. They are proving again why they are the best. I will be waiting to see the match between Aussies and Srilankans. Srilankan team has the capability to beat the Aussies.

2. Bangladesh has also showed the other teams what they are capable of. I don't the news headline should no longer read "South Africa's shock defeat to Bangladesh" or anything like that, it's not a shock anymore. They have beaten New Zealand (warm up game), then India and now South Africa. They have beaten Australians before. So I don't think they can be considered minnows anymore, otherwise you could see them causing more upsets!

Interesting sign posts

2007-04-12T11:26:00.000-07:00

This was near Trafalgar Square in London...

This was in wales, near to mumbles beach in Swansea...

This was at Glenturret distillery we visited during Easter holidays...

This is in fountain water at Trafalgar Square... look at the no entry sign board

Recent London Trip photos

2007-04-03T13:17:00.000-07:00

London

April Foool

2007-04-01T03:31:00.000-07:00

The origin of April Fool's day is not certain but it is believed that is to do with New Year's celebrations. It dates back to 1582 when French used to start celebrating the new year on 25th March and end it on 1st April (This date is apparently close to the date of Hindu lunar calendar). After Charles IX came to power, Gregorian Calendar was introduced that replaced the old Julian Calendar and the new year's day was moved to 1st January.

But because of either slow communication or because some people were not happy to accept the calendar change, they continued to celebrate the new year on 1st April. These people were made fun of and were apparently called fools hence April Fool's day. Sounds funny to me!

There are problems with this belief as it is believed that the April Fool's day spread to other Europe countries like England and Scotland even before the Gregorian Calendar was introduced there. So it is not really certain how it is originated. But it was fun to play some silly pranks when we were kids.

Happy April Fool's Day!

Healthy Living - Go Green

2007-03-24T15:31:00.000-07:00

When so much is going on in the world about global warming and measures being taken to control it, I thought I would add my bits to it.

Plastic is so commonly used in our everyday life that everything we buy comes in plastic covers. The problem is that most of the this plastic is non-recyclable and non-degradable. The result is that the waste land is getting filled up with this junk plastic. While we may not have control on many things happening in the world, we can take some measures to control it as responsible citizens. I have got some suggestions, read on.

Try and reduce using the normal plastic covers provided in the super stores to carry your weekly grocery shopping. Re-use the plastic covers instead of getting new covers every time. Even better is to use the plastic bags sold in the super stores for e.g. tesco bag for life which are completely recyclable and reusable. These bags cost only 10 pence each. Also Tesco promises to replace the old bag with a new one free of charge when the old one is worn out. We have been using for few days now and we found them very comfortable to carry groceries as they don't hurt your hands because they got good handle to hold.

Another most common usage of plastic in our daily life is the plastic cups that we use at work to drink tea/coffee/water. These cups are made from oil (fossil fuel) which is going to be extinct soon so it is important to recycle these cups. But I would suggest you stop using these plastic cups....

Instead buy a cup (you could call it cup for life just like bag for life ). It again costs a pound or two. The only problem I see is that you will need to wash your cup every time you go for tea/coffee but it's hardly an effort.

Also buy a water bottle and stop using the plastic cups. I am yet to buy a water bottle but will be doing it soon.

There are so many ways like these where we can try and contribute to the enviroment.

Ugadi

2007-03-18T09:58:00.000-07:00

Ugadi is the beginning of a new year according to Hindu Lunar calendar. I knew only that about Ugadi and I tried to find out more.

It is believed that Lord Brahma created the Earth on this day. It is called Chandramaana Ugadi as it is new year day based on lunar system. It is on this day that there will be change in moon's orbit. There are many people who also celebrate the new year based on Solar calendar and it is called Souramaana Ugadi. Ugadi is celebrated on the first fortnight (Shukla Paksha) of the first month (Chaitra Masa). It also marks the beginning of spring season (Vasanth Rutu).

Wish you all a very happy Ugadi.

Below is a pic of our Ugadi special dish, holige. I tried it for the first time on my own and thankfully it had come out good.

Why cricket is a gentlemen's game?

2007-03-11T01:09:00.000-08:00

Have a look at the recent Carling cup final incident between Chelsea and Arsenal. Players of the two champion teams of EPL (English Premiership League) couldn't control themselves and get involved into worst fighting incidents. The team managers had to walk into the field to control the situation.

The incident below is even worse. It was a recent champions leagues match between Valencia and Inter Milan. What is worse about it is that the fight starts after the final whistle! and a player on Valencia bench comes to hit some one and then runs away when chased by Inter players. It's not all over, the fight continues inside the dressing room!

I guess it's the pace of the football game that sets the tone for this kind of fighting. But players need to control themselves as they are not setting a good example for the youth. Many of these players would be considered role models by the upcoming stars and they need to do better on the field.

On the other hand, you could argue that cricket is loosing it's status of gentlemen's game as there is lot of sledging in the game these days. I hope it doesn't get worse in cricket and also wish the authorities take some action against sledging.

I haven't subscribed for the cable to watch the world cup, I don't want to get disappointed if India loose without putting up a fight. I will still be disappointed if they loose but not may be as much as if I would have watched the match live. I wish the Indian team all the best for the world cup.

Ladki Baddi An Janni Hai

2007-03-06T14:06:00.000-08:00

I have heard that there are lot of Rajanikant's fans in Japan.
It also looks like they are Bollywood fans, take a look at this.

Holi

2007-03-04T14:48:00.000-08:00

Holi festival, as we all know is a festival of colours but I didn't exactly knew why we play colours. After doing a bit of google it, I found out that it is all because of Lord Krishna.

There are two beliefs I found:
1. Krishna, known for his raas-leela, used to play pranks on gopikas (cow-herd girls) by spraying water and colour on them.

2. Another story says that we play colours because Krishna's mother decided to put colour on Radha's face when he complained about the contrast colour difference between his dark colour and Radha's fair colour.

Another main celebration during Holi is bonfire. Again there are two beliefs, I always associated the festival with the first one:
1. Lord Shiva was upset after Sati's death and gave up his worldy duties and went into deep meditation. All the other Gods got worried and got Kamadeva, god of love, to disturb Shiva's meditation so that he comes to normal and also can marry Goddess Parvati who was already meditating to marry Shiva. Kamadeva tried to distract Shiva's meditation and was eventually burnt down when Shiva opened his third eye. Rati, wife of Kamadeva, pleaded Shiva to bring back her husband to life. Shiva agreed to her request and revived Kamadeva but not in his physical form.

2. Hiranyakashipu wanted to kill his son, Bhaktha Prahlad as he was worshipping Lord Vishnu instead of Hiranyakashipu. He asked his sister, Holika who had the boon of immunity against fire, to burn Pralhad to ashes. But finally she herself got burnt into ashes and Prahlad was safe. The festival is named after her name, Holika.

I remember we used to steal wooden logs and coconut tree branches to set up the bonfire. We also used to collect wood by requesting from all the homes in the colony. We used to collect the wood in a secret place and then set up the kama dhahana (bonfire) on the festival day.

People also drink bhang, an alcoholic drink, during the festival. It is more prominent though in Northern India. But I remember one of friend drank bhang when we were in college and thought he was in a boat all day when actually he was in his bed. He was even rowing for some time of the day! (you know who you are if you are reading this).

Wish you all a very colourful Holi.

These are the pics of rainbow that I took using my mobile on my way to work.

That's the way it is

2007-02-25T22:13:00.000-08:00

Have you listened to "that's the way it is" song from Celine Dion.
I think it's a truly inspirational song, listen to it when you are feeling down and I hope it will make you feel better. It doesn't mean you cannot listen to it other times.

Below is a link to the song video from you tube. I would enjoy just listening to the song more than watching the video.

Healthy Eating - Salad

2007-02-23T14:24:00.000-08:00

Another healthy dieting tip! Eat a bowl of salad as part of your dinner, at least 3-4 days a week. Add vegetables of your choice and top it up with salad cream to make it more interesting.

Our typical salad bowl...

Scotland

2007-02-20T09:00:00.000-08:00

When you think of Scotland there are certain things that come to mind and the most prominent ones are bag piper, scotch whisky, scenic mountains and also the Scottish traditional dress-kilt.

Being in Scotland, I recently got a chance to try out the Scottish kilt outfit. It was the occasion of annual party at work where we were all encouraged to wear Scottish traditional dress. Although I didn't sign up for the party in the beginning, I decided to go for it in the last moment looking at the huge number of colleagues already signed up . Also it was an occasion for me to try out kilt. Another good thing was the we could bring our partners to the party which means me and Chandra could go together.

Once I decided to go the party it was time to pick up the kilt dress. My colleagues then started asking me what clan or tartan I'm going to wear. Until then I didn't know there are thousands of variety of kilts which are based on the family names for example tennis player Andy Murray would wear Murray clan kilt and Sir Alex Ferguson would wear Ferguson clan and so on. Again each of the family clan are divided into traditional and modern clans. These clans were used in the olden days to recognise people belonging to different families. But after looking at the different clans on the Internet I really wondered how could any one easily recognise a family name by looking at the clan as they differ from one another by minute difference. There are also different jackets like argyl and prince charles.

There are lot of places in the city who hire out kilt outfit. We were offered some discounts through work and I decided to go to one of those places. I went to this shop (mcgregor and macduff) and they showed me couple of tartans, I quickly selected a green and black striped tartan and argyle jacket. Later I found out that tartan type was "Modern Douglas". I got the whole outfit including shoes, stockings, sgian dubb(knife), sporran, flashes and kilt pin. Chandra decided to wear saree as we couldn't find any other suitable party dress.

Then it was time for the party and we enjoyed every bit of it including the haggis - a Scottish special dish. Since we are vegetarians, they served us the veggie version of the dish. The party also hosted Scottish traditional ceilind (pronounced as keli) dance by a band. There are different sequences of dance, some involve only couples and some involve groups. The band used to first teach us how to dance and then we used to dance. We enjoyed a few rounds of ceilind group dance. Then it was time for some disco to end the party.

Me in Modern Douglas kilt!

Is this the beginning of end of Australia's cricketing dominance

2007-02-17T05:06:00.000-08:00

Look at the last three results of Australia's ODI matches

New Zealand: 149-0 ( 27.0 overs )
Australia: 148 ( 49.3 overs )
New Zealand beat Australia by 10 wickets

Australia: 152-8 ( 27.0 overs )
England: 246-8 ( 50.0 overs )
England beat Australia by 34 runs (D/L)

Australia: 252 ( 48.3 overs )
England: 253-6 ( 49.3 overs )
England beat Australia by 4 wickets

How often do you see that happening! Australia has lost 4 out of the last 5 one day matches they have played. England beat them recently to win the Commonwealth Bank triangular series.

Without Shane Warne and with Glenn McGrath set to retire soon, the team will be without two great bowlers. Although one can strongly argue that their absence doesn't make any difference to the team because we have seen Australians do well without them but I am now thinking the team will not be same.

Adam Gilchrist is getting old too and will retire soon. The batting line won't be the same without him.

Only time will tell how the Australians will perform in the coming days and months. The cricket world cup is only a few days away and the way the Australian team performing I think the other teams stand a good chance of beating them to win the cup. Can India do it?! I wish and hope we do win it this time.

Triangle Dosa

2007-02-16T10:29:00.000-08:00

Check out the triangle shaped dosas we made...

Thanks to Arun for teaching me the trick while he was here in Glasgow.

Healthy Eating - Fruits

2007-02-10T14:53:00.000-08:00

As part of our healthy diet we have been trying to eat lot of vegetables and fruits.
Below is a pic of some interesting fruit combinations.

Another one...

Snow

2007-02-08T11:39:00.000-08:00

When I heard the news yesterday that there would be heavy snow in the UK I was happy for a moment. Later I found that it is going to snow only in the England and Wales but not in Scotland. Scotland is supposed to be a colder place and it is irony it didn't snow here :(

But our friends in London enjoyed the snow today. This is a picture sent by our dear friend, Rahul taken in front of his home.

I just read the news that it is going to snow in Glasgow on Sunday. Looking forward to playing in the snow.

Big Brother Vs Top Gear

2007-02-04T09:01:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday was the day when Shilpa Shetty won the celebrity big brother show. There were millions of people watching the show live on channel 4. Me and Chandra were also among them.

But if you were thinking it was the most watched programme that night then you got it wrong. It was "Top Gear" which took the top spot. The TV show started telecasting again after Richard Hammond's recovery from a high speed jet powered car crash. He was driving at 288mph when the car crashed. We watched the show later when it was re-telecasted on BBC2.

Check the TV viewing ratings
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6309411.stm

If you have missed the show, you can watch the car crash footage through this BBC link http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_6300000/newsid_6308500/6308515.stm?bw=bb&mp=rm

Richard Hammond could have achieved the highest official land speed record driving the jet-powered car. He had done a run just before the car crash where he reached 340mph but it will not become official until you have driven in the opposite direction and then the speed will be calculated. He met with the horrible accident due to tyre burst and could not make an official record. But he is really lucky to survive the crash and to be back to normal in just about 6 months.

Shilpa Shetty is lucky too to win the show. She is now a real celebrity in the UK giving interviews to TV channels and news papers. I also read she will be meeting the queen and prime minister, Tony Blair. For now, it looks like she is going to settle down in the UK as her career is getting a real boost here.

Giving up "Chicken"

2007-02-03T02:35:00.000-08:00

I have decided to go back to being "Vegetarian". Yes! I have given up eating meat, actually I should say chicken as that was the only thing I used to eat. I did taste lamb but did not really enjoy it.

It all started when I saw this blog "say no to meat" written by my ex-colleague. The videos I saw on that website were really horrendous. The way the animals were treated made me feel what I was doing wrong. So I stopped eating chicken for few days because I didn't I feel like but only until we went to Bombay Blues for buffet lunch recently. I saw these chicken tandoori legs on the menu and I couldn't control myself helping with one or two. I started eating chicken after a long gap but I wasn't enjoying it. So I have now decided to stop eating chicken any more.

I was mentioning to my colleague recently that I am a vegetarian. He was telling me that he cannot imagine a meal without meat. I am sure there are lots of people who would say that. But I am also sure that there more number of people who would say I can't imagine how can some one eat meat.

We do a cake run at work every Friday and some one was mentioning they would fancy a meat cake (can't remember exact name of the cake) that day. I was mentioning to one of my colleague the cruelty done to the animals and how I have stopped eating meat after looking at some of the videos. He then expressed his concern that it is very bad what happens to the animals and how they are slaughtered. In the end he told that after saying all those things he would still fancy eating a meat cake:)

I only hope that I won't get tempted to eat those tandoori chicken legs again.

Tendulkar's news - Ganguly's pic

2007-01-31T13:19:00.000-08:00

Did you read today's(31st Jan) deccan herald on the net?

This was the description for DH photography.

"Sachin Tendulkar, who won the man of the match and the man of the series award raises his bat after completing his 41st One day century against West Indies at the 4th ODI in Vadodra on Wednesday. India won the match by 160 runs clinching the series 3-1. PTI "

But the picture they displayed was this:

That's Ganguly! I saw this picture in the morning and was thinking it would be changed soon but I don't think they took notice of it.

Well, good thing is India won the series. I feel it's been a long time since the team won in such a convincing fashion or may be it has been a long time.

Spam

2007-01-27T12:52:00.000-08:00

Spam is actually a canned processed meat made by Hormel Foods Corporation. Spam is a mixture of pork and ham meat. It is an abbreviation for SPiced hAM. It is also believed it was an abbreviation for "Shoulder of Pork and Ham" because it is shoulder meat.

The name spam has derived it's name from the Monty Python comedy show which was set in a cafe where in almost every item on the menu includes SPAM (apparently when you write it in capitals letters, it refers to the meat product and it is a trademark) meat. I have never seen Monty Python shows so I wouldn't know. World War II saw abundant use of SPAM as it a was widely available food. Also because it was difficult to provide fresh meat to the soldiers.

Spam emails that we receive every day are totally unwanted. Does that mean the SPAM food is unwanted or has it got so bad taste? I have seen SPAM cans in the superstores and there may be many people who would like it. Any sort of food can never become unwanted. There are always peopIe who would like any given particular food. I think "junk"term suits better instead of "spam" to the unwanted emails. Well, what's in a name! spam or junk, they are all unwanted emails.

New year resolution!

2007-01-24T13:34:00.000-08:00

I have been seeing sudden increase in the number of people at the gym after the new year's. It's becoming difficult to get onto thread mill and few other equipments. It used to be busy before new year's too but I could easily get onto thread mill. I enjoy swimming once in a while but the swimming pool is also getting very busy.
Looks like lot of people have made new year resolution to shed off the weight gained during the holidays. Or it could be that the gym staff are doing good marketing.
It will be interesting to see if the gym continues to be busy for the next couple of months!

Guitars

2007-01-18T13:16:00.000-08:00

I had posted photos of my two guitars in my previous posts and I said one of them is actually a cigarette lighter in the shape of Guitar. But it looks like it was not very clear from the picture. So I decided to post a new photo with both guitars together.

See the red coloured lighter on the top of my acoustic guitar.

Big Brother

2007-01-18T13:12:00.000-08:00

Big brother is now a big bother...
And Shilpa Shetty was never so popular!

doesn't that sound like a shayari!
wah wah...

Makara Sankranti

2007-01-12T13:36:00.000-08:00

I seem to have forgotten or don't know exactly why we celebrate most of the festivals! So I am making an effort this year to find out more and then I thought it would be good to blog it. I will make an attempt to blog as we come across each festival. Since today is Makara Sankranti, it's time to find out more about it.

Makara means Capricorn and Sankranti means transition. As you all know Sun revolves around Earth and as he revolves, he moves across the different zodiac signs. When the sun enters Capricorn zodiac sign, it means that he has started to ascend and has entered the northern hemisphere. From this day, the days will start to become longer and warmer. It also marks the start of "Uttarayana", six-month northward journey. The other six-month journey is known as "Dakshinayana". Sankranti is also the start of harvesting season.

As Sun is a Hindu God, the day he enters Capricorn is treated as auspicious occasion because of two important things:
1. Brings more light into our life
2. You attain higher goals as Sun starts to ascend

Wish you all a very happy Makara Sankranti.
Ellarigu Sankranti habbada shubhashayagalu.

Baazigar - a remake!

2007-01-09T13:26:00.001-08:00

I was watching a Hollywood movie recently on TV and I was thinking the story sounds familiar. It was the story of 'Baazigar' - a Bollywood movie. Only then I came to know that Baazigar was a remake of Hollywood movie - 'A Kiss Before Dying'.

Anyways, the movie was great, all songs were good and I enjoyed watching it.
Watch the title song (with subtitles). Don't miss the subtitles, it's funny.

Back to work

2007-01-08T11:52:00.002-08:00

Back to work today after two weeks of holiday. I couldn't stop yawning for first half of the day. I spent an hour or so going through all emails and then sorting them out. Had a cappuccino. Then spent some more time planning my work and trying to recollect the stuff I was doing before holidays! After lunch it was back to normal work... it was not as bad as I thought would be.

It was a good break for 2 weeks. Although we spent the holidays at home, it was fun and relaxing... watched lots of movies. We wanted to go to London initially but then dropped the plan thinking we will go to Aviemore for few days and try skiing. We had booked accommodation and skiing lessons at Aviemore and we were looking forward to it. Had a nice new year's eve dinner party at Prasad's place. We were due to go to Aviemore in the first of Jan but sadly had to cancel the plans as there was not enough snow for skiing...Global Warming!

My first real six-string

2007-01-05T23:05:00.000-08:00

If Bryan Adams got his first real six-string in 1969, I got mine in 2006. Yes, I bought a Guitar couple of months back. I was always crazy about guitar but never had a chance to learn. It was when Chandra went on holiday to India, I decided to buy a guitar and start learning. After some advice from a colleague and the shop guy, I bought Yamaha F310 from Sound Control.

My first six-string, it's a cigarette lighter.

Getting started - tuning the guitar
I left the office half-an-hour early that day to collect my guitar and was eager to start playing it. I came home and opened the box, it came with spare set of strings and also a beginner's DVD. The DVD was very handy and I started watching it. After the introduction, it tells you how to tune your guitar. I didn't have a tuner and I started turning the tuner of upper E string. There was a loud sound like bursting a balloon and the string was broken! Bad start...

Fixing broken string
I was disappointed but then I had a spare set of strings so I decided to put the new string. I had no clue how to do it but I thought it should be simple. I started putting the new string, pulled the string hard into the tuner and tried rotating around the tuner. But it wasn't getting tight enough. It was looking like it is going to break too so I decided to give it up for the day.

Next day
I told my colleague what happened and he went "oh no". But he told me that it is easy, just rotate around the tuner. I told I tried it... He offered me help to fix it. But I decided to give it another shot in the evening when I go home. I went home and tried to fix the broken string. I pulled the string too hard so that it is tight and then tried to rotate around the tuner and broke the spare one as well. Very bad...

Next day
I went to the Sound Control shop in the evening and told the guy who sold me the Guitar what happened. He asked me to get the Guitar so that he can fix it and also teach me to replace string. Some relief...

Next day
I went to the shop and the gentleman at the shop was kind enough to give me another spare set of strings for free. He also taught me how to replace string. I decided to buy a tuner as it makes life easy. And then I started learning the chords and tunes using the DVD. Finally...

By the time Chandra was back from her holiday, I was able to impress her a little bit with a catchy hindi tune "tujhe dekha to yeh jaana sanam".

Watch the wonderful "Hotel California".. the song that inspired me to learn guitar.

Riverview

2007-01-04T16:36:00.000-08:00

The apartment we are renting now is called riverview gardens. We didn't actually have any view of the river until they recently destroyed the old building that was blocking our view.

Below is the view we get from our kitchen...isn't that good?

And below is the view from living room...

I hope they don't construct anything else to block this nice view.

Being Thirty

2007-01-03T05:47:00.000-08:00

The other day I was watching the "Friends" episode where Rachel turns thirty and she is really worried about it. It is shown as a big deal not only for Rachel but for everyone else(Monica, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler and Ross). They all remember when they turned thirty and they are all sad or not so happy about it. For girls, I agree it is a big thing but is it so for guys as well?!

I turned 30 about 10 months back and I didn't think it was a big deal for me. I did feel a bit strange entering 30's but may be I never thought about it so seriously and just got on with life just like any other birthday. But now I feel good and enthusiastic because there were so many first's that I did after I turned thirty. I didn't really plan for these to happen at this age but I am glad they happened now.

I changed my job for the first time after 8 long years in my first job after my graduation. Although the job switch wasn't smooth, I did land up in a good job and good domain now.

Been trekking for the first time. I had been on Scottish mountains (Munro's) twice. Fantastic experience...more about it later

Started learning Guitar... more about it later.

And now my first blog!

It's been an exiting year and I can't complain about it.
So I guess age really doesn't matter!