Glad I didn't become a Pilot

While in primary school, I remember my class was asked a common question by one of our teachers. The question was: “What would you want to become when you grow up”?

Each one, one by one, had to stand up and answer. Most of my classmates including yours truly said “I want to become a Pilot” with some sane mates of mine opting to become Scientists, Doctors and Engineers. The word “Pilot” was probably very attractive and may be appeared glamorous to us then. Although most of us didn’t know the actual job functions, we simply went for it.

I don’t know about my classmates but I am glad I didn’t become one. I have my reasons for it today. In the last one year, the Pilots of different Airlines in India who have gone on strike causing immeasurable problems to passengers are countless. Passengers wanting to reach destinations for holidays, on urgent work related matters and some for emergency reasons were severely affected for no fault of theirs. The news and sight of passengers stranded at Airports for hours and sometime for an entire day doesn’t surprise us anymore because of Pilots going on strike for reasons that is hard to explain.

Largely, nowadays, an air traveler’s life often relies on these Pilots. Be it on ground before takeoff or after takeoff. On ground because, you never know when they go on strike spoiling the plans of the passengers and in mid-air because, you never know when they leave their cockpit empty and start fighting with their colleagues in the galley, leaving us completely unsafe.

The news of the Air India flight Pilots’ nuisance early this week where the Pilots left the cockpit empty to fight with their cabin crew colleagues in the galley at 30000ft altitude casts the doubts in the minds of the air traveler. Despite the plane’s operating systems and maintenance of the aircraft being in good conditions, how safe is an air traveler in these erratic and negligent Pilot’s hands?

Is it worth putting our lives in danger and in the hands of such irresponsible people?

The very thought of Pilots and their Cabin Crew colleagues behavior on that Air India IC 884 plane from Sharjah to Delhi sends shivers up the spine of the frequent air traveler. Their act merited immediate sacking with no questions asked as they played with lives of 160 passengers on board that flight.

There are many factors that contribute to the safety of an airline passenger including, but not limited to, maintenance and operational procedures, types of training programs, age of fleet and specific routes flown etc.

As per the Airline industry statistics, aviation accidents are extremely rare, with the probability of a passenger being killed on a single flight at approximately eight million-to-one. Which means, if a passenger boarded a flight at random, once a day, every day, it would statistically be over 21,000 years before he or she would be killed.

But with such Pilots and cabin crew on job today, does the above statistics hold good? It certainly doesn’t but what is certain in my mind is the beautiful feeling that I didn’t become a Pilot.

Farmers on the net: 49M and counting!

My wife has become a farmer and so are my many friends. Every time off late we all meet up, my wife and our common friends speak about how their farms have come up and exchange ideas on farming. I was initially happy about their conversation but when I got to know that their new found activity is not in the real world but on the “world wide web”, it became my story idea. They all have become addicts to this game called FarmVille on Facebook-the social networking site.

These are the new age farmers who are into farming on the net. They speak the language I don’t understand and when they speak about that lone black sheep that they found in their farm, they become sad. The consequences of finding that black sheep, again I don’t understand.

This game, I learnt is fast catching up. People arrive on Facebook to meet and make new friends as well as find those lost ones and in the process, they all are becoming farmers as this new “Agricultural Facebook Application” has managed to attract 49 million users since it was started in June last.

FarmVille, I believe, is a simple social game in which players create and manage virtual farms. Paying attention to crops, growing them (which actually takes real-time hours and days), harvesting and selling them. Sales earns users money and experience points. Then, a player can buy more crops, animals, farm equipment and outbuildings.

A player can also invite friends to come and farm in the plot next to theirs, and help them out by watering or harvesting their crops for them. If a player is a really generous farmer, he or she can even buy them a cow as a gift.

It's addictive. So addictive, in fact, that the makers of this game cunningly tempt the player to pay for extra “farm coins” via credit card — if a player is too impatient to wait for his or her crops to grow (well, the makers had to be making money somehow).

What’s funny is that in a recent party that we hosted, these farmer friends of mine got so restless when I asked them to stay back for a little more time. They said they have to get back home to get on to their screens to take care of their virtual farms. That was unbelievable.

So, if you are still not on Facebook yet, my advice to you is to get your farming lessons before you open an account. Else, you won’t be worthwhile knowing as a farmer friend.

Next time I invite my friends again to meet up; I have to make sure their farms can survive without their owners for an evening.

Driving his life to meet ends

This man drives a TAXI for his living!

So what’s wrong with it?And why are you making a big issue out of it, you may ask.

This man is no ordinary man. He is a PHD holder from Stanford University and has a solid 16 years of proven track record of scientific accomplishments.Now, Am I drawing you closer to your screen?

Well. I am not surprised. For, this situation somehow resembles our bollywood storyline, quite like that of Rajesh Khanna classics in which Mr. Khanna walks office to office, factory to factory under that intolerable sun accompanied by his pet mongrel and manages to get into that “Owners cabin” ignoring “No Vacancy” board written in chalk all over that black piece of iron plate hung right at the entrance gate and still manages to show his super envious gold medal certificates and a fantastic track record to seek “that dream Job” that invariably stood between him and his love and sometimes his ailing mother.

No. Don’t go so far and strain your brain. This is not inspired from any of Mr. Khanna’s antics; this is not even in India or the late 80s. I assure I am not talking movie stuff here. It is for real. It is today’s stuff and is set in vibrant, multicultural Singapore where this man truly struggled to meet his ends. He is one of the millions who got affected by recession.

Shocked? Read on…

Meet Mr. CAI Mingjie, who blogs and wrote in his blog introduction “I have been forced out of my research job at the height of my scientific career, and unable to find another one, for reasons I can only describe as something ‘uniquely Singapore’. As a result, I am driving taxi to make a living and writing these real life stories just to make the dull job a little more interesting. I hope that these stories are interesting to you too.”

Mingjie started blogging from 6th April 2009, early this year. In his first blog entry, he wrote about his employment at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB) at ASTAR, Singapore, where he had put in 16 years as Principal Investigator. He mentions that he was a victim to influx of foreign talents that he got retrenched from his job. Although he was informed of the retrenchment in 2007, he was unable to secure another job even till his termination in May 2008. By November 2008, he decided to become a taxi driver.

His writing makes an interesting read and reads like a collection of short stories, about a scientist-turned-taxi-driver, diligently documenting quirky observations he makes while driving on the road – the passengers that he meets, the various changes that is happening to society etc.
One can only feel for his plight though. Don’t you think it is a waste of human capital when skill sets and academic qualification do not match with the job a person is holding? Definitely not a healthy trend if we see more and more such highly qualified individuals in such a predicament – be it in “Uniquely Singapore” or “Incredible India” or anywhere else.

Have I become a "Screenager"?

Like everyone else, I grew up passing a stage where I was addressed a “teenager”. As a kid and as a teen growing up, I played outdoor games outdoors; played chess on a chess board and indoor games indoors. I loved watching movies on a celluloid screen in a cinema, loved reading books, comics and novels on a print version and the smell of the print every time I picked them up from a bookstore gave me joy.

I had different applications for different purposes. I had music cassettes to listen to my music on a tape recorder and player and I had cricket bat and a ball to play cricket in a play ground. And with the technological advances; I accepted the change and started listening to music on CD’s on my walkman and now I have moved my music collection onto something called an Iphone which came as a gift to me.

I use this gadget primarily as a telephone and to listen to my music although I have learnt that there are many things that can be done on this palm sized machine which basically acts as one-stop-shop-for-all purposes with an application for different purpose. I wouldn’t go so far to use them all as I find most things that are not to my taste. For instance, I will never use this piece to read books, watch movies or play games. Why would you want to do that? Aren’t reading books or novels or even for that matter, newspapers fun when you read them on traditional print format?

I fail to understand today’s kids. They should be called “Screenagers” for their entire life depends on these tiny screens. One kid even had the cheek to ask while playing with my Iphone. “You don’t know how to use this?” referring to an application called e-book. I replied, kid it’s for no-brainers. Like the traditionalists, I barked back with couple of questions. What's wrong with the printed word on paper that's worked fine for centuries? And why would you want to read a book on a telephone anyway? He gave me a look which I think meant “you are obsolete” and went on to say that his generation plays Cricket, Tennis and Football on screen, read books, novels and comics on screen, watch movies and TV episodes on screen and communicate and keeps in touch with friends on screen.

Then I wondered. If they do everything on screen, what do they do outside? Does “outdoor games” ever exist in their e-dictionary?

The latest reports indicate that, especially throughout the summer months when kids are out of school, teenagers spend an average of nearly ten hours (nine hours and 54 minutes is the exact average) on some sort of screen - computer, gaming console or TV. That is about 4 solid months a year.

But then, we too are on the computer screen most times. I am writing this story with the help of my computer screen; you are reading this story on your computer screen. You think we both are becoming screenagers also? You think I should start using those applications on my Iphone like that kid suggested or continue to live my life that of a traditionalist?

From unsung heroes to unstrung heroes

When Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathy got together on a tennis court, they became the instant hit in the world of tennis and more so in the cricket crazed nation of India. They gave more joy to tennis followers than anybody else could with their fantastic partnership, with those high flying chest-bumps each time they won the point and with those numerous slams they won together. Those days, apart from Cricket, in India, any other sport story to hit the front page of national dailies was as difficult as trying to find a Cricket story on New York Times front page. But these guys not only managed to get plastered on every front page of the newspapers, they got discussed by TV pundits on Prime Time News too.

They were unsung heroes then. Today, they are unstrung heroes. Separated and facing off each other in the doubles section of the-singles-minded-tennis world.

One can always enjoy watching John Travolta and Nicolas Cage face each other off in that movie “Face Off” but it certainly hurts even an ordinary tennis fan like me to see these wonderful players face each other. Aren’t they both made to play doubles together and not against each other?

At the time of writing this piece, thankfully, the rain god in the New York sky is postponing their match at the US Open 2009 Men’s Doubles Finals and lets all hope for the sake of their fans who loved to see them play together, this match never commences and they both get declared as joint winners. Who would want only one of them to win and the other to lose? But then, I know this will remain a wish and also know that all their fans are left with no choice but to see the inevitable happen in just a few hours from now.

Very soon, the Arthur Ashe stadium will witness everything except that famous partnership of Leander and Mahesh.

Quite a masterpiece it will be and doubtless, it will be breathtaking hard court doubles match we have not seen for a long time. There sure will be a touch of magic, a speck of inevitability, a plethora of class and a glimmer of hope from both Leander and Mahesh that we all will enjoy. But can we enjoy the veneer of sadness and the joy of victory from the vanquished and the victor? Yours truly certainly cannot.

The reason behind their separation is well known but I certainly want them to re-unite again quickly in what could be their last days of their careers and bring back that joy, that smile on millions of their fans’ faces who are craving to see them play together.

It was never a Vendetta for Pennetta against Sania

In Tennis, there are only three ways to end a point - with a winner, forced error or unforced error.

Today, we need to concentrate on Unforced Error. An Unforced Error is when the player has time to prepare and position himself or herself to get the ball back in play and makes an error. This is a shot that the player would normally get back into play. The real keys here are time and position.

Sania Mirza had neither the time nor got into position today in her second round match in US Open against the Italian No.10 seed Flavia Pennetta and ended up committing 28 unforced errors that forced Sania Mirza out of the US Open Singles campaign. The match ended as it started as Pennetta blew away the Indian Star out of the court in straight sets with the final result that read 6-0, 6-0. Flavia Pennetta completely destroyed Sania Mirza during the less-than-an-hour domination that belonged entirely to the Italian.

Those Sania fans who couldn’t arrive at the stadium to cheer their star for whatever reasons didn’t miss much. They sure would have regretted for having made it instead. The match got over in just 50 minutes and they would have hated to see their star getting beaten like this.

For a newbie watching tennis, this match sure would have looked like a practice session for Flavia Pennetta. There was nothing positive that Sania Mirza could take home from this match. The only positive she could possibly look at is “how not to play like this match” in her future matches. Flavia gave Sania a good tennis lesson. She reminded Sania how to play those famous forehand winners, passing shots and those perfect volleys that once made Sania Mirza a sensational tennis star in India years ago.

It was never a vendetta for Pennetta as this match was completely one-sided and a cake walk for the Italian player. She now moves on to the 3rd round as Sania Mirza looks forward to her doubles and mixed doubles matches. The sooner Sania Mirza forgets this match, the better it is for her matches in other categories. By the way, is there anything worthwhile for Sania Mirza to remember anything about this match?

Force India’s Success: Was it because of The Machine, The Driver or a Rabbit?

Luck, as ever, plays a big part in sports. Last week, luck certainly charmed on Force India team driver Giancarlo Fisichella. And as the life lesson teaches, if you mix your efforts with the available good luck, you seldom can go wrong. Fisichella sure did mix them well during the weekend. Otherwise who would have ever thought that this veteran driver from Italy would finish as a front runner on the grid which is a parking space meant usually for the likes of Buttons, Raikonnens, Alonsos, Hamiltons, Massas and Barichellos before they take-off?

It is very easy to predict those cars that start from the last rows in F1. They invariably belonged to Force India. To be able to break that shackle and end up winning the pole position not only requires amazing talent but also abundance of good luck.

In Sports generally, players are known to be very superstitious and follow some rituals to bring in or posses the luck factor. Indian Cricket legend Sunny Gavaskar always used to ground his bat first before bringing his right foot into position, while taking guard. Australia’s former skipper Steve Waugh used to carry a red handkerchief in his left pocket, which was given to him by his late grandfather. Spain's Tennis Great Rafael Nadal is very particular when it comes to his water bottle courtside; every sit-down making sure it goes back to exactly the same spot or position each time, right down to the centimeter. Croatia's Goran Ivanisevic, a former Wimbledon champ, was a fan of the food routine, reportedly sitting at the same table at the same restaurant and ordering the same meal of fish soup, lamb and ice cream with chocolate sauce during one tournament. Ivanisevic also always tried to rise from his courtside chair after his opponent, if he served an ace he asked for the same ball again, if he won he then attempted to follow the same routine as closely as possible the following day and he didn’t like to stand on the court lines.

Superstitions or rituals are followed because of the success a player has had due to the belief in practicing those sometimes weird stuff. What happened last weekend with Fisichella was also weird.

"I hit a rabbit during morning practice and damaged the front wing," Fisichella said. "My mechanics said: 'In England, rabbits are good luck.' Maybe they're right! I didn't expect to be on pole position. We had a few problems and the car was better than expected. It's amazing, fantastic; I'm so happy about this."

Let’s hope that the bunny coming his way doesn’t become Fisichella’s routine from now on. Actually, it’s a much easier investment option for Dr. Vijay Mallya to set some bunnies on his driver’s way than to invest millions on technical and car up gradation. Isn’t it?

Roger at his best at Cincy

If the outfit that Roger Federer was wearing nice, what about the “I am-aggressive-today” attitude that he was wearing? It was needed and he wore it on two good occasions. Once against Andy Murray in the Semi-Finals and once today in Finals against Novak Djokovic. Both times it worked wonders.

It helped Federer dominate Djokovic right from the outset who had not dropped a set enroute to the finals. The Swiss master never allowed Djokovic to pose any serious problems and played up to his No.1 ranking to win the Cincinnati Open- a Masters tournament. With this win, Federer is just one short of equaling that magical 17 masters record held by the great Andre Agassi.

Novak Djokovic outplayed Rafael Nadal completely with an authoritative win over the former world No.1 in the semi-finals to set up a date with the invincible Roger Federer in the finals. The final was expected to be a cracker of a match by tennis fans. It wasn’t.

The ease at which Roger Federer dominated the early stages of his 6-1, 7-5 straight set victory in the finals was simply outstanding. So formidably he did control the exchanges, advancing menacingly whenever Djokovic left the ball short, that it was a surprise to see Djokovic playing well in the second.

Federer displayed and gave Novak Djokovic a good tennis lesson on how to play forehand winners, backhand passes, how to play the disguised drop, cross-court angled volleys that was so perfect and many others that left Djokovic admiring at the other side of the net. Federer’s timing, feet movement and court coverage were as exquisite to those famous watches made in his country. The Swiss Master was at his very best.

With this win, Federer continues his stellar form and takes loads of confidence on hard court before he starts his US Open campaign. If anyone who is capable of asking Federer any questions in the coming fortnight in New York, it will be Andy Murray more than Rafael Nadal or Andy Roddick or Novak Djokovic.

Will the Swiss Master go on to win his 16th Grand Slam and the 6th US Open title at the Flushing Meadows? Will his good friends Pete Sampras and Tiger Woods be treated by the Swiss master at Arthur Ashe stadium? We will know the answers in just a couple of weeks from now.

Rafa screams and roars as he makes it to the last 4!

Rafael Nadal, when he made his re-appearance in Montreal early this month, he had lost his number one spot to the mighty Federer. It certainly was too much for a man making his comeback to where he belongs and even ruled for a while. Had to play his best against his old foes but they all were at their best and were playing best tennis of their lives. In Montreal, Rafa looked rusty and that was expected. He was cautious and obviously didn’t fancy taking chances on his newly resurrected knees. He ended his campaign as a losing quarter finalist but had a good feel of the hard court and may be took home some much needed confidence both on his game as well as on his tender knees.

Now playing Cincinnati Masters, just after a week’s break and after losing the number two spot to Tennis world’s emerging force called Andy Murray, the man certainly appears to be in the groove. He is the Rafa we have been used to and seen when he was at his sublime best. Yes the serve still needs attention but his incredible shots on the run, deft volleys, back hand pass and his bread and butter shot – fore hand cross court winner makes it up for his weak service.

I always was under the impression that a player can hit an unbelievable cross-court forehand or an extra ordinary backhand pass only once in a while. But this man, looks to me that he is making a living out of these shots. How could he play such incredible shots in every game, every set and every match that he plays? Toughie, real toughie he is. And it’s a little wonder why he is such a great competitor. If losing the number two spot is not motivation, then what else it could be behind his hunger? He surely is eager to regain his lost ground.

At the time of posting this piece, Rafa had won his quarter finals match against the Czech Thomas Berdych and what a clinical performance that was? It was amazing to watch Rafa play all those shots that made him a star and shots that sent shivers down the spines of some great players.

The semi-final line up tomorrow couldn’t have got better with the very best taking on each other and am sure it will light up the weekend for even an ordinary tennis fan. It is Federer Vs Murray and Djokovic Vs Nadal for a place in the finals on Sunday.

Let’s sit back and enjoy the very best of Tennis world taking on each other to stamp their seal of excellence.

Boy Oh Boy! Is she a girl?

The father of women's world champion athlete, Caster Semenya insists: "She is my little girl."

Caster Semenya, 18, is undergoing a gender test to prove she is female after beating her rivals by a huge margin to win the gold medal in the world championship 800 metres in Berlin.

Family, friends and teachers at her home in South Africa recalled how Semenya played football with boys, wore trousers instead of skirts and endured teasing by her peers. But all asserted that she is definitely a woman.

Semenya, who has a muscular build and deep voice, aroused suspicions recently with a dramatic improvement in performance. She went from a virtual unknown to the world's fastest woman over 800m this year when she clocked 1:56.72 at the African junior championships in Mauritius. She sliced more than a second off that with her winning time of 1:55.45 in Berlin on Wednesday.

It's a fair decision by officials to put Semenya through the gender test as I was as shocked as most others when I saw her clocking the winning time on TV.

When her parents and admirers are so confident of Semenya being a girl, why worry and cry about the gender test?

This dog had its day!

An Israeli woman paid $32,000 to allow her dog to travel in business class with her from Paris to Tel Aviv.

Rivkah, 60, paid for an entire business class compartment to carry her, her boxer "Orchuk" and a vet on the four-hour flight. Airline El Al had to remove several seats to make room for Or's cage.

“I didn’t think for a minute to leave Or, my little Orchuk, with the cargo,” said Rivkah. “I’ve been raising him for eight years and four months in France. I also didn’t mind having other passengers sit next to us.

All that mattered to me was to have my baby with me during the flight so that I can take care of him.”

Rivkah preferred not to discuss her payment to El Al, because she believed any price would have been worth it. “He is my child, not a dog. And he deserves the best,” she said.

El Al told the Haaretz newspaper in Israel it had never had such a request before. "But after the lady explained her special relationship with her dog and expressed her willingness to pay extra in order to fly with him, we agreed."

Point to Ponder: Recession? What do you mean by that?

Barmy Army was Bloody Smarmy.

The way Barmy Army, the self-appointed official England Cricket Supporters greeted and welcomed one of the world’s greatest batsmen of any era and the current Australian Cricket Team Captain Ricky Ponting on last Sunday afternoon when he walked to the middle will never be appreciated by the gentlemen followers of the game. And to the dismay, unbelievably, it happened in England, supposed to be green and pleasant land.

Ricky Ponting was booed all along the distance from dressing room to the crease by the members of Barmy Army and the experience was painful not just for Ponting but to any test match lover who was watching it. How could anyone treat a person, who is one of the greatest ever to play the game like that? They must instead relish every moment as not many get a chance to see such players bat.

I watched him bat both in Melbourne and Sydney when Aussies took on Indians last year and I feel I was privileged to watch the great man play and relish it for the rest of my life.

What Barmy Army must realize is that there is no point to match Australian behavior. It’s a culture thing. They should realize that they are English fans and they must behave and showcase what they are best known for. They must remember that even a fireman uses water to put off fire and never fight fire with fire.

The Barmy Army's mission statement – like every organization has one, it seems – is: "To make watching cricket more fun and more popular". On Sunday, what its members failed to understand was that the "fun" in watching cricket, is ... watching cricket. For the great majority of real cricket-lovers, there is no fun in being around such hooligans and rowdy elements.

I know for sure that if this trend follows, a number of real fans may no longer attend Test match Cricket, whose existance is already under threat from shorter versions of the game.

The whole incident raises a question. Is cricket gentleman’s game? The answer is an astounding NO till we have such boorish and chauvinist supporters around.

English language...

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,
Then shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!

Let's face it - English is a crazy language.

There is neither egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
neither apple nor pine in pineapple...
English muffins weren't invented in England.
We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes,
we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square,
and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing,
grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?
Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend.
If you have a bunch of odds and ends
and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English
should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.

In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?
We ship by truck but send cargo by ship.
We have noses that run and feet that smell.
We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.
And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,
while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language
in which your house can burn up as it burns down,
in which you fill in a form by filling it out,
and in which an alarm goes off by going on.

And, in closing, if Father is Pop, how come Mother's not Mop?

And if people from Poland are called Poles,
then people from Holland should be Holes
and the Germans, Germs.

How much of the work hour brag is true?

I once heard someone claim to have worked 125 hours in a single week.

Immediately my finger was on the calculator: 125 divided by seven days - roughly 18 hours a day for an entire week. Include getting to and from work, washing, dressing, and he probably slept no more than four hours a night.

It has somewhat become a badge of honour among certain kinds of people to brag about the hours they put in. Bankers are probably the worst among the lot. For some, working impossibly long hours indicates commitment.

But is it believable that all this chest beating is just that, a lot of noise with little to back it up? How many people claiming to work 80 hours a week include an eight-hour business-class flight, during which they may work for an hour, nap for four and watch movies for three?

Quite a lot, it turns out. American researchers have found that the more hours people claim to work, the greater the gap between their boasts and reality.

According to a recent study, those who said they worked 40 to 44 hours per week actually worked 36.2 hours. Those claiming to work 60 to 64 hours per week actually worked 44.2 hours. Those claiming to work 65-74 hours per week worked 52.8 hours and those boasting of putting in 75 hours or more worked on average just 54.9 hours.

Despite what everyone says, it is extremely rare for anyone to put in more than 55-60 hours per week of real work. There are all kinds of theories for why this discrepancy exists. In some cases, people are just bidding up their work weeks to sound good and the numbers become divorced from reality.

So the next time you hear someone brag about long work hours he or she is putting in, you know how much of it is true.

Has the time for poms to become the Lords of Lords come?

The Queen was deprived by Andy last month at Wimbledon but her highness was in for a treat day before by another Andy at another grand sporting stage, Lords. The other Andy I am talking about is Andy Strauss. After winning the much important toss at Lords in the second test of Ashes 2009, English captain Andrew Strauss had no doubts in his mind to decide to bat first on the wicket conducive to Swing bowling early on.

His decision worked well when he stitched the record opening partnership with Alastair Cook to go on to score a brilliant 161, his fourth ton against the Aussies and third on his home ground, Lords. After Cook departed 5 runs short of what would have been a fine hundred, Andy Strauss rallied brilliantly with other batsmen even though there was a middle order collapse to put up 425 valuable runs on the score board.

Aussies in reply were blown away by English pacers especially James Anderson. Jamie and Flintoff never allowed the Aussie batsmen to settle. Six of the Aussie batsmen were out trying to hook and landed in a position from where to win this test requires some magic and a miraculous comeback. If they do come back from this worst position, I am doubtless that their efforts will be scripted in Wisden as one of the all time wins. They batted in such a hurry for reasons no other than themselves know that it looked like they had decided to get out before the floodlights go ON. None of them looked convincing and settled against some fine swing bowling display from Jamie Anderson and his fast bowling colleagues although Mike Hussey and Simon Katich tried a bit to bail its team out of misery.

Ricky Ponting’s decision might have looked a bit controversial to some but I wouldn’t complain as it wasn’t an instinctive decision from the umpire as both Rudi Koertzen and Billy Doctrove discussed and referred the decision to their colleague Nigel Llong, the third umpire and rightly so. It was a beauty from Anderson and was a reason to leave the Aussies tottering at 2 down for 10. Ricky Ponting cannot even make a statement against this decision as he already has talked about playing fair and in the right spirit.

At 156/8, with Peter Siddle in the middle along with Nathan Hauritz with his broken finger and the last man Bill Hilfenhaus to follow, chances of holding on or showing some resilience looks very bleak.

The Aussies bullied the Poms on a flat track in Cardiff in first test but certainly looked out of sorts against some fine swing bowling display by the English players here. Will there be a comeback by the wounded Aussies? We will know by end of tomorrow.

English side couldn’t have asked for a better situation than this to win this test against the mighty Australians after 74 years at Lords to give the Queen something to cheer for and to give a fitting farewell to their colleague, Andrew Flintoff.

Andy Wins. But its Roddick not Murray.

The Sun went down slowly spreading a blanket of shadow all over the centre court and with it the British tennis hopes shattered and casted the pale of gloom all over Britain last evening when Andy Murray lost to veteran Andy Roddick 6-4, 4-6, 7-6, 7-6 in the semi-finals of the men’s Wimbledon Championships.

So Queen Elizabeth’s long-awaited return to Wimbledon will have to wait; it looks as if, for one more year. Andy Murray, the young Briton she had hoped to watch from the Royal Box in Sunday’s final, will not be taking part in the festivities after all.

Murray came back one set down after losing the first to take the second triggering hopes of yet another Murray come back. Engaged the crowd beautifully and they responded with huge roars of cheer every time their home hero played a winner. But Murray’s remarkable, counterpunching game was not quite as lethal as usual, as Roddick put 75 percent of his first serves in play and cleverly picked his spots to attack instead of trying to batter his way past the lanky Scotsman on a point by point basis.

Murray couldn’t find answer to an inspired performance from Roddick. Perhaps Murray was passive and waited for Roddick to commit mistakes rather than forcing the veteran to make errors.

Clearly it was the case of succumbing to pressure as the whole of British media had built up the hype so much so that every journalist had started writing about the Federer-Murray finals. It certainly might have taken a toll on Murray and the effect was evident in his performance.

Before the match, Roddick was relaxed and at his usual best in the pre-match interviews, talked about how he has clearly moved to a higher plane. Last year at Wimbledon, he made his earliest exit, with a second round blow out to Janko Tipsaravic saving his best for the press, where he talked about the pain of becoming a second-tier player.

“When you’ve seen the Rolling Stones from the front row, and then all of a sudden you’re like, you know, seven or eight rows back and there’s a really tall guy in front of you waving his hands and screaming, you can’t see much,” Roddick said then. “It’s not going to be as good as the other shows.”

So what row is he in now?

“Getting closer,” Roddick said. “I can see what Mick Jagger is wearing now.”

Roddick cannot ask for more if British fans chant the first name of their home hero Murray on Centre Court at Wimbledon during the men’s finals on Sunday, where Andy Roddick intends to make the best of it.

Andy Roddick has met Roger Federer twice in the Wimbledon finals before and has lost both times. Can he be third time lucky?

It was a cat and a cat game.

The cats howled and screamed at the centre court last night when Serena Williams and Elena Dementieva were involved in the slug fest to make it to the finals of Wimbledon Ladies. It was so intense that both players couldn’t stop grunting although a lady spectator pleaded sitting in the first row with her hat on that read “No Grunting Please”.

At the grandest of the stages, it was nothing short of a spectacle. The match was like watching a Quentin Tarantino movie. It was full of fast paced action, suspense thriller and burst of emotions in the best three sets of grueling ladies tennis match witnessed so far at SW19 in a long time. It sure will qualify easily to go down as one of the best ladies matches played ever.

Elena Dementieva pushed Serena Williams to the hilt. Stretched her from corner to corner, made her run from baseline to the net, asked her questions, make her earn her points in the match. Serena was not given any freebies as her previous opponents did in this year’s campaign. She surely had an easy run till she came up to meet the Olympic gold medalist last night.

Serena dropped her first set of the tournament and was seen vulnerable at times. She had to come up with something extra ordinary to save couple of match points against her in the third and she did come up with a winner in one of the most extra ordinary rallies we have seen in a long time. Serena won in the end proving experience is the ingredient required and not the exuberance.

That said, Elena proved how difficult she can be and made Serena look struggling till the end. If there was anything that separated both players, it was that rally which Serena won when it mattered in the third. That’s it. It was that close.

In the end, when Serena won the semis 6-7, 7-5, 8-6 to set up a date with her sibling yet again in the finals, Elena walked away winning more friends, supporters and admirers world over.

I don’t know whether Elena won a supporter in Vijay Amritraj as he was throughout the match, kept cheering the Williams; both the Williams on court as well as those Williams in the box often coughing away on the microphone under the influence of anti-histamine scaring his colleague Alan Wilkins.

But Elena did win yours truly with a magnificent display of tennis shots throughout the match.

C'mon in. Insult us.

A bar in Spain is serving up free beer and tapas to recession-hit customers who insult its owner and bartenders as a way to let off steam.

Casa Pocho in the beach resort town of Cullera near Valencia opened last week and says its promotional gimmick is working like magic.

Owner of the bar said the free alcohol and snacks go only to those who come up with truly original insults.

"They can't call me S.O.B., but they can call me jerk, idiot, clown, that kind of thing," the owner of the bar said. "This works, because even people in their 70s come to insult me."

One of the most memorable insults came from a woman who told the owner that his ears were so big they reminded her of a car with its doors wide open.

"Nobody overdoes it. Nobody," he said.

The best insults earn their creators a small glass of beer and a plate of finger food, which normally cost 1.50 Euros.

Newcomers tend to be shy, but eventually get into it, with the proprietor's help.

"I prod them a bit, say things like, 'Sir, where are you going with a face like that?"'

My money is on Murray.

It’s been 73 excruciatingly painful long years Britain has waited to see one of its sons win the Wimbledon. Last time that happened was when Fred Perry won it in 1936.

I guess it’s time for Britain to go insane. On Monday, when Wimbledon commences, Brits will be standing behind this young Scot named Andy Murray to cheer their hero who just proved that he can by winning the warm-up grass event at Queen's. Andy Murray made his intentions clear by conquering the Queens and ended up as the first British player to win it after 71 years.

To me, the havoc is inevitable. In two weeks time, Murray will be plastered on every tabloid front page, be discussed by TV pundits, be written by tennis writers, figure on the primetime news and get discussed and analyzed in pubs and bars. Hopefully, he won't let his countrymen down.

Some think Andy Murray drives people mad. So what? I like his rage and I want him to win. Britain needs a player who can spit fire on fire and none other than Andy Murray fits that bill. He’ll pose Djokovic a big challenge, make The Fed desperate to win his 15th, and with Rafael Nadal the No.1 withdrawing from the fray because of his knee injury, stars are aligning themselves nicely for the young Scot.

If anyone who can put an end to Britain’s long wait, it is Andy Murray. 73-year wait for a local tennis hero to win their own tournament? It’s an agonizing wait.

The British deserve a champion because they are such wonderful spectators. Wimbledon's crowd is by far the best tennis has ever seen, their behavior undoubtedly shows a fine appreciation of the game. Murray should win because he's interesting, a somewhat angry young man with a game of delightful calmness. When he won at Queen's last weekend, British press stated he did not smile for the photographers as if he wanted to have his last laugh here.

Andy Murray has unveiled his retro look with his new monogrammed Fred Perry outfit for this year's Wimbledon. In celebration of the centenary year of Fred Perry's birth, Murray has had a hand in the design of the outfit. It combines elements of the classic Fred Perry look from the 1950s and 1960s. May be this furthers inspires The Scot to do what no British tennis player has done in the last 73 years.

May be the time has come for the Brits to praise their hero and even the statue of Fred Perry may put down its racket to join in the applause.

Attacks on Indian Students Down Under.

The Indian Media has paid intolerable attention to the debate on racial attacks on Indian students in Australia.

While my sympathies are with the affected students, racial attacks are something not new in Australia or new to Indians. As the controversy rages within India, some of the most important questions that we should ask ourselves are - Why is Indian Media making a big deal out of this? Why are they bloating up the issue and instigating students down under? Why are we behaving as if racial attacks are new to us? Haven't we experienced racism before?

We have. We are probably the most racist people on the earth. Racism within India among Indians is far worse than racial attacks on anyone anywhere in the world or at the least to what is happening to students down under.

And this is where the utter hypocrisy and sanctimoniousness of us, Indians lie exposed. As should be well-known to most of Indians, social discrimination and oppression were never new or unique to us.

All Indians including yours truly have grown up hating people from other states by calling them names. Aren’t we? Kannadigas call Tamilians “Kaats”, Tamilians and most others address people from Andhra Pradesh as “Gultis”, Rest of India gang up against southern states and address everyone from South India as “Madrasis”. South Indians and people from other regions address everyone from NE regions as “Chinkies”. Aren’t these racial attacks? So when such bad blood of racism runs in our veins, why do we have to bother about a one-off issue such as what is happening in down under?

We should remember, that it was students who chose to go to Australia to study. Australian Government didn’t invite them. So when they have decided to go there, they should be ready to face any hardship that comes with their decision of relocation. If the students cannot face the issues, they should simply pack their bags and come back to India to face bigger racial attacks. If the students are from UP or Bihar, take my word, they are better off in Australia than in any part of India especially Mumbai. They should thank their stars as they are getting just beaten up. In Mumbai, they get burnt alive.

Media instead of bloating up an issue such as this; they should take responsibility to eradicate racism within India. Not indulge in sensationalizing the news as if they are oblivious to racial attacks by Indians on fellow Indians within India or elsewhere.

Getting beaten up overseas is anyday far less painful and treatable than to get frustrated watching Indian news anchors broadcast news on TV.

Happy Hour Fine, What about morning after?

"C’mon you're just a social drinker,” friends scream when I tell them I am planning to give up alcohol. Oh yes, I'm social all right. Cordial, more flirtatious, after the first few glasses. But then it tips. I blurt out dangerous home truths (secrets I've kept for years). I bump into furniture. I sometimes don’t remember what time I got home. The next day, in my moment of clarity, I awake, with full of self-dislike. Is it worth?

The trouble is I do like drinking. I don’t drink at all on weekdays and rarely drink at home but when I go out with friends on weekends, I binge-drink. I'm having such a good time; I don't want the evening to stop. The bell doesn't ring.

The bad news is that the occasional binge-drinking, does more harm to the liver than the steady habitual drinking (because the liver goes into shock). I am not saying I will start drinking daily. There is a way to deal with this situation. More over, I have only one wife and only one liver; certainly don’t want to lose either of the two.

Often we find ourselves drinking when we don't really want to. Our subconscious mind can trigger the desire without us being aware of it.

The way to deal with emotional over-drinking is to take a look at how we handle our lives. Very often we reach for a drink because we are battling what is known as “inner demons” — the prattle of negative thoughts.

Our “inner demons” knows everything about us from our secrets to our dreams. Mine spends all day saying bossily: “You're hopeless. You could be better.” The irony is our inner demons were created originally to help us protect ourselves, to ward off anything bad or painful — and yet it can seem as if it has turned us against us.

So the next time you go drinking, follow these steps as it may come handy.

• Setting yourself up to not drink for a week may cause more anxiety and a binge. Instead, plan a few alcohol-free days when you are not going out.

• Avoid friends who like a drinking partner for a few weeks. People who encourage heavy drinking will want you to drink with them to avoid dealing with their own issues. You don't have to say YES when you want to say NO.

• Put down your glass between sips. This will train you to drink more slowly.

• A lot of people drink alcohol when they are actually thirsty. Before you start drinking, have one big glass of water to quench your thirst and keep a glass of water with your alcohol.

• Alcohol has a high sugar intake, so when you cut back you may feel the need for sugar. Try to get that sugar other ways and not from alcohol.

• Write down the emotions that are driving you to feel the need to have a drink. Is it stress, anger, office politics, boredom, loneliness? All these are valid but drinking will only suppress them until the morning.

Then you will wake with a sense of low self-worth because you are not dealing with the feelings. Is it really worth it?

Rafa is OUT...Who's next?

If Eiffel Tower had fallen down, or if the Leaning tower of Pisa had leaned further, I would not have been so shocked than what shocked me yesterday.

The unbeatable Rafael Nadal was shown the door at Philippe Chatrier Centre Court of Roland Garros by an unheralded 23rd seed Robin Soderling of Sweden yesterday in the 4th round of French Open.

The rectangle piece of clay which had become Rafa’s property where he owned every inch of the surface was finally bought over. No trespassing was allowed on it for the last 4 years and offenders were severely punished by the man the tennis world thought will never be able to defeat on this surface. But that equation changed yesterday and the result proved that Rafa is after all a human on the Roland Garros centre court.

Enter Robin Soderling. The 23rd seed walked in to the court, took his 4th round match as just another one, played the best match of his life and beat Rafa to hand over the biggest ever gift to Federer. We will know in the next seven days, whether the Swiss ace will make the most of this precious gift or in turn hands it over to Andy Murray.

The Roland Garros centre court yesterday had everything except Rafael Nadal!

A touch of magic, a speck of inevitability, a glimmer of hope, the joy of victory, a veneer of sadness…a plethora of class from the victor and the vanquished.

Life, often is karmic, comes a full circle. As opposed to the popular prediction of a three setter victory for Nadal, little did one contemplate a four-set blowout for the world No.1. The problem with blowout is, it is either excruciatingly painful or a connoisseur’s delight, depending on which side of the net you are on.

Quite a masterpiece it was, breathtaking clay court tennis showcased by Robin Soderling on the grandest of stages. May be Soderling didn’t want to let go his fellow country man and his idol Bjorn Borg’s record to be erased by Rafael Nadal this year—if that’s not motivation enough, what else could be? It was one of those rare instances, where the result of the match did not pivot on what the opponent did.

As Soderling muscled, intimidated, exasperated, and chased Rafa to submission, he reduced Mr. Invincible to an entity we have not seen in a long time.

He reduced Rafa to a little, lost, edgy, desperate, and indecisive tennis player, who actually did not know what to do on court. Rafa tried everything in his arsenal, but he had nowhere to go, nowhere to hide; and he was…beaten. Beaten in 4 sets with the score that read 6–2, 6–7 (2), 6–4, 7–6 (2).

As painful as it is, one has to wonder—did Rafa’s dream of conquering Bjorn Borg’s record faded forever? The answer is Yes.

Rafael Nadal now possibly cannot wait to board the flight to Heathrow, London.

IPL 2: Hurricane Gilchrist Sweeps Delhi Off Their Feet!

Adam Gilchrist has given more outright joy to followers of the game than any cricketer since Ivan Vivian Alexander Richards. Once Gilchrist called it quits, he was missed as a cricketing force, as a contributor and as an entertainer. Thanks to the advent of IPL, one could get another chance to see this man do what he does best. Entertain. Gilchrist did exactly that when he came out to bat last night to chase 154 set by Delhi Daredevils in the first semi-final of the IPL and single handedly won the match for Deccan Chargers to reach the finals.

No one had watched batting of such brutality so far the way Gilly batted last night. 20-20 cricket for me is like watching the highlights of 50-50 cricket. If that holds well, what the hell was last night’s semi final chase by Gilly? Was it like watching highlights of the 20-20 game? He played with the same gusto that had set him apart from others during his hey days. He showed why he was such a force in his days and reminded everyone why bowlers had that primal fear at the sight of this man at the crease. When he came out to bat yesterday, he retained his signature attitude, impressed crowds with merriment as he slayed bowlers with swashbuckling strokes.

After he scored 5 consecutive boundaries off Dirk Nannes first over and the first of the innings to score 21 off it, no one from Delhi Daredevils displayed good body language. They appeared that they were fighting a lost cause as Gilly didn’t spare anyone. He was in murderous mood and murdered almost every Delhi bowler. As Sehwag mentioned in post match presentation, no one had a clue what was happening at the middle when Gilly was batting.

Gilly scored the fastest 50 off just 17 balls and ended his innings of 85 off a mere 35 balls before doing the damage heavily and ensuring that his other batting colleagues had an easy task ahead. His innings was truly a definition for skipper’s knock and no one could have defined this better than he did.

Gilly provided cricket lovers an opportunity to witness the batting at its very best and entertained everyone. I do hope he comes back next year too and keep everyone entertained.

I dont want to cry Fed!

The whole world is busy stocking up face masks as a precautionary measure to stay off possible swine flu epidemic. I am not. I am in fact stocking facial tissues instead because in a few days time the three things that I hate passionately will come and haunt me sizing me down to tears. The three things I mean are “Clay”, “Rafael Nadal against Roger Federer” and “Rafael Nadal on Clay”. I do have developed a bad habit of breaking down and have picked it up from Roger Federer. Yes I do cry and give Roger a good company whenever he breaks down. At the same time, I am hoping against the hope that my facial tissues won’t come of use this time in the hope that Federer beats Nadal at Roland Garros . So the next couple of weeks starting next week, I am doubtless I see my emotions flare, witness happiness and soak in sadness etc as the French Open at Roland Garros gets underway.

There was some respite coming Roger’s way last week when the Swiss Master beat the world no.1 comprehensively in straight sets in Madrid Masters Tournament. Although the surface was clay, the court was too fast paced unlike the one at Roland Garros and was to Roger’s liking where he loved the ball coming onto his racquet nicely as he always does. He made full use of the newly laid Monola Santana Centre Court conditions and beat the tired Rafael Nadal in the finals to win his 15th Masters tournament needing 2 more to break the world record of 17 Masters wins held by Andre Agassi.

While it’s good to have a win against Nadal on clay before going into the Roland Garros, Roger knows that it means nothing as he has experienced before. Roger beat Rafa in Hamburg in 2007 on clay before going into the French Open only to be beaten in the finals a couple of weeks later by the King of Roland Garros.

To add to his agony, the times have changed from then to now. Roger was focused and strong mentally then. Now, the super-cool, fiercely focused, unbeatable-in-big-matches Roger Federer – has been behaving strangely. Like losing his cool, losing his focus, and like losing big matches as easily as he once won them.

In fact, his behaviour has become as retro as those knitted cardigans and blazers that he dons at Wimbledon, taking back to the days when he did stupid things as well as anyone; when in his own words: "I was throwing my racket like you can't imagine … I mean, I was getting kicked out of practice sessions when I was 16. I used to talk much more, too, and scream on court."

The lack of a proper coach is also showing up with every passing failure and every little emotional convulsion, be it a smashed racquet, recourse to tears or dejected press conference. He sacked Peter Lundgren as his coach in 2003 and then, two years ago, parted with the astute Australian Tony Roche.

Despite all these problems, I do hope the Swiss Ace makes it to the finals this time surpassing the resurgent Andy Murrays, Verdascos, and Djokovics to beat his two nightmarish nemesis, clay and Rafael Nadal.

We will know in two weeks time whether Federer wins or did I use my facial tissues.

Who said there is no fun in sports injuries?

Do anyone like to see an injury to a player where sometimes player's career and life could be in question? But sometimes as a fan, you are left with no choice but to sit back and laugh when an athlete gets hurt. There are instances where an athlete does something so stupid, or is so careless, that you have absolutely no sympathy for his injury and wonder how these guys actually get paid to do something with their bodies. Here are some of the stupid, strange and funny athlete injuries.

Football:

Lomana Tresor LuaLua had a scan on the foot injury that kept him out of Portsmouth's last three matches in the English Premiership. The DR Congo striker damaged the joint of his left foot after celebrating an equalizer in the 1-1 draw against Arsenal last year with a somersault. LuaLua, 25, had promised to refrain from back flips until Pompey were safe from relegation in the Premiership but paid the price for a change of mind.

Dave Beasant, the former England goalkeeper, ruptured his ankle ligaments avoiding a falling bottle of salad cream he had just taken out of his fridge. He was injured for two months.

David James, an England goalkeeper, pulled a muscle in his back when reaching for a TV remote control. No wonder they call him ' Calamity James'.

Santiago Canizares, Spain's 2002 World Cup goalkeeper, missed the matches after he had dropped a bottle of cologne on his foot and injured it.

Rio Ferdinand, the England defender, injured a tendon behind his knee while watching TV with his foot up on a coffee table.

Cricket:

Derek Pringle, the former England cricketer, sat down to write a letter before a Test match and stretched his back only to put his back out.

Baseball:

Adam Eaton, the baseball pitcher, apparently stabbed himself while attempting to open a DVD in 2001.

Wade Boggs missed several games for the Winston-Salem Red Sox after hurting himself putting on his cowboy boots.

Vince Coleman missed the 1985 World Series after getting caught in the tarp machine.
[Tarp is machine for removing the tarpaulin covering on a pitch]

Golf:

Sam Torrance, the former Ryder Cup golfer, fractured his sternum in 1993 when he fell over a plant pot whilst sleepwalking. He almost missed the matches at the Belfry.

Student scores, teacher stumped!

A primary teacher starts a new job at a school in Bangalore and, trying to make a good impression on his first day, talks about IPL cricket matches and explains to his class that he is a Royal Challengers Bangalore fan. He asks his students to raise their hands if they, too, are RCB fans. Everyone in the class raises their hand expect one little boy, Johnny.

The teacher looks at the boy with surprise and says: Johnny, why didn't you raise your hand?'

'Because I'm not a RCB fan', Johnny replies.

The teacher, still shocked, asks: 'Well if you're not an RCB fan, then who are you a fan of?'

'I'm a Mumbai Indians fan, and proud of it', Johnny says it with pride.

The teacher could not believe his ears.

'Johnny, why are you a MI fan?'

'Because my mum and dad are from Bombay, and my mum is a MI fan and my dad is a MI fan, so I'm a MI fan too!'

'Well, 'said the teacher, in an obviously annoyed tone, 'that's no reason for you to be a MI fan. You don't have to be just like your parents all the time. What if your mum was a cheap model and a sleazy actress and your dad was a drunkard and a gambler, what would you be then?'

'Then', Johnny smiles and says, 'I'd be a RCB fan.'

Indian TV channel mothers the mother's day.

People in many ancient cultures celebrated holidays honoring motherhood, personified as a goddess.

Here are just a few of those:

- Ancient Greeks celebrated a holiday in honor of Rhea, the mother of the gods
- Ancient Romans celebrated a holiday in honor of Cybele, a mother goddess, March 22-25 - the celebrations were notorious enough that followers of Cybele were banished from Rome
- In the British Isles and Celtic Europe, the goddess Brigid, and later her successor St. Brigid, were honored with a spring Mother's Day, connected with the first milk of the ewes

Mother’s Day is observed worldwide on different dates. Different countries practice different traditions on Mother’s Day.

• Mother's Day in Britain -- or Mothering Sunday – is celebrated on the fourth Sunday in Lent.
• The second Sunday in May is Mother's Day not only in the United States, but also in other countries including Denmark, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Australia and Belgium. By the end of Anna Jarvis' life, Mother's Day was celebrated in more than 40 countries.
• In Spain, Mother's Day is December 8, on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, so that not only mothers in one's family are honored, but also Mary, mother of Jesus.
• In France, Mother's Day is on the last Sunday of May. A special cake resembling a bouquet of flowers is presented to mothers at a family dinner.
• The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, the Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament, the League of Women Voters and other organizations still organize protests on Mother's Day: The Million Mom March, protests at nuclear weapons sites, etc.

In India, there was never the practice of celebrating Mother’s Day. I am not saying Indians never honored their mothers. They did and in fact in Hinduism, Mother and Father are considered gods and the tradition of children worshipping their parents is long known. Hence the older generation of Hindus didn’t think they have to set one particular day for their Mothers and one day for their Fathers to honor them.

Not any more. The younger generation of today is completely hit hard by Globalization. They have become Coconuts. Brown from outside and white from inside. They neither follow Hinduism nor follow Western culture but are badly caught in between in a state of confusion and are completely oblivious of both cultures. Globalization, to a great extent has helped to make this Western festival to make its presence felt in India. So Mother’s day is celebrated in India now. This is fine and I am not against it because it gives them an opportunity and a day to remember their mothers.

What startled me is the way one of India’s leading Hindi TV news channel celebrated this day. Instead of educating people about this day’s history or running a program dedicated to motherhood or honoring them, they spent the entire day remembering and honoring bollywood’s mother of mothers Nirupa Roy and her colleagues who donned mother’s roles in bollywood movies. Yes, this is true. From dawn till dusk they showed mom related lines taken out from old Hindi movies repeatedly mothering the viewers. I was one of them as I saw the same thing over and over every time I stopped at this channel while channel swapping. To add to my agony, I get only one Indian news channel and I couldn’t escape.

I do hope someone sane (if any left) in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry very soon will wake up and guide these channels right way and set some guidelines on what to broadcast and what not to show. If they can’t celebrate a festival properly, they shouldn’t observe the same. By doing this, they have not honored mothers but have disrespected the beautiful thing called motherhood.

God bless “Young India” and Happy Mother’s day to all the beautiful mothers in this world.

I have “excellent poof-reading skills” - how grammatical errors see CVs binned

A job applicant listed her interests as "cooking dogs" while another boasted of having "excellent poof-reading skills", a new survey of CV blunders has discovered.

Experts found that 94 per cent of job hunters risked missing out on vacancies through poor spelling, grammar or presentation on their CVs.

In some cases, applicants' attempts to impress potential employers failed through the odd missed word, with phrases such as: "I was responsible for dissatisfied customers."

For others, the omission of a single letter consigned their CV to the dustbin: "I am a pubic relations officer."

And sparing use of the comma led to seemingly embarrassing disclosures of equal note: "My interests include cooking dogs and interesting people."

From a sample of 450 CVs, researchers found that 81 per cent were laden with spelling and grammatical errors, while nearly half were poorly laid out.

Why would anyone want to employ a lawyer or a secretary who makes spelling mistakes or errors? If they can't pay attention to their own CV, why would you trust them to work on any of your documents?

Examples of CV blunders:

– My interests include cooking dogs and interesting people.
– As security guard my job is to pervert unauthorised people from coming onto the site
– I am a pubic relations officer
– I was responsible for dissatisfied customers
– My role involved coaching and mentioning
– I have excellent editing and poof-reading skills
– I relieved the conference manager
– I am a prooficient typist
– Socially I like to dine out with different backgrounds
– I get well with all types of people
– I was responsible for fraudulent claims
– While working in this role, I had intercourse with a variety of people
– Experienced sheet mental worker
– Highly adept at multi-tasting
– Left last four jobs only because the managers were completely unreasonable

My profound apologies to Mother Earth.

I always celebrated my birthday a day before April 22nd as that was the day I was born. I knew nothing about the following day’s significance nor I gave a thought or tried to learn about it so long. I was self-centered and all that mattered to me was to have fun and enjoy my birthday and not worry about the following day. Actually thinking, there is no harm in having fun or enjoying one’s special day but failing to understand the importance of the planet in which I am enjoying and having fun was criminal. I apologise. Now I am thinking vaguely that probably I would have received emails about this day’s importance for many years that I never opened to read, turning them to trash as spam. How much information I could have lost? I am now happy I gave a thought, understood and now I am thinking hard on doing my bit.

April 22nd is Earth Day. Having it on the mind stimulates a thought process that most of us do not engage in often.

• What is the state of our planet? Its resources? It’s overall health?
• What is my relationship with planet earth? Do I have one?
• Do I give back to this planet that provides me a home?


Different cultures teach us that the greatest wisdom of the earth is respect. Earth is intimately linked to our past and our future, and it holds the key to our survival. There is a belief that everything on earth, animate, inanimate, and in the sky has a spirit. The earth itself is often referred to as Mother Earth.

Native cultures respected and lived in harmony with the earth. What happened? Our modern world seems to have lost touch. Removed is the thought process that we have a responsibility to the earth.

God made the earth to provide us with all that we need. Why do we, as individuals and as a society, treat earth with such disrespect? Littering and filling landfills with products that cannot be naturally decomposed and damaging the earth and its environment.

I learnt that it is important to protect and respect our earth because earth gives us life. Earth gives me space for my happiness, fun and enjoyment. Why don’t we reciprocate by following simple steps such as these to start respecting the Earth?

● Show respect by not adding to the pollution. Stop thoughtlessly littering and become a responsible recycler.
● Embrace a green lifestyle. Use recycled products. Avoid driving and if you cannot, drive a gas efficient automobile. Little changes can have a big impact on the planet – vow to make those changes each day.
● Create the best for the earth by holding the vision of earth’s perfect health and harmony, in your mind’s eye. Hold that vision as if it is already taking place.
● Teach your children and grandchildren to love and respect the earth. Lead by your example. Spend time with them outside in nature.

While understanding Earth and its environment and people who have contributed for its cause, I stumbled upon this inspiring talk by Dr. John Francis that I want to share with you all today. For almost 30 years, Dr. John Francis has been a planet walker, traveling the globe by foot and sail with a message of environmental respect and responsibility (for 17 of those years without speaking).

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/391

Give just 20 minutes of your time and listen to Dr. Francis. That's all it takes to get inspired. Believe me, It’s thought provoking.

Wimbledon Centre Court - A victim of commercial reasons?

Come this June and the Wimbledon centre court this time around will not look the same as it did from 1868. The centre-court, this year onwards will boast the retractable roof to be used during rains and there wouldn’t be any breaks for players and the audience from the famous Wimbledon intermittent rains.


This is both good and bad for the game. Good because it helps all commercial aspects as it will be a boon for spectators, players, broadcasters and officials. But it will put an end to impromptu performances by Sir Cliff Richard, and won't do anything for umbrella salesmen and exhibitionists. There wouldn’t be a sight of colorful umbrellas opening up in the stands anymore. Introduction of roof will certainly see a big shake up in the scheduling of matches in the 138 year old tournament.

It is bad because I feel for the past champions. Champions who not only had to put up grueling fights against their tough opponents, they also had to fight the weather gods which they were never trained for by any of their coaches during their careers.

For instance, Ivan Lendl was not fated to lose all the finals at Wimbledon because of his game. Who can forget that final he played against Boris Becker in 1986? Lendl was much ahead of Becker when strong winds and rain broke the momentum. Boris Becker too struggled with the winds but took that break to his advantage, thought carefully and came back mentally stronger than Lendl to win one of his greatest matches of all time to seal the victory. Lendl was a victim of factors that were not in his control nor that he was trained to combat. Had he was playing under the roof that night, he would have certainly won the grand slam that has haunted him till date and would have boasted the silverware in his collection.

Roger Federer too struggled with the strong winds and intermittent rain intervals against Rafael Nadal last year. He not only had to deal with a player of immense mental toughness and agility, he had to bear the challenges from Mother Nature and ended up losing against everything and proved to the whole world that night that big boys do cry.

I will always hold players who have won Wimbledon crown without the roof at high esteem and in my list Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe, Jimmy Conners, Pete Sampras, Boris Becker, Andre Aggassi and Roger Federer will always remain as true champions who not only beat their opponents to win their coveted Wimbledon trophies but also defeated the weather that challenged them during every match that they fought on centre court.

An amazing 138 year old Wimbledon history is going to change this year with Wimbledon becoming another victim to commercial reasons.

The address might remain as SW19 as always but the glory of the park won’t be the same anymore.

Rx - Tennis.

David, a management executive, has on his doctor's orders, to take part in some form of sporting activity. David decides to play tennis.

After a few weeks Shiela, his secretary asks him how he's doing.

'It's going very well, thanks,' David answers. 'When I'm on the court and I see the ball speeding towards me, my brain immediately says: 'To the corner! Back hand! To the net! Smash! Go back!'

'Really? What happens then?' Shiela enquires of David, in some awe.

'Then my body says, 'Who? Me? You must be kidding.'

Bali casts its magic on me.

I went back to 1931 for the last one week in a place that is right next to paradise. I was in Bali with my wife to celebrate my 35th birthday as well as our 7th wedding anniversary in the Island of Gods. Balinese have their own calendar and this year in their calendar is 1931.

We both were fascinated by the temples, culture, religion, practice of ceremonies, dance, art, offerings to gods, love of the people etc. This magnificent piece of land that has embraced Hinduism, refreshed our minds on our religion unlike our home country, India, the birth place of Hinduism where the world’s oldest religion has become a victim of modernization. It is indeed very rare to come across a public performance of a dance or a skit based on greatest Hindu epics Ramayana and Mahabharata in India currently whereas one can watch them on a daily basis in Bali not for touristy reasons but purely as part of the Balinese lifestyle. A lifestyle that is tantamount with Hindu ceremonies.

Everywhere around Bali, the sight of women carrying rice-and-flower offerings on banana leaves was a common sight. Offerings are made twice daily to the gods of the house and to the gods honored in small shrines everywhere. The word Bali, dating from the 9th century, means offering.

We watched the Kecak dance atop a hill overlooking the magnificient Indian Ocean with the incredible view of the sunset. Kecak is one of the most famous of Balinese dances. It is unusual because it has no musical accompaniment like any other dance performance. The rhythm of the dance is produced by the chanting of 'monkey' chorus. It’s the forty or so men in the checkered pants that make Kecak a fascinating performance to watch.

They are both the choir and the props, providing the music for the story in a series of constant vocal chants that change with the mood of the actors. They don't sit still, either, they wave their arms to simulate fire, and reposition themselves around the stage to represent wind and fire, prison cells, and unseen hand of protection from the gods.

The dance is played in five acts and lasts roughly an hour. The plot is taken from the Hindu epic Ramayana, which tells the story of Prince Rama and his rescue of Princess Sita, who gets kidnapped by the evil King of Lanka, Rahwana. With the help of Hanuman, the white monkey and his force, Rama rescues his wife and defeats the evil Rahwana.

As we rode around the island on a motorbike, all we saw to our both sides was green patches of paddy fields, the planted rice terraces, the rice harvesters beating the grains off the stalks, duck shepherds walking their flocks to the fields, and water buffaloes turning over the empty fields. This lush, tropical island is full of visual delights, such as red-flowering banana plants or white-petaled trees. Though the Balinese are not well-to-do, they appeared to enjoy a good basic diet of rice, soybeans, and vegetables, with occasional animal protein. They live a life relatively free of unwanted western-style stress, but seasoned by the sweat of laborious work in the rice fields.

A few leisure visits to Balinese Art Galleries in Ubud, Bali made me believe that every Balinese is an artist. To perform or create art is something specially gifted to them by their gods. I was left doubtless that every child grows up with a sense of dance, art or crafts of some kind.

If you are planning a holiday in tropical island paradise, just consider Bali, an island that Jawaharlal Nehru once famously described as "the morning of the world". Bali is truly special and rare is the traveler who returns home untouched by its magic, especially the pervasive spirituality and compelling human bonds that the Balinese exhibit.

Stating the obvious

Stating the obvious at Hok Tau Reservoir Hong Kong.

KP Breaks The Wall!

IPL T20 fever has started again with just another couple of days before the second edition of the most sought after cricket tournament gets under way. It’s funny that it is still addressed as Indian Premier League even though the tournament is moved to South Africa. As a Bangalorean, I will be supporting Bangalore Royal Challengers even though the team performed badly in the first edition. There are changes in the team this time with the maverick Kevin Pietersen being roped in as Captain. Rahul Dravid has lost captaincy following the team’s dismal performance during the last chapter. Ray Jennings has been appointed as Coach.

Enter Pietersen, a man who takes hard options and knows he's good. It makes him gloriously un-English. The task he is about to undertake with the Bangalore Royal Challengers just about sums him up.

Think about it for a moment. Pietersen is returning to a country where voluble sections of the crowd regard him as a traitor. He will be captaining two men - Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher - who probably have their own views on his decision to leave South Africa. He will be playing for Ray Jennings, a coach who revels in his straight-talking toughness and for an owner - the whisky, airline and F1 magnate Vijay Mallya - whose expectations of success are such that last year he sacked his chief executive mid-tournament. He sure is going the football way.

There's more. Pietersen’s first game will be up against Shane Warne, who used to regard him as a close friend but now thinks him "weird" and will do everything he possibly can to make him look a dummy. His second game is against Andrew Flintoff, the man who denies having anything to do with his downfall as England captain. There is no doubt that cricket followers in South Africa would want Pietersen to fail miserably.

With so much against him much before the start, Pietersen certainly has a tough road ahead. He is a tough bloke and quite capable of turning the tide to his favour and all we can hope is that he does that quickly and ensures he not only proves to Vijay Mallya but to ECB Selectors also. The success will do a world of good to him when he locks his horns against Aussies for The Ashes.

Good luck Kev.

When Tiger had a bad day

The Corridor of Uncertainty

Sometimes life is like a game of cricket. Imagine you are batting and facing a bowler who is constantly pitching the ball in the corridor of uncertainty. You get caught between two minds whether to play at it or leave it. Can you keep letting it go? If you do, when will you score? The point is, if you are playing a test match, time is of no essence, but if you are playing an ODI or a T20 match, you have to start scoring from the word GO. Right?

That is the question on everyone’s mind who is thinking of investing in real estate now as they are caught between whether to invest or not to invest in property sector which has fallen drastically owing to global economic downturn. Is this the right time to buy your dream home or wait for some more time for the further fall? Will it fall further? If it falls, by how much will it fall? These are the questions that are troubling people and there seems no one is in a position to answer these questions convincingly.

This is like waiting for a bowler to bowl you a lolly pop or a fuller delivery on the slot for you to drive handsomely for that much needed boundary. Can you anticipate when you get that ball while batting? The answer is a simple NO.

So rather than waiting for the bowler to bowl you a loosener, the trick lies in taking some calculated chances by going for an aerial shot to clear the mid fielders so your opposite captain moves one of his mid fielders back to that scoring spot to open your area of your strength in the mid field or vice versa. Not all the times the trick works but then in real life too, not all the time your speculation comes true.

The market has fallen by a good 20 - 25% everywhere and I think rather than waiting further, people should go ahead with their investment plans by taking some chances. Because it’s a weak bowler who is bowling at you currently and it’s always good to score runs off a weak bowler before your opposite captain sends in his spearhead. If there is another weak bowler coming in next then it gives you some lead time to read the wicket before you take off.

So If I am an investor now, I will take some time to read the wicket and go with my chances. I say this because I see another ordinary bowler coming at me soon. May be this helps me in scoring as many runs as I want at the end of the game. Because the more runs I get on scoreboard, better is my chances of winning.

I might be wrong. How about you? Will you be taking similar chances?

Hung Over? Try These Techniques

The ancient Scottish cure for a whisky hangover is the Highland Fling. If you’re not feeling too sick, heat a pint of buttermilk and stir in a tablespoon of cornflower. Then season with salt and pepper.

Scuba divers claim crawling out of bed and taking a blast from an oxygen tank does a wonderful job of blowing away cobwebs. The idea is that increased oxygen speeds up the metabolism, which in turn increases the speed of breaking down poisons.

A more holistic approach to curing headaches is pinching your hand between your thumb and forefinger. That part of the hand is a nerve junction and an acupressure point which is supposed to release tension in the head neck. The advice is to pinch quite hard for thirty seconds every five minutes until the headache subsides.

Some Puerto Ricans rub a slice of lemon or lime in the armpit of their drinking arm before they start drinking to stop a hangover before it starts. Apparently, lemon prevents dehydration and therefore headaches because it helps retain fluid.

In Outer Mongolia, a pair of pickled sheeps eyes in tomato juice is thought to be the answer to a thumping head and cattle ropers in the Old West drank tea brewed from rabbit droppings.

In Ancient Rome, party-goers breakfasted on sheep lungs and two owl eggs and in ancient Greece the cure was deep-fried canaries.

In Haiti, those hit with a hangover make a voodoo doll from the bottle of alcohol which caused the hangover in the first place. They recommend sticking 13 black pins in the wine bottle's cork.

A popular remedy not recommended for pregnant women or the elderly is the Prairie Oyster. It includes a whole raw egg and Worcestershire sauce, seasoned with salt and pepper. The aim is to swallow the concoction in one gulp without breaking the yolk.

The Japanese recommend umeboshi pickled plums to relieve hangovers. The advice is to bite of a quarter of the plum and allow it to dissolve in your mouth. But for a stronger hangover, one whole plum is recommended, which takes about half an hour to dissolve. Umeboshi contains pyric acid, which is supposed to restore the stomach to good health.

Shah Rukh Khan in a spot of bother

What do Sunil Gavaskar, Saurav Ganguly, Shane Warne, Stephen Fleming and Glen McGrath have in common?

Answer: Common Sense. They all dislike John Buchanan’s ideas and their disliking makes complete sense to me.

Perhaps the only man who has failed to understand what John Buchanan, Kolkata Knight Rider’s coach is upto is their owner Shah Rukh Khan. He publicly reacted to Sunil Gavaskar’s comments on John Buchanan and his idea of having multiple captains. Shah Rukh Khan failed to note that there was nothing wrong in what Sunil Gavaskar wrote. Each word in that article made complete sense to anyone who has followed John Buchanan. By reacting, Shah Rukh Khan has jumped the gun and has landed in a soft spot.

Sooner Shah Rukh Khan realizes that this is a team breaking theory from John Buchanan; the better it is for his team, his hard earned money as well as his own acting career. He should simply go ahead and appoint Saurav Ganguly as Captain of KKR for the entire season without toying with the idea of having multiple captains as suggested by John Buchanan. I say this helps Shah Rukh Khan’s acting career because if he goes with the idea, ignores Saurav Ganguly and in the event KKR loses badly, Shah Rukh Khan can rest assured that his movie releases would be affected in entire West Bengal state.

For Shah Rukh Khan, KKR is a passionate investment as he loves Cricket. He should realize that his passion or hobby should not come in way of his core competencies which are his acting and producing movies. If his day job gets affected, he will allow his friends in the industry to laugh at his expense. You all know who I am talking about. Mr. Gavaskar will never hesitate in coming back hard at Shah Rukh if KKR loses because of John’s rubbish ideas. Does he want all these?

Shane Warne, legendary spin doctor late last year said Buchanan was a "goose" and his "verbal diarrhoea" epitomized a worrying big-headed culture. He was spot on as it was the arrogance which brought once mighty Australian team tumbling down to ground. There is a lesson here for Shah Rukh Khan to learn.

“I have played under Buchanan and I know he has a lot of theories, may be this is another one. I don’t know why he (Buchanan) has come up with this idea. I like a single captain idea” said the legendary Glen McGrath yesterday and he certainly knows what he is talking.

Mr. Khan, are you listening?

Mistakes Captains Do

I hate to watch one sided test matches especially if it is a decider. They are such waste of time. The current third test between NZ and India is one such match. This test was a must win game for NZ to level the series and to save from handing India its first series win in NZ after 41 years. The way the match is progressing, NZ doesn’t have any chances of drawing the match forget leveling the series. The only man responsible for the state at which the NZ team has landed in this match is their captain Daniel Vettori.

He won the toss and elected to field. Why did he do that? What was he thinking? The wicket was not a green top and as soon as India Captain MS Dhoni and his mates saw the wicket during their practice session before the start of the game, all they wanted to do was to bat first. MS Dhoni couldn't believe his luck to see a brown wicket and must have danced along with his players in the dressing room on Vettori’s expense when Vettori decided to field first after winning the toss.

In test cricket, if you bat first you get two chances. If you're dismissed cheaply, you still have the chance to put pressure on the opposition by bowling well and setting a defensive field. These two factors can lead to wickets falling.

Why did Vettori opt for an extra seamer when he had a world class spinner in Jeetan Patel? He didn’t have to go in for an additional seamer when he had Jesse Ryder at his disposal who has proved that he can bowl and take wickets.

A captain can’t afford to make such silly club level mistakes when his team is up against a hungry side like India with each one of its players out there to prove something and certainly not against a team with such strong batting line up especially when your back is against the wall.

The wicket proved a home away from home for the Indians. Batsmen and the tail enders piled on runs to set a decent first innings total. For Vettori, mistakes proved too costly, nothing went right in this test match with his batsmen failing miserably and his bowlers going for runs. Daniel Vettori is all set to enter into record books by becoming the first black caps captain to lose a test series against India after a little more than four decades. A record he wouldn’t have expected in his wildest dreams in such an illustrious career.

All one can say to Vettori now is Tough luck mate!

Was it G20 or T20 for Silvio Berlusconi?

The Queen became a super star when her highness put Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in place after Mr. Berlusconi behaved like a T20 spectator during the photo shoot to mark the G20 summit.

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

The footage shows the Queen gesturing in mild irritation at the Italian leader as she posed with President Barack Obama and other world leaders in the traditional "family" photograph at Buckingham Palace to mark the G20 summit.

As the photoshoot ends, Mr. Berlusconi is heard shouting: "Mr. Obama, Mr. Obama," prompting the Queen to turn round, sigh and raise her arms in mock frustration, before saying: "What is it? Why does he have to shout?"

Within minutes, the Queen's burst of annoyance - which came despite an attempt by Mr. Obama to silence Mr. Berlusconi by responding in a low voice - had become a worldwide hit after being posted on Italy's YouTube site.