Idle musings

MY DREAM INDIAN CRICKET TEAM - 2012 The Indian cricket team's tour of Australia is coming to a close. Unfortunately, there are a few unpleasant similarities with the England series in 2011. First, we have lost the third test and a 4-0 prospect looks extremely likely. That is one obvious similarity with the English series :-) Apart from the series scoreline, the previous test series before we played both England and Australia in their respective countries was against West Indies. That is another similarity. Thirdly, our famed batting line up disappointed us in both tours. In 2011, India won the cricket world cup and most of its stars played the IPL after that. Since then the team has played cricket almost continuously. They then won the one day and test series in West Indies. My own opinion is that this led to an unconscious complacency. In West Indies, if the catch of one of the current West Indian batsmen is dropped in a test, the chances are that there would be another one comi...

WELCOME, 2012 !     The Yahoo homepage on our Firefox browser shows the date as January 1, 2012. It is just another day, but it represents a new beginning : a new year has dawned. The cloudy weather due to cyclone Thane has gone for now and I see bright sunshine in Bengaluru now. I hope that is also a harbinger of things to come as well : there were a few areas that were black spots in 2011. As a new year starts, I hope the spots vanish and there is a promising 2012 for all of us ! We wish you and your family a happy 2012 !     2011 has passed us by. The time is set for a few reflections. The year was remarkable for few events :         * We saw an India shaking off its apathy (the famous "chalta hai" attitude) to support a simple 74 year old social reformer. Anna Hazare has become a hero in 2011 due to his insistence to set up a strong mechanism like Lok Pal to fight corruption. Young and old identified with his ideas an...

OUR VISIT TO JAIPUR, AGRA AND UDAIPUR     From 31-Oct-11 to 6-Nov-11, my wife and I visited Jaipur, Agra and Udaipur. We took 413 photos of which I uploaded 60 of them in Google Plus and Flickr. Somehow, I am not a big Facebook fan, but to be honest it is far superior to Google Plus, currently. In my opinion, Flickr is the coolest photo hosting site, though. If you are part of my friends and family group in Flickr, you will be able to view the set http://www.flickr.com/photos/fromkiran/sets/72157628097305692/ which has restricted access. If not, you should be able to view another set with public access at http://www.flickr.com/photos/fromkiran/sets/72157628122398470/ .     Despite the huge number of photos, there are still a lot of memories and experiences that require the written word. So, I decided to blog any way. My initial thought was to let the pictures "speak a thousand words" and not write a blog, but those words still leave something unsaid !!...

The hype over the Indian World Cup victory annoys me a little now, though it has begun to die down with IPL 4 starting yesterday. It is a fantastic achievement by the team, I agree. The final match was a thriller and I enjoyed it - particularly after India won the match and the world cup ! Yes, it was a fine win ; yes, it was a long time coming ; yes, Sachin (above all) deserves to hold the world cup medal and trophy. One week after the win, I feel that the hype is too much. In the final, there were two superstars of the sub-continent facing each other, with Sachin and Muralitharan playing. My own feeling was a feeling of sadness that one of these would have to walk away unsung, while the other would be revelling in memorable victory. I dreaded to think that Sachin would be left empty handed again and when India did win and Virat Kohli hoisted him on his shoulders, I felt happy for him. I did feel a little sorry for Muralitharan though. The celebrations have been over the top, as c...

VIRAJPET ========     On 7-May-10, our family went on a trip to Virajpet. A friend of my wife had stayed at King's Cottage ( http://www.homestayiq.com/coorg/kings_cottage+8 ) and my wife felt it would be a good change for us. We invited our respective parents - and in the end it was a large group of 9 of us that set out for King's Cottage ! The group of 9 comprised my parents; my mother's brother whom we stay with; my mother's sister who came down from Mysooru for a week long trip ; my wife's parents and brother (Raghu) and my wife (Suma) and I.         Suma and I had reserved the rooms after contacting Deepthi, the lady who manages the place along with her husband Viju. Deepthi provided us directions on the phone and Suma also downloaded a detailed map from http://www.palaceestate.co.in/images/PALACE_ESTATE_ROUTEmap.pdf which served as a useful guide.         We had booked a Tempo Traveller (TT) for the ...

KANDY AND COLOMBO My parents, my mother's brother and sister, my wife and I visited Sri Lanka during the Diwali weekend. We had a memorable 3 days. It was my uncle who spotted a deal that Sri Lankan Airlines offered : a package of 4 nights and 3 days in Sri Lanka for Rs. 28,000 for a couple, including the air fare and at least 3 star accommodation. Some information is available at http://www.srilankan-holidays.com/general/in_to_srilanka.htm# . He arranged to make the booking and it was decided that we would visit Sri Lanka during the Diwali holidays. My mother's sister came from Mysooru on Thursday morning. On 15-Oct-09, after double checking (and triple checking !!) the doors and the locks, geyser and LPG connections, we left home at 5 p.m. to catch the flight scheduled at 9:15 p.m. We thought we could reach by 6:15 p.m., but we had not reckoned with the Bengaluru traffic. Our cab driver chose the ring route from the Jnanabharati campus at Kengeri, which was new to us, instea...