ESPN E-ticket on Bob Woolmer's muder

ESPN.com's E-ticket dwells in detail on the Bob Woolmer murder and and the subsequent investigations that are currently underway in full swing. A must-read which also speaks in length about the crazy following that the game as got in the sub-continent and the consequent malices that have plagued the game. Even our Cricinfo hasn't covered the whole story in such a detailed manner which has a lot of conspiracy theories doing the rounds in the investigation circles. (It is a really lengthy article and so give yourself a good 30 mins to go through it)

BTW, my prayer to God on the eve of the World Cup finals: "Dear God, not again"

Aadavari Maataluku Ardhale Verule songs - Yuvan in amazing form

Though it is said that "Music does not know language", I have always found it difficult to enjoy songs from languages that I do not understand. It is not very often that songs from a language that you can not speak and that you can not understand impress you. But an album from the Yuvan - Selvaraghavan combination is always special and definitely has the track record and expectation around it to make you do that. The only Telugu songs that I have listened to before are songs from Anukokunda Oka Roju (that was mainly bcos I simply loved the movie), Bommarillu (when my Telugu friend kept playing the CD in an endless loop in one of our road trips) and of late the incredible Maayeraa from Sainikudu (If you have not listened to this song, please do. Harris has done magic in that song with SPB singing, well, just like only SPB can).

After both Senthil and Sanjeevi egged me on to listen to this album, I was still skeptical and not sure what to expect when listening to songs from a language that I can't understand. But one listen to the songs, all my fears were allayed and I was actually thanking them both as I was immensely enjoying the songs and feeling good about my decision to heed to their suggestion. Now, to the songs in the AMAV album:

Allantha Doorala is amazing. If there is a song featuring SPB in Yuvan's score, then I develop a special liking for that song even before I listen to the song. And when the song is so magical and exceeds your expectations, then it ought to be the pick of the album for me. If you are a fan of the Maestro's uncomplicated but addicting music, then this one is for you. The interludes are amazing in this one. Yuvan brings back memories of his dad in good measure.

Cheli chamaku is awesome. This is a song which does not even require a second listening for you to like. Though the tune has a 'heard before' feel to it, I think the place where Yuvan scores is in his choice of the singers. Adnan Saami and Anushka both just suck you in. Amazing stuff. If SPB had not sung the previous song, this would have been easily the pick of the album.

Yemaindhi Ee Velaa - The first time in a long while that I am actually liking a song sung by Udit Narayanan. The flute piece with which the song ends is just so lilting. Oh Baby - starts off very promisingly with the 'Oh Baby' chorus but starts sounding ordinary as the pallavi starts. But the charanam makes up for it and thus the charanam along with the 'Oh Baby' part of the song make you want to listen to the song more and more. Naa manasuki - another gem of a melody with a foot-taping charanam. Karthik's voice is just soothing. This is a typical Yuvan composition and you can feel that he enjoyed scoring this one. Manasa manninchamma - The beats and tempo are the highlights of this song.

Overall, Yuvan and Selvaraghavan have come up with another winner of a soundtrack. Usually each one of us have the least favorite song when it comes to any album but the fact that I do not have one for this album and can not skip any song when I play all the songs in the album is testimony to the fact that this is an album of very high quality. Though the album does not have much in terms of novelty or freshness of sounds (something that Pudhupettai had in loads and loads and which I still consider the best Tamil album to have come out in the last few years), it is a highly enjoyable and instantly addictive album. I would be placing this album on par with this combo's 7/G Rainbow colony bcos almost all the songs are so melodious and very catchy. Yuvan and Selva prove that you don't need to understand the language to enjoy and relish the music and Selvaraghvan, on his part, once again proves that he is the best when it comes to extracting the best out of Yuvan. Clearly, Yuvan's best of the year so far but I am a greedy fan and hence hoping for greater things (read Satham Podaathey, Kannamoochi Yaenadaa, Idhu Maalai Nerathu Mayakkam, Billa 2007) to come.

Good-bye Lara and Happy B'day, Sachin

So, there he goes, walking out of international cricket with his head held not as high as he would have wished and surprising everybody with his sheer timing (of the announcement that is).The cricket experts around the world were made to work overtime as Lara announced his retirement from international cricket, catching many by surprise.

The one thing that strikes you about Lara among cricket followers in India is this - I have never come across anyone who does not like him. There are Sachin lovers & Sachin haters, there are Ganguly lovers and Ganguly haters, there are Ponting lovers and Ponting haters but there are no two sides when it comes to Lara. Everyone seems to have a soft corner for him. Every single cricket loving friend of mine with whom I have had endless discussions (read arguments) have always had only good things to say about the man and that I think is something remarkable.

One huge reason for him being so widely popular and loved back in India is that never once did the hugely hyped up Sachin - Lara rivalry really materialize. The Sachin - Warne rivalry is part of folklore of Indian cricket but not the Sachin - Lara one. Plus, the fact that Sachin and Lara have been good friends off the field did not help matters either.

Even being one of the biggest Sachin fanatics that you will ever come across, I have always admired Lara, the batsman. As a person outside the cricketing arena, he was a maverick of some sort and has not always conducted himself in the manner in which his contemporaries, say Sachin has done. But as a batsman, he always provided us the thrills and excitement that only true geniuses can bring. The way he gets himself into position before playing any shot was a treat to the eyes.

Among the many other things I always liked about him is that he never did change his batting style and he continued playing his natural game until the end of his career. That one reason will be cited by many who argue that Lara is better than Sachin. In spite of his team doing abjectly bad, he never stopped playing his natural attacking instinct and that is something I sincerely wish Sachin does too.

He had many similarities with Sachin too: What he faced during the later phase of his career was something that Sachin had to put up with during his best years - mediocrity around him. During the last 5 years, the West Indies have fallen to the bottom of the world rankings in both forms of the game and Lara, both as a batsman and as a captain, has been unable to stop that downward trend. That is why whenever the discussion of how Lara is a better match-winner than Sachin is brought up, I always shoot back "Has he done anything of note ever since the giants Walsh and Ambrose retired? Nope. Nothing. Zilch." That says it all. He played in a mediocre team and the results were expectedly mediocre. He had some great personal scores and series (like the unforgettable one against the Sri Lankans) but the answer to the question did he play any innings that an truly be defined as match-winning would be a big NO.

Couple of my favorite Lara innings:

1) The 1996 quarterfinal against South Africa - Lara single handedly won that match against the Proteas who seemed invincible until they ran into Lara. What an innings it was. This is one of those rare innings that you just can't take it away from your heart.

2) His 153 against the Aussies which I think is what will be remembered as his best innings. It was an epic innings by all means, where he makes 153 of the 311 runs needed for victory and when he guided the West Indies from a point where they were reeling at 105 for the loss of 5 wickets.

When asked how he wished to be remembered as a player, Lara replied that he wanted to be remembered as someone who entertained. Entertained sure, we were, with his magical timing and swashbuckling brilliance for well over a decade. Brian Lara, you will be missed. Big time.

BTW, today is April 24th and that means only one thing - Sachin's bday. Here's wishing the master a hugely successful year ahead and a year in which Sachin will silence his critics once for all. Sachin, we are all with you and just one bad series is not going to change things for your fans. You are and will always be the best in our books. The Accenture commercial says, "Go on. Be a Tiger" But we say "Go on. Be a Sachin" bcos there is only one Sachin and that is you. Happy birthday to the little master...

Odd petal out?

If this is Odd man out,
then is this not Odd petal out?

The Tulip in the second picture is really amazing. This is the first time I am seeing a petal of 2 different colors in a single flower. Incredible, right?! These pictures were taken during our trip to the Tulip festival in Skagit Valley, Washington. Tim Russert says If its Sunday, its Meet the Press. But I say, If its April and if you are a desi in Seattle, its Trip to the Tulip Festival :) More pictures here. All these pictures were taken with my friend Amar's Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi SLR camera. So, any appreciation for the photos in the link may to go to him and his SLR.

Weekend movies - Deepavali & Paruthiveeran

Deepavali – Horrible and pathetic movie. I really do not understand what Lingusamy saw in this movie that made him produce it. Mr. Lingusamy, if you think you have the knack of Shankar in identifying good scripts, then you have news - You DO NOT. So, please stick to doing what you do best - direct movies. Iron rods, hammers, trailer lorries - wondering what these are. These are the items that Ravi gets hit repeatedly with but guess what? Nothing happens to him. It is ridiculous to see that happening all throughout the movie. Bhavana looks bloated. Whatever happened to the sweet & cute Bhavana we all saw in Veyil, I don’t know. What should I say about Ravi. God has been kind to him in almost aspects and qualities that a hero needs except the 2 crucial ones - acting & voice. I don't know if there is any chance of someone being able to change their voice. If the answer is No to that question, then I guess Ravi will never be able to make it big in Tamil cinema. He might or actually I should say, he will have his handful of female friends who think he is cute but I guess that will be it. I will be happy if I am proven wrong since he is one of my close friends' childhood friend and I really would like to see him come well. Yuvan was the only solace in the movie. I had heard almost every single song in the album so many times that I would have memorized them. It was the songs that I was looking forward to and there was not much disappointment on that front. The way situations were created for the 2 favorite songs - Kaadhal vaithu & Pogaathe - were pretty good and were one of the few bright points in the entire movie. Whenever a song is played in the background instead of the actors actually mouthing the lyrics, I love it and hence I loved the way both those songs were picturized. Background score too was awesome. The only other thing I liked in the movie was how it ended. Instead of resorting to the usual way of showing Bhavana to regain her lost memory, the way it was showed where she trusts him and trusts what he says on seeing whatever he has done for her was something different. Though the way the whole climax scene was implemented was as clumsy as it could get, I still liked the ending. The whole concept of how the entire Royapuram area is under Vijayakumar's control and how everyone in the area comes together whenever something that happens to him is plain ridiculous. The director Ezhil was the one who gave us the forgettable Thullaadha Manamum Thullum and that should have been a pre-cursor to what to expect in this movie. He lives upto the expectations I had on him. I am sure Linguswamy has learnt his lesson.

Paruthiveeran - Watching Paruthiveeran was not like watching a movie at all. It was as though a hidden camera was placed in the houses of real people without their knowledge These were not my comments on watching the movie but it was our Chief minister Karunanidhi's comments after watching the movie and I completely agree with those words. Each and every scene was so authentic that when you finish watching the movie, you feel you have been just transported back from the streets of Madurai & its suburbs. This is the movie that impacted me like no other movie had done since Sethu happened 7 years ago. In fact, when my friend was watching the movie after I had completed it, I could not even ‘listen’ to the climax scene and I went to another room just to stay away from it. But the lootties of Karthik & Saravanan were just so enjoyable that I was able to watch them so many times. I loved every bit of it. The way those guys were talking to each other mouthing all those frequently used bad words, it was all too natural. I guess this movie has become somewhat like Sethu bcos back when Sethu was running to packed houses, people came to watch the movie mainly for the fun-filled first half and many left after the scene where Vikram is beaten to pulp. Similarly in Paruthiveeran again, I can see this happening. One of my friends who saw the movie in India was saying that many in the crowd started leaving right before the heavy scenes were just about to start.

That guy Karthik was absolutely terrific. The way he enjoyed himself and let loose while dancing those kuthu songs were a treat to watch. His nonchalant attitude and his dialogue delivery were all top class and it is hard to believe that someone who is doing his first movie has been able to accomplish that. The only downside, if there was any, is that he reminded so much of his brother in his voice modulation and dialogue delivery. Priyamani was equally good. Some folks were suggesting that she should get a national award for this performance of her. While not taking anything away from her fabulous performance, I just could not convince myself to come to an agreement with that statement. She was great but deserving a national award, No. Her voice was one of the biggest dampeners on her performance. Abhirami in Virumaandi is the benchmark against whom I compare any heroine's performance in the last few years and I will have to say that Priyamani falls way short of that performance by Abhirami. Saravanan, as his chithappa is just awesome. He himself would not have dreamt in his wildest dreams (when he started out as a hero) that he would land roles like these in the twilight years of his career. I loved the way Ganja Karuppu's comedy was seamlessly and neatly woven into the screenplay. Yuvan was terrific again. Ariyaadha vayasu will easily find its way into the Best of Yuvan CD. Maestro as the vocalist for that song was a perfect choice. His background score was awesome throughout the movie and it was in the climax scenes where I thought he could have done a better job. For a climax as heavy as this, we needed something as haunting as the one the Maestro came up with in Sethu. But then it would also be unfair on our part to expect that kind of stuff from Yuvan. One other sore point that I noticed was that in one fight scene, Ameer too falls into the recent trend of stunt men flying around. It is when you see scenes like that in a movie like this, that hurts us most, than if you see it in a movie like Anniyan. Overall, the Best movie I have seen since hmmm...this is where it gets tricky. Veyil, Pudhupettai, Thavamaai Thavam Irundhu are some movies that come to my mind. I would finally settle for Kaadhal. So, there is goes - my best movie since Kaadhal was released in late 2005. "As you sow, so shall you reap" is what we all have known but Ameer seems to say "As you sow, so shall you (& your loved ones) reap" and that is what I think has touched a chord in most of us.

Responsibility - What's your policy?

This Liberty Mutual commercial kind of takes off from the concept we saw in Pay It Forward. Loved this one the first time I watched it and thus thought of posting as part of my Most Favorite Commercials series.

Last minute travel and an apology

The weekend before last weekend, an unexpected trip came up. The decision to travel on a Saturday morning for a 3-day weekend to Los Angeles (& Phoenix) was made at around 4:30pm on the preceding Friday. So, started looking for deals and the best deal that almost all of the usual suspects like Expedia, Orbitz, Priceline and Travelocity were able to come up with was a 475$ Round trip fare. If I were to book the tickets on a month's notice, I would have got the tickets or around 220$. So, I was not ready to pay 475$ for flight to a city on the West coast. That is when the site which is popular for last minute deals came to my mind.

The name of the site is Site59 (www.site59.com). The 59 in their name is bcos of the fact that people can look for tickets at the 59th minute. The site usually offers deals for only 2 weekends from the current date and they usually come up with either one of the 2 package deals - flight + hotel or flight + car. And the deal I got there was unbelievable. I got a non-stop Round trip flight to LA for 277$ and the great news was that the price included the car rental too. And wait, here is the best part - I usually search for discount coupons for any website that I buy stuff from. So, when I googled for Site59 coupons, I was able to get a coupon which took a further 25$ off from my fare. Thus, finally I ended up getting the deal for just over 250$. So, folks who plan for last minute travel, check out the site. I am sure you will get a good deal out of it.

Also visited Phoenix as part of the trip. Since my friend who came with me to LA had not seen the Canyon yet, we went for a half-a-day trip to the Grand Canyon. This is my third trip here (second in the last 4 months) and so the structure has ceased to amaze me anymore :) The only thing I was looking forward to was visiting the new skywalk that was opened couple of weeks back. But unfortunately for me, though the glass bridge was open on the 22nd, it was not open to the general public until the 28th. So, I missed out in being one of the first few visitors to the engineering marvel by a whisker.

Alaska Air is an airline that is know for their service. Since Seattle is one of their hubs, I frequently fly them and their service has always stood out. It was no different this time around too. One hour into my flight from Seattle to LA, I saw this beautiful snow clad mountain from my seat. It looked exactly like my favorite Mt. Rainier but Mt. Rainier usually comes like 15-20 mins after taking off from Seattle. Looking at me, many in the flight started looking out of the window but nobody knew what the mountain was. So, I asked the flight attendant on what the mountain was. Turned out he too was unaware of that mountain. But he did not leave it at that - he called the pilot over the phone and after getting the answer from him, announced the name of the mountain to be Mt. Shasta not just to me but over the public address system. That was some pretty cool service.

On a side note, have anyone of you noticed this when flying? During the landing of the flight, the urgency with which the flight attendants announce the arrival at the destination and other information about the destination city has always annoyed me. I mean, the flight would not have even become stable after the landing before which the flight attendants would take the mike and start reeling off her messages. Is it something they do to intentionally to distract us from the after-effects of landing?

On another side note, check this story out - iPod takes bullet. I am sure everyone of us at some point of time have ridiculed our Tamil heroes (like Ramarajan in Pongi Varum Kaveri) where they are shown as being saved from bullets bcos of some metal thing they had in their pockets. We owe an apology to those heroes & directors now that this has happened :)

Monthly Sports Round-Up - March 2007

The ICC World Cup begins
Though did not watch the complete opening ceremony, managed to catch some action of it. Should say wasn't very impressed. Somehow all the opening ceremonies of major sporting events (soccer world cup, the Olympics and the Super Bowl to name a few) are all getting very monotonous and I am no more excited to watch them as I used to get, say a decade ago. All these opening ceremonies seem to have a preset readymade template and the WC opening ceremony was no different, with it religiously aping that template. There would be lot of fireworks, display of a wide range of colors, some music band will be playing hit music and last but not the least, some selected locals will be dancing near the stage. The organizers sure put in a lot of effort behind the show but I am guessing as long as there is nothing new or unique in the show, it is going to be tough to attract the audience.

Federer's 41 match winning streak ends
Anytime Federer loses a match, it is news and not the other way around (I had written the same words about Tiger in my last month's write-up but I think this is applicable to Federer much more than Tiger). Guillermo Vilas' record of the longest winning streak (at 46 matches) was the one which I thought will be the next one to fall in the Federer era that we are living in. Thankfully, Guillermo Canas who got in as a lucky loser knocked out Federer in straight sets in the Pacific Life Open masters series tournament at Indian Wells and has given all tennis fans some hope for the future. It really felt so good to know that someone can indeed beat Federer and that Federer can have a bad day at work, just like any other player. Here’s hoping for many more such bad days :)

Patriots on a free-agent signing frenzy
If you are a big NFL fan, there is no real off-season to relax. Ever since the free-agency signing period opened up, every team has been signing up players like crazy but none did it like the New England Patriots. They have completely revamped their wide receiver core, by signing some prominent names like Daunte Stallworth (who had a big year with the Eagles last year), Kelly Washington and Wes Walker. Other big name trades involved Thomas Jones signing with the Jets who were in desperate need for a running back and the Browns signing their once chief tormentor Jamal Lewis, which BTW I thought was a stupid move since Jamal Lewis is well past his prime and he is hardly going to have a handful of 100 yard games the coming season. As for the Seahawks, they made one big move by signing DE Patrick Kerney of the Atlanta Falcons in a fierce fight involving the Broncos, who settled the score by signing TE Daniel Graham in whom the Seahawks were interested in. Overall, the Patriots were the big winners in the free agency signing and looks like the loss to the Colts in the AFC Championship game has hurt Bellichick just a wee bit more.

Gibbs sets World record
Hitting sixes off all the 6 balls in an over is a dream for every cricketer and to be able to do it in International cricket is just next to impossible. But Gibbs just accomplished the impossible task by hitting 6 sixes of the 30th over in their contest against Netherlands. Poor Dan van Bunge was the one who endured the ignominy of seeing his name being associated with such a humiliating record. Though records like these are highly entertaining, ironically, it is also exactly feats like these that completely dampen one's expectations from these early stages of the world cup. One boring and insipid game after another.

Tiger goes from boom to bust at the Arnold Palmer Invitational
Not often do we see Tiger going from within 1 shot of the lead mid-way through the final round and finally ending up a whopping 11 shots behind the eventual winner Vijay Singh. It was a completely un-Tiger like performance from the golfing maestro who is known for his patented Sunday march. Every time he has been in the lead entering the 4th day, he has managed to win the tournament except once. Though he wasn't sharing the lead entering the 4th round in this tournament, the fact that he was just 1 shot behind the leader midway through the 4th round should have made all Tiger fans to anticipate another charge by Tiger. Unfortunately that did not happen and instead Tiger ended up tying his career-worst score in a non-major, finishing off with a bogey, double-bogey and triple-bogey finish. With just 1 tournament and 2 weeks between now and the Master's, it is going to be an interesting 2 weeks to see how Tiger bounces back from such a performance.

A billion hopes dashed
In a do-or-die game against the neighbors from the Emerald Islands, Team India folded without putting up a fight and thus were sent packing out of the tournament even before the Super 8 stage began. This is India's earliest exit from the World Cup tournament since 1991 where again we were knocked out in the first round. Before anybody could wake up to what was happening, India was out of the World cup. The bowling was decent in all the 3 games but it was the batting that let us down inexcusably in both the games we lost. Just like how Azhar and Ganguly's decisions to field first in the 1996 & 2003 World Cups have notoriously become part of the history of Indian cricket, Dravid's decision to bowl first against the Bangladeshis will forever be remembered as his biggest blunder. But as always, there was a bright side to the whole sad saga - our other neighbors Pakistan too lost, though unlike us, they had match-fixing to be blamed for the loss against the Irish.

Tiger express back on track
After losing at the Arnold Palmer invitational tournament the week before in a very un-Tiger like performance, Woods comes back strongly to win the WGC-CA Championship in Doral, with a comfortable 2 shot margin. When Tiger started the final round with a 4 shot lead, none had any doubt as to who is going to win the tournament. But Tiger & his fans had to go through some nervous moments before clinching the title. Now, everything is set for the big daddy of them all - The Masters, which begins this week at the Augusta National Golf Club, GA.

Kobe goes berserk
Scoring 50 points in a game in the NBA is not easy. But Kobe just went on a scoring rampage and scores 50 points in 4 games on the trot. This was Kobe at his best. After the Lakers lost 7 consecutive games (a first in coach Jackson's illustrious career), Kobe decided to take matters in his own hands and went on this scoring spree. And no wonder, the Lakers ended up winning all 4 of them. The streak ended when he could 'only' score 43 points in another game against the Warriors. The experts of the game were so much awestruck that they even started comparing him with the best of them all MJ (which would be considered sacrilege if anybody else had been compared to MJ). The Lakers are now well in the playoff hunt but once they get there, I feel that they have no chance against the Big 3 from the Western Conference - Mavericks, Suns and Spurs.

Canas does it again
Looks like God has answered my prayers. As though beating Federer 2 weeks ago at Indian Wells was not just a flash in the pan, Canas does the improbable once again by beating Federer at the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, FL. This time around Federer puts up a better show and took Canas to a 3rd set tie-break before losing eventually. These 2 defeats of Federer have given me the hope that the monotony that we have been witnessing the last couple of years - in the form of Federer winning every game and Grand Slam he plays - might come to an end. But the problem with this reasoning is that Federer lifts his game up couple of notches above whenever he plays in the Grand Slams and so beating him in a Grand Slam tournament is still going to be an uphill task. But till then, lets enjoy this well-deserved break for the moment.

In Shankar, we (Thalaivar fans) trust

Have seen Thalaivar in such amazing get-ups in the last 15 years or (to be more accurate), since Thalapathy happened in 1991? We can see Shankar, the magician, at work in all these stills. Shankar has more than lived upto our expectations, with both the songs and the stills released. And BTW, the remaining songs rock too and will soon come up with the full fledged post on the same.

Billa Ranga Baashaa thaan...Ivan pistol pesum beshaa thaan