3 Sep
Guys, it’s been wonderful blogging with WordPress all these days. Though this wasn’t my 1st blog officially, this was the 1st blog which was in use for a long time and had regular updates.
For various reasons, am shifting my blog to Blogger. You can continue reading at ramkbhat.blogspot.com
Thanks for ur time. Will definitely miss WordPress!!
26 Mar
So the season 3 of the mad man’s game is here. So is it Back? Bigger? Better?
Bigger- it might be next year with 2 more teams to join the party
Better- is what we could decide over the next 1 month of action
But, its definitely back.. ya back to India after almost 2 yrs. That’s definitely a reason to celebrate.. Yay!! 😛
So what’s new this IPL? Let’s have a look what each of the franchises have in store this season
1. Chennai Super Kings
Its my home side 🙂 and I hope we win this time after a couple of fairly good outings in the past 2 seasons. We made it to the semis on both occasions. CSK will be as ever blessed with the presence of one of the best captains of the IPL, Dhoni. Couldn’t agree with Director of CSK more when he says, he s a 3-in-1 performer whose contribution can never go without a mention.
Haydos is back and we might get a chance to see him with his Mongoose bat. The one that looks like a Dhobi walla’s. Kemp is in the side too and we might have to wait for sometime to c the blazing opening pair of Hussey and Hayden.
Now putting the other teams in perspective in the order of my backing them 🙂
2. Mumbai Indians
+ Sachin leading from the front and in the midst of an amazing purple patch
+ The Caribbean explosive duo of Bravo and Pollard.
+ They will hope that the Indian Spin and Pace spearheads Bhaji and Zaheer fire along with Malinga’s unorthodox bowling
3. Delhi Daredevils
+ The awesome Delhi opening pair of Viru and his Ranji team mate Gauti. Warner could only add to the woes of the opposition.
+ SA’s ABD and SL’s Dilshan were well worth their money last time. ABD might not be the same on Indian tracks.
+ Nannes and Parnell will form a nice bowling pair
No more favorites.. Listing others in some random order
4. Bangalore Royal Challengers
+ My 3rd fav captain after Dhoni and Sachin. Kumble can trouble any side with balls landing on their seam
+ Kallis couldn’t have hit a good form in anyother better time. Being an excellent all-rounder he comes as a nice package
+ The young Indian contingent of Praveen, Pandey and Vinay kumar should make their presence felt.
5. Kolkata Knight Riders
+ Supposed to be the most glamorous team of the IPL. But the glamour usually limits itself to just SRK. Hope Dada leads them to a decent position this time.
+ Gayle’s flamboyant batting, Mathew’s all-round abilities and Bond’s fiery bowling should come good for them to spell success this season
6. King XI Punjab
+ Much will depend on how good Sangakkara handles the additional responsibility of Captaincy with batting and wicket keeping.
+ Jayawardene, UV and Bopara’s batting will be things to look out for.
+ The Australian pair of Lee and Marsh would be eagerly awaited.
7. Deccan Chargers
+ Gilly Gilly.. all the way. He s one another Batsman-Wicketkeeper-Captain package after Dhoni and Sangakkara. And a main cog in the wheel for the Deccan.
+ The out of form talented-Rohit and lasttime-purplecap-holder RP Singh need to come good.
+ Big man Symmo has been good with both bat and the ball. Vaas seems to be going back to his good old days with some amazing opening bowling spells. Look out!!
8. Rajasthan Royals
+ Royals = Shane Warne. The equation couldn’t get any simpler.
+ Smith’s and Dimma’s injuries have really hurt them. Should more than be compensated by Shane Watson’s return in April.
+ Warne lead a team of underdogs to an emphatic win once. Can he do it again? Wait and watch.
31 Jan
Its that part of the year again, where movies from the Hollywood are screened, rated, reviewed, nominated and finally selected for the most prestigious movie awards on the planet Earth. Yes, its time for the Oscar festival.
This year the nominations are being announced on Feb 2
Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin will co-host the awards this year on Sunday, March 7
So here are the nominees.. rather, possible nominees 🙂 and winners
BEST PICTURE
Avatar
The Hurt locker
Up in the Air
Precious
District 9
Inglorious Basterds
It should be between Avatar and The Hurt Locker. With Slumdog winning it last time for the mass appeal, Avatar could very well make the cut this time.
BEST DIRECTOR
Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)
Jason Reitman (Up in the Air)
Lee Daniels (Precious)
James Cameron (Avatar)
Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)
Usually this category gets tagged along with the favourite picture. So it could be either James Cameron or Kathryn Bigelow.
BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart)
George Clooney (Up in the Air)
Jeff Bridges won at the Golden Globes. George Clooney is not a distant second.
BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side)
Gabby Sidibe (Precious)
Meryl Streep (Julie and Julia)
It should be between Sandra and Meryl. My guess would be Sandra Bullock
BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Christoph Waltz (Inglorious Basterds)
Other nominees need not even turn up. I can give this one in the writing 😉
BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Mo’Nique (Precious)
Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air)
Must be Mo’Nique. She won the favour at the Golden Globes too.
BEST SCREENPLAY (Adapted + Original)
Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker)
Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner (Up in the Air)
James Cameron (Avatar)
Pete Doctor and Bob Petersen (Up)
Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)
There are seperate categories for Adapated and Original. Here I have clubbed them up. It should be a 3 way tough fight between UITA, Avatar and IB.
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Up
Coraline
The Fantastic Mr. Fox
Up, Up and Away!!!!
Keep ur fingers crossed. Lets have a look at my hit rate once the nominees are announced this Tuesday 🙂
[Updated on Feb 02, 2010]
So, its Feb 2 and the much awaited nominations are finally out. Avatar and The Hurt Locker get the most with 9 noms. Inglourious Basterds – 8. Precious and Up in the Air – 6. Up – 5
And coming back to my predictions, I got 26 of the 27 noms right. Not bad really 🙂
Only thing I had missed was, I thot Avatar wud be nominated for Best Screenplay. But unfortunately it didn’t.
Anyways, lets wait for the big day when the winners r announced
31 Dec
This is a Desi Tamil version of the Academy awards 🙂
The movies are based on what I have seen and felt. There might be a few more worthy contenders left out. If there are any, kindly post a comment.
Here are the nominees for the various categories. Winners will be announced on the first day of the New Year!!
(Winners listed at the end of post)
The categories are simple: Best movie, Best Actor (Male), Best Actress (Female) and Best Album (Music Director). More categories might be added in the future 🙂
So, here goes the list *Drum Roll*
Best Movie 2009 Nominees
This movie deserved every bit of its nomination for the director’s bold effort in handling a subject that many would not even dared to think about. He was ably supported by an excellent cast including the lead pair Arya and Pooja who made the movie complete.
A nice horror/thriller in Tamil after a very long time. Many have made an effort in the recent few years but only in vain. It had all the components to provide a nice thrill and kept us on the edge of the seats all the way.
One of those films which went on to prove that block busters don’t really mean huge production costs. In a year where films like Kandhaswamy which largely relied on the huge budget/hype and star cast failed to make a mark, few films like this showed that as long as the story is fine, people welcome a movie with both hands.
Another not-so-big-budget films and a nice thriller like Yaavarum Nalam. It was visually appeasing and the cast was very good. Virtually unknown actor Aadhi (earlier starred in Mirugam) made a mark for himself with his performance. And ofcourse Sindhu Menon came up with one the best performance from a female actor this year.
This one movie I had to think a lot before including it for the nominations. It was not an original screenplay. It was a remake of the Hindi version ‘A Wednesday’. But it was not a remake that spoiled the original even though you could not say that this was better than the original. The 2 veterans in the lead made sure they carried the movie on their shoulders.
A special mention has to be made for few more splendid efforts. Pasanga by Pandiraj, Vennila Kabaddi Kuzhu by Susindran and Renigunta by Paneerselvam won the favour of the critics and did well at the box office too. Hope there would be more such honest efforts in 2010.
Best Actor 2009 Nominees
Best Actress Nominees
Best Actress 2009
Best Album (Music Director)
Best Musicians 2009
*** The winners ***
Best Movie
Naadodigal
Best Actor
Aadhi (Eeram)
Best Actress
Pooja (Naan Kadavul)
Best Musician
Harris Jeyaraj
6 Dec
Release of ‘Naan avan illai – 2’ shows that Kollywood has high tolerance for Bucket Actors. Wondering what an actor got to do with a bucket!? Its just those elite group of so-called-actors who don’t know how to emote or do such a poor job at it that a water bucket would have fared better!!
Speak
ing about such actors, Tamil Film Industry has always been blessed with quite a handful, more so in the recent times. One is the subject in question, Jeevan. I wonder how producers are still ready to invest in projects involving him! But, shockingly he seems to be doing a fair job at the market too!! His only movie with an exception was Kaaka Kaaka where the story was too haunting for this acting to be noticed. His acting was well advertised in movies like University, Machakaaran and Thotta.
Another specimen would be RB Choudary’s proud son (sorry, not proud.. that would be Jeeva) Ramesh A.K.A Jithan Ramesh. I have seen ppl preceding their names with movies which made them popular. Once, he is associated with a movie like ‘Jithan’ which sucked, you can know the calibre of this actor. I really wonder, how could he have been from the same family as Jeeva. A world of difference between the brothers. His famous flops include Madhu, Nee Venunda Chellam, Madurai Veeran, Puli Varudhu other than his horrible debut movie.
Another was Sathyaraj’s cousin ‘Sathayan’ (Am not sure abt his name). He mansatchiye-illama acted in his first movie as a hero. Even if the director and producer forced him, he should have known better. But, the poor guy has had some reality struck in him. Now he has switched over to the comedian roles and seems to be doing an ok job. Recently you would have seen him as Vadivelu’s cousin in Aadhavan.
And there was this guy Manoj. He was Director Bharathi Raja’s son. The Director is known for his hard ways of getting the work done from his actors. But, he seems to have failed bitterly with his own son. The lame movie ‘Taj Mahal’ stands as a nice testimony.
I wouldn’t justify the term bucket actors, if I don’t talk about this gem of an actor. Yes, its our very own Sam Anderson. I really wondered whether the makers of the movie ‘Yaaruku yaro’ took him for a ride making him believe that he was into a serious movie meanwhile they made a movie that couldn’t be anymore hilarious.
I think I have spoken about quite a few. I guess there a lot more of these kinda actors not just in Kollywood but also in its ‘B’ and ‘H’ counterparts. I just hope they realize it sooner than later and pick jobs that are meant for them and stay off the screen.
5 Nov
The magician and his wand
Bless my holy angel! Was i really watching this!? I jus CAN NOT BELIEVE!! I felt like I was blessed 175 times today! Its an innings of a life time and something which u can very proudly say to ur kids n grand children that “I was alive when that happened and I watched it live!!”
And for this first time in my life i shud say n am guilty to accept that today something was more important for me than India winning. I was madly hoping that he wud cross 194 n reach whr any ODI player has never been, the magic 200. However it was dreadful that it could not be a fairy tale ending and had to end that way..
Most of us have read about One man show, single man army n all those stuff where an individual brilliance overshadows anything n everything that happened that day. This was that day and Sachin was the man. The Man of the match award for a man from the losing side stands as a little testimony.
Am damn excited and emotions are running high. Penning them all down is a pretty tough ask. I wud have written a blog for every shot he played today, that wud have been lot easier. It had his class written all over, again n again.
I guess am sounding a little lunatic. So, I wud better take a break here n go back to enjoying one of the finest moments in the history of Indian cricket.
The answer was pretty obvious when he was asked post-match as what keeps motivating him all these years. “I care about playing for India, it’s a passion and I have been absoloutely honoured to play for India so long” This is why we love u!
I cant imagine hw things wud b, once this guy retires!! I just cant digest that it might happen some day.. Sachin, Do u really need to retire!? U jus keep playing till eternity. Hope the God gives him a long life and in someway an ability to play till his very very end for the simplest of reason that the law of aging just doesn’t apply for this man.
– A Sachin Fanatic
25 Oct
An interesting rip-off from Dan Brown‘s latest book ‘The Lost Symbol‘
Makes an interesting read. Doesn’t contain any *spoilers*
“So tell me, Kate,” her brother had asked while she was home on vacation during her sophomore year at Yale.
“What are Elis reading these days in theoretical physics?”
Katherine had stood in her family’s book-filled library and recited her demanding reading list.
“Impressive,” her brother replied. “Einstein, Bohr, and Hawking are modern geniuses. But are you reading anything older?”
Katherine scratched her head. “You mean like . . . Newton?”
He smiled. “Keep going.” At twenty-seven, Peter had already made a name for himself in the academic world, and he and Katherine had grown to savor this kind of playful intellectual sparring.
Older than Newton? Katherine’s head now filled with distant names like Ptolemy, Pythagoras, and Hermes Trismegistus. Nobody reads that stuff anymore.
Her brother ran a finger down the long shelf of cracked leather bindings and old dusty tomes. “The scientific wisdom of the ancients was staggering . . . modern physics is only now beginning to comprehend it all.”
“Peter,” she said, “you already told me that the Egyptians understood levers and pulleys long before Newton, and that the early alchemists did work on a par with modern chemistry, but so what? Today’s physics deals with concepts that would have been unimaginable to the ancients.”
“Like what?”
“Well . . . like entanglement theory, for one!” Subatomic research had now proven categorically that all matter was interconnected . . . entangled in a single unified mesh . . . a kind of universal oneness. “You’re telling me the ancients sat around discussing entanglement theory?”
“Absolutely!” Peter said, pushing his long, dark bangs out of his eyes. “Entanglement was at the core of primeval beliefs. Its names are as old as history itself . . . Dharmakaya, Tao, Brahman. In fact, man’s oldest spiritual quest was to perceive his own entanglement, to sense his own interconnection with all things. He has always wanted to become ‘one’ with the universe . . . to achieve the state of ‘at-one-ment.’ ” Her brother raised his eyebrows. “To this day, Jews and Christians still strive for ‘atonement’ . . . although most of us have forgotten it is actually ‘at-one-ment’ we’re seeking.”
Katherine sighed, having forgotten how hard it was to argue with a man so well versed in history. “Okay, but you’re talking in generalities. I’m talking specific physics.”
“Then be specific.” His keen eyes challenged her now.
“Okay, how about something as simple as polarity—the positive/negative balance of the subatomic realm.
Obviously, the ancients didn’t underst—” “Hold on!” Her brother pulled down a large dusty text, which he dropped loudly on the library table. “Modern polarity is nothing but the ‘dual world’ described by Krishna here in the Bhagavad Gita over two thousand years ago. A dozen other books in here, including the Kybalion, talk about binary systems and the opposing forces in nature.”
Katherine was skeptical. “Okay, but if we talk about modern discoveries in subatomics—the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, for example—”
“Then we must look here,” Peter said, striding down his long bookshelf and pulling out another text. “The sacred Hindu Vendantic scriptures known as the Upanishads.” He dropped the tome heavily on the first. “Heisenberg and Schrödinger studied this text and credited it with helping them formulate some of their theories.”
The showdown continued for several minutes, and the stack of dusty books on the desk grew taller and taller. Finally Katherine threw up her hands in frustration. “Okay! You made your point, but I want to study cuttingedge theoretical physics. The future of science! I really doubt Krishna or Vyasa had much to say about
superstring theory and multidimensional cosmological models.”
“You’re right. They didn’t.” Her brother paused, a smile crossing his lips. “If you’re talking superstring theory …” He wandered over to the bookshelf yet again. “Then you’re talking this book here.” He heaved out a colossal leather-bound book and dropped it with a crash onto the desk. “Thirteenth-century translation of the original medieval Aramaic.”
“Superstring theory in the thirteenth century?!” Katherine wasn’t buying it. “Come on!”
Superstring theory was a brand-new cosmological model. Based on the most recent scientific observations, it suggested the multidimensional universe was made up not of three . . . but rather of ten dimensions, which all interacted like vibrating strings, similar to resonating violin strings. Katherine waited as her brother heaved open the book, ran through the ornately printed table of contents, and then flipped to a spot near the beginning of the book. “Read this.” He pointed to a faded page of text and diagrams.
Dutifully, Katherine studied the page. The translation was old-fashioned and very hard to read, but to her utter amazement, the text and drawings clearly outlined the exact same universe heralded by modern superstring theory—a ten-dimensional universe of resonating strings. As she continued reading, she suddenly gasped and recoiled. “My God, it even describes how six of the dimensions are entangled and act as one?!” She took a
frightened step backward. “What is this book?!” Her brother grinned. “Something I’m hoping you’ll read one day.” He flipped back to the title page, where an
ornately printed plate bore three words. The Complete Zohar.
Although Katherine had never read the Zohar, she knew it was the fundamental text of early Jewish mysticism, once believed so potent that it was reserved only for the most erudite rabbis.
Katherine eyed the book. “You’re saying the early mystics knew their universe had ten dimensions?”
“Absolutely.” He motioned to the page’s illustration of ten intertwined circles called Sephiroth. “Obviously, the nomenclature is esoteric, but the physics is very advanced.”
Katherine didn’t know how to respond. “But . . . then why don’t more people study this?”
Her brother smiled. “They will.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Katherine, we have been born into wonderful times. A change is coming. Human beings are poised on the threshold of a new age when they will begin turning their eyes back to nature and to the old ways . . . back to the ideas in books like the Zohar and other ancient texts from around the world. Powerful truth has its own gravity and eventually pulls people back to it. There will come a day when modern science begins in earnest to study the wisdom of the ancients . . . that will be the day that mankind begins to find answers to the big questions that still elude him.”
That night, Katherine eagerly began reading her brother’s ancient texts and quickly came to understand that he was right. The ancients possessed profound scientific wisdom. Today’s science was not so much making “discoveries” as it was making “rediscoveries.”
Mankind, it seemed, had once grasped the true nature of the universe . . . but had let go . . . and forgotten.
Really sad to know that the greatest treasures of this universe were once known to the ancient men. But later, people fell for lesser pleasures and took no pain to hail the findings of all those wise men. Here, I am hoping that at least we will be able to rediscover all of them and make sure its not lost for ever!!
The above content belongs to the author and the publishers. It has been reproduced only on academic interest 🙂
That said, there were a lot of pictorial references in the book. I had to google and then refer to each one of them, So I thought I wud put them together in a single place so that it will be helpful when reading. I shall be adding more in the days to come.
Here they go..
Apotheosis of George Washington
George Washington Zeus
Melencolia I
Pig-Pen or Masonic Cipher
25 Oct
Its that part of the year when the Cricket players are honored. And they have something to brag about officially!! This year the awards had a very good Indian presence. Hope it gets better with years 🙂
ICC World
Player of the Year – Mitchell Johnson [Australia]
Test Player of the Year – Gautham Gambir [India]
ODI Player of the Year – MS Dhoni [India]
Twenty20 International Performance of the Year – Tillakaratne Dilshan [Sri Lanka]
Emerging Player of the Year – Peter Siddle [Australia]
Spirit of Cricket – New Zealand
Umpire of the Year – Aleem Dar [Pakistan]
World Test Team of the Year – Led by Dhoni [India]
Gautam Gambhir (India), Andrew Strauss (England), AB de Villiers (South Africa), Sachin Tendulkar (India), Thilan Samaraweera (Sri Lanka), Michael Clarke (Australia), MS Dhoni (India, capt & wk), Shakib Al Hasan (Bangladesh), Mitchell Johnson (Australia), Stuart Broad (England), Dale Steyn (South Africa), Harbhajan Singh (India, 12th man)
World ODI team – 
Led by Dhoni [India]
Virender Sehwag (Ind), Chris Gayle (WI), Kevin Pietersen (Eng), Tillakaratne Dilshan (SL), Yuvraj Singh (Ind), Martin Guptill (NZ), MS Dhoni (Ind, captain, WK), Andrew Flintoff (Eng), Nuwan Kulasekara (SL), Ajantha Mendis (SL), Umar Gul (Pak), 12th man: Thilan Thushara (SL)
Women’s Player of the Year – Clare Taylor [England]
Associate Player of the Year – Will Porterfield [Ireland]
Thanks Cricinfo, from where the content was heavily borrowed 🙂
3 Oct
| Group – Group B | |||||||
| Teams | Matches | Won | Lost | Tied | N/R | NRR | Points |
| 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.782 | 4 | |
| 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | -0.487 | 4 | |
| 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | -0.085 | 2 | |
| 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | -0.171 | 2 | |
| Group – Group A | |||||||
| Teams | Matches | Won | Lost | Tied | N/R | NRR | Points |
| 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | +0.999 | 4 | |
| 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | +0.510 | 5 | |
| 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | +0.290 | 3 | |
| 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | -1.537 | 0 | |
Current official ICC Rankings for ODI teams
|
Rank
|
Team
|
Points
|
|
|
1
|
 |
Australia
|
126
|
|
2
|
|
India
|
124
|
|
3
|
|
South Africa
|
121
|
|
4
|
|
Pakistan
|
112
|
|
5
|
|
New Zealand
|
109
|
|
6
|
|
England
|
107
|
|
7
|
|
Sri Lanka
|
106
|
|
8
|
|
West Indies
|
76
|
|
9
|
|
Bangladesh
|
55
|
|
10
|
|
Zimbabwe
|
26
|
————————————————————————————————————————————–
Meanwhile, somewhere in South Africa, Pontings speaks sense. Thats a news really!! 🙂
Ponting paid tribute to Tendulkar, the leading run-scorer in ODIs and Tests. “The number of innings of his I have been able to sit back and watch, I think he is an amazing player,” he said. “Look at his stats and records and it’s quite incredible for someone to have stayed in the game for 20 years. He has set benchmarks for guys like me to chase him and get as close as we can. If I had to last 20 years, I would probably be batting in a wheelchair.”
He sits at third behind Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya in the list of all-time ODI run-getters. Ponting is the only Australian with over 10,000 runs. In Tests, Ponting is also third to Tendulkar’s 12773 runs with 11345. Like Tendulkar, Ponting has stepped down from playing Twenty20 internationals for his country.
Good on ya mate!! 🙂
Bhat's Thotz 