A Centipede

A centiepede was happy quite, until a toad in fun
Said, "Pray, which leg comes after which?"
This raised his doubts to such a pitch
He fell distracted in the ditch
Not knowing how to run.

An intriguing little poem!

Being Scott Adams

Dilbert.com website has just got better. I must say, way better. With their new feature called "Dilbert Mashups," you now have a say. Presently last of the three-column strip is opened up for your creative ideas.

So, what are you waiting for: deliver a punch line right away!

Or you may want to amuse yourself by going through my user-page here.

They know it!

I am reading this amazing book by Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman, "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out". A couple of pages later, he's talking about The Beauty of a Flower---

[...]

but I can appreciate the beauty of a flower. At the same time I see much more about the flower than he sees. I can imaging the cells in there, the complicated actions inside which also have a beauty. I mean it's not just beauty at a dimension of one centimeter, there is also beauty at a smaller dimension, the inner structure. Also the processes, the fact that the colors in the flower evolved in order to attract insects to pollinate it is interesting-- it means that insects can see the color.

[...]

I was thrilled when I could read further between those lines. The last lines not only infer that the insects can see the color, but the fact that the plant knows that the insects can!

Yeah. Pleasure of finding things out indeed!

Flame

The burning issue of the day is that of the flame. And it's no ordinary flame, mind you. It's the spirit that started long before started to count the A.D. years; it's the spirit that keeps a marathon-runner running; and of course it's the spirit that keeps our bodies healthy! The spirit of sports; and the flame symbolizes it.

I have been tid-bits here and there, watching short news snippets on how certain people are opposing the behaviour of the nation that is supposed to conduct the games later this year. The political drama continues to amuse me. The logic (or rather the lack thereof) puzzles me as I read more words about it.

Or maybe, my simple logic gets lost in the complexities of the political order of this world: Tibet and The Beijing Olympics are altogether different objects. I do not have the competency (neither the passion/interest/knowledge) to make any comments about China-Tibet issue; so I'll pass on that. I'd rather focus on Sports and its great history. It's the Sports that keeps me going (and the fact that all sorts of sports are actively played and followed indicates that certainly I am not alone on that front). (and for some people it's politics that keeps them going!)

I am all for a great competitive games at Beijing. I want to see all events closely contested, new records created, and medals distributed to winners. The protests, if at all, should be made by the protesters in absentee! I am sure there are enough sports enthusiasts in this world who will follow the games.

To all who are by now thinking, I am behaving pro-China, I have another simple logical question to offer: When the Beijing was awarded to be the Host city for this year's Olympics, were there any protests? I don't think so. The Tibet issue is alive since I have been in existence; then why disrupt the games by making them political ammo now? It's a rather obvious case of opportunism.

I suggest the protesters to de-link the games from Tibet issue. Let the games go on peacefully, I say!

Meta-poem

That poetry was supposed to have
          Some drama, love or war; and a romantic theme.
Yet when it started to unfold,
          it had no end, and O reader--- forget about the rhyme!

Tiger

"He cannot rest. For he who rides a tiger cannot dismount"

-Jawaharlal Nehru, from his anonymous, self-analytical essay

Some humour precipitated during the day---

• On the roadside, a sign reads "Huge Moving Sale ---->": Obviously, something to run for, as the sale itself is advertised to be moving.
• "Oh, long time, my friend! I think your voice has changed!" a friend is excited. "No mate, it must the new phone I bought yesterday," I say in the same breath.
• The tandoori chicken we had for lunch barely looks tandoori-ed. It is wearing pink colour; and I mention to a friend (she, just a minute back was cribbing about too many artificial colours being used in the Indian restaurants around here), "When was Holi? Last week, the leftover colours are showing!" "EEEEk!" she frowns. And another friend wins the battle of wits, "Or maybe the chicken played too much colour!"

The sorrow of not being unique

I had to let one day pass before I posted this; for I did not want the haunted day to play foul against the authenticity (and of course, the agony, as you'll see) of this article.

There are multiple sorrows in this material world. Those, if I may be allowed to, can be categorized into the sorrows of nation, the sorrows of race, the sorrows of kingdom, etc. etc. and last but not the least, sorrows of the individual. I dare say that the sorrows of the individual are as bad as they come; for all other kinds can be converted to the latter!

It really hurts to know that your name (which is your identity) is not unique. There is someone else (or in case of a John Smith or a Sachin Kulkarni, there may be hundreds) who prints his name just the same as you do. And that, my word, starts an interesting dual. This person follows you (and you, in turn are following him!) everywhere you go. To the bank, to the office, (and why not!) to the library too.

When I joined my organization, which at that time used to pay more than a hundred thousand people, I never thought that there will be another person with my name here, and that too the same (characteristic) spelling, the 'Oke'! I was proven wrong the very first morning, as I realized a colleague of mine had mistakenly sent an e-mail to my namesake. And of course, it was not long before I received an e-mail for my counterpart! And so it began.

When I came to the US, I got a chance to meet this gentleman in person, and it was some experience! He was talking to a colleague of his, when I passed by, proudly showing my badge. This fellow was taken for a ride (earlier that morning, I got a telephone call for the other 'Ajit'). It was interesting to know that I studied in the same college that he did: about eighteen years later, history was to be repeated!

And then, when I went to the public library to get my card, the lady at the desk must have thought that I was out of my mind.

"Sir, but you already have an account!"

"I do?"

"Yes sir, you do!"

"Oh it must be the other I"

"?"

"The other Ajit Oke?"

"How do you know?"

"He goes to work to the same place I do"

""

":-)"

"Well. What do you I do now?"

":-)"

"Do you have a middle name?"

"Thanks to my father, I have!"

"Well, let me use that in your a/c name then. You don't mind, right?"

"Please go ahead!"

What's in name, Shakespeare said a long time ago. Well, he could afford to, because at that time, he may well have been the one and only William Shakespeare. I am sure he would not say that had his name been William Jones!

Heck- it's not easy to be unique in this world. And that's the sorrow of this individual.

Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,
some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
and would suffice.

---Robert Frost

Even if one doesn't want to look at this poem politically, socailly, or morally, one has to agree, it's a great poem.

A shocker!

Well, I guess, just going by the title of this post the reader must have prepared herself for one :-)

I would not be exaggerating if I say, entering the United States of America for the first time has to be a shocking experience for the individual under travel. At the same time, I must however add that it could be equally (or worse) shocking if the person happens to be traveling to the Europe as well.

Now, I know, the italics above need some explanation.

The world calls the 'States' a dynamic nation: in terms of the economy (!), social and political thought, and what not. But as far as my first impression counts, I found it pretty static. I mean, wherever I went, I would accumulate this static charge on my body, boots and clothes. This so-called charged up body of mine would then dispose itself of this wealth accumulated over the period; giving me sense of a shock. For almost a week I must say, I felt touched by this new environment, yet I was scared to touching everything (including a file in UNIX environment!). Sooner than I thought, I got used to the conditions; and the impact has been on decline of late.

And that's why, gentlewomen, (and gentlemen, too) I must say that the experience around here is quite shocking.

Or maybe I should have been more careful in my approach, and should have mentally prepared for it: Yes. I must have held my head high, and yet kept my humble feet rooted to the ground realities!

In any case, until I got used to it, it indeed was a shocking experience!

A word on words

A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say.

I say it just
Begins to live
That day.

--Emily Dickinson

Walking among the books of the Chandler Public Library, I came across this wonderful poem by Emily Dickinson (I had read it before too, yet it sounded so new to me!). I was still admiring the collection, when a friend casually mentioned, "well, you can search for books online if want, too!". And the reply came to me almost naturally, "well, but then where is the surprise element? Nothing compares to the pleasure of coming across a book!" Search would just say, "book found in database," I doubt if the search-engine really found the book!

That apart, the whole concept of public libraries with free (again, free) access to all, is just mind blowing. And what's even better, the whole concept works here!

Walking in the aisles with book-racks filled with exciting topics and varied range, I admired Dickinson's words again. Perhaps ages ago, or maybe just the last month, all these words were said, were written. And then they came alive, of course! Who the hell said, "a word is dead; when it is said"? He must be the most boring creature around.

Or he may well be a dumb search engine, mentioning, a search is dead once found?

Goodbye Party for Miss Pushpa T.S.

Friends,
our dear sister
is departing for the foreign
in two three days,
and
we are meeting today
to wish her bon voyage.
You are all knowing, friends,
what sweetness is in Miss Pushpa.
I don't mean only external sweetness
but internal sweetness.
Miss Pushpa is smiling and smiling
even for no reason
but simply because she is feeling.
Miss Pushpa is coming
from very high family.
Her father was renowned advocate
in Bulsar or Surat,
I am not remembering now which place.
Surat? Ah, yes,
once only I stayed in Surat
with family members
of my uncle's very old friend---
his wife was cooking nicely ...
that was long time ago.
Coming back to Miss Pushpa
she is most popular lady
with men and ladies also.
Whenever I asked her to do anything,
she was saying, 'Just now only
I will do it.; That is showing
good spirit. I am always
appreciating the good spirit.
Pushpa Miss is never saying no.
Whatever I or anybody is asking
she is always saying yes,
and today she is going
to improve her prospects
and we are wishing her bon voyage.
Now I ask other speakers to speak
and afterwards Miss Pushpa
will do the summing up.

--- Nissim Ezekiel (1924--2003)

One can hardly miss the hilarious mimicry of Indian English (or is it that only when I mention it; it strikes the reader?). This poem presented a good puzzle to me (I mean, what does the poet really means here?) until I read the foot-notes.

It's a nice little lesson in Indian English, aren't you agreeing :-)

Five years on

Today is January 25th, and I celebrate the fifth birthday of my lovely bike! It has taken me a long way: interestingly, 22,001 kms, the meter reading reads today!

Five years on and my bike is still kicking and knocking healthy. Long live my bike and wide live the roads!!

Sitting on my favourite, cool-n-comfortable
Wooden chair in my room;
Locked inside my world,
Aware of the never-ending chaos
That's present in the outside world,
I wonder;
exactly what
the difference
between these two
seemingly similar words is:

Silence and Peace.

Elementary, Watson!

Q: In case you did not get Reliance Power shares allotted, what should you do?
A: Buy a lot of Reliance Energy shares and wait for some time :p

Victory

The Perth Test victory has been termed as one of the greatest ever for the nation. Many experts believe that it's an unbelievable feat achieved by the Indian team.

To me, the following strike the most [and if these match with the experts' opinions, I'd count it as a plus for me :-)]

• The victory belongs to the whole team. Each and every player of the team had his moments and made sure that he played a part. An exception may be Jaffer's performance, but let's discount that.
• Ponting's give-up against Sharma reminded me of that great over sent down by Flintoff! We have already started calling Sharma as India's McGrath (who can bat!). This kid is fast, and if he can manage his injuries well, he can be the next J Srinath!
  
• Kumble's jump-in-the-air celebration immediately brought out smiles, as a disappointed Symonds looked on.
• RP Singh's stint with the bat proved to be crucial. Singh-Laxman stand almost matches with the margin of the victory.
• Umpiring standards improved to a better level, and significantly, neither sides had any comment to make against Bowden or Rauf.
  

As it happens time and again, every victory is (only) cheered for and every defeat calls for serious analysis. Scarcely have I seen analysis of victories [maybe I need to read the Aussie defeat analyses :-)] in as much detail as for defeats.

Another thing to note is that (sadly?) there will always be pessimists breathing fire. Even in defeat or victory, they will present sadist arguments. I wonder, why they do not want to believe in victory when it has already been achieved!

I also do object to the argument of "isn't it enough of money and attention given to cricket? How about other sports now [that our cricketing heroes have lost again and again?]". It defies logic. Or may be my own logic is at fault: If a team is losing, isn't it prudent and important that we provide more attention to it? When a team is winning, then, I'd imagine that it's time to move on to other sport and conquer that! What say?

LBW

It's that time of this year again. Although "abuzz" would be an exaggerated word in this year's context, at the workplace talks about appraisals have begun. It doesn't come as a surprise to me that appraisal more about talks! It's a long and wide procedure at our organization (and the results, well, are brief).

This involves getting a third umpire's opinion, although the benefit of any doubt goes with the umpire in most cases. How the world feels about your existence at the workplace is important to the management in appreciating/punishing individuals. What's more, you have to invite the opinions about yourself.

And as the other side of this tossed coin, multiple others invite opinions from you. Then, more often than not, you have to be politically (and grammatically, of course) correct. They ask for examples showing certain trait, which you have to provide. All in all, it's quite an involved process (and maybe even more for those who care much about the outcome).

To me, giving feedback is like giving an LBW decision. The best LBW judge I have seen is David Shepherd. He used to raise his finger in a jiffy or he would vehemently decline the appeal. You don't have to analyze each and everything to judge if the batsman had his leg before the wicket when the ball hit his pad. You just know how to judge. Same with the peer feedback. You just know what you are going to write about him/her.

But of course, it's more involved than raising a finger or shaking your head in negation. And with the deadlines approaching, that's taking a lot of effort and time. Not to mention, time, as it stands today, is a prime property. Particularly the way the current project is being handled.

Therefore, without wasting much of it, let me sign off for now.

A terrible mix up

Terrible mix-ups are no rarity as far as Indian Cricket goes. We have quite a few senior (and hence slower?) players in our side who are poor at running between the wickets. This often leads to misunderstanding and mix ups resulting in run outs. In most of such incidents, the shot played is not too bad, the fielder's skills are not required to be exceptional; all it takes is a bad call and in a split-second one of the batsmen is on his way back.

I think something like this happened after Sydney Test was lost.

The shot was decent: We had good evidence to appeal against Steve Bucknor and Mark Benson. Even the umpires should understand that.

Fielders did not have the best of skills: Aussie attitude towards their catching calls, and determination to stay put at the wicket until and unless the finger went up was nothing exceptional. Approach of putting pressure on the umpire rather than the batsman was also a simple enough trick, which worked (an understatement?)

Yet, a bad call has cost us the wicket: I'd call it a terrible mix-up indeed.

The issue at hand, was not ban on Harbhajan Singh for a level 3 offense. If there was a deliberation that lasted eight hours as reported by the press, I think already enough protests would have been registered in front of the match referee. Then, if the inconclusive reply of events points that Harbhajan was at mistake, no harm in accepting the ban. We should really have put our energies on having better umpires standing in next Test. Now that we lost the case of Singh, we have woken up only to realize that Bucknor would be deciding on the appeals in Perth. The prospect of this double setback brought out the baby cries (I am reluctant to call our team a baby team, but can't help the expression!).

To accept the half-truth, if any, about Bhajji, and go for the big one, I think, would have been a better choice. Calling off the tour is not justified, neither is not protesting against the umpires. I agree we deserved a draw at SCG, but at the same time, I think it is proving to be a stronger motivation to perform better at Perth. And boy! We need good umpires there. We cannot have such mistakes committed consistently against only one team over four-five days.

And that's why, I call it a tactical mix-up. Hope we can recover from this wicket and build a stronger partnership.

On a side note, imagine this: Such horrible judgmental mistakes take place against the Aussies in England, when they are 1-0 down in a five match Ashes series. How would Ricky Ponting have reacted then?

I agree that winners should keep winning. But not at all costs. Unless they are challenged, and their position overturned, game would be monotonous and boring. Not to mention, the winners would get complacent too! Perhaps, that's why I have always supported the second ranker! [Take English Cricket and Football teams, Liverpool FC, Nadal/Djokovic, or Hamilton. And be assured, I'll revise the list may my teams win :-)]

Update:
Just as I pressed the Publish Post button, I stumbled upon this news. It's official! Steve Bucknor won't stand in Perth Test.

Austrailia's spirited performance

Today's cricinfo headline reads:

"Kumble questions Australia's Spirit"

I ask, what would they answer? Highlight: Foster's -- Australian for Spirit

Crownless shall be the King

I am back again with stray thoughts on the hot topic of the fortnight: Cricket!

• On first two days, best parts of play, interestingly, came after lunch: during the first hour. India took five wickets on day one, and today, Laxman was all over the Aussies; creaming short ones, full ones, bouncers, and good length balls too!
• Day's best placard from Sydney read: "Steve Bucknor, we want you on our team!"
• Ian Chappel, at times, gets on your nerves. The reason has to be this: he talks Truth! And it's bitter many a times.
  
• There is only one player in the world who can flick an outside-the-off-stump-good-length-delivery to midwicket for a four. And I am glad, he is an Indian!
• Ricky Ponting showed his bat to the umpire while he was being adjudged leg-before. I wonder if he would have done that when he nicked Ganguly through to Dhoni's gloves.
• Dhoni deserved better and a referral to the Third Eye when he cleverly took off the bails of Symmonds. Fortune, as they say, doesn't favor the innovation all the time!
  
• Whatever criticism this slow approach of Dravid's has invited, one thing shines through: he is still there. Batting and battling. Soon he will re-gain is form and as the title of this post suggests, Crownless shall be the King!

... to be continued!

• Four years on, and SCG hasn't changed a bit for VVS. A very well deserved century for him. Hoping, he makes it bigger! This guy relished Aussie attack [ala Obelix v/s Romans ;)]
• Oh, and India, yet again, seem to have thrown away the advantage. Now with the bat though.
  

Leave it

I wonder why "I am sick of work" can not count as a valid reason to take a sick leave.

And while I am at it, I noticed that during my tenure as an employee, I have never taken any sick leave. Sounds Unbreakable? Maybe, maybe not!

[Oops, I forgot to add the usual disclaimer to the previous line! Touch Wood.]

Leave it, then. But I have decided that my next sick leave will have the aforementioned reason!