STRAIGHT DRIVES

Achyut Telang's Blogosphere

2012-03-10T19:46:00.000+05:30

STRAIGHT DRIVES crosses 100,000 visits from over 165 countries! :)
And over 600 comments in Piano Notations posts...AND

1) " WINNER OF ONE OF THE TOP 3 BLOGS IN "- Robin
2) " SELECTED AS ONE OF THE TOP 10 BLOGS OF THE MONTH IN " - T.R.Mintz
3) " BLOG PUBLISHED IN " - Sebastyne
4) " BLOG FEATURED IN "- Janz
5) " LINK TO MY BLOG POST ON DHYANALINGA IN" - ISHA FOUNDATION- TWITTER on 3rd Oct 2009
6) " BLOGS IN THEVIEWSPAPER"- The Views Paper
And many more....

* Also for all you readers who want to download my selected works, or in a book form, Visit here- http://www.lulu.com/content/7306556

* And don't forget to visit my most popular post, thanks to my my readers- http://achyutktelang.blogspot.com/2008/06/piano-notations-ii.html

* The other version of my blog, divided into categories: http://www.telach.blogspot.com/

Some insights into the game of Cricket

2012-02-05T14:38:00.001+05:30

Having played and watched Cricket for quite a long time now, particularly after having just played recently, I thought it good to put down certain thoughts regarding playing the game.

These are some of the things from what I have heard and seen from television and from personal experiences. Although in India, everyone knows almost everything about the game, I want to talk about something in a different way. This is not about playing at international or other higher levels but just in general.

If you are playing the game, you need to prepare. That is the very first thing. it should be both physically and mentally. Physically you need to maintain a certain fitness level to be able to play it well. You should have enough practice to be able to feel comfortable, confident and relaxed before the game. You also need to know where exactly you are playing- the surface and ground and the opposition.

If you are a batsman, it is also important to select your bat which feels comfortable and depending your style of play, its weight should be decided. If you aren't used to it, a heavier bat will tire you quite fast.

Most players also like to have certain routines. I have a habit of looking down and behind- at my stumps before each delivery. This is to have an exact idea of where my off stump is. It is important to know that so you know exactly where the ball is heading and whether you can leave it safely or not as well. You can also choose your guard depending on what you feel more comfortable. There are a few very simple things to keep in mind as a batsman. You need to get in the right position and be balanced. That is important as it will help you to decide how and where to play the ball and you will be able to do it the way you want. It is also important to not think about hitting the ball very hard. Most people get itchy and just feel like going down the track and blasting it for six. It is not necessary at all to hit the ball powerfully to hit it for a six. Ganguly never did that. The result is decided at the point of impact of the bat and the ball. If you understand the mechanics, just giving mere direction and elevation is enough to get six runs without even having to use your strength. Timing and placement are the key.

As the bowler is running in, a batsman can look where he feels comfortable. Generally it is the ball. Looking at the bowler can be distracting as bowlers can even use that to do certain things to distract the batsmen. One thing is the action of the bowler. Some times that can put a batsman off. As a batsman, when the ball has left the bowler's hand, it is important to decide what length it is pitching and accordingly move forward or back to get in the right position and balanced which I talked about earlier. It is also very important to keep in mind the gaps in the field. Some people might even keep in mind where the fielders are but I prefer to remember where the gaps are and that is where I need to hit it. I feel it is simpler than remembering where the fielders are so not to hit there or to hit over them. Premeditating is a dangerous thing. It can work some times but for the long term it is beneficial to play according to the merit of the ball. Every batsman has certain strengths and weaknesses. So if the ball is pitched in the area which is your strength, then the batsman has to back himself to go for it. Most batsman also forget the importance of singles. A quick single stolen not only rotates the strike, bringing in new batsmen, it also frustrates the bowler who would like to plan a wicket. It also helps the batsman to be collected in the mind by being at the other end. He can use that opportunity to look at things differently, the bowler what he is trying to do, since the non striker would be closer.

The Stress Test- By BBC

2012-02-02T18:21:00.030+05:30

Today I just happened to come across a good game of testing reflexes. I enjoyed that and after that visited the main page of the website which was of BBC. They have a lot of interesting things in there. I complete the first one- Stress Test.

This is what I got. I am putting it here so you too can get an idea that if you take this test, what can you expect in the form of results:

Your score suggests you’ve been experiencing low levels of stress recently.

A) STRESS- 2/18 LOW

B) Coping Style:

We asked you to explore how you cope when you feel sad or depressed.

Psychologists recognise three distinct methods for coping. We all use a combination of some or all of these methods. Based on your question responses, we gave you a score for each method.

Some methods of coping are better for your mental wellbeing than others. By changing the way you cope with stressful situations you can potentially enhance your mental wellbeing.

1. Problem Solving
In this context, problem-solving means actively seeking ways of dealing with the causes of stress
6/12 Medium
Problem-solving is the healthiest way of dealing with stress.

2. Ruminating
In this context, ruminating means to repeatedly ‘chew’ over stressful events in your mind as a way of coping with stress.
3/18 Low

Your score suggests that you don’t often ruminate when faced with stressful situations. This indicates that you tend to use methods of dealing with stress that are better for your mental well being.

3. Risk Taking

n this context, risk-taking means to engage in risky activities as a distraction from stress.

0/12 Low

Your score suggests that you don’t often take risks when faced with stressful situations. This indicates that you tend to use methods of dealing with stress that are better for your mental wellbeing.

Read More...

C. Who do you blame?

In Part 1, your stress assessment, showed that your current stress levels rated 2 out of 18. Part 2 of the Stress Test explored why you might feel like this, and looked at how you cope when you feel down.

28% Others
26% Yourself
46% Circumstances

Others- Your score in this trait is medium. This means you sometimes blame others for negative experiences which are your fault.

People who tend to blame others think: ‘It can't possibly have been my fault. It must be someone else’s.’

Yourself- Your score for this trait is medium. This means you sometimes blame yourself for negative experiences.

People who frequently blame themselves for negative experiences often think: ‘It must be something that I've said or done.’ They tend to have lower self-esteem than people who don’t blame themselves so much.

Shape matching test- 19/21

Happy/ Sad word test- 124/126

Friends and Family- 4038/6600

Mumbai Flash Mob

2011-12-04T14:58:00.001+05:30

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iyt16efRrBo

200 ordinary Mumbaikars (aged 4-60) come together one busy Sunday evening for the pure joy of dancing. The historic CST station blares 'Rang De Basanti...

Even as India was yet to overcome the `Kolaveri Di` fever, another Internet sensation arrived to spellbind one and all. Video of Mumbai’s first flash mob went gone viral on YouTube and had over 6 lakh views since it was uploaded on 28th November, Monday in just around a couple of days.

The video shows a group of over 200 people put up a dance act at the Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus in India’s financial capital on Sunday.

The act that lasted for 10 minutes grabbed attention of the motormen as well, who were all set to depart the station for their respective destinations. A huge crowd gathered and was dumbfounded to see a flash mob, something that was the first of its kind in the city.

Participants of the flash mob danced to the patriotic tune of the title song of Aamir Khan’s film `Rang De Basanti`. The visuals would leave even a stone hearted person teary eyed. Such is the impact of the video that can easily stir national consciousness in people.

The city of Mumbai or `Mayanagari` as it is also called, has a reputation of being extremely fast paced. People have little time to waste and are always on their heels. But the performance that was staged at CST gripped the crowd that was present there. Life almost came to a standstill and people were left awestruck.

The Mumbai Flash Mob, as it was dubbed, threatened to become a viral phenomenon in India by Tuesday evening, as videos of the performance rocketed through the Twitter universe, were posted on Facebook and liked on YouTube.

While the video looks spontaneous, the act was carefully planned.

"One of the top items on my travel to-do list, which I never got around to in Europe, was to be a part of a Flash Mob," one of the organizers of the mob, Shonan Kothari, formerly a researcher for Harvard Business School, said in a telephone interview. "Since India didn't have anything of the sort, I figured I'd do it myself," she said.

Getting over 200 people to participate in a choreographed dance in the middle of Mumbai's bustling central railway station required a month of planning, including visits to three different departments at the station for security clearance. Atul Rane, senior divisional operations manager at Indian Railways, helped coordinate with other departments to organize the lighting, ladders and camera placements, Shonan Kothari said.

Then Shonan Kothari had to coordinate the dancers. "I had 325 people sign up within two days of sending out the e-mail," she said. She didn't spread the word on any social networking Web site, fearing too many people would show up. The dancers were taught the choreography in small batches over the course of two weeks in a Malabar Hill park.

While so-called flash mobs have been popular in the United States and Europe for years, the phenomenon has not really caught on in India. That may be about to change, judging by the amount of attention the video has garnered. A video of the dancing, put up on YouTube early Tuesday morning, had already been "liked" by 1,435 people by 6:30 in the evening.

Actor Abhishek Bachchan tweeted the video of the dance on Tuesday evening and said “NOW THIS IS COOL!!! Next time I wanna join too.”

Ms. Kothari was surprised and happy to learn of Mr. Bachchan’s tweet, as well as the overall online response.

She first learned about flash mobs when she was a student in London and she saw a handful of people suddenly start singing at a local grocery store. She later looked up the phenomenon and found that it’s “an art movement all over the world,” she says.She decided she wanted to be part of one.She all but forgot about the idea after her move to Mumbai for a job in 2010. But last month, when she happened to look up her Things-to-Do-In-Life list, she realized that she hadn’t ticked off her plan to participate in a flash mob.

Ms. Kothari figured she would just have to organize one herself. She emailed 20 friends, and asked them to further spread the word without using social media, thus keeping the event under wraps.“Within two days, we had 325 sign-ups,” says Ms. Kothari. “Most people I didn’t know.”While she had set no age limit, Ms. Kothari says the bulk of the crowd comprised of 20-something college students.

Kothari even refused sponsorship, paying out of her own (or as she laughingly points out, her father’s) pocket.

“I did have people wanting to buy it out but I didn’t want to make this commercial at all. It was just about having fun.”

This isn’t Mumbai’s first flash mob (several brands have organised such initiatives in the past), but this is certainly the first time it’s got so much attention. And going by conversations on Twitter and Facebook, it certainly won’t be the last.

In early November, she called on Bhaumik Shah, who had choreographed a dance at her cousin’s wedding, to help put together the dance. At the time, “I didn’t know what is a flash mob,” says Mr. Shah. Ms. Kothari explained, as she did to most people who signed up for the event. She even sent them a hand-written manual. She rented a yoga hall in Priyadarshini Park in Park in a wealthy neighborhood of south Mumbai and organized practice sessions in batches starting mid-November. She also hired Mumbai-based Running Cow Films to shoot and edit a video of the final dance. Ms. Kothari, who works at a corporate social responsibility-consulting firm, paid for all services. But she added that many people, including executives at Running Cows helped out financially by charging lower-than-normal prices for their services.

The trickiest part was getting permission from the railway authorities to perform at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. Ms. Kothari didn’t have any contacts in the Railways, so “I quite shamelessy marched into offices,” she says.When she found senior officials, she would pop open her laptop and show them videos of flash mobs held elsewhere in the world to explain her goal. Their typical first response was: “Are you crazy?” says Ms. Kothari. They couldn’t quite get why she wanted to do this, she says.Still, they heard her out and after at least half a dozen visits she found a senior official who backed her, so long as the event was not for commercial use or for publicity of a company.

Ms. Kothari got permission to play the song – Rang De Basanti from the eponymous movie – on the train station’s announcement system. The station stopped official announcements during this period.Ms. Kothari and her team danced twice – at 4.52 pm and at 5.33 pm – but the video is primarily of the first dance. “It was really fun,” she says.

Kothari, 23, says she didn’t mean for this to be a symbol of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, or anything else really.

“Nothing about this had an agenda. We just wanted to have fun,” she told Reuters.

Google voice search

2011-09-12T23:34:00.001+05:30

There is a feature in Google search where you can search by speaking instead of typing. You just need to click on the microphone symbol and then speak and it shows the search results. I tried. It is funny actually and following are the results I got for the team that played in the 2011 World Cup semifinal- :)

Virender Sehwag- send that log
Sachin Tendulkar- Sachin Tendulkar
Gautam Gambhir- Golf committee
Virat Kohli- .com
Yuvraj Singh- you talk soon
Suresh Raina- swiss china
Mahendra Singh Dhoni- Mahindra singh dhoni
Harbhajan Singh- dancing
Zaheer Khan- safe con
Munaf Patel- update
Ashish Nehra- Washington

It works for common English words, countries etc though. Have you tried it yet??

Headlines

2011-07-28T19:24:00.004+05:30

These days I read a lot of news and many amusing things come in my mind. So I thought about it and started this blog post about some headlines around the world, finding some different meaning in them.

1. HEADLINE : Lawyer: Strauss-Kahn maid's remarks misportrayed

All you Cricket lovers there,.....No...there's no mistake there....This headline isn't talking about Andrew Strauss and Zaheer Khan making some remarks to each other!

2. HEADLINE : Akram reveals Eric Clapton's desire to see Tendulkar hit 100 th century at Lord's

The century didn't happen at Lords but wouldn't it be nice if Eric can be there to 'Clap' on Sachin's 'Ton of Tons' in the second Test Match at Trent Bridge, Nottingham

....more will be added later

Peaceful Warrior

2011-07-11T21:01:00.007+05:30

Peaceful warrior is a 2006 movie about a talented but troubled gymnast who meets a spiritual guide. I really enjoyed this movie, well at least those parts of the movie that show the meeting of the gymnast (Dan Millman, played by Scott Mechlowicz) and the spiritual guide ( Socrates, played by Nick Nolte).

Anyone who has been exposed to spirituality, and enjoys reading, listening to it will definitely love it. It is quite close to that. Here I am going to write about the meetings and the dialogues between Dan and Socrates.

* Warning- Spoilers ahead. For those who have not seen the movie

The movie also mentions that it is inspired by true events. I have also underlined some of the lines that I really liked and felt it to be very true.

The movie starts showing a gymnast- Dan performing. As he lands on his feet, suddenly his right leg completely shatters and breaks into many pieces as if it is made of wood or some other material. He falls down and is in agony. Others rush towards him and suddenly he sees that someone is sweeping the pieces of his broken leg and he notices that the shoes of the sweeper (janitor) are strange. One seems to be new and the other old and at that moment he wakes up from the dream. Thus, being shaken up and unable to sleep, he decides to go out jogging. On the way, he sees a car service station and decides to go in and have something to eat and drink. There he sees that the person at the service station has the same shoes he had seen in his dream- one new and the other old. He goes out and the man comes out and sits on a chair. After a couple of seconds Dan again turns around but this time, the man- Socrates (as he calls him later) is on the top of the roof! Dan is shocked and asks him about it, but Socrates doesn't reply and Dan leaves bewildered. He comes later on a bike.

Socrates- Help you with something? 

Dan- You can tell me how you did it. 

Socrates- You like things explained. Don't you?

Dan- Look. That roof's gotta be at least 10, maybe 12 feet high. No human can make a vertical leap over four or five feet, tops. I know. I'm a gymnast. Toughest men's sport in the world. Most people don't know that.

Socrates- The Spartans of ancient Greece were gymnasts, too. They vaulted over bulls. Trained their elite warriors that way. Did you know that?

Dan- I know more than you think.

Socrates- And you think more than you know. But knowledge is not the same as wisdom.

Dan- Yeah? What's the difference?

Socrates- You know how to clean a windshield, right?

Dan- Yeah.

Socrates- Wisdom is doing it.

Dan- I train seven days a week, 50 weeks out of the year. 
Socrates- Why so much?

Dan- Are you serious? I am a heartbeat away from qualifying. 
Socrates- Qualifying for what? 
Dan- You watch the Olympics?

Socrates- No.

Dan-  Look, even as good as I am, I gotta do everything I can to make sure that I qualify.

Socrates- There's a lot you'd have to know before you could understand what you saw.

Dan-  Go. Ask me. Ask me something. Ask me anything. 
Socrates- Are you happy? You said I could ask you anything. 
Dan-  What does happy have to do with anything? 
Socrates- Everything. 
Dan-  My dad's got plenty of cash, school's kind of a breeze, I get straight A's. I got great friends, I'm in great shape, and I only sleep alone when I absolutely want to. 
Socrates- So why can't you sleep at night? Yesterday, you came here at 3:00 a. m. Now, tonight. That's two nights in a row. 
Dan-  What are you? Some kind of a Quickie Mart philosopher or something like that? 
Socrates- You need some philosophy? 
Dan-  No, thanks, Socrates. I get enough at school. 
Socrates- Last question. If you don't make the Olympic team, what will you do? 
Dan-  If I don't what? 
Socrates- You must have thought about it. 
Dan-  What the hell are you talking about? 
Socrates- What's the problem? 
Dan-  I don't even know what I'm doing here. You're a freak. And I don't need you freaking me out.

Later Dan sees Socrates in his room for a flash....troubled, he again goes at night to meet him.

Socrates- What's the matter?  Couldn't sleep again? 

Dan-  What would you say if I told you that I keep seeing those shoes in a dream I keep having? 
Socrates- I'd say maybe you're still asleep. You can live a whole lifetime without ever being awake. 
Dan-  Hey, Socrates. If you know so much, how come you're working at a gas station? 
Socrates- This is a service station. We offer service.  There's no higher purpose. 
Dan-  Than pumping gas?

Socrates- Service to others.

Later Dan and Socrates are at the table eating.

Socrates-  Slow down. You might taste something. 
Dan- You sure got a lot of rules about stuff, don't you? 
Socrates-  Not rules. Things I've learned from my own life experience. That's why I'd say your eating is sloppy. 
Dan- Who cares?

Socrates-  You do. That's the difference between us, Dan. You practice gymnastics. I practice everything. If I was your trainer, no meat. 
Dan- Seriously?

Socrates-  None. 
Dan- I could probably handle that. 
Socrates-  No TV, no alcohol, no drugs and no sex. 
Dan- And that's why I'm glad you're not my trainer. 
Socrates-  So, this diet and your training are making you all you can be? 
Dan- Absolutely. 
Socrates-  So, how long can you stand like this? (Knees bent as if sitting in a chair and hands outstretched)
Dan- Name it. 
Socrates-  Five minutes. On the table.

Dan- Done. 
Socrates-  You move so much as a muscle,  and I get to call you Jack for the rest of the night. 
Dan- Jack? 
Socrates-  Short for jackass. 
Dan can't do it and falls down after some time...

Socrates- (To a man whose car he was servicing) - My son, Jack.  Thanks for stopping by. 

Socrates-  Everyone tells you what to do and what's good for you. They don't want you to find your own answers. They want you to believe theirs. 
Dan- And let me guess. You want me to believe yours. 
Socrates- No. I want you to stop gathering information from outside yourself and start gathering it from the inside. 
Dan- What are you, part of some cult or something? 

Socrates-  People are afraid of what's inside, and that's the only place they're ever gonna find what they need. Why can't you sleep? Is it because, maybe, late at night, when all the noise dies down and you're lying there in the bed, and there's nobody around but you, then, maybe, you get a little scared? Scared because suddenly everything feels so empty. You tell me you want to be more than just someone who gets up on those rings and performs a well-practiced stunt or two. You tell me you want to be someone who uses his mind and his body in ways that most people would never have the courage to, and I will train you, Dan, to be a real warrior.

Later........Dan- Sometimes, I don't like myself very much. My first thought was about how maybe Kyle's fall could work out for me. 
Socrates- People are not their thoughts. They think they are and it brings them all kinds of sadness. Toss me that wrench. 
Dan- I'm not what I think? 
Socrates- Of course not. ( Dan throws it when Socrates is not looking, but still he catches it with ease!) The five-eighths. (This time Dan throws it wider and again he catches it without even looking) The mind is just a reflex organ. It reacts to everything. Fills your head with millions of random thoughts a day. None of those thoughts reveal any more about you than a freckle does at the end of your nose. (Now Socrates throws it back at him, but Dan misses the simple throw trying to grab at it while catching) Take a swing at me.

Dan- What? (Socrates slaps him) What are you doing? 
Socrates- Come on. 10 bucks if you can slap me on the cheek. (Again slaps Dan) Come on. Take a shot. 
Dan- Knock it off, man. I don't want to hit you. 
Socrates- You don't want to hit me? (Slaps him again, harder)
Dan- I don't want to hurt you. 
Socrates-  I guess I'll just have to keep slapping you then. (Socrates moves his hand to slap Dan who catches hold of it and tries to hit Socrates who in turn uses Dan's own force to push him and he falls on the ground) Did you notice how the right leverage can be very effective? What if I were to tell you that's what your training, even your life, is about? Developing the wisdom to apply the right leverage in the right place, at the right time. Take out the trash. Dan- You take out the trash. 
Socrates- The trash is up here. (Pointing to Dan's head) That's the first part of your training, learning to throw out everything you don't need in here. 
Dan- How? 

Socrates- Meet me tomorrow on campus. Strawberry Creek bridge.

Next day......
Dan- Soc!  Soc!  Listen. I totally forgot about this. Now, I got this thing at the gym. It's pretty important. Can we make this quick? 
Socrates- Sure. (He pushes Dan off the bridge and into the river and walks off)
Dan- Hey! Hey! I'm talking to you. What the hell is wrong with you?

Socrates- You said you were in a hurry. 
Dan- So you pushed me off the bridge?

Socrates- I emptied your mind. 
Dan- You what?

Socrates- I emptied... 
Dan- No, you didn't. You threw me into the river. 
Socrates- And while you were falling, tell me, Dan, what were you thinking of? 
Dan- I don't know! 
Socrates- Were you thinking about school?

Dan- No! 
Socrates- Grocery shopping?

Dan-  No! 
Socrates- This thing you had to hurry off to?

Dan- No! I was... 
Socrates- The present. Devoted 100% to the experience you were having. You even had a word for it. Aaaaaaaa!
Dan- You're out of your mind. You know that? 
Socrates- It's taken a lifetime of practice. We want you out of your mind, too, Dan. 
Dan- What is that you do?  Some kind of martial arts move? I didn't see it coming. 
Socrates- You weren't paying attention. Even now you're not. Your mind's filling up again. You're missing out on everything that's going on. 
Dan- There's nothing going on. (At this point Socrates grabs Dan's shoulder from behind and Dan sees everything happening in slow motion and very vividly. He sees a group of people laughing, observes their full facial expressions, a woman throwing a frisbee to a dog, notices the bright color of the frisbee, the dog jumping and catching it mid air and running back, its whimpering and its tongue licking its nose, a man reading a book, turning the page and hears the crisp sound it makes, an insect- beetle walking over a leaf and the scratchy noise it makes, two lovers kissing and he hears their breathing too...All this in slow motion and very vividly and then he comes back to normal.)

Socrates- There's never nothing going on. Take out the trash, Dan. The trash is anything that is keeping you from the only thing that matters, this moment. Here. Now. And when you truly are in the here and now, you'll be amazed at what you can do and how well you can do it.

Continued.....

Later-

Dan-  Soc! Hot damn! I wish you could've been there. You would've loved it! I used your trick. I used your mind trick and it worked. It totally worked. I was awesome. 

Socrates- It's not a trick. 
Dan- Yeah, well, whatever it is, I used it. I took out the trash, and I mean Trev? Trev's the one guy I'm always going up against. You should have seen me. I demolished the guy. You know, I wasn't worried about what did happen, or what might happen, what could happen. I just got up there and I cleared my mind. And I was flawless. Listen, I'm jumping in with both feet. All right? Whatever you tell me to do, I'm gonna do. No beer, no meat, no girls, no problem. 

Socrates-  How long did you stay that way, clear and flawless? "I demolished that guy. You should have seen me. " You're in the past. Gloating. You're not in the now, living. You haven't learned anything. Go home. Training's over for tonight. 
Dan- Wait a minute. Wait a minute. 
Socrates-  Go home, I said.

Dan goes outside but waits and follows Socrates in the morning......Socrates goes straight to the place where Dan trains everyday....Dan enters behind him and sees that he is sitting high up...

Socrates- Hey, Dan. 

Dan-  Why do we have to be all the way up here, where we could kill ourselves? 

Socrates- I was hoping you could tell me. 

Dan-  They're talking, but their lips aren't moving. Am I reading their minds? ( They can hear all of them thinking different things)


Socrates- Maybe you just never really listened to them before. 

Dan-  You gotta be doing this. Otherwise I'm losing my mind. 

Socrates- Sometimes you have to lose your mind before you come to your senses.

(Just then they see from above that Dan is walking in to join the others in practice. He also looks up at them once and on this, the Dan sitting above who is leaning in to take a good look at this 'Dan', falls down. It is then seen that he fell down in Socrates' service station only.....he had been there itself all this time)


Socrates- Go home, I said. 

Dan-  What did you just do to me? 

Socrates- You have to be strong if you're gonna do this, Dan. 

Dan-  What did you do? 

Socrates- Where I'm gonna take you, some of the things I'm gonna show you, you're gonna need strength. And you're gonna need to trust me. 

Later....
Socrates- How we doing tonight? 

Dan-  How am I doing? I'm tired, I'm hungry and I'm horny. How are you doing? I need some answers tonight. I need to know that this... That this is all going somewhere, and I need to know it right now. I mean, what kind of a warrior trains by sitting around scrubbing toilets? 

Socrates- When you become a warrior, you learn to meditate in every action. 

Dan-  Scrubbing toilets? 

Socrates- Letting go of attachments. Like your pride. Giving up your addictions. 

Dan-  Yeah, name one thing I'm addicted to. 

Socrates- Talking. Especially interrupting. Knowing everything, when in fact you know nothing. 

Dan-  You really think that this is going to expand my awareness of anything? My game is off! My coach probably thinks that I'm on drugs, and I'm thinking... I just don't have any more time for you right now. 

Socrates- All you have is right now, Jack. 

Dan-   Did you just call me a jackass again? 'Cause, you know, I'm really starting to wonder how someone with the life that you've managed to put together can teach me anything. I mean, are you really happy? Maybe you're just a case of someone who, not having made much of themselves, says that the world is lost and all these things don't matter. Be happy with less, right? Less than what? Less than nothing? 

Socrates- I call you a jackass when you act like a jackass. Like now, Dan, when you're letting your emotions control you. 

Dan-  This isn't emotion! This is common sense! You know what? Let me tell you something, whatever your name really is. When I get what I want, I'll be happy. For real and forever and anything else I say it'll be. 'Cause I will make it happen. 

After this, Dan goes back to his old lifestyle. One day while going fast on his bike, he has an accident and breaks his right leg and ends up in hospital where they have to insert a metal rod in his leg.)
Later he goes to visit Socrates who is trying to start a car, Dan sits in the driver's seat and gives the ignition to try and start it

Socrates- Go. Again. (The car doesn't start)

Dan-   I don't know what to do now. 

Socrates- First realization of a warrior. 

Dan-  What is? 

Socrates- Not knowing. 

Dan-  What's happening to me? I don't cry. 

Socrates- Apparently, you do. 

Dan-  It's embarrassing. 

Socrates- Emotions are natural, like the passing weather. 

Dan-  What do you do if you can't do what you were born to? 

Socrates- Everything has a purpose, Dan, even this. And it's up to you to find it. 
Go.(He gives the ignition and car starts)  
Your training can now move to a new arena, an arena where you find your answers from within. That old Plymouth. Sit on it till you have something of value to tell me. 

Dan-  That's it? 

Socrates- I don't hear from you until you have an insight worth sharing. 

Dan-  That's all? 

Dan-  Anger, hatred, violence, they're really all just fear. 

Dan-  Fear, then, not money, is the root of all evil. 

Dan-  Chaos Theory is correct except that chaos is actually not chaotic at all but perfectly controlled. 

Dan-  If you lend somebody $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it. 

Dan-  When making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, you must first apply the peanut butter, not the jelly, to the bottom half of the bread. 

Dan-  The people that are the hardest to love are usually the ones who need it the most. 

Dan-  Hmm? 

Dan-   There's never nothing going on. There are no ordinary moments. 

Socrates- Yeah. Welcome back. 
(Socrates takes Dan outside where they have a drink.....)

Dan-  You gotta be kidding me. This isn't another vision, is it? 'Cause I don't see how this could be happening. (Socrates now starts smoking  a cigar) What the hell are you doing? 

Socrates- Something wrong? 

Dan-  We don't do this anymore, remember? We know better. 

Socrates- We're better than everyone who doesn't know what we know or live the way we do? Is that what you mean? 

Dan-  Not better, maybe. Smarter. 

Socrates- There is no "better. " You will never be better. Same way you'll never be less than anybody else. The habit is the problem. All you need to do is be conscious about your choices and responsible for your actions. 

Dan-  Is that why, out of all the people you could have taught, you chose me? 

Socrates- You done flattering yourself? You chose me. 

Dan-  Why should I believe you? You taught me yourself to only listen to my own intuition. 

Socrates- How do you know that I'm not your own intuition speaking to you right now? 

Dan-  You mean maybe I made you up? Don't mess with me like that. 

Dan-  Every what has its what? 

Socrates- Every action has its price and its pleasure. Recognizing both sides, a warrior becomes... 

Dan-  ...realistic and responsible for his actions. 

Three people reach there who want to steal from them..One of them says - Boy sounds bad over there, man. 

Dan-  You gotta be kidding me. 

One of them- Money, boys. 

Dan-  Picked the wrong guy to pull this shit on, boys. Little leverage, at the right time, at the right place? 
(At this point Socrates throws his wallet to them)

One of them (To Dan)- Yours.  (He doesn't give and is staring at Socrates in surprise)

Other guy (To Dan)- We can ramp this up a little, tough guy. (He has to give)

One of them- Thank you and good night. 

Socrates- Didn't you forget our watches? 

Dan-  This is where you give it to them, right? 

Socrates- Now, maybe I should have said Dan's watch. I don't wear one. 

One of them- Give it. 

Other guy- Thanks, old man. 

Socrates- What are you, a medium jacket? 

One of them- Is he a what? 

Other guy- I'm not taking your jacket. 

Socrates- It's a good jacket. Nice warm lining. 

Third guy- I'll take it. It's a good jacket. 

Socrates- You. You're about Dan's size. (Dan gives his jacket)
What size shoe do you wear, Dan? 

Dan-  Are you kidding? Christ, Soc, how far are we gonna take this? 
(Later we see that they have given away everything and are going back in their undergarments)
They could have killed us! They could have killed us! You could have kicked every single one of those guys' asses. Instead, we're probably gonna get picked up for indecent exposure. You think that's funny? Do you? You think that's funny? You could have laid out every single one of those guys. Tell me. Tell me what the hell you were thinking. 

Socrates-  That the ones that are hardest to love are the ones that need it the most. That knowledge is not the same as wisdom. Wisdom is doing. 

Dan-  They could have killed us. 

Socrates- It's a transformation. 

Dan-  Death? 

Socrates- Yes. It's a little bit more radical than puberty but nothing to get particularly upset about. 

Dan-  What the hell are you talking about? 

Socrates-  Death isn't sad. The sad thing is most people don't live at all. 

(At their place now....)

Dan-  Took for granted what I could do. I was sloppy with my life. I'm scared, but I feel like I got rid of all the old stuff, and... I think it was the right thing to do. 

Socrates- When you feel fear, use the sword. Take it up here and cut the mind to ribbons. Slash through all those regrets and fears and anything else that lives in the past or the future. 
Dan-  I want to be able to do that. I think I'm ready. 
Socrates- Ready for what? 
Dan-  Devoting my life to a higher purpose. 
Socrates- Really? 
Dan-  Service to others, right? That's gonna be me, now. I'll do whatever you think I should. 
Socrates- All right. 
Dan-  All right. 

Socrates- I think you should continue your training as a gymnast. A warrior does not give up what he loves, Dan. He finds the love in what he does. 
Dan-  Look at me! Look at me. I have a metal rod in my leg. 
Socrates- A warrior is not about perfection or victory or invulnerability. He's about absolute vulnerability. That's the only true courage. 
Dan-  What kind of training you think I could do? Huh? I just had an accident. 
Socrates- The accident is your training. Life is choice. You can choose to be a victim or anything else you'd like to be. 
Dan-  Just ignore what happened to me? 

Socrates- A warrior acts. Only a fool reacts. 

Dan-  What if I can't do it? 

Socrates- That's the future. Throw it out. 

Dan-  Well, how would we start? 

Socrates- There is no starting or stopping, only doing. I want to show you something. 
(Socrates has made up all the arrangements for practice with the rings and all that)

Dan-  When did you do all this? 

Socrates- When you were lying in that hospital. 

Dan-  While I was what? 

Socrates- Now we can really go to work. 

(Dan meets his coach who thinks that since he had an accident and doctors told that he wouldn't recover completely so doesn't consider him for Olympics even a bit even after Dan tries to convince him)

Socrates- Nearly all of humanity shares your predicament, Dan. If you don't get what you want, you suffer. And even when you get exactly what you want, you still suffer because you can't hold onto it forever. 

Dan-  He thought I couldn't do it. 

Socrates- Doesn't matter. 

Dan-  He doesn't know that I'll be there 100%. 

Socrates- You don't need him or any letter to get up on those rings and do what you love. 

Dan-  Yes, I do. All right? I'm talking about getting up there and winning the gold right now, so, yes, I do. 

Socrates- The gold is a craving. "If only I had it, I'd be happy. " Can't you hear it in there? 

Dan-  It's a dream, Soc. All right? I can't think that dreams are bad. 

Socrates- You don't surrender your dreams, Dan. You surrender the one thing you never have and you never will, control. Accept that you don't control what will happen to you. That you may or you may not compete in the Olympics. That you may or you may not, Dan. And that you are something exceptional either way. 

Dan-  I was ready to give this all up, but you stood here and you told me that you wanted me to train again! 

Socrates- I told you a warrior does what he loves. 

Dan-  And this is what I love! 

Socrates- Chasing gold? Living in fear that you might fail? That's what you love about it? 

Dan-  No! Dreaming of standing up there and winning this thing! Of doing what has always felt like the thing that I was put here to do. I've been on a trampoline since before I could ride a bike because I loved it. 'Cause it was the first thing that I was sure that I loved. I'm sorry. Okay? I'm sorry. I thought I was strong but I'm not. 'Cause I really tried to give this whole thing up but I can't. 

Socrates- Tomorrow morning, bring your hiking shoes. I've got a place I've wanted to take you since the first night you walked in here. It's a long hike but I think... I think you're finally ready to see it. 

Dan-  Three? 

Socrates- Three. 

Dan-  Life has just three rules? 

Socrates- And you already know them. 

Dan-  Paradox, humor and change. 

Socrates- Paradox. 

Dan-  Life is a mystery. Don't waste time trying to figure it out. 

Socrates- Humor. 

Dan-  Keep a sense of humor, especially about yourself. It is a strength beyond all measure. 

Socrates- Change. 

Dan-  Know that nothing stays the same. 
Dan-  Hey, please tell me we're getting a little closer. Come on, Soc, it's been three hours, man. 

Socrates- Now, we're here. 

Dan-  We're where? 

Socrates- At what I came to show you. 

Dan-  What, the view? 

Socrates- There, next to your foot. 

Dan-  The flower? 

Socrates- No. 

Dan-  Better not be. 

Socrates- The rock. 

Dan-  There's something... There's something special about this rock? 

Socrates- Something wrong? 

Dan-  Come on, Soc! This is what I was finally ready to see? 

Socrates- Well, the whole trip up here, you were excited, you were happy. 

Dan-  Yeah, because I thought I was gonna see something! 

Socrates- You were like a kid on Christmas morning. You said so yourself. The whole trip up here, it made you feel good. 

Dan-  Because for the past three hours I've been waiting to see this wonderful thing. 

Socrates- Well, what changed? 

Dan-  That there's nothing here but this rock! 

Socrates- I probably should have told you that before we left, huh? But I guess I wasn't sure what we'd find, either. Never am. Sorry you're not happy anymore. 

Dan-  (Now realizing) The journey. The journey's what brings us happiness not the destination. 

(Dan then demonstrates in front of the coach and others in spite of them trying to prevent him from doing so....but he does really well and they have to send him in the Olympic team.Before going for that, Dan along with others goes to visit Socrates on the way, but he sees that Socrates is not there and there is some new guy who just came in from that day onwards and he has made it self service for filling gas etc. Dan and others leave. Dan now is performing there and we hear-)


Socrates- Where are you, Dan? 

Dan-  Here. 

Socrates- What time is it? 

Dan-  Now. 

Socrates- What are you? 

Dan-  This moment. 

( It says Dan Millman and the Berkeley team later went on to win their first national title. Dan became an author whose books have inspired millions of people around the world.)

Which Cricketer are you?

2011-07-03T18:33:00.004+05:30

OR

Take this most comprehensive, detailed and the best quiz (which includes the profiles of 40 top cricketers!) to find out which cricketer you are most like. http://www.quizazz.com/quiz.php/1004761/

Best baby laughing videos

2011-05-22T11:46:00.003+05:30

Following are some of the best baby laughing videos I have come across on the internet.

1. Baby laughing on making a sound.

About this video, I can only say that the baby is just wonderful, with a great ability to laugh!

2. Making bubbles, dog going after it and baby laughing.

This video is again so simple but beautiful. Babies with animals always make a wonderful combination for some reason. Maybe because they are similar in their simplicity. Here the dog just goes after each bubble, while the baby laughs and it seems that both can almost keep at it all the time! They don't seem to grow tired of doing the same thing!

3. Baby laughs when a paper is torn.

The description in the video says- "8-month-old boy laughing hysterically while at-home daddy rips up a job rejection letter."

That makes this even more great. What a wonderful way to convert even an event like job rejection into a source of joy!

Also I want to say that the baby here, just almost looks human! He just looks like some kind of a doll or like some machine or robot.

4. "Do you want a grape?" mm hmm.

"No, say yes" Yes.

"Do you want a grape?" mm hmm..............

This video is not about baby laughing but about something else that is wonderful. It has the same things going on again and again and he is just not able to convey the thing in a way she can understand. It really would be wonderful to know how to solve this problem!

Get Richer by avoiding this Money Mistake

2011-05-10T10:39:00.001+05:30

Guest Post by Ramalingam K, Founder and Director of Holistic Investment Planners for STRAIGHT DRIVES : Get Richer by avoiding this Money Mistake.

Mental Accounting is one such money mistake even smart people are committing. Understanding this mistake and avoiding this could make us richer.

Behavioral Finance experts say that mental accounting works this way: Let us say you have bought a Rs.200 ticket to a movie. When you show up at the entrance of the theatre and realize you have lost your ticket, do you buy another ticket?

If you are like most people, you would probably think twice. You may still drop down the money, but you will now feel that you paid Rs.400 for a Rs.200 movie.

But let's construct the scenario differently. Let’s say you hadn’t bought the ticket yet, and you show up at the entrance to buy your ticket. Unfortunately, you realized you’ve lost Rs200 in cash since you walked from the parking place. But fortunately, you still have enough in your wallet to cover the cost of the ticket. Do you buy the ticket? Again, if you are like most people, you may feel upset about the lost money, but it probably won't affect your decision to buy the ticket. Why?

Behavioural Finance experts conducted similar experiments. They found that 46% of those who lost the ticket were willing to buy a replacement ticket. On the other side 88% of those who lost an equivalent amount of cash were willing to buy a ticket.

Both scenarios are a loss of Rs.200. However, in the second scenario you separate the loss of the Rs. 200 from the purchasing of the ticket. In the first you consider the cost of the movie as a total of Rs.400 and suffer at the high cost.

It is because of the psychological phenomenon known as mental accounting. One of the fundamental concepts in Economics says that wealth in general and money in particular, should be fungible. Fungibility, in a nutshell, means that Rs.100 in lottery winning, Rs.100 in salary and Rs.100 tax refund should have the same significance and value to you since each Rs.100 has the same purchasing power at the market. But do you treat them in a similar way?

Mental accounting has enormous consequences in your daily life. It affects how you spend money and how you save. It influences how you deal with losses and windfall gains.

How Does Mental Accounting Affect You?

1) The source of the money affects how it is spent.

v You tend to dine lavishly with the “gift meal vouchers” given by your company. But you will be dining consciously if you are paying out of your salary.

v You are most likely to spend more with credit cards than with cash.

v You may consider Tax refund as“free money”. In actual terms it is your own money. You will not spend tax refunds, birthday gift money or lottery winnings on essential things like utility bills, school fees, paying off your credit card debt. But you will be more than happy to spend the same money on discretionary items such as vacations or a trendy mobile phone.

2) Don’t be a victim of ‘Relative cost’.

Assume you are going to a super market to buy a laptop. The price is Rs.40000. But you get to know that there is another branch of the supermarket, a ten minutes walk away, in which the same laptop is sold for Rs.39950. Will you walk down to the other branch?

Let us say instead of buying a laptop you have planned to buy a memory card. The price at the supermarket is Rs.100 and at the other branch is Rs.50. Where will you buy the card?

Most of us will make a trip to the other branch for the memory card but not for the laptop. Because we think that the Rs.50 saved on a Rs.100 item is better than the same amount saved on a Rs.40000 item.

But both the situation is same. You save Rs.50 by making 10 minutes walk to the other branch.

Remember that money is money. Rs.50 saved on Rs.40000 laptop is not less money than Rs. 50 saved on Rs.100 memory card.

How to face Mental Accounting and spend consciously?

You can use mental accounting to your advantage by spending money out of your salary. Immediately invest the “free money” like Tax refunds, gifted money or any other windfall gains.
Imagine that all income is earned income.
Use the free meal vouchers and other gift vouchers to buy essential items.
Pretend you don’t have a credit card. I am not telling you not to use credit cards. I am saying you should stop and think: would I buy this if I was using cash?

A Successful Practical Strategy:

You can have two bank accounts. One for the purpose of savings and the other one for spending.

Every month you need to set aside some amount for expenses as per your budget or previous experience. That amount you need to transfer to your spending account. Balance amount you need to keep it in savings account.

You need to meet all your expenses including your credit card payment from the spending account. You should not spend from your savings account.

In between, if you receive any cash gifts or windfall gains, deposit them in your savings account. If you receive gift vouchers, then transfer the money equivalent of that voucher from your spending account to your saving account. That is your spending limit will not go up by just receiving the gift voucher. So that you will not use it lavishly and use it only on pre-planned things.

When it comes to money your mind unconsciously plays this trick of mental accounting. You have understood that today. So hereafter, you can avoid this mistake and you become richer day by day.

The author is Ramalingam K, an MBA (Finance) and Certified Financial Planner. He is the Founder and Director of Holistic Investment Planners (www.holisticinvestment.in) a firm that offers Financial Planning and Wealth Management. He can be reached at ramalingam@holisticinvestment.in.

Is Osama Really dead?

2011-05-03T13:16:00.003+05:30

So the news is out. Osama Bin Laden, the founder of the al-Qaeda organization, responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets has been declared dead.....

He was a member of the wealthy Saudi family and was on the FBI's lists of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives and Most Wanted Terrorists for his involvement in the 1998 US embassy bombings. From 2001 to 2011, bin Laden and his organization had been major targets of the War on Terror.

It is said that on May 1, 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama authorized a raid on bin Laden's suspected location in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The operation was successfully carried out by United States Navy SEALs, with intelligence support from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). During the 40-minute raid, bin Laden was fatally shot in the head.

Now there are a lot of other points associated with this.

One is about How America has released information. And that the timing of this is aimed at raising Obama’s popularity stakes.

Second, the image of bin Laden's body used by the AP, as well as the front pages of British papers like the Daily Mail and the Telegraph, were faked. It was aPhotoshopped image — a composite of another photo of a bloodied corpse and one of bin Laden from 1998 — was initially published in April 2009 and has been circulating on conspiracy forums as proof that he had been killed.

See below:

After intelligence searches of the compound were conducted, his body was taken into custody at which point genetic and facial recognition tests were performed. U.S. officials say that DNA evidence confirms with 99.9 percent accuracy that it was indeed the body of Osama bin Laden shot and killed in Abbottabad yesterday. The DNA match was made by comparing physical evidence from bin Laden's sister, whose brain was preserved, and blood and tissue samples were taken and used to compile a DNA profile.Detailed photo analysis as well as matching features and height (he was six foot four) also helped confirm the identity of the Al Qaeda leader.

They are also saying that the Obama administration has actual photographs of bin Laden's corpse, but officials are still struggling over what to do with them, according to ABC News. The White House is weighing the benefits of releasing the photos to combat skepticism around the world about bin Laden's death versus the gruesome nature of the photos. (There are blood and brains visible in the head wound above his left eye.)

Third, they say that after positive identification, and within 24 hours of his death, bin Laden's body was taken out to sea for burial. So why was that done and so soon? The reason they say is that According to Islamic teachings and practice, the deceased must be buried with proper procedures within 24 hours. "There was no available alternative in terms of a country that was willing to accept the body, and we took pains to ensure that we were compliant with Muslim tradition and law, and sought to dispose of the body, using the appropriate procedures and rituals, within 24 hours," the defense official said.

Thus, these are some of the points concerned with this issue and we might never be able to know the whole truth. Maybe it was Osama who died as per what they are saying or maybe he might have died earlier too. The person who died might be the original or fake. At this point we will have to assume all this is true and go with the news and reports.

* There is a danger of virus infecting your system if you click on links claiming to show you the pictures or video of how Osama was killed, specially on Facebook. Please do not click on that. Nothing like that has been released.

To end on a funny note, in IBN 7 a news channel, this news was going on and they made an error which is so terrible:

The news states: "Breaking News. Relieved by Obama's death- Britain."

The names Obama and Osama are so similar that there is a high chance of using one for the other by mistake, specially when you are talking about them so often.

Maybe it's better to just use Laden instead of Osama! What do you say?!

And Finally, a funny theory about how Osama was caught through Facebook.

Sathya Sai Baba- Osho

2011-04-26T10:41:00.005+05:30

Sathya Sai Baba died on 24 April 2011, which was also Easter Sunday. A little more about him:

Sathya Sai Baba was born as Sathyanarayana Raju on 23 November 1926, was an Indian guru, spiritual figure and educator. He was described by his devotees as an avatar, godman spiritual teacher and miracle worker. The apparent materialising of vibhuti (holy ash) and other small objects such as rings, necklaces and watches by Baba has been a source of both fame and controversy – skeptics consider these simple conjuring tricks while devotees consider them evidence of divinity. Sathya Sai Baba claimed to be the reincarnation of the spiritual guru, Sai Baba of Shirdi, whose teachings were an eclectic blend of Hindu and Muslim beliefs....

Sathya Sai Baba and his organisations support a variety of free educational institutions, hospitals, and other charitable works in India and abroad. Reports estimate 1,200 Sathya Sai Baba Centers in 114 countries worldwide. He was a cultural icon in India and drew an audience with presidents and prime ministers from India and beyond who have become his devotees. He also said that he would be healthy until age 96 and then die, but he died at the age of 85. After 2005 he used a wheelchair and his failing health forced him to make fewer public appearances. In 2006 he suffered a fractured hip when a student standing on an iron stool slipped and both the boy and stool fell on him. After that, he gave darshan from a car or his porte chair.

In the tv channels and in the papers , on seeing the people crying and mourning regarding Satya Sai baba's death, I was just reminded of Osho and his death. What a man he really was, from this itself you can come to know. He had said- "I always like to leave you laughing, singing, dancing. This is just an indication that the day when I ultimately leave you, I would like you to sing, dance and celebrate.

In fact, no man in the whole of history would have received such a celebration when he dies as I am going to receive. A few have received celebration only from enemies, because when one dies, enemies celebrate. The friends mourn.
I am the only person…in my death my friends will celebrate, my enemies will celebrate. In my death they will come together in celebration. There has never been such a man before."

And indeed it was true. Here is the video after his death:

And about Sathya Sai Baba, Osho has said:

"It happens that when for the first time a meditator attains to some psychic energy, some psychic power, the tendency, a natural tendency, is to exhibit it. And if he exhibits, sooner or later he will lose the power. Then a great problem arises: he cannot do it now, but now he has respectability. He is worshipped and people expect him to do miracles. Now what is he going to do? He will have to turn to magic, he will have to start learning tricks, to maintain his prestige.

That's what happened to Satya Sai Baba and people like that. The first things that they had done were real, the first few experiments that they had done were not phony. But then the energy disappears. And by that time you have become famous, and people start gathering, foolish people, stupid people, and they expect you, and your whole ego depends on your exhibition. Now the only possible alternative is to learn magic tricks so that you can go on maintaining your prestige. If you brag, sooner or later you will become a victim of magical tricks. You will have to learn, and deceive people.

I have been challenging Satya Sai Baba, saying that this is stupid. When the country is dying of starvation, produce more food out of your miracles. He should bring rain to Hyderabad" ... where the Shankaracharya of Puri is going to force a woman to be burned alive on her husband's funeral pyre, and only then rain will come. And Satya Sai Baba is not far away from Hyderabad. Bring rain to Hyderabad -- do some real work! All that he produces is ash, and he gives you the ash and you think it is great. It is so simple that any street magician can do it. In fact the more experienced street magicians can do it in a far better way, and can do many more things than he is doing.
I have no objection to him as a magician, but he should not pretend to be a spiritual man. It is not only a question of a single person pretending to be spiritual when he is not. The question is that he attracts thousands of people, mediocre people, who believe that this man of miracles may impart something to them, may lead them to the ultimate truth.

The curtain of attachments is so dense and thick that even if you go towards religion you look for miracles. If you find Buddha standing before you, you will not recognize him. If Buddha and Satya Sai Baba are both present you will definitely move towards Satya Sai Baba, and not towards Buddha, because Buddha is not so stupid as to conjures things out of the air! You are in search of magicians. You are impressed by miracles, because your deepest desire is for the world and not for God."

Though personally I don't have an opinion either for or against Satya Sai Baba, I did come across a video regarding his miracles being examined, which might be of interest to you:

Real Life Inception-like

2011-01-12T17:41:00.003+05:30

I am sure most of you, if not all, would have seen the movie Inception. If not, you really have missed something. In short it is a science fiction film where Leonardo DiCaprio plays Dom Cobb, a specialized spy or corporate espionage thief whose work consists of secretly extracting valuable commercial information from the unconscious mind of his targets while they are asleep and dreaming. Cobb is approached by the wealthy Mr. Saito (Ken Watanabe) asking them to perform the act of "inception", planting an idea within the person's subconscious mind. It involves a whole team with people playing different roles like a Cobb's partner who takes "point" during jobs and is responsible for researching the team's targets, a graduate student who is recruited to construct the various dreamscapes, which are described as mazes, an associate who uses his ability to take the form of others inside the dream world, and a chemist who formulates the drugs needed to sustain the dream states.

As you can see, it is a detailed and complex thing and to understand the movie and everything that happens in there, you would probably need to see it many, many times.The work for this started a lot earlier- In 2001, Nolan wrote an 80-page treatment about dream-stealers, presenting the idea to Warner Bros.Christopher Nolan himself had an interest in this phenomenon- Nolan had thought about these ideas on and off since he was sixteen years old, intrigued by how he would wake up and then, while falling back into a lighter sleep, hold on to the awareness that he was dreaming, a lucid dream. He also became aware of the feeling that he could study the place and alter the events of the dream.

This movie has raised the questions- Is something like this really possible? Is dream sharing a reality or will it be in the future. The answer is, as of now, it isn't....not proven at least. Although we have things like lucid dreaming and dream incubation which is what has happened to me on previous occasions and which does happen to almost all of us though we might not remember it.

Just 2 days back, this is what happened to me. I was sleeping and dreaming. It was quite an elaborate dream and was progressing like the story in a movie and after some time, I realized it was a dream. I thought to myself that it was indeed an interesting dream and the story of the dream is wonderful and worth writing down to maybe use somewhere in the future. I have an interest for writing- mainly articles on my blog, poems but I have written a story once- 10 years ago. Anyway, I started recalling the dream and I remembered it and started writing it down. Now here's the part- I wrote it down, but again this wasn't in real life, I was still sleeping in my bed and this was still a dream- another one because I had come out of the first one! And I was writing the story of my first dream in the second. There is also a term for this called- False Awakening! In the morning when I actually woke up ( No I did not require a totem to confirm whether this was actually the reality!) I remembered both my dreams. The first one, but the second one even more clearly. I remember the exact process where I was recalling the dream, how and what I recalled, the names of people and I could almost see what I had written down on the paper.

What an interesting experience I thought. It happens to us many times that while in a dream, we realize it is a dream and that is a "Lucid Dream". Thus, A lucid dream, in simplest terms, is a dream in which one is aware that one is dreaming and can begin in one of two ways. A dream-initiated lucid dream (DILD) starts as a normal dream, and the dreamer eventually concludes it is a dream, while a wake-initiated lucid dream (WILD) occurs when the dreamer goes from a normal waking state directly into a dream state, with no apparent lapse in consciousness. This is possible if you practice it and try regularly. You can go into sleep and still be aware the same.

I don't know if you can remember such things happening to you, but I have previous experiences like once in a dream, I was like an actor in a movie- the hero, as if in the middle of an action sequence, running and hiding, on the lookout for other people who were after me, to survive and get the better of them. After lot of running around and surviving I actually became tired. (Note- I really liked some of the concepts and statements of Inception movie, which are so very true like - "Well dreams, they feel real while we are in them, right? It's only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange". For more, see below for dialogues from this movie) Thus, in my dream after I was tired running around, I suddenly thought and said to myself- "This is a dream. Even if somebody kills you, you won't die. It is a dream". Though I feel it was not a full realization of this being a dream, because like the dialogue, it felt so real, I was only trying to convince myself but was still afraid, but tired. The strange part is I did wake up but when I went back to sleep again, the dream again resumed right there and I was there like thinking what is happening! And this happened at least 3 times!

Another thing so true, shown in the movie is A "Kick" wakes you up- "It's that feeling of falling that jolts you awake, that snaps you out of the dream", associated with the inner ear function. As you might have experienced while dozing off, we never fall, we always wake up. I have experienced that when I felt I was falling, in the dream, I actually woke up with a jolt.

Another concept is the Dream incubation which is a practiced technique of learning to "plant a seed" in the mind, in order for a specific dream topic to occur, either for recreation or to attempt to solve a problem. For example, a person might go to bed repeating to themselves that they will dream about a presentation they have coming up, or a vacation they recently took. While somewhat similar to lucid dreaming, dream incubation is simply focusing attention on a specific issue when going to sleep. Several studies have shown this method to be successful over a period of time. It has actually happened that many people, scientists etc have found solutions to the problems troubling them, in a dream.

This is indeed a very interesting topic and idea. In terms of spirituality too it is relevant. Enlightenment or nirvana or moksha whatever you call- the ultimate freedom, freedom from the cycles of birth and death is also actually an awakening- the real and final. That is why they call this world 'Maya' or illusion. Not because this world isn't real but because we are not yet awakened. We are still in a kind of a sleep and in the enlightenment or awakening, we wake up to the actual reality which is still the same, only we have awakened to it in a different way. Enlightenment is also being fully conscious and aware which is irreversible. That is why enlightened people are always aware or conscious, even in sleep and they never dream. Ordinary memories are stored out of conscious awareness in the subconscious. For something to be repressed into the unconscious the conscious mind must feel that there is something wrong with something natural. The subconscious controls the unconscious every moment and censors it.

At birth, our minds have only one level; a "conscious" level. The other two levels do not develop until later in life, beginning with the development of subconscious, somewhere around age two, and then completing with the development of the unconscious, somewhere around age seven. Two years olds have no sense that time exists, other than as the present moment. Translation. They live life one moment at a time and so, can not sense that time unfolds, not even a little. Thus babies and enlightened people are in a way in a similar state. They only have a conscious level. They both have only this moment to live in. That's why they say you need to become child-like again. And the rest of us are in between having all 3 states conscious, sub conscious and unconscious.

From Inception movie, a few dialogues-

1. Cobb: What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm? An idea. Resilient... highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it's almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed - fully understood - that sticks; right in there somewhere.

2. Cobb: You create the world of the dream, you bring the subject into that dream, and they fill it with their subconscious.
Ariadne: How could I ever acquire enough detail to make them think that its reality?
Cobb: Well dreams, they feel real while we're in them, right? It's only when we wake up that we realize how things are actually strange. Let me ask you a question, you, you never really remember the beginning of a dream do you? You always wind up right in the middle of what's going on.
Ariadne: I guess, yeah.
Cobb: So how did we end up here?
Ariadne: Well we just came from the a...
Cobb: Think about it Ariadne, how did you get here? Where are you right now?
Ariadne: We're dreaming?
Cobb: You're actually in the middle of the workshop right now, sleeping. This is your first lesson in shared dreaming. Stay calm.

3. Cobb: What do you want?

Saito: Inception. Is it possible?
Arthur: Of course not.
Saito: If you can steal an idea, why can't you plant one there instead?
Arthur: Okay, this is me, planting an idea in your mind. I say: don't think about elephants. What are you thinking about?
Saito: Elephants?
Arthur: Right, but it's not your idea. The dreamer can always remember the genesis of the idea. True inspiration is impossible to fake.
Cobb: No, it's not.

4. Cobb: Eventually, She tells me the truth that she was possessed by an idea, just one simple idea that changed everything, that our world wasn't real and in order to get back to the reality, We'll have to kill ourselves.

5. Arthur: So, a totem. It's a small object, potentially heavy, something you can have on you all the time...
Ariadne: What, like a coin?
Arthur: No, it has to be more unique than that, like - this is a loaded die.
[Ariadne reaches out to take the die]
Arthur: Nah, I can't let you touch it, that would defeat the purpose. See only I know the balance and weight of this particular loaded die. That way when you look at your totem, you know beyond a doubt you're not in someone else's dream.

6. Cobb: I will split up my father's empire. Now this is obviously an idea that Robert Fischer will choose to reject - which is why we need to plant it deep in his subconscious. Subconscious is fueled by emotion, right? Not reason. We need a find a way to translate this into an emotional concept.
Arthur: How do you translate a business strategy into an emotion?
Cobb: Well, that's what we're here to figure out, right? Now Fischer's relationship with his father is stressed, to say the least...
Eames: Well, can we run with that? Suggest splitting up the empire as a "screw-you" to the old man?
Cobb: No, cause I think positive emotion trumps negative emotion every time. We all crave reconciliation - we're catharsis. We need Robert Fischer to have a positive emotional reaction to all this.
Eames: Alright, well try this. My father accepts that I want to create for myself, not follow in his footsteps.
Cobb: That might work.

7. Eames: Do they come here to sleep?
Thin Man: [Looking at Cobb] No, They come here to be woken up. Dream has become their reality! Who are you to say, otherwise?

8. Ariadne: [wakes up after being stabbed by Mal in a dream] Why... why wouldn't I wake up?
Arthur: 'Cause there was still some time on the clock and you can't wake up from within a dream unless you die.

9. Ariadne: Won't you tell me anything about this first?
Cobb: Before I describe the job I have to know you can do it.
Ariadne: Why?
Cobb: It's not, strictly speaking, legal.

10. Eames: Thank you. Now we're trapped in Fischer's mind battling his own private army and if we get killed we'll be lost in limbo till our brains turn into scrambled egg.

11. Ariadne: Why are they all looking at me?
Cobb: Because my subconscious feels that someone else is creating this world. The more you change things, the quicker the projections start to converge on you.
Ariadne: Converge?
Cobb: It's the foreign nature of the dreamer. They attack like white blood cells fighting an infection.
Ariadne: They're going to attack us?
Cobb: No. Just you.

12. Cobb: They say we only use a fraction of our brain's true potential. Now that's when we're awake. When we're asleep, we can do almost anything.

IPL-4 Auctions 2011- Most Comprehensive article

2011-01-09T00:26:00.016+05:30

IPL 2011 Auction held on 8 Jan 2011 (the first day) is over and it has given some interesting results. Here is a short summary and analysis.

Presenting the teams in alphabetical order and as per the possible lineup with the players at the end of day one in each squad. The amounts for each player might not be exact, taking the conversion from dollar to rupee and thus is a close approximation.

* Have also added the results of the auction on 9 Jan 2011, the second day. The players bought today 9 Jan are not in bold and those bought yesterday are in bold. Now only the domestic uncapped players remain which will make up the bulk of the teams.

* Updating about the uncapped players as well. They are in italics.

* RETAINED PLAYERS SALARY-

*Also please note that according to IPL rules, for retaining one player, 1.8 million dollars or around 8.4 crores will be deducted from total team money allocated of 9 million $ or 41.4 crores, similarly for 2nd retained player, 1.3 million $ or 6 crore rupees, for 3rd retained player, 0.9 million $ or 4 crore Rs and for fourth retained player, 0.5 million $ or 2.33 crore Rs will be deducted. This however DOES NOT mean that it will be the actual salary of those players. It will be what is agreed upon by the owners and the players and this can be more or less than the deducted amount. Thus the auction might say Gambhir has the highest price but Sachin and Dhoni might still be the highest earning players!

BANGALORE - Royal Challengers

Tillakaratne Dilshan - Rs 2.99 crore ($650,000) Sri Lanka batsman-keeper- all rounder
Virat Kohli (Retained) - Rs 8.4* crore ( $1800000*) India batsman
AB de Villiers - Rs 5.06 cr ($1.1 mn) South Africa batsman-keeper
Cheteswar Pujara - Rs 3.2 cr ($7,00,000) India batsman
Saurabh Tiwary - Rs 7.36 cr ($1.4 mn) India batsman
Luke Pomersbach- Rs 23 lakhs ($50000) Australia batsman
Mohammed Kaif- Rs 60.5 lakhs ($130000) India batsman
Jonathan Vandiar- Rs 9.33 lakhs ($20000) South Africa batsman
Rilee Rossouw- Rs 9.33 lakhs ($20000) South Africa batsman
Daniel Vettori - Rs 2.53 cr ($550,000) New Zealand bowling allrounder
Charl Langeveldt- Rs 65 lakhs ($140000) South Africa bowler
Zaheer Khan - Rs 4.14 crore ($900,000) India bowler
Johan van der Wath- Rs 44 lakhs ($95000) South Africa bowler
Dirk Nannes - Rs 2.99 cr ($6,50,000) Australia bowler
Abhimanyu Mithun- Rs. 1.21 cr ($260000) India bowler
Nuwan Pradeep- Rs. 9.33 lakhs ($20000) Sri Lanka bowler

* For retained players' salary, please read the fourth paragraph at the top.

Amount remaining 0.36 mill $ or 1.67 cr

Bangalore have picked quite a balanced squad, interestingly picking all 3 left handed bowlers and making the headlines with Saurabh Tiwary's 7.36 cr buy. Has the least money left of all the teams now.
On Day 2, they have added lots of handy South Africans not too well known to others. Certainly the coach Ray Jennings would have had some say in it. 3 cheap foreign buys under 10 lakhs.

About some not so well known to all Players:

1. Luke Pomersbach - an attacking left handed Australian batsman won the 2008 Bradman Young Player of the Year.
2. Jonathan Vandiar- A good performer- left handed batsman of South Africa under 19 team whose coach is also Ray Jennings. O

ne of four uncapped players to be named in South Africa's 30-man preliminary squad for the 2011 World Cup

3. Rilee Rossouw - Again a good performer and left handed batsman in South African under 19 team and has the fastest triple century in South African domestic cricket.
4. Johan van der Wath- 32 year old South African attacking bowling all rounder of sorts
5. Nuwan Pradeep- An unconventional slingy action Sri Lankan fast bowler with good pace- having won a pace contest in 2007 too.

CHENNAI Super Kings

Murali Vijay (Retained)- Rs. 4* cr ($900000*) India batsman

Michael Hussey - Rs 2.0 cr ($4,25,000) Australia batsman

Suresh Raina (Retained)- Rs. 6* cr ($1300000*) India batsman

George Bailey- Rs. Rs 23 lakhs ($50000) Australia batsman

S Badrinath - Rs 3.68 cr ($8,00,000) India batsman

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Retained)- Rs. 8.4* cr ($1800000*) India batsman keeper

Faf du Plessis- Rs. 56 lakhs ($120000) South Africa batsman

Dwayne Bravo - Rs 92 lakh ($2,00,000) West Indies all rounder

Scott Styris- Rs. 93 lakhs ($200000) New zealand all rounder

Albie Morkel (Retained)- Rs. 2.33* cr ($500000*) South Africa All rounder

Wridhiman Saha - Rs 46 Lakh ($1,00,000) India batsman-keeper

Joginder Sharma- Rs. 70 lakhs ($150000) India all rounder

Sudeep Tyagi- Rs. 1.1 cr ($240000) India bowler

R Ashwin - Rs 3.91 cr ($8,50,000) India bowler

Doug Bollinger - Rs 3.22 cr ($7,00,000) Australia bowler

Ben Hilfenhaus- Rs.46.6 lakhs($ 100000) Australia bowler

Nuwan Kulasekara- Rs.46.6 lakhs ($ 100000) Sri Lanka bowler

Suraj Randiv- Rs. 37 lakhs ($ 80000) Sri Lanka bowler

* For retained players' salary, please read the fourth paragraph at the top.

Amount remaining 0.34 mill $ or 1.5 cr

Chennai is the one team that has retained most of its team from previous years as it had developed into a well settled, winning team. Almost the same team with a good addition of all rounder Bravo at a very low price and a backup keeper for Dhoni like it was Parthiv Patel previously..No major surprises.

On day 2, they have really increased their squad strength (highest number) adding a good mix of batsmen, bowlers and all rounders. This team has some of the best genuine all rounders. A wonderful, almost similar looking squad with a few good additions. One major loss of Murlitharan though. Have reached their limit of 10 overseas players.

About some not so well known to all Players:

1. George Bailey - A good consistent Australian batsman and the Captain of the Tasmanian Tigers

2. Faf du Plessis- A good South African all round Cricketer- A good batsman and brilliant fielder.

One of four uncapped players to be named in South Africa's 30-man preliminary squad for the 2011 World Cup

DECCAN Chargers

Shikhar Dhawan - Rs 1.38 cr ($300,000) India batsman

Kumar Sangakkara - Rs 3.22 cr ($700,000) Sri Lanka batsman-keeper

Kevin Pietersen - Rs 2.99 cr ($6,50,000) England batsman

J P Duminy - Rs 1.38 cr ($300,000) South Africa batsman

Chris Lynn- Rs. 9.33 lakhs ($ 20000) Australia batsman

Michael Lumb- Rs. 37 lakhs ($ 80000) England batsman

Cameron White - Rs 5.06 cr ($1.1 million) Australia batsman

Dan Christian - Rs. 4.14 cr ($ 900000) Australia all rounder

Dale Steyn - Rs 5.32 cr ($1.2 mn) South Africa bowler

Rusty Theron- Rs.39.7 lakhs ($ 85000) South Africa bowler

Manpreet Gony- Rs. 1.35 crore ($ 290000) India bowler

Amit Mishra - Rs 1.38 cr ($3,00,000) India bowler

Pragyan Ojha - Rs 2.30 cr ($5,00,000) India bowler

Ishant Sharma - Rs 2.07 cr ($4,50,000) India bowler

Amount remaining - 2.13 mill $ or 9.9 cr.

Deccan again have a nice mix and interestingly have picked up both Mishra and Ojha and the big pick being Steyn. Still have a lot of money to spend (the highest) in spite of having picked 9 players already giving it one of the potentially best squads.

On Day 2, the big surprise of Daniel Christian being bought for 900000 $. Coach Lehmann would have given some inputs accounting for Lynn as well. They still have the most money left- over 2 million $.

About some not so well known to all Players:

1. Chris Lynn - A good, young 20 year old Australian middle order batsman for Queensland Bulls

2. Michael Lumb- South African born, hard hitting English batsman previously with Rajasthan Royals.

3. Daniel Christian- A powerful hitter and useful medium pace bowler- a natural all rounder, having been in Australia's T20 squad, purchased for over 4 crore making headlines.

DELHI Daredevils

Virender Sehwag (Retained)- Rs. 8.4* cr ($1800000*) India batsman

David Warner - Rs 3.4 cr ($7,50,000) Australia batsman

Aaron Finch - Rs 1.4 cr ($3,00,000) Australia batsman

Matthew Wade- Rs. 46 lakhs ($1,00,000) Australia batsman-keeper

Venugopal Rao- Rs.3.2 cr ($ 700000) India batsman

Travis Birt- Rs.9.33 lakhs ($ 20000) Australia batsman

Colin Ingram- Rs. 46 lakhs ($ 100000) South Africa batsman

James Hopes - Rs 1.61 cr ($3,50,000) Australia all rounder

Robert Frylinck- Rs. 9.33 lakhs ($ 20000) South Africa bowling all rounder

Andrew McDonald- Rs. 37 lakhs ($ 80000) Australia all rounder

Irfan Pathan - Rs 8.74 cr ($1.9 million) India all rounder

Naman Ojha - Rs 1.24 cr ($2,70,000) India batsman-keeper

Roelof van der Merwe- Rs. 23 lakhs ($ 50000) South Africa all rounder

Morne Morkel - Rs 2.18 cr ($4,75,000) South Africa bowler

Ajit Agarkar- Rs. 98 lakhs ($ 210000) India bowler

Ashok Dinda- Rs. 1.75 cr ($ 375000) India bowler

Umesh Yadav- Rs. 3.5 cr ($ 750000) India bowler

* For retained players' salary, please read the fourth paragraph at the top.

Amount remaining 0.75 mill $ or 3.5 cr

A decent squad but hasn't picked up too many yet. Has money left and needs to make some good picks tomorrow. Big pick of Irfan Pathan at 8.74 cr. Needs more bowlers.

On Day 2, they have picked up many useful utility players- they have the most buys of all teams today. Interestingly all their players are from India, Australia and South Africa only. They too have reached their limit of 10 overseas players.

About some not so well known to all Players:

1. Matthew Wade - A 23 year old Australian wicket keeper batsman for Victorian Bushrangers having solid performances, making his debut for Australia A over other experienced keepers.

2. Travis Birt- A 29 year old left handed big hitting Australian batsman has played for Australia in T20s

3. Colin Ingram- Becoming one of the 'great finds' for South Africa, an aggressive opener, scored a century on ODI debut and averages over 57 in 8 ODIs.

4. Robert Frylinck- A South African born effective, hard hitting all rounder who is seen as the next Lance Klusener

5. Andrew McDonald- A useful all rounder who has played Tests for Australia and was with Delhi Daredevils previously too.

KOCHI Team

Brendon McCullum - Rs 2.18 cr ($475,000) New Zealand batsman-keeper

Parthiv Patel - Rs 1.33 cr ($290,000) India batsman-keeper

VVS Laxman - Rs 1.84 cr ($400,000) India batsman

Mahela Jayawardene - Rs 6.75 cr ($1.5 million) Sri Lanka batsman

Owais Shah- Rs.93 lakhs ($ 200000) England batsman

Brad Hodge - Rs 1.95 cr ($4,25,000) Australia batsman

Michael Klinger- Rs. 35 lakhs($ 75000) Australia batsman

Ravindra Jadeja - Rs 4.37 cr ($950,000) India all rounder

Steven Smith - Rs 92 lakh ($2,00,000) Australia all rounder

Steve O'Keefe- Rs.9.33 lakhs ($ 20000) Australia all rounder

John Hastings- Rs. 9.33 lakhs ($ 20000) Australia all rounder

Thisara Perera- Rs. 37 lakhs ($ 80000) Sri Lanka all rounder

Ramesh Powar - Rs 82.8 lakh ($1,80,000) India bowler

RP Singh - Rs 2.3 cr ($500,000) India bowler

S Sreesanth - Rs 4.14 cr ($900,000) India bowler

Vinay Kumar- Rs. 2.18 cr ($ 475,000) India bowler

Muttiah Muralitharan - Rs 5.1 cr ($ 1.1 mn) Sri Lanka bowler

Amount remaining - 1.21 mill $ or 5.6 cr

A very interesting approach. Picked up the most number of players. Has done enough on day one to be able to raise a playing eleven. As one might have thought, picked up Sreesanth and an important one of Murlitharan at 5.1 cr. Jayawardena some what surprisingly going for 6.75 cr. More focus on Indian players.

After day 2, they end up with 5 Australian players as expected, having Geoff Lawson as the coach. They too have reached the limit of 10 overseas players. Have picked up handy all rounders cheaply. Perera might turn out to be a good pick.

About some not so well known to all Players:

1. Michael Klinger - A very consistent top order batsman from Australia, he was soon made the captain of South Australia Redbacks.

2. Steve O'Keefe- A useful all rounder for Australia is left arm orthodox bowler and good batsman has played for Australia in T20s

3. John Hastings- A Cricketer for Victorian Bushrangers is a tall seriously talented all rounder- right arm fast-medium bowler and strong lower order batsman having won the Bradman Young Cricketer of the Year
4. Thisara Perera- An attacking all rounder, good with both the bat and the ball, has done well for Under-19 and even in ODIs against India scoring a 14 ball 31 on debut and also had a contract with Chennai Super Kings

KOLKATA Knight Riders

Gautam Gambhir - Rs 11.04 cr ($2.4 million) India batsman
Jacques Kallis - Rs 5.06 cr ($1.1 million) South Africa all rounder
Manoj Tiwary - Rs 2.48 cr ($4,75,000) India batsman
Yusuf Pathan - Rs 9.66 cr ($2.1 million) India all rounder
Eoin Morgan - Rs 1.65 cr ($3,50,000) England batsman
Brad Haddin - Rs 1.49 cr ($3,25,000) Australia batsman-keeper
Ryan ten Doeschate- 70 lakhs($ 150000) Netherlands all rounder
Shakib al Hasan - Rs 1.95 cr ($4,25,000) Bangladesh all rounder
Iqbal Abdulla- uncapped. Left arm spinner and lower order batsman
Brett Lee - Rs 1.84 cr ($4,00,000) Australia bowler
Lakshmipathy Balaji- Rs. 2.3 cr($ 500000) India bowler
Jaydev Unadkat- Rs. 1.16 cr($250000) India bowler
James Pattinson- Rs. 46.6 lakhs ($100,000) Australia bowler

Amount remaining - 0.43 mill $ or 2 cr

Made the headlines very early with the biggest buys of Gambhir at 11 cr and one of the most prized- Yusuf Pathan at 9.66 cr. Also have Kallis to boast of. A cheap buy of Morgan. Like Delhi, need more bowlers.

Very less picks on day 2, mainly bowlers. Ryan ten Doeschate supposed to be a good pick.

About some not so well known to all Players:

1. Ryan ten Doeschate - A South Africa born amazing Netherlands player who has in the ICC Intercontinental Cup scored 4 centuries in a row including a 259 not out at an average of 228.66 as well as being Netherland's highest wicket taker. He has also played 27 ODIs having a batting average of over 68 and a bowling average under 21! A fantastic buy.
2. James Pattinson- A young 20 year old promising fast swing bowler for Victoria has also played Under 19 World Cup, and for Australia A and took 6-48 in a domestic game, breaking the record.

MUMBAI Indians

Sachin Tendulkar (Retained) - Rs. 8.4* cr ($1800000*) India batsman

Davy Jacobs - Rs 87.4 lakh ($1,90,000) South Africa keeper-batsman

Rohit Sharma - Rs 9.2 cr ($2 million) India batsman

Aiden Blizzard- Rs.9.33 lakhs ($ 20000) Australia batsman

Andrew Symonds - Rs 3.91 cr ($850,000) Australia all rounder

Kieron Pollard (Retained))- Rs. 4* cr ($900000*) West Indies all rounder

Moises Henriques- Rs. 23 lakhs ($ 50000) Australia all rounder

James Franklin - Rs 46 lakh ($1,00,000) New Zealand bowling all rounder

Harbhajan Singh (Retained)- Rs. 6* cr ($ 1300000*) India bowler

Lasith Malinga (Retained)- Rs. 2.33* cr ($500000*) Sri Lanka bowler

Clint McKay- Rs. 51 lakhs($ 110000) Australia bowler

Munaf Patel- Rs. 3.1 cr ($ 700000) India bowler

* For retained players' salary, please read the fourth paragraph at the top.

Amount remaining - 0.48 mill $ or 2.2 cr

One of the best teams, again retaining 4 irreplaceable players. Picked up Rohit Sharma as many would have thought but at a shocking 9.2 cr and a very important one of Andrew Symonds. Very smart buys of Jacobs and Franklin compensate Rohit somewhat. Talks about Symonds and Harbhajan being in the same team.

Not much activity on day 2. Bought three useful Australians. Even Davy Jacobs and James Franklin might turn out to be really good buys. I have been following this auction very closely, every minute of it, specially this team- Mumbai Indians and some of the main players they were interested in but couldn't get were- Gambhir, Zaheer, Taylor, Yuvraj, Kallis, Hopes, B. Mc Cullum, Parthiv, N. Ojha, Paine. Last four being in the hunt of a good wicket keeper which means they hadn't decided one particular. Davy Jacobs might be more useful then they would have thought. 8 of the 12 players they have are overseas players and there can only be 4 in the playing 11. Will need to seriously consider good uncapped players which they have plenty- Rayudu and Satish should be in the squad and in the playing 11 too besides Kulkarni, Rahane, Shah etc

About some not so well known to all Players:

1. Aiden Blizzard - An explosive left handed Australian batsman, he made 89 from 38 balls on his T20 debut for Victorian Bushrangers as well as a 20 ball 47 in a T20 final between Victoria and Western Australia and is known for big, clean hits. He has to his credit two of the longest sixes- 130 meters and a pull shot off Nathan Bracken over 150 meters!

2. Moises Henriques- A very talented young Australian cricketer equally good with the bat and the balls one of the best young talents with plenty of skill,natural & athletic ability and hand-eye co-ordination.

3. Clint McKay- A right arm fast medium talented bowler has also played a Test and ODIs for Australia. Has performed well in domestic matches.
4. Davy Jacobs- A South African first class cricketer, captain of Warriors, a good wicket keeper and batsman with over 3000 first class runs at an average over 40. In the Champions League T20 recently he finished with the second highest runs.

PUNE Warriors

Graeme Smith - Rs 2.3 cr ($500,000) South Africa batsman

Tim Paine - Rs 1.24 cr ($2,70,000) Australia batsman-keeper

Jesse Ryder- Rs. 70 lakhs ($ 150000) New Zealand all rounder

Yuvraj Singh - Rs 8.2 cr ($1.8million) India batsman

Robin Uthappa - Rs 9.66 cr ($2.1 million) India batsman

Callum Ferguson - Rs 1.38 cr ($3,00,000) Australia batsman

Mitchell Marsh- Rs. 1.35 crore ($ 290000) Australia batsman

Angelo Mathews - Rs 4.4 cr ($9,50,000) Sri Lanka all rounder

Nathan McCullum - Rs 46 lakh ($1,00,000) New Zealand bowling all rounder

Murali Kartik- Rs. 1.86 cr ($ 400000) India bowler

Ashish Nehra - Rs 3.91 cr ($ 8,50,000) India bowler

Jerome Taylor- Rs. 46.6 lakhs ($ 100000) West Indies bowler

Wayne Parnell- Rs. 74.6 lakhs ($ 160000) South Africa bowler

Alfonso Thomas- Rs. 46.6 lakhs ($100000) South Africa bowler

Amount remaining - 0.93 mill $ or 4.33 cr

Another surprising one here of Robin Uthappa going for 9.66 cr. Another big one being Yuvraj Singh for 8.2 cr.

On day 2, main focus on bowlers. Mitchell Marsh the batsman to be picked today is the son of the coach. Good fast bowlers added to the squad. 10 of the 14 players are overseas players!

About some not so well known to all Players:

1.Mitchell Marsh - A young talented batsman who is also the son of Geoff Marsh and younger brother of Shaun Marsh. He started pretty young. He was also the captain of the 2010 under-19 Cricket World Cup which they won and where he performed well too.

2. Alfonso Thomas- A South African fast medium bowler and a lower order batsman has played T20 International too.

PUNJAB Kings XI

Adam Gilchrist - Rs 4.14 cr ($900,000) Australia batsman-keeper
Shaun Marsh - Rs 1.84 cr ($4,00,000) Australia batsman
David Hussey - Rs 6.44 cr ($1.5 mn) Australia batsman
Dinesh Karthik - Rs 4.14 cr ($9,00,000) India batsman-keeper
Sunny Singh - Uncapped batsman
Nitin Saini - - Uncapped batsman
Siddharth Chitnis - Uncapped batsman
Abhisek Nayar - Rs 3.68 cr ($8,00,000) India batting all rounder
Dimitri Mascarenhas- Rs. 46.6 lakhs ($ 100000) England all rounder
Love Ablish - Uncapped. All rounder
Stuart Broad - Rs 1.84 cr ($4,00,000) England bowler
Piyush Chawla - Rs 4.14 cr ($9,00,000) India bowler
Pravin Kumar - Rs 3.68 cr ($8,00,000) India bowler
Ryan Harris - Rs 1.49 cr ($3,25,000) Australia bowler
Nathan Rimmington- Rs. 9.33 lakhs ($ 20000) Australia bowler
Vikramjeet Malik - Uncapped. Fast bowler
Shalabh Srivastava - Uncapped. Left arm Fast bowler

Amount remaining - 2.05 mill $ or 9.55 cr

The costliest player in the team is David Hussey and expensive buys of Karthik and Chawla. Already a balanced team, still having almost 10 cr to spend.

Only 2 additions on day 2. Still have the second highest money left.

About some not so well known to all Players:

1.Nathan Rimmington - An Australian attacking fast-medium bowler who plays for Queensland Bulls and in a T20 tournament has been the leading wicket taker with good performance in the Ford Ranger Cup final as well.

RAJASTHAN Royals

Shane Watson (Retained)- Rs. 6* cr ($1300000*) Australia all rounder
Rahul Dravid - Rs 2.3 cr ($500,000) India batsman
Ross Taylor - Rs 4.6 cr ($1 million) New Zealand batsman
Ajinkya Rahane - Uncapped batsman
Aakash Chopra - Uncapped batsman
Paul Collingwood - Rs 1.15 cr ($2,50,000) England all rounder
Ashok Menaria- Uncapped middle order batsman
Dishant Harendra Yagnik - Uncapped wicketkeeper
Johan Botha - Rs 4.37 cr ($950,000) South Africa bowler
Shane Warne (Retained)- Rs. 8.4* cr ($1800000*) Australia bowler
Pankaj Singh- Rs. 44 lakhs ($ 95000) India bowler
Deepak Chahar - Uncapped seamer

* For retained players' salary, please read the fourth paragraph at the top.

Amount remaining - 0.8 mill $ or 3.73 cr

The team worst off so far already having 2 million $ less than other teams due to their legal problems. Has only 6 players so far, a surprising high buy of Botha for 4.37 cr and only 5.52 cr left.

Just one buy on day 2. Squad has only 8 players so far- the least.

Some of the players haven't been bought. Some surprising ones being - Ganguly, Gayle, Lara, Gibbs, Prior, Swann and Boucher. Reasons could be age factor and some not being current players, availability issues for West Indies and England.

After Indians, Australians and South Africans have been preferred the most followed by Sri Lanka, not too many from England and West Indies concerning availability issues and not much from Bangladesh either.

Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders all three have a similar squad with similar amount remaining. Chennai Super Kings and Kochi have the biggest squads so far and Kings 11 Punjab and Deccan Chargers have preferred to save money.

Now only the uncapped players remain. Big ones there being Rayudu, Satish and Pandey who should go to their previous respective teams as it will be between the franchisees, players and the board for between 10 to 30 lakhs.

Best of best tweets

2010-10-24T23:03:00.000+05:30

I have been using Twitter for quite some time and now and have come across some wonderful and funny tweets and thus I decided to compile the best of them. You can also call these funny one liners. I have credited the right people too- those that originally wrote the tweets. This is also only a short list, many more good ones still to come.

Our plane's been waiting for clearance to take off so long, the toddler behind me has spoken 3 new words. Not nice ones, either- toldorknown

I told her there were starving kids in China who wud gladly eat her sandwich. She- "Yeah? Name a few." She gets this from her mother-trelvix

China has blocked Twitter. Now 1.3 billion people will have no idea what I'm having for lunch- badbanana

I just found $20 under my bed! My god, my room is so desperate to be cleaned, it's paying me. THE PLAN WORKED- zolora

Someone at Google claimed YouTube was the biggest office timewaster. I'll need to see their data. Clearly they aren't on Twitter- joeschmitt

"Can I interrupt your reading with a question?" "You just did." "Fine! Can I ask a second question?" "You just did."- vmarinelli

The restaurant across the street has gone out of business. I will miss wondering how it stays open- badbanana

The sound that's made when I drum on my stomach has gone from Bongo to Timpani. This is an unwelcome development- essdogg

There are ways in which I have not yet embarrassed my children today, but there are several hours remaining, and I am ambitious- vmarinelli

Is there anything more embarrassing than waving back at someone who wasn't waving at you? I mean besides tweeting about it- biorhythmist

Had iPhone off at lunch & heard birds tweeting. Nothing interesting- mostly celebrity retweets & what they had for lunch- joeschmitt

Wife: Why do you care if they laugh? You've never even met these people. Me: Well, we've intermet. Wife: You are so stupid- awryone

My mother's silent treatments consist of her calling me, to ask if I've noticed that she is giving me the silent treatment- Yayaa

Twitter would be a lot more useful if it could tell me what I *should* be doing right now- joeschmidt

I'm working again where there is no cell phone coverage. If anyone needs me, send a smoke signal- danielle_i

Error 4:04PM, Motivation Not Found- notasausag

I may have hesitated *just* a moment too long when she asked for my Twitter username. If u'll excuse me, I have to delete some old posts-tj

Sure it's tough to get up a 5AM & run 4 miles, but bragging about it to strangers on the internet makes it all worthwhile- CranberryPerson

The Senate passed a credit card overhaul bill today. It was approved after two swipes- badbanana

Finally manage to teach my 3 yr old daughter the word "microphone." She then goes to my wife: "Mom, where's your crophone?"-rafitorres

Tsrut mee, you dno't wnat to get haisrpay in youur eeys.- aedison

Her:"The lightbulbs are over the dryer" Me:"The rooster flies east at dawn" Her: "What?" Me: "Oh, I thought we were talking like spies"-tj

Pondering ways I can use the situation in North Korea to get out of my afternoon meeting.- badbanana

"How do I find a search engine? Should I just Google one?" "Step away from the computer. Slowly."- smilinbjones

"Medium no. 8, with a Coke, to go, plz." "Medium or large?" "I just-- Med." "Any drink?" "A Coke." "For here or to go?" "To go"-adamisacson

Best Blogging Tips

2010-07-18T13:13:00.005+05:30

I have come across a lot of blogs which are mainly about Blogging tips. Those, along with the "Make money" blogs are the most common of the lot. Being into blogging for quite some time now, I thought this was an appropriate time for me to give out some blogging tips that would be useful to would-be or beginner & even other bloggers too.
I am not going to simply give the typical blogging tips that you might come across, but I am also going to add from my personal experience and the whole process of it along with aspects related to Marketing your blog.
With over 65 posts, some followers and over 50,000 visitors, I guess I am qualified and experienced enough to be doing this!

* In the end, I will summarize the tips so those who don't want to read much can directly go there but I suggest you go through this post as it will be useful.

For Starters:

I started blogging after seeing my sister's blog as I wanted to have one too. Most of the times, the start will be in that way- seeing your friends or relatives having their own blog, makes you want to own something of the web world- having your own page in your name and doing anything with it sounds exciting. But keep in mind that out of the many millions that start out, only a small percentage of those survive i.e. continue. Others just die out after a few posts. The reason is that unless you love writing or have a passion for something that you want to share, it becomes difficult. I have seen many people, as soon as they get into blogging, they want lots of visitors and want to make money out of it and when it doesn't happen, they quit.

- The beginning is the most difficult part because your blog will be absolutely unknown in the cyber world, no readers or followers, it starts to feel lonely as if you are writing to yourself. It is at that point that your passion carries you on. If you can ride it out and if you are good, it will happen by itself. If you start for the wrong reasons in the first place, it won't happen. (www.thevigilidiot.com is a great success story!)

- For me it was the love of writing that made me start. In the beginning, don't worry too much about the Title and templates- background etc. Just get started and things will shape up. First have something in mind about what you want your blog to be. For me, initially it was the game Cricket and that's why the name STRAIGHT DRIVES. But soon I thought of many other things that I wanted to write about and now mine is one of the most diverse blogs you might come across with topics ranging from my art work, poems, sports and games, spirituality, reviews, experiences, cooking, bit of politics and martial arts related and general things. And that's why I came up with a secondary blog divided as per the wide topics. (www.telach.blogspot.com). Also my theme matches to the content to some extent, like an artist who draws anything that he pleases, isn't too neat, a bit messy etc. My sister has an expertise in cooking so her blog is about that (www.nikitawrites.blogspot.com), one of my friends Rajesh Sethi is a Financial expert and thus has a blog on that (www.rajeshsethi28.blogspot.com) and another one of my friends Gaurav Bhatt is a movie expert and will soon be starting a blog which I will set up for him.

- The debate about Blogger or WordPress, I can't say because I haven't really used Wordpress. Ask your friends who have the experience of both.

- Initially, you need to come in contact with other well-established bloggers. For that you can join social Blogging community sites like blogcatalog.com, bloggers.com etc. You can start discussions, ask your queries, ask others to rate your blog and for tips, submit your blog for reviews etc.You can also host Best blog contests which can help you make friends and come across really good blogs to follow. Initially I got huge help from a wonderful established blogger- Greg Becerra (http://www.gregbecerra.com/). You do need something like that for guidance.

Thus, in short,

REQUIREMENTS

-   You need to love writing and have a decent control over the language without too many errors

- You need to give time on a regular basis. Update your blog as and when you can

- Your blog should have an originality. It should be, for the most part- your words. Not just copying

- You need to have an interest and expertise in some field that you want to share

- You need to visit and comment other blogs genuinely to build your network

SUMMARY AND TIPS-

1.   Initially you have to carry on without readers and followers or earnings. If you do, you will succeed

2.   Make your blog about something that you really love, have interest & are an expert on

3.   Let your blog evolve and subsequently have your title and templates adjusted accordingly

4.   Don't write too big articles (generally advisable) or do break it up with images in between

5.   Give your blog a personality of its own

6.   Submit to search engines. Check these few out- ( http://tips-for-new-bloggers.blogspot.com/2007/09/submit-blog-to-search-engines.html, http://www.freewebsubmission.com%20,%20http//www.problogger.net/archives/2006/11/24/how-to-optimize-your-blog-for-search-engines/) . After submission you might start getting most of your visitors from Google search, like I do. Then it is a very good idea to write about the topics that are current and hot. This way, you will regularly get a boost in traffic from time to time.

7.   There are a lot of things that you can add on your blog, even Blogger has many. You can click Design- and under Page elements, you will find Add Gadgets. There are many useful ones too but don't make it too crowded.

8.   Add your personal touch and write in your own way and language

9.   Join and participate in social blogger community sites like (blogcatalog.com, bloggers.com etc)

10.  Promote your blog in other social networking kind of sites like Orkut, Twitter, facebook etc. To add "Follow me on twitter" button, see this- http://www.twitterbuttons.com/. If you do not understand these things like adding the codes, editing HTML etc don't worry. I myself couldn't do it earlier. It is easy and you will learn. Beginners who don't understand it, see here for an easy tutorial- http://www.blogspottutorial.com/2009/01/how-to-install-twitter-widget-in.html

11.   Ask your readers to share your blog in their social networking sites. To add that, see this- http://nikhilmisal.com/how-to-add-social-sharing-icons-in-your-post/

12.   You can also do fancy things like adding your signature as I have done.(http://www.spiceupyourblog.com/2010/01/how-to-create-stylish-signature-and-add.html) But keep in mind that all this comes later. Content is important. Develop it first!

13. You can also use Google Analytics as a tool which will help you later to keep track of all things in your blog, visitors, where they come from, your blog numbers and statistics etc. If you want to keep track of your visitors, FEEDJIT live traffic feed and Clustrmaps are good ones

14.   Finally develop something unique about your blog. For example, in my blog I started a concept on Piano notations and the majority of my traffic is for that. People ask for notations of songs in the comments section and I provide it and help others. So although I might not write a new blog post very frequently, there is some activity going on in my blog. There are already close to 500 comments in all my Piano notations posts! Google has been kind to me and features my blog posts well in searches.

Final advice, take it slow and enjoy the process!
Happy Blogging!
Comments welcome.

Chetan Bhagat's article in Maharashtra Times translated

2010-06-18T22:14:00.004+05:30

Here is Chetan Bhagat's article in Maharashtra Times which was in Marathi, translated to English. It was a tough job and I have tried my best. Hope you appreciate it. And excuse me if I have made any mistakes while translating.

'मार्क'वादाची भीतीच वाटते ( Am scared of the whole 'marks' system)

"Best wishes to the readers of Maharashtra Times on the anniversary. Through my English writings, I have reached many people and since Maharashtra has a good tradition of book reading, many young Marathis are also my readers. Finally today I get to talk to you. Even though English may have a larger voice, the real India lies in the regional languages. Therefore if you want to change anything in India, only regional newspapers will work. Today's youth read my books therefore I am thinking of diverting their attention to different topics.

All four books of mine have received great accolades. My decision to leave a good job of Deutsche bank and to become a full time writer was a risky one. On the one hand, you cannot trust today's youth. Today they are on Orkut, the next day they might go to Facebook and Twitter. Even though they might be reading Chetan Bhagat's books today, there is no guarantee that they will like it in the future too. Many Publishers refused to print my first book "Five Point Someone". So I was really dejected. But I thought that anyone can do a job of working in a bank and having my wife working there itself, money was not a big issue. Many people's ego would hurt to ask money from their wives. If you can learn to gulp down your ego, many problems can be solved. And this is not taught in any school.

In the results that were announced yesterday, many got 100 % marks. I am really scared of these marks and percentages. In one commerce college, the cutoff list was at 97%. Just imagine what would be the environment in that class! How fearful would be the students. Each student would be tense. Without thinking about anything else, their whole lives would revolve around marks and only marks. This is a dangerous situation. The problem lies with the education system. We are not educating children but putting them in an elimination round. Those who can't cope up are thrown out and the Government is not doing anything about the education system.

If the Government can't solve the problems, the result, as an example is MNS's revolution. I am not saying that all the revolutions by MNS are appropriate but I feel that they have provided the people's stifled voice a medium and that is why people have supported them. Maharashtrian culture is really wonderful. It's economic growth is more than other states, there are cities like Mumbai and Pune but along with it, there is also the farmer's suicide in the Vidarbha areas and besides this there are issues like corruption which deserve a thought. Another thing- Raj Thackeray by going against the Centre has not done well. The Centre has the pulse of the states. Besides, whether the marathi issue is the remedy, has to be thought by Maharashtrians.

Many times you cannot avoid trouble, which is what I myself have witnessed. During the time of '3 Idiots', it was alleged that I was doing it for publicity. If I had to do that, I would have done that through my books by writing against a politician or something. "Three Mistakes of My life" was against the backdrop of Godhra riots but still there were no issues with it. To make a movie based on a book is really difficult. Many things are changed from the book in the movie and the writers voice is suppressed a bit. I felt I was being made the guinea pig and thus I voiced my opinion. The condition of Indian books and Indian writers isn't particularly good. Even today, books on small children, social subjects, information related, self help books are scarce. There haven't been many writers after R.K.Narayan, Gulzar, Amrita Pritam, Premchand. This is not something to be proud of. On the other hand, in the regional languages, there would be changes in the future. The script of languages would change, mixed languages would come. Even now you can get the idea from the SMSes and Twitter. In Indonesia, they have accepted English script for their Bahasa language. In such times, more importance should be given to get such languages flowing. In some Hindi and Marathi newspapers, it has started, which is worth praising."

* Here is the link to the original article in Marathi, in case someone wants to read it (Even if you don't know marathi, the letters are practically the same as that of Hindi)- http://maharashtratimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6061352.cms

And although Chetan Bhagat did not retweet as he had promised, he did reply on Twitter- "@achyutktelang will do buddy...just did column so in a bit..thx for the hard work! " And that is fine for me.

Table Tennis

2010-06-12T23:15:00.000+05:30

Table Tennis or Ping Pong- This is a game which I now play daily but which for the past 25 years of my life, I never even touched. In this post, I will be writing about the game in general, what I have learnt and observed.

Starting with the game, if you are wondering what the difference is between Table Tennis and Ping pong,
The name "ping-pong" was in wide use before British manufacturer J. Jaques & Son Ltd trademarked it in 1901. The name "Ping-Pong" then came to be used for the game played by the rather expensive Jaquesses equipment, with other manufacturers calling theirs table tennis. A similar situation arose in the United States, where Jaques sold the rights to the "Ping-Pong" name to Parker Brothers.

The game has evolved and there have been some rule changes regarding the rackets, thickness of sponge, the colour on both sides of the racket, size of the ball from 38 to 40-44 mm and changing the scoring system from 21 to 11 points just like Cricket from 50 overs to 20 overs to make it faster and exciting.

Now coming back, me and my friend, both had never played this game before and we did not not whether we would even like it. But we bought the equipment and now it's a part of our daily life and we have improved really well in a relatively short time. Based on my singles recored here specially and this website- http://tabletennis.about.com/od/beginnersguide/a/playing_levels.htm I can say that I am now at an intermediate level. Of course as per the standards at the place where I play.

Starting with the Grips, there are mainly 2 grips- The penhold and the shakehand. I have more of a shakehand grip but not exactly because my index finger is more straight up the middle against the racket often coming in the way while hitting. ( See the figure below, the position of index finger as it should be)This is because at that time we did not know what is a correct grip. For beginners, it is very important to start with a correct grip because it becomes difficult to change later on. In terms of the racket, you need to have what works best for your type of game and which you are comfortable with. I prefer small pimpled on one side.

Shakehand grip - Views from the front and back

From playing the slow game at the beginning, we have evolved to the more faster game. I also did a bit of a research on this game, reading about it, watching videos and Waldner has impressed me. Another aspect of the game is returning a hard smash safely on the other side, which is always enjoyable. All players will generally have one stronger side and one relatively weaker side. I have always had a stronger forehand compared to my backhand.

Back spin

One of the most important component of the game is the serve. That is where you have the upper hand, the advantage, specially in the singles game to control it and direct it the way you want. Before experimenting with the serve, it is important to first gain good control because without that you will give away more points than you earn. After you feel you have the desired control, try various types of serves. It should also vary as per the opponent, his strengths and weaknesses and also an important factor is the way the opponent is standing which can give you a good clue. Always keep one strong serve to use as a surprise weapon and use it sparingly. Another thing is, you should always have a "go-to" serve- in crunch situations, the one you are confident of in terms of being good as well as carrying it out. Top spin and Back spin generally give good results against inexperienced players. Top spin will cause the opponent to clear the table and back spin will make him hit the net. Using one after the other works perfectly but later on you should keep mixing them and not allow him a set pattern. Specially in the singles game, you can vary the pace with which you hit the ball and without any change whatsoever, you should be able to serve one right across diagonally and one just straight which can unsettle the opponent.

Top Spin

As important as the serve is returning the serve, and not just correctly returning but doing it in such a way that he has trouble returning it back. For a top spin serve, return it with back spin or just try to keep it down because here the ball will "jump" and there is a chance of the ball going long, clearing the table; similarly return a backspin serve with top spin or giving it some height because the ball will "dip" and there is a chance of hitting the net. In addition to these, you can use side spins in combination with a top or back spin to have more variations but mixing it all up if you have control is a good thing. The transition of a player from the beginner level happens when the player starts playing with spin. The thing with side spin is that it reverses after hitting the opponent's racket. Thus if you are imparting one type of side spin i.e.the ball is going or spinning from the right on your side to the diagonally opposite corner, expect it to come back to you i.e. your side- right if the opponent simply returns it and similarly for the other side spin.

Another thing that I have observed in some players specially in doubles is that after they hit the ball, they just relax for the time being, but that should not be the case. You need to be alert all the time and keep an eye on what's happening. One obvious attraction for players once they advance a bit is the "smash" the powerful shot with top spin. There is a tendency to overdo it once you taste it but you need to carefully select the right one to play it. With beginners who don't yet know spin or who serve at a comfortable height, you can easily use it to return their service which can be really demoralizing.

Happy Playing!

Portraits my work of art- II

2010-05-25T19:22:00.000+05:30

* This is the original work of Achyut Telang and you may not reproduce or distribute this information in whole or in part and all photos, images etc on this blog post cannot be copied, edited, reproduced or used without the prior written permission of Achyut Telang.

I already have another post with this name. Please see- "Portraits- My work of art"

The only thing is that in that post I had put up a few of my portraits but they were taken by a digital camera and so aren't that clear. Thus, in this post, I have again put up 3 of those 5 portraits this time scanned for better results. Hopefully I will upload that other two portraits after getting them scanned soon enough. Do watch out for them.

1) Akshay Kumar :

2) Franziska Almsick :

3) Preity Zinta :

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Quote - "I am odd-looking. I sometimes think I look like a funny Muppet." Angelina Jolie

Survival Lessons

2010-04-23T18:00:00.007+05:30

I have always loved Discovery Channel and some of the shows there are truly fantastic. Many of them are my favourites. I shouldn't be alive, Man vs wild are just a few of them which can teach you a lot and also inspire you. Thus, with the reference of Discovery channel, here, I am going to tell you a few survival lessons. You never know when you might need them.

IN THE JUNGLE :

1. Landing in quicksand- Lay a pole on the quicksand surface, flop on your back onto the pole, and pull out your legs!

2. Finding direction- Point the hour hand of a watch towards the sun. South direction is between that and the 12 digit on the watch as the north-south line runs halfway between the hour hand and the 12.

3. Giant python attacking from over-hanging branch- Slash at its eyes and nose. They have hard heads - Just hitting with something won't help.

4. Crossing a roaring river- Use a pole as a rudder and deflector, & make it across the river.

5. Coming across a wild dog- Never run away or display submissive behaviour in this case. Charge/yell suddenly! You'll scare the dog back into jungle. Dogs are pack animals & submit to dominant behaviour.

6. Venomous bite by spider- Use the belt as a tourniquet to slow the spread of venom and hope the rescue party has anti-venom. If you make incisions across the bite site & suck out the venom, you may reabsorb the venom through tiny lacerations in your mouth while sucking out the poison blood and applying clay-rich dirt doesn't leach out the venom either.

SNOW SURVIVAL :

1. While hiking, you come across a bear- Don't try to run & climb a tree. Clicking jaws indicate the bear is on the hunt. You can't outrun a bear & most are also good climbers. Trying to stare down a bear won't work. It sees it as aggressive behaviour and attacks, instead display submissive behaviour like dropping in the fetal position & show the bear you are not a threat.

2. Dehydration- If you have corn chips, the oil in the corn chips burns, even in wet, windy conditions thus you can make fire to melt the snow into water.

3. Hunger- If you have nothing else for food but have a wallet and the leather is thin enough to chew, it can be eaten. Yes leather can be eaten..cooked or if not possible, directly, Other foods for survival when there is no food available- tree barks- Some of the most popular edible choices would be aspen, birch, willow, maple, and pine trees, insects - crickets, grasshoppers, ants, caterpillars, worms etc and even chewing on grass is a great way to get some added nutrients into a starving body. Do not eat the grass. Just chew on it to get the juices out and spit it out.

4. White-out Blizzard- Most blizzard deaths are caused by disorientation. Lay out the rope pointing in the direction you were heading and dig a snow cave. After the storm, you pull up the rope and follow the direction

5. Again dehydration- If you are thinking snow is frozen water and there's TONs of it & pop some in your mouth & drink, it actually dehydrates you. It lowers body temperature further & you come close to hypothermia. You can fill the empty chips bag with snow & stick it inside your clothes to melt it but the bag should be 2 layers away from skin. Or you can fill the bag with snow and urinate on it to melt the snow too though it's not the best choice.

6. A monster avalanche while hiking through a valley - Ditch your equipment and make swimming motions as the wave lifts you. It helps you keep you on top of the "wave" and cover your mouth to clear breathing room.

AT SEA :

1. Boat sinks- If you have to pick up only one nearby item, pick a sweater. Most lost-at-sea scenarios end in hypothermia, even in warm climates. Wool insulates, even when wet.

2. For water- When you look at the port side & see several items floating by, and you have to pick something for water, pick up Tarp. It rains often in the tropics now you have the means to collect rain and dew/condensation and can use it for shade and sweat less/ retain water.

3. Protection from Sun- When you are getting dangerously cooked out there, you can use motor oil. The raft's engine has heavy weight motor oil, viscous enough to provide protection from the sun- it can act as a sun screen so you can slather up.

4. Sharks- Use a wooden oar. As scouts approach, you can whack them on the nose with the oar sending them to hopefully distant hunting grounds. If you use a spear or knife to stab the shark, the blood in the water will create a feeding frenzy and you will be knocked out of the raft and devoured.

5. Lack of water- Even if you have been collecting water and it is not enough, you can use a fishing pole. Fish have potable aqueous fluid. You can slice the fish in half, drink the liquid along the spine, and suck the liquid out of the eyes. Gross but anything for survival!

6. Reaching an island - Don't paddle the raft in. Landing on islands is very difficult and dangerous. The breakers can capsize your raft and shred you on the razor sharp coral. If you swim in with raft in tow, the raft may slow and distract you and the deadly wave may smash you on the reef. You should go to the other side of the island. The side of the island not exposed to waves will have safer approaches/landing sites.

- In the sea, if you run out of fresh drinking water and are tempted to drink sea water, it is not a good idea. Drink sea water & your metabolism very quickly goes into crisis. From every cell, water molecules rush off to try to dilute and carry off the sudden intake of salt. This leaves the cells dangerously short of the water (dehydrated) they need to carry out their normal functions. In extreme situations, dehydration will lead to seizures, unconsciousness, and brain damage. Meanwhile, the overworked blood cells carry the salt to the kidneys, which eventually become overwhelmed and shut down. Without functioning kidneys you die. That is why we don't drink seawater. Truly water, water everywhere, not a drop to drink! But there is a theory that you can mix it in some percentage with fresh water to consume.

* One thing you can do if you are stuck out there in a jungle or somewhere with no water source at all is actually drink the fluid from a fresh elephant dung. Pretty disgusting but it could save your life. It's a last resort. There can be harmful bacteria in that water but if you have nothing else to drink, it can buy you some extra time!
Also regarding elephants, they have poor eyesight and if an elephant flattens its ears and curls its trunk, it means the elephant is about to charge.

- Water is so important because people can survive much longer without food but not too long without water. Generally it is said that a human being can survive an average of three to five days(it can vary) without the intake of water, assuming sea-level altitude, room temperature and favorable relative humidity but a human can survive for several weeks without food.

- If you are in the jungle with no food and see an animal hunted by a lion (like raw zebra meat of a lion kill), to ascertain whether it is fresh and can be eaten is - the first sign is vultures- as they only eat fresh meat. Also look out for maggots or if the carcass smells rotten, then obviously it isn't safe to eat.

- For water, if you see reeds surrounding a pool of free-standing water, a dead tortoise nearby, the water isn't safe at all, and is with parasites etc. Always try to drink from fast moving water.

* This was based on the Discovery channel and its games. Although the warning- The information provided is for informational and entertainment purposes only. By using this, you agree that you will not hold me or Discovery liable for any errors in content, or for any action taken based on information provided. Use the information at your own risk.

Kites- movie review

2010-04-21T11:24:00.000+05:30

* Warning- This review may contain spoilers.

Kites! It is obvious that this name was well thought-out and it works well, keeping with the tradition of movie names starting with 'K' for Rakesh Roshan.

There's talk that this movie is doing well outside and not with Indian audiences. If you go in with preconceived notions and not an open mind, you won't like it. It is like a new dish; you just have to experience and take it in because after all it is a nice concoction!

For one thing, this movie is just about 2 hours and thus is breezy, not too slow in pace. The story unfolds well. Regarding the characters and other aspects, it is clear that it was all well thought-out to introduce Bollywood to other places. You select the best looking people- so you have Hrithik Roshan (Jay) obviously the most handsome hunk, Kangana (Gina)- a natural beauty but with not much to do and Kabir Bedi(Bob) considered a handsome man who can speak well. And like Rakesh Roshan's other films involving Hrithik, it intends to show that Hrithik can do everything. Nothing wrong with that, because he can! His stunning looks are even more enhanced in this film, his body is a sculpture, he can dance like he has no bones and most importantly, he can act well too- a complete package really. You can't help but be lost in his "limpid hazel" eyes. Then you have Barbara Mori (Natasha, Linda) a beautiful actress, well known in Spanish television in US. Due to its Latin flavor, it can reach the largest movie going audience in America, the US Hispanic and Brett Ratner who understands it well, will bring out a short, remixed, English version of this movie.

The movie has been shot in great locations, has romance, action, comedy, chase sequences, adventure, song and dance. The film has some of the trademark beautiful 'comedy' moments like previous Roshans' film. The music might not feel great the first time, but the more you listen to it, the more you will like it. The love story I felt in some ways similar to Titanic. Many will not agree, but it was there- two people who are quite different, the girl is not happy in the relationship that she is in, about to get married to someone else, the boy saves her in all possible ways, he wants to send her away so that she would be safe but she comes back and finally the end where one of them dies first. There is something about unfulfilled love stories that makes you sad but still you like it in the end.

Beautiful scenes that stand out (or highlights of the film) -

1. The dance in the competition at the beginning by Hrithik and Kangana.

2. Where Hrithik and Barbara make various shadow figures with hands. Perfect example of how 2 people who don't speak the same language can communicate in different ways.

3. When Hrithik and Barbara each tell their sad stories about their parent(s)/family.

4. The whole sequence where they are escaping from the hot air balloon, to robbing a bank.

5. The way the story has been told - going back to the past, cutting back to present again, making it a whole story at the end.

6. In the later part of the movie where Hrithik shoots everyone with a gun, it is in slow motion and the actual sounds like gun shots are not heard.

The background music suits well and the lead actors are the strong point of the film. I watched it again and loved it more. This is that kind of a movie! See it for what it offers, and not to expect to see what you want.

* To read this review in IMDb website, visit the site- HERE

10 interesting incidents with me

2010-04-16T16:07:00.002+05:30

Here are 10 interesting things that I have done, or have happened to me, worth telling -

( Not in any particular order)

1. Once in class 6th (grade) during examination, by mistake I was given the question paper of class 7th. Though a bit surprised initially, I nevertheless started writing the paper till the time the invigilator realized his mistake and took away that paper - shocked!

2. Once, for some reason, I was there with a friend and I wanted to come back home leaving him behind. I was on a small scooty type "Sunny" and he was on a bicycle and he too followed me and thus we raced ahead at full possible speed through the busy street, not slowing down even at turns, surprisingly and thankfully without any mishap.

3. Once I got some mouth ulcers and was unable to eat properly and was frustrated at it. I suddenly decided to have all my food in liquid form! So I had all the things- chapatis ( Indian flat bread)+ vegetables + rice + dal( Pulses- lentils) + mix vegetable raita + butter milk and whatever else was there put through the mixer and drank it all at once!

4. Once when I was on the terrace of my home, studying, suddenly out of nowhere, I felt as if someone had put a huge load on my head. I looked up and saw that it was a kite bird ( like eagle), it had landed on my head! It was quite huge and it was flying above me. Again suddenly it came, landed on my head and took off (as they pick up their prey) now I was quite confused and bewildered and was trying to see where it was and out of nowhere, it came for the third time and did the same! I came down after that. I still don't understand it!

5. This is not something big or funny but I find it somewhat surprising. At my home, my father was reversing the car and I was just directing from outside and a wheel of the car went over my foot. Though it wasn't a very big car, still I didn't feel anything, neither was I hurt at all. Surely, cars are quite heavy & might break bones if they go over, but nothing really happened to me. Not even a bruise!

6. Quite a few years ago when I was just a small child, a monitor lizard- kind of similar to Komodo dragon came into our home on the 3rd floor! It came inside and went in my room. I said to my mother as per my understanding that a 'great lizard' had come inside. My mother thought that it must be the common house lizard or the house gecko which must be a little bigger and didnot take it seriously which I didnot understand why and kept repeating it. Little did she know and we got the fright of our lives and somehow managed to get rid of it!

7. This too isn't something big, but in school, I was in the class and the teacher was dictating notes and we were taking them down. The teacher lost track of how much had been dictated and thus wanted to see and since at that time, she was near me, she tried to see my notes. Suddenly my eyes fell on a mistake that I had done and since I was considered quite a good student, I feared that if the teacher sees that, she will scold me so I just bravely put my hand across my notes to prevent the teacher from seeing it and she was again and again trying and asking me to let her see them and she sure was utterly bemused at my behaviour!

8. Once again as a small child, I once decided that I wanted to meet and see God and having been brought up on Indian mythology and spirituality and having heard great stories of people who had done lot of hard penences and things like that after which God appeared, I decided to do the same. So what I did was pulled up the skin on my forearm and twisted it and held it for some hours till the time my parents came back from their clinics and my mother rushed and asked me what I was doing and stopped me saying such things don't happen.

9. This might not sound too great but after the final exams of class 7 when we had summer vacation, me and my friends decided to walk all the way from school to home which was around 10 kms or 6.2 miles. The thing is, in the summers the temperatures are around 44 degrees C or 111 degrees F which could be quite dangerous and we went around plucking mangoes from the trees and various things and no wonder, I fell quite ill afterwards!

10. The last one is really surprising and funny. I don't think it must have happened to anyone. Once I washed my hair with shampoo ........or at least what I thought was shampoo. But it turned out that my mother had kept the Phenyl- basically a floor cleaner in the shampoo bottle. No wonder I thought the shampoo wasn't working and I did go to school after that but I came back soon halfway through the school as I developed flakes on the scalp or perhaps dandruff and just washed my head- this time with real shampoo and only then I could relax!

This was my list. Which one do you think is the funniest? And if you have something similar, interesting, do write that too. Would be interested to know what weird things people do or happen to them!

Myriad Mumbai

2010-04-14T18:58:00.000+05:30

Cuffe Parade, downtown of Mumbai

Call it Mumbai, call it Bombay, or Bombaim (for the Portuguese), whatever you call it, the name does not matter.

Mumbai which was basically named after the Hindu goddess ‘Mumba devi’ and ‘Aai’ meaning mother in Marathi was earlier famous as Bombay- meaning ‘good bay’, a name which a lot of people outside India still know it by. A group of seven islands was merged into one to have what today is Mumbai. Appropriated by the Portuguese, ceded to Charles II of England, and in turn leased to the East India Company, Mumbai has imbibed from a lot of influences and as it stands today it’s an amalgamation- a cocktail, a concoction. You can clearly find the mark of the Portuguese and English mainly on some of the monuments and structures still present.

Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (Victoria terminus), H.Q of Central Railway and UNESCO World Heritage site

I have been here for 16 months and it has been an enriching experience to say the least. It is the ‘Mumbai’ I had always heard of in television, read in the papers and heard in conversations. Even now, suddenly once in a while I seem to remind myself that I am in THE Mumbai because once you are at any place for a certain amount of time, you do get used to it and start taking it for granted. This is the place where you are very likely to spot a celebrity- an actor or a cricketer; or anybody famous for that matter because they all seem to reside here. This is the place where by the time you realize it’s raining and you take out your brolly (umbrella) or your raincoat, you would have been already drenched by the downpour and by the time you put it on, it would have already stopped raining.

Called as the’ Maximum City’ or ‘The city that never sleeps’, one of the world's top ten centers of commerce, home to important financial institutions as the Reserve Bank of India, the Stock Exchanges and the corporate headquarters of many Indian companies and numerous multinational corporations, the city that houses India's Hindi film and television industry, known as Bollywood, featuring in the Top ten in the world in Financial hubs, expensive streets, office rents, world’s largest billionaire cities and even in filthiest cities. Mumbai is a city of dreams, despair, drama and dazzle; heartbreaking poverty amongst staggering grandness. It is the bubblegum glamour of Bollywood cinema, shopping malls full of designer labels, cricket on the Oval Maidan, promenading families eating bhelpuri on the beach at Chowpatty, red double-decker buses queuing in grinding traffic. This pungent drama is played out against a Victorian townscape more reminiscent of a prosperous 19th-century English industrial city than anything you'd expect to find on the edge of the Arabian Sea. It's a city with vibrant street life, India's best nightlife, and a wealth of bazaars. Millions travel everyday by trains and buses. Nearly eighteen million people live here - wealthy industrialists, flashy film stars, internationally acclaimed artists, workers, teachers and clerks - all existing cheek by jowl in soaring skyscrapers and sprawling slums. They come from diverse ethnic backgrounds and speak over a dozen tongues adding colour, flavour and texture to the Great Mumbai Melting Pot...........

'Queen's Necklace' - Marine Drive

This is the place where the buses are called BEST buses. Well it is not a word but an acronym but a good one to go with it. I have lived in another state- Gujarat all the time before this and I did notice some differences. Firstly I found that the bus conductor or the fare collector does not get a seat of his own! This I found to be very strange because in the most crowded city of India, at least he is entitled to a seat. This makes his job so much tougher. Someone needs to give this suggestion to the concerned authorities. This way they might be able to save some money as the job would not be as distressing as it is now, so they might easily find candidates at a lower pay for the post of Bus conductor. It would also help him remain cool in the midst of the sweltering heat and more crucially the humidity. Another thing I noticed in the buses is that there is no facility for the people to keep their luggage unlike what I saw in Gujarat. I don’t know the reason behind this but if it is provided, it would provide a lot of relief and comfort to many. As I have seen people clumsily hanging on the bus bars with their bags taking up too much of the precious space and if someone has to get down, God save everyone! And I often laugh within on reading the sign in the bus- "19 standees only". I swear I have seen double the number at most times. BMC Headquarters

A strange experience that I had in one of the BEST buses was that I was sitting in the last seat and there was no one around me; either beside me or in the seat in front of me; by chance. A man and a woman presumably husband and wife were sitting in the second seat ahead of me. Now the woman was looking back a few times and I realized that there was a plastic bag hanging in the window above the seat ahead of me. She asked if it belonged to me. I shook my head in negation and said no. And mind you this was just after the days of the blasts in two big cities of India- Bangalore and Ahmedabad. And we decided to bring it to the notice of the conductor. Now suddenly the whole bus realized that something was wrong and all the eyeballs were pointed in this direction. People even asked a woman who was getting down from the bus just in case it belonged to her and she forgot to take it with her. But it wasn’t and I was sitting there wondering what to do. It was also green coloured as those that were used in the blasts. I was sure though it wasn’t a bomb. Twice I thought about moving away from it and my place but eventually I didn’t. The conductor came, took it down and peered down the bag to find a shirt or a piece of cloth. Phew! It was harmless after all and the conductor threw it out of the bus!

The overcrowded local trains

Another experience that I had was on the railway station. It was really crowded, to state the obvious, especially with the time of festivals being around. I was moving around tugging three big bags and I found a small place where I could park myself. There was this man who just started talking to me. We did not know each other. He started on that he was sick, that he had been travelling a lot recently and he was in a lot of distress. For some time I was just there wondering about the possibility that the man was either mad or drunk or a thief who wanted to draw my attention elsewhere while someone would steal my things. So I wasn’t paying too much attention to what he was saying as I was preoccupied with these thoughts. He looked normal enough. He started telling me the whole story and he had seen and met me just seconds ago! He went on that he had three daughters (which is considered somewhat of a liability and this has led to the want of a male child and which I think is a major factor which has contributed to over population) and that they were good at studies and though they got over 80 percentage, they were still unable to secure a seat in the college. Now I was also tormented by an eyelash that had found its way in my eye so it was watering and I was there with a handkerchief over it, unable to get it out or find water to splash it in and this man then kept apologizing to me for bothering me and ‘making me sad’ as he thought and I was there like –‘It’s ok, no problem.’ Now I am the kind of person who would listen to people and I also somewhere wanted him to share his grievances so he could feel better and lighter so I did not stop him from talking either. He went on about the reservation systems in education and how everything is for the rich and the poor have just no hope or means to do anything. And in the end he departed with the wise words that - always take care of your parents. The position of parents is even above that of God. And he left and I was sitting there a bit sorry for him that such a normal looking from the outside could be under such tremendous stress from within and I also do wonder why he selected me? There were many people around him, in fact too many all over the station and he immediately started talking to me on seeing me. Maybe it is just the way I am that he was able to see it or just my presence there brought it out of him. I don’t know but I was amazed that even such things could happen!
That’s Mumbai for you!!!

* A few of the references are from web sites like Wikipedia.

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Interesting fact - Mumbai's suburban rail systems carry a total of 2.2 billion passengers every year. Incidentally, the world's population is 6 billion

Solve Rubik's cube without any external help

2010-04-12T13:32:00.003+05:30

* Even if you don't have a Rubik's cube, you can use a Java virtual Rubik's cube HERE

What I am giving here won't be the fastest way to solve a Rubik's cube, you won't need to understand the whole mechanics but neither will you have to refer to anything or need external help after this help of mine of course! This is for those who can solve a bit of the cube, not whole or those who can do it by following a lot of algorithms from somewhere. With this, you will be able to solve the whole cube and only remembering a few easy algorithms.

Rubik's cube remains one of the most interesting and yet simple puzzles ever made. It caught the imagination of the world and still remains one of the elusive ones. Dealing with a Rubik's cube can be very frustrating and so a majority of people don't even try it.

A little more about it- The Rubik's Cube is a 3-D mechanical puzzle invented in 1974 by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik. Originally called the "Magic Cube", the puzzle was licensed by Rubik to be sold by Ideal Toys in 1980 and won the German Game of the Year special award for Best Puzzle that year. As of January 2009, 350 million cubes have sold worldwide making it the world's top-selling puzzle game. It is widely considered to be the world's best-selling toy.

In a classic Rubik's Cube, each of the six faces is covered by nine stickers, among six solid colours (traditionally white, red, blue, orange, green, and yellow). A pivot mechanism enables each face to turn independently, thus mixing up the colours. For the puzzle to be solved, each face must be a solid colour. Similar puzzles have now been produced with various numbers of stickers, not all of them by Rubik. The original 3×3×3 version celebrates its thirtieth anniversary in 2010.

It was also shown in one of the most popular movies- The Pursuit of Happyness. In the 2006 movie The Pursuit of Happyness, Chris Gardner (character played by Will Smith) impresses his future employer by solving a Rubik's Cube. Will Smith accomplished the same trick thirteen years prior in an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air to impress a college recruiter. And apparently Will Smith can solve it in real life too and there is also a video showing him do that in 55 seconds.

In Bollywood movies too, it has been shown-

- In the 2010 Bollywood movie My Name is Khan, Rizwan Khan played by Bollywood legend shahrukh khan is seen solving Rubik's Cube.
- In the 2010 Bollywood movie 3 Idiots, Rancho (character played by Aamir Khan) is seen roaming around in the College holding a Rubik's cube.

- In the 2010 Bollywood movie Karthik Calling Karthik, Karthik (character played by Farhan Akhtar) is seen solving the Rubik's Cube by his split personality.

As you might have seen, generally anywhere in the movies or ads or Tv shows, whenever they want to show someone as intelligent, they show him solving the Rubik's cube. But it is not so much about intelligence as it is about simple algorithms. Now onto the actual, main part. What I am going to tell you is how to solve a Rubik's cube without any external help. As it is, it is difficult to solve even after getting all the help. Most people would be happy if they can just solve the Rubik's cube without doing things like changing the stickers or dismantling it, and then there are others who are into speedcubing with the world record for solving the fastest being 7.08 seconds!

So what I am giving here is something in between. It won't be the fastest way, you won't need to understand the whole mechanics but neither will you have to refer to anything or need external help after this help of mine of course! This is for those who can solve a bit of the cube, not whole or those who can do it by following a lot of algorithms from somewhere. With this, you will be able to solve the whole cube and only remembering a few easy algorithms.

Here is how to do it -

Terms you need to know

Here you can see that each side of the cube has a different name:

Front (F), Back (B), Right (R), Left (L), Up (U), Down (D).
These sides are named because of their orientation to you, not because of their color. If you turn the cube upside down, the UP becomes DOWN, and the DOWN becomes UP, so the sides don't retain their names. DOWN is whatever side is pointing to your feet, and UP is always pointing up.

There are only 3 types of turns that are useful: clockwise, counterclockwise ( ' ) and half turn ( 2) . The symbols in parenthesis will be what I use to differentiate between different types of turns.

For example:

R would mean to make a CLOCKWISE quarter turn of the RIGHT face: See figure

( & F would mean to make a CLOCKWISE quarter turn of the FRONT face,
L would mean to make a CLOCKWISE quarter turn of the LEFT face & so on)

F' would mean to make a COUNTERCLOCKWISE quarter turn of the FRONT face:

See Figure

(& U' would mean to make a COUNTERCLOCKWISE quarter turn of the UPPER face,

L' would mean to make a COUNTERCLOCKWISE quarter turn of the LEFT face & so on)

U2 would mean turning the upper face twice (half turn) ( clockwise or counterclockwise doesn't matter because the end result will be the same- turning 180 degrees)

Step 1 - Solving the topmost layer.

I am assuming you already know the basics which would mean you know how to do the first layer at least because it is not that difficult. You can take any coloured layer prefer the side which has maximum number of correct faces. Now here you have to keep in mind that whatever colour top layer you select, you should ensure that the top layer of all faces is maintained properly. In short, it should look like this.

As you can see, while doing the top layer which is green, you also maintain the other sides too- Red and Yellow visible here. If you are wondering how the centres of all the sides are in place too ( Red, Yellow visible), that is one thing good about this cube. If they are not already in place after doing the first layer, just turn the middle layer around till one side matches and all sides centre would match.

Step 2 - Solving the middle layer

Now comes the part which is quite easy and fast to do if you know a very simple algorithm.

As you can see the red of the bottom layer needs to go either to the left or right side in the 2nd layer. Assuming yellow is the colour below red of the last layer, then it would need to go to the right so that yellow of the second layer is done too.

The Algorithm for each case is-

To the Left - DL D'L' D'F' DF

To the Right - D'R' DR DF D'F'

As you can see, it is a very easy to remember algorithm.

In this way you can complete the whole 2nd layer. In case there is no part in place like this above example, you can do any of the 2 algorithms above anywhere and you will see that you will again get a part in the last layer that needs to be taken to either to the left or right in 2nd layer (like in this example).

Step 3 - Solving the last layer (Making a correct cross)-

Now there can be 2 situations with the last remaining layer as given below and the simple algorithms to be done as per the situation. If there is none of the 2 situations shown below, do any of the 2 algorithms given below anywhere and you should get it.

After doing either of the algorithm given above as per the situation, there would be a cross formed. If the cross is properly formed which means matching all the sides, then it's fine (as in the figure below, blue cross formed with red and green sides matching too.)

If the cross is formed, but it does not match all sides, turn it around such that only one of the sides matches. As in our example, let's say a cross is formed and only the red sides matches, the green shown above and 2 other sides too don't match, then keeping the correct side in front of you ( in this case, the red side) perform the following algorithm

R U2 R' U' R U' R'

This should get the cross of the last layer properly oriented.

Step 4 - Getting the 4 corners of the last layer in right place -

This step is to get the 4 last corners in the right place, but not necessarily rotated correctly. For example:

As you can see all the 4 corners are in correct place though not properly facing. Ex- In the top right corner of the Face visible, you can see 3 colours- Red, blue and green. And those are the 3 coloured faces around that corner. Although the green is where blue should be and blue is where red should be. That is called proper orientation or correct facing. That will be the last step. Here you only need to have 4 corners in correct place.

If not, to put them in proper place, 2 algorithms-

If you need to turn them around as given in the pic above (left) to get them in right place, use that algorithm given. Otherwise use the one on right.

If none of the situations match your cube, do any of the algorithms till you get one of the above situations and do the applicable algorithm again

Step 5 - Last step

Here you only need to correctly orient the corners which will complete your cube.

This is just an extension of the algorithm to orient the cross.

R U2 R' U' R U' R' L' U2 L U L' U L

(Same algorithm as orienting the cross) (Just the opposite of the first part)

As shown in pic above, 2 corners are done and only 2 need to be done. If the situation is as above, just turn it so that the Red face is on the right side (where green is now) and do the algorithm given.

You might have to do the algorithm twice and it should be done.

Congratulations! Now you are among 5.8 % people of the world who can solve the Rubik's cube (According to one statistic).

Poetry- Words from my heart

2010-04-07T17:35:00.000+05:30

* This is the original work of Achyut Telang and you may not reproduce or distribute this information in whole or in part and the content on this blog post cannot be copied, edited, reproduced or used without the prior written permission of Achyut Telang.

BLISSFUL EXISTENCE :

What a wonderful world
This Existence has provided us with
But even to know it that way,
You will need the eyes and ears for it.

Where every day as the night ends,
The whole world comes to life
From the birds to all creatures,
All become active and throbbing with life.

Where the sun everyday rises punctually,
Without even a single holiday
Light and warmth that it provides with,
Gives comfort to everyone day after day.

Where a lot of different climates
Are there for us to experience,
And for such variety of seasons,
Nature takes nothing, not even once.

Where there is beautiful greenery
And flowers of all colour and shade
From the lotus to rose are different smells
And even colours like yellow and red.

Where every day the sunset creates
The most largest and natural canvas
Whose painter is really unknown but
Every other painter, he definitely does surpass.

Where an unknown musician creates music
Through the orchestra of a river or a bird
which is of divine quality and the best
But to know this, it has to be heard.

Where every day the night falls,
And everything goes into a deep sleep,
It is a moment of complete rest
And eternal peace so profound and deep.

Achyut Telang.

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Fact: Every day 50 to 100 species of plants and animals become extinct as their habitat and human influences destroy them.