Category: general

I’m writing this from my nokia 6670 mobile phone. In a volvo bus on way

Just saw “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” for the third time this afternoon, on Sony Pic. What a movie. Whatta movie.

There are two things that make a movie (or a book or a play for that matter) great. First is the story. Second, and more important, is the way the story is sold. If you take the say 10 greatest movies of all time, you’ll notice that most of them have a rather simple and straightforward storyline. What differentiates them is the way the story is told!

As an aside, Sony Pix rocks. About one ad break every half hour, and one ad every break. However, as Kodhi just remarked, the good times may not last if the channel gets too popular. Let’s keep fingers crossed.??

OK this post is coming up a full four days too late, but it doesn’t matter. Extreme NED at work which has spilled over to personal life, and a few lazy days have contributed to the delay.

Anyways, the last day of the four day weekend last weekend (i took monday off) was spent going to madras for the IIT Madras open quiz. For a bit of a background, the first edition of this was held a month before I graduated from IITM, and I was one of the quizmasters, along with Bofi, A Mani and Shamanth. There were two major factors that led to the formation of this quiz. Firstly, IITM didn’t host an open quiz, and hence the amazing potential for setting questions that existed in this vast campus used to be spent exclusively to set college quizzes. And more importantly, Shamanth and I had never hosted a major quiz during our IITM career, and this was a good opportunity to make amends.

At some vague quiz somewhere you might encounter the question “what is common to Hindu barbers and the Bangalore-Madras Shatabdi?”. The answer is that both don’t work on Tuesdays. Taking the Lalbagh instead meant that we could wake up an hour late, but more importantly, gave us a whole hour less to have lunch (lalbagh leaves at 0630 and reaches at 1200, while the Shatabdi leaves at 0600 and reaches at 1100). There was also the small matter of buying breakfast, as the Lalbagh A/C didn’t have the free food as against the Shatabdi where stewards kept serving your every half hour.

And what the hell happened to Rail Neer? That brand of bottled water that had been launched with so much fanfare by Lalu? It was nowhere to be seen either on the platform or in the train. There was a host of arbit “brands” – blue, swan, torrent, etc. all with a small label of “bottled specially for IRCTC”. Not enough. Give me Rail Neer.

Madras is in the process of constructing a metro. Flying train it is called locally. Part of it is operational and mostly empty, leading to extremely low frequency of operation. There is a special station for this in front of Central called “Park Town”, which looks shady enough to promote several “unholy” activities. Anyways we took the flying train from here to Mylapore (referred to in railway lingo as Tirumailai – holy peacock as

?explained – this was going to become significant later on) after which I took an auto to Adyar to meet kodhi and

and

?and baada for lunch.

?and we are like this wonly (who, incidentally, accused madras quizzers for mugging too much. Remember the incident on the train to Landmark? I immediately pointed that out and they said that it was nothing compared to the amount madras quizzers mug) went for lunch somewhere nearby in Mylapore itself.

Three years away and I seem to have forgotten madras. I had to go to Odyssey and i told the auto guy ‘adyar depot’ mistakenly thinknig the bus stand in front of Odyssey is Adyar depot. Think that’s adyar terminus. And I thankfully quickly realized my mistake when teh guy turned onto LB road from top of the adyar signal flyover. It was an extra five minute walk. There wasn’t much time for lunch and I had to settle for a dosa and an uthappam. Auto from there to SAC at IITM, and I tried to be too cute to direct the guy on the short cut to SAC through the lib (i’d never used it in my IITM days) and we promptly got lost. Reached 15 minutes after scheduled start time, and the quiz was about to begin.

SAC was full. The only times I’d seen it fuller was for inauguration and convocation. Not a seat was empty. And the only place available seemed to be the galleries. Special quota for old quizmasters, i shouted to Pota, one of the quizmasters for the day. We were asked to settle down on the floor right up front. Perfect, I thought, as I kicked off my floaters and settled down.

It is a matter of great pride to see that something you started has grown. And grown the IITM Open Quiz has, in the last five years. In the first year, we didn’t have much time and just settled for a convenient Sunday. The next year onwards, though, the organizers had “captured” the October 2nd national holiday slot. And it had evidently worked. The Hindu reported that over 1300 people took this year’s quiz. More than double the 600 that attended when we did it.

It is not uncommon in quizzing that you mention some good funda to someone during casual conversation and then it gets asked in a quiz. There was a question in the prelims about Parvati turning into a peahen and doing penance and some place named after that. None of us had ever heard of this legend. And that’s when Udupendra’s translation of holy peacock came into good use. This was evidently an aeroplane paandi question (there were two more in the prelims).

Apart from the odd bits of aeroplane paandi, the prelims was by and large good. We qualified fairly comfortably, while there were a few upsets, with quite a few usual suspects missing out. The finals were long and largely excellent, easily the best finals I’ve sat through for almost a year. Most of the things were workoutable, there weren’t too many questions on vague domains, and no team was running away with it. The only blot was the points system for the long visual connect, where the team answering first could win upto four times the number of points awarded for a normal question. This would prove to be decisive in the end, when QED, the first to crack the LVC, edged us by 1 point for second spot.

An LVC is a strong concept I agree. Special rounds deserve more points I agree, just for that audience value if not anything else. However, awarding up to four times the normal points for a single question is a little too much I guess, and places undue importance on the special round, especially when the rest of the quiz has been lowscoring.

The quiz was followed by what is the now usual IIMB meetup. Baada had to run to catch a train but the rest of us were there. And just enough transportation (one car and bike for 7 of us) to move us. But Madras has a severe dearth of eat out places. It being the evening of a national holiday doesn’t help. Most places are bursting at the seams, and there is a long waiting time. We finally settled down for a half hour wait at Cream Center where we had chaat for starters and Mexican for the main course. And extremely strnog ice cream soda for dessert.

An excellent end to a strong long weekend. I remained on a high till the following afternoon. And then I went to work.

PS: Having unusual team names can sometimes be counter-productive. Of late we have been calling ourselves NED (short for No Enthu Da). On the morning of IITM Open, I wanted to change the team name to Technoplast, following a Business Standard headline that Technoplast had taken over NED Energy, but then got shouted down.

Yesterday, JK asks me “so is NED happening for the Bangalore Landmark?” . I didn’t know what to say!??

Next time i get a marketing call from a female representing some bank, I want to just ask “so what’s your rate?”.

on a related note, can anyone tell me how to register myself on the do not call registry? and does it help?

Update

I sent an sms saying “START DND” to 121 (i’m on airtel) and got a reply saying that my number will be in the registry in 45 days. thanks all for the help. ??

He has just drawn his game with Peter Leko which means he is now crowned world champion.

It was a quick game where Leko played the Marshall attack and Anand, as usual, responded with a non-standard variation, thus creating a sharp and complicated situation with chances for either side. A few clever moves (from both sides) later, anand exchanged off a couple of pieces which suddenly turned the game into a dead draw, and a draw was agreed to without much ado.

In other ongoing games, svidler-grischuk is at an extremely interesting position with grischuk looking aggressive. However, he seems to have gone to sleep and has taken over half an hour for his last move (he is yet to move as I write this). If Grischuk can take care of his time troubles, he stands a good chance of winning this one. However, the position is still sharp and the game can go any way.

Gelfand, once again playing the Petroff with black, quickly won a pawn, thus creating a small flutter among the set of Anand fans (at that point of time, Anand’s game was on a knife’s edge). However, Morozevich quickly won back the pawn and the two are now engaged in a good sharp battle. I’m feeling extremely sleepy now, else I’d’ve stayed up to see this one.

The Kramnik-Aronian game has been boring so far, in fact the only boring game of this round with them locked in a positional battle. I was definitely not going to stay up for that one!?? just taken an interesting turn. Kramnik has given up a rook for two minor pieces, and a much better position. It should be interesting now, but unlilkely i’ll stay up. (update at 1:37 am)

Anyways, Anand’s quick draw means that I can sleep now, and in peace. And yeah, just to remind you, he is the world champion.

cross posted on sportsnob

A few hours after India had beaten Pakistan in a thriller to win the ICC World Twenty20, another thriller happened at the Sheraton Centro Hist?rico Hotel in Mexico City. It was again played out in a little more than two hours, though at a much more relaxed pace (from the spectator’s point of view). There was no live telecast, though there were several webcasts. It started late by Indian time (0030 hrs) so I don’t know how many would’ve actually watched the webcast.

Anand-Kramnik last week had proved to be an unmitigated thriller, with the former managing to hold on in a tough rook ending in order to draw the game. Yesterday was the return game, and though it barely reached the endgame, it was no less a thriller. Anand managed to transform the normally sedate semi-Slav opening with a few aggressive moves and Kramnik got back at him with equal measure. Anand was forced to castle to an unprotected queen side and soon embarked on a pawn-eating spree.

Kramnik responded to that with fierce attack and soon had a Steinitz knight in place (it’s a knight placed on d6 or e6 (if you are playing white). the first world champion Steinitz had remarked that if you can establish a knight on that position you can go off to sleep and let the game win by itself!), though it was quickly got rid of by Anand by way of an exchange sacrifice (rook for minor piece). He got two pawns and excellent counterplay for the sacrifice and was threatening to roll his passed pawns on the queen side when Kramnik managed to infiltrate Anand’s last rank and soon a draw was agreed.

Anand continues to lead by a point, with 6.5 after 10 rounds. His nearest rival is the Israeli veteran Gelfand at 5.5. With four rounds to go, Anand should be firm favorite to win the tournament from here.

You can see all the games so far at the official website www.chessmexico.com . The games are also webcast live here. The next four rounds will be played today, 27th, 28th and 29th, with 26th being a rest day. Games begin at 1400 local time which translates to 0030 hours on the next day in India.

cross posted at sportsnob

Returning to my grandmother’s place after a quiz yesterday evening, I was greeted with loud sound of fireworks. This was odd, since Diwali is still a couple of months away, and India’s cricket match was to come much later in the night. Then, I switch on the TV and realize what had happened. Pakistan had just thulped New Zealand in the semis to enter the final of the ICC World Twenty20.

The sound of the fireworks, as it turned out, was coming from “Tareen Block”, a medium-sized Muslim area in Jayanagar 3rd Block. They were celebrating Pakistan’s win, it seems. No such celebrations were heard from there following India’s win later in the night. And, for the record, this is an area that is largely inhabited by educated and well-off Muslims.

And they cheer for Pakistan. And don’t cheer for India. The advantages of being a politically significant group…

Update

I watched today’s game from my grandmother’s house. At the end of it, there was a loud cheer. It was from a crowd of auto drivers, etc. who had gathered in front of a consumer goods showroom opposite my grandmother’s house.

No crackers. No obvious signs of celebrations from the Tareen Block side.

Oh yeah and of course Shoaib Malik has apologized to these guys right? Quite funny that was.

The unnecessary controversy over the very existence of Lord Rama has put a major question mark on the Sethusamudram project. The statements of the ASI and Karunanidhi has turned an earlier neutral Hindu public against the project, and it is going to be next to impossible for it to go ahead. In this regard, there is a need for some out-of-the-box solutions to tackle the problem.

Two things to consider here. First, what is the very purpose of the Sethusamudram project? The stated purpose is to cut down the distance taken by heavy ships which currently cannot go through the area and have to circumnavigate Sri Lanka, thus losing valuable time and money. The proposed canal will make it possible for these huge ships to just cut across the palk straits instead of going all the way through Sri Lanka.
The other thing is the very financial viability of the project. the project is supposed to involve significant costs (too lazy to google this out) and even before the existential controversy, numerous questions had been asked regarding its financial viability. Reports suggest that the payback period for this project some 8 to 10 years, after which it starts becoming profitable. By talking about profitability one assumes that the canal could be tolled and this raises the question as to whether the traffic projections have been overstated (from experience (mumbai-pune, baroda-ahmedabad, etc.) most planners make the mistake of overestimating people’s willingness to pay and thus demand for tolled roads, etc.).

So basically the way it works is that the government spends a huge amount of money upfront in dredging a canal, and then starts collecting fees from ships that want to use this canal. For a few years, not much money is made, but after that enough is made in order to make the dredging of the canal worth it. The ships save the cost of going around Sri Lanka, pay a fee in the government, and still make a profit (if they don’t, it is only if the tolls haven’t been structured properly). And over the long run (don’t ask me how long), the toll thus generated compensates for the investment the government is making now.

Here is the deal. Take out the physical dredging and the canal. Make it a purely financial project. Suppose the money saved by a ship by not going around Sri Lanka is Rs. X. And the toll is Rs. Y. And the net benefit is Rs. (X-Y) (with loss of not too much generality we can assume that this saving is per ton of cargo sent). Add to this the money value of time saved. Let that be Rs. Z per ton. Thus the net benefit of the canal to the shipper is Rs. X + Z – Y. What if he is paid this money?

Instead of investing the humongous amount of money into making the canal, let the government invest it in the bank. And use funds from this fund to compensate the shippers. Suppose you are a large shipper who was going from Madras to Tuticorin, and couldn’t take the Sethusamudram canal because it doesn’t exist. You’ll be financially compensated for it by the government. The money for the compensation, of course, comes from this fund. In the initial years, acceptance of this would be low, and less funds would be used. Whatever remains just gets invested back. Will definitely help pay the shippers when hte demand for the non-existent canal goes up.

Given our track of tolled roads, etc. I’m not if the projected returns from the actual building of the canal can be met. In this respect, this artificial compensation would surely help. And be a much sounder proposition from the financial perspective. And wouldn’t offend anyone’s religious sensibilities. Right?

Ok here is the equation. Before the last group E game between India and South Africa, New Zealand are at a net run rate of +0.05. And having played all their matches, that is going to be their final NRR. South Africa are at 0.77 and India are at 0.2. Remember that the last two numbers are going to change after today’s game.

For India, it is plain and simple. They have to just go out there and win the game. Even a win with a net run rate of 0 (say by 1 run or last ball finish) will ensure their net run rate ends up higher than New Zealand’s.

It’s a little more complicated for South Africa. If they win the game, or if the game is abandoned, they are thru, along with New Zealand. If they lose by a margin of less than 28 runs, once again they are through. However, if they lose to India by a margin of >= 28 runs, they are out of the tournament. India and New Zealand go through.

So here we have the situation where both teams potentially have something to win in this game, both teams have something to lose, and most importantly, it is NOT a zero sum game. There is a situation (where India beats SA by less than 28 runs) which will benefit both teams. And by choosing the margin of victory, they can even determine who is E1 and who is E2, and considering that group F would have resolved itself by then, they have a chance of choosing their semifinal opponents. If the margin is 11 runs or less, South Africa top the group. Else, India will top the group.

One’s mind goes back to 1982. Back to a time when one wasn’t even born. FIFA World Cup 1982. To quote the Wikipedia

West Germany and Austria knew that a West German win by 1 or 2 goals would qualify them both, while a larger German victory would qualify Algeria over Austria, and a draw or an Austrian win would eliminate the Germans ? the fourth team in the group, Chile, was eliminated regardless of the outcome. After 10 minutes of furious attack, Germany succeeded in scoring through a goal by Horst Hrubesch. After the goal was scored, the two German-speaking teams went into an unspoken agreement and just kicked the ball around aimlessly for the rest of the match.

It’s going to be tougher this time. It’s tougher to fix the outcome of a cricket match than it is to fix a football match. And unlike Austria and Germany, which were neighbors and spoke the same language, nothing (apart from Gandhi maybe) binds India with South Africa. And unlike Algeria, which was a Muslim Arab African state, India and South Africa have nothing special against New Zealand.

Still it’s worth a try. Situations like this don’t come along every day. Everything is in these guys’ hands now. Not only will they both qualify, both can choose their semifinal opponents. If only they collaborate. If only they collaborate and fix the match.

The analysis has been done assuming that India bat first. Replace margin of victory in runs by overs and you’ll get the picture if SA bat first. However, to keep things simple, if they decide to fix, India should bat.