Sports in India

Did somone talk of "step-motherly" treatment towards non-cricketing world??

MUSS (Manchester United Soccer School) in Goa (this is AWESOME!!) < Some snaps>
"It's clear to see that with such a huge population in India the potential for football to grow is enormous, and we are delighted to be involved in the further development of the game here. Hopefully we can play a part in the vision of accelerating this development of young players in India, and helping youngsters to achieve their own potential through playing sport," Sir Alex Ferguson of Manchester United football club said in a statement.

'F1 can be alternative to cricket in India'
Spyker will become Force India next season after the FIA approved on Wednesday the decision of the team's new owner, Indian billionaire Vijay Mallya, to change its name.

Charlesworth on 'revival' duty for Indian Hockey
Legendary Australian player-turned-coach Ric Charlesworth stepped in as the technical director to guide both men and women players in India.

Rangashankara Theatre Festival 2007 is happening in the city, be there for some wonderful stage performances. Dont miss it!

No-Deal?

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday indicated that the Government is willing to put the Indo-US nuclear deal on the backburner. "The end of the nuclear deal will not mean the end of the Government. We are not a one-issue Government. The deal not coming through is not the end of life, " Singh said.

And today on his way to the Nigerian captial, the PM did not speak to the media. The sources said that the UPA government, in the aftermath of the October 9 meeting with the Left parties, will convey to the US that it will not be approaching the IAEA for a safeguards agreement.

This is indeed disappointing, and i feel like we have taken a back step in the growth of our Nation. The energy needs for India in the next decade is immense and this deal with the US and NSG would have helped us meet atleast most of the requirements, if not all. Now we have lost the N-deal with the US and also the Iran-India pipeline. Where is India heading to?? The balancing act has to end somewhere. As a common man we are to blame for all this as well, instead of giving a complete majority we voted in bits and pieces to various political parties. Hope we learn and contribute so that our leadership (Hindustan Times Leadership Summit) can take it foward for us, without any strings attached. The people who lead the country must be given a free hand, i feel the Congress leadership knows what its doing, atleast with respect to this Nuclear deal. Im not a politician, nor would like to discuss polictics here, but i ceratinly feel for the N-deal not going thru.. for the moment that is. Its a pity that the world recognises and regard India very High on the world stage, yet the political parties within are making an all out effort in hindering this growth.

Some of the headlines look like this -

N-deal is not on, govt will tell US soon - Times of India

Failure of N-deal won’t be end of life: PM - India Express

Don't let radical view hijack N-deal, US lawmaker to India - Rediff.com

Australia puts uranium deal with India on back burner - Rediff.com

Frends, food, fun...

3 magnificient treats, a lot of shopping, and catching up with frends.. all of this and much more in just one week. hmm. what am i upto???!!.. well, u will know soon! :) Its has been a great week since last wednesday... and the best part is all the fun has come on week days.. after office.. n not weeknds!

After all the lavish eatings, I feel I can actually write my own column on the restaurents in Bangalore. Desmonds, Sahib Sindh Sultan, TGIF. Yesterday nite was also memorable.. had been to TGIF (they say, Everyday is a friday at TGIF!), great place for some continental food... pastas, shrimps, and others. Not to mention sm great music is played during the night. Shall srcibble more with sm snaps.. till then read this.. feels like cricket is no more a Gentleman's game.

Sahib Sindh Sultan

Words of Wisdom

Yesterday was one of those days where i was not myself. And just when i started feeling that everything within me was faling apart, a friend handed me a book "Way of Youth" by a Buddhist philosopher, Daisaku Ikeda. The approach of book is so very simple (and yet head on) in addressing the turbulences of a young mind, the concerns and questions that constantly poses. This book brings about a self directed transformation, making a powerful impact on the person reading it. For a young mind, looking for answers amidst lifes' strangest ways, this book strikes that chord of realisation of your truest self within you, that you have been looking for... what we really are, what we should really be to keep and maintain that unruffled peace and calm within. It brings about a change in your thoughts to regain your lost strength, and the lost "YOU". I would recommend this book for all the youngsters, go on, get a copy of it from your nearest book store.

"What kind of future do I envision for myself? What kind of self am I trying to develop? What do I want to accomplish in my life?" The thing is to paint this vision of your life in your heart as specifically as possible. That "painting" itself becomes the design of your future. The power of the heart enables us to actually create with our lives a wonderful masterpiece in accordance with that design." - Daisaku Ikeda

'Sethu Samudram does not make nautical sense'

• The Sethu Samudram project, if I can put it simply from a mariner's stand point, does not make any nautical sense.


• We mariners call the coast between Rameswaram and Cuddalore the cyclone coast. The India Meteorological Department has assigned this coastline as a high risk probability. To site one example, in 1964, the Pamban Bridge was washed away by a severe cyclonic storm.


• Marine scientists have identified five areas on the Indian coastline they call high-sinkage pits, and one of them happens to be the Palk Straits.


• If you take global shipping trends today, to reduce operating cost, they go in for larger ships of the order of 60,000 deadweight tonnes and above. A 60,000 deadweight tonne carrier will need anything in excess of 17 metres of draft. And as far as tankers go, the days of the super tanker are gone and you see only very large crude carriers of the type of 150,000 and 185,000 tonnes. It makes more sense to have such big tankers as in one voyage, you are bringing in more cargo and reduce your operating cost. None of these big ships will ever be able to use the Sethu Samudram. So, the question is, for whom are you building the canal? 30,000 tonnes was alright when Sethu Samudram was conceived in the early fifties and the sixties.


• The voyage distance from Kolkata to Tuticorin around Sri Lanka works out to 1227 nautical miles. If you went through the canal, it is 1098 nm. So, you are saving just 120 odd nm.


• The majority of our bulk carriers go at a speed between 12 and 13 knots. That is the average speed at sea. When you go through Sethu Samudram, the point to be remembered is, you cannot proceed at the speed at which you are sailing at sea. The reason is the shallow water effect or what we call the 'Squat Effect'. So, the moment you enter Sethu Samudram, you have to reduce the sped by 50 per cent or more depending on the conditions prevailing at that particular time.

To one of the questions on the Sethu Samudram controversy, Captain (retired) H Balakrishnan of the Indian Navy who has been associated with the navy for 32 years, replies -

Q.Those who support the Sethu Samudram Canal compare it to the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal and say the Sethu Samudram is the Suez of the East.

A.In the case of the Suez and the Panama canals, ships save thousands of nautical miles in sailing distance and hundreds of hours in sailing time, where as the Sethu Samudram where a ship will probably save a few hundred miles and at the most two hours in sailing time. This is the difference.

Read the entire article here.

Scarbulous

Scrabulous.com... Started in July of 2006, its already the 14th most popular website on the net. Founded by Rajat & Jayant, 2 young minds from India, loved the game of Scrabble so much that they decided they will have their own place for it on the World Wide Web. The name Scrabble is a trademark of Hasbro, Inc. in the US and Canada and of J. W. Spear & Sons PLC elsewhere. Scrabble was a trademark of Murfett Regency in Australia (you will hear more of australia from me soon :)), until 1993 when it was acquired by Spear. The game is also known as Alfapet, Funworder, Skip-A-Cross, Spelofun and Palabras Cruzadas. Even I used to play a lot of Scrabble with my brother and sister, we still have the old board and letters.

"We've always been crazy about Scrabble. We used to play Scrabble online for almost three hours everyday. But when the site we used to play on became a pay site, we decided to start our own version — www.Scrabulous.com," says Jayant, co-founder Scarbulous.com.

Scrabulous.com now has 37 million visitors per day with 8 lakh registered users and 5 million page hits everyday. It has found a place in my list of "Play On" (see right pane) along with Sudoku and other online games. About Scrabulous.