Memorykeeper

Segway: Making for light feet; The way forward

Since the Segway came out a few years ago, when it was available only through Amazon, it has caught and maintained my interest. A wonderful, functional, well designed piece of technology. At this time, its popularity or rather the growth of, is restricted by the price. Even the rental rates are pretty much unviable. Hence, for now , it will stay in the Wish List!

This is how it works. Simple.

[How the Segway works] from [How Stuff Works]

Amul's Mangal Pandey!!!

Didn't take long for the Utterly Butterly to come up with their own version of 'The Rising'! Mangal Pandey becomes 'Maakhan aan de'!!

From: Amul

Take off on the Bollywood film 'The Rising' featuring 'Mangal Pandey' the sepoy of the mutiny - July'05 

Kafka on the Shore, on the bench

A wonderful afternoon read sitting on a bench placed on a sidewalk of a quiet little mall. In the shade, breeze fanning the heat away, no hurried pedestrians walking to a march keeping time with the innumerable clocks in their minds and in their lives.

A nice leisurely read. Albeit for a short while.
 

'Chance' meetings

'Even chance meetings are the result of Karma'
Things in life are fated by our previous lives. That even in the smallest events there's no such thing as coincidence.

Haruki Murakamii in [Kafka on the Shore]

'Chance' meetings

'Even chance meetings are the result of Karma'
Things in life are fated by our previous lives. That even in the smallest events there's no such thing as coincidence.

Haruki Murakami in [Kafka on the Shore]

A Timely Tool

 

An innocuous looking safety pin. How a pin can be an item of safety, I honestly cannot fathom!! I digress. Where was I? Ah yes, an innocuous looking safety pin. But often times, some of the most innocuous things come to the rescue, as if changing like Superman, zooming to the rescue, changing from properly attired 'normal' person to a superhero wearing his underpants over, rather than under and expecting his flying cape to cover the mistake!!! An innocuous looking safety pin. There I was stuck in the middle of nowhere.  Well! actually in the lobby of a hotel. Couldn't resist a bit of over-dramatization there. Maybe the consequence of one too many Bollywood film and/or Indian telly soap. In the mundane lobby of a hotel, working away at my laptop, fingers flying clickety clack on the keys, feverish pitch. Well! OK, not that much of a feverish pitch, we'll keep it at a steady clickety clack. So, there I was, clickety clack in the mundane. All of a sudden, no clickety clack. Deathly silence. Alright! Not deathly. But on the silence, I must insist. Silence was called for. Clickety clack had to be braked on. Screeching to a halt. [Hey! it's my blog and I can and I will over dramatize, if I want to]. Desperately trying to recollect that telephone number and email address of that person, which would help this person, I was clickety clacking to. Come on you pesky grey cells. Get into gear. Search mode. Recall mode. Nope. Too much of the mundanes dulling the brain, I guess. Calls for the backup. Like the veteran road warrior - no, not the Mad Max type, black leather, black car, black thoughts - no, not the Mad Max type. Saying that, Mel Gibson, with his stiffed up leg and stiff upper and lower lip, in Mad Max, wasn't bad. Deathly silence. So, like the Road Warrior, I whip out the trusty PDA.  I'll soon have the details I'm looking for. Press the ON button, stylus the 'address book', scroll down and bingo there it should be. Press the ON button. Nothing. Press the ON BUTTON!. NOTHING!!! PRESS THE ON BUTTON!! NNOOTTHHIINNGG!!!!   Didn't charge up the battery did we?   Expecting it to run on air juice, did we? BATTERY IS DEAD, Smarty Pants . Now what? Hook up the USB to the PDA, quick reset of the PDA and it should fire up. Quick reset, did I say? Quick?? This is where the designers of such instrument remind you that some people (that is, themselves!) had to work hard to design an instrument. All we do is hand over the cash and off we go on our merry way. No one thinks of the men in white coats and studious glasses, working away in their air conditioned 'labs', slaving away. The reset button is a small, minute hole wherein a thin object needs to be inserted to reset the PDA. Try the pen. Too fat. Try the pencil. Too fat and will break in the hole, sealing my fate!!! Paper clip. Rummage through the bag, the files, the pockets, a measly paper clip, that's all I need. Open one end up and insert that into the reset hole. One measly paper clip. No way, Jose. NO PAPER CLIP FOR YOU! I could hear the CLIP-CZAR, cousin of the SOUP-CZAR from Seinfeld, shout out authoritatively and sharply. I remind myself, I am in the mundane lobby of a hotel, the mundane receptionist at the mundane reception desk,  should have it. "I'm so sorry sir! We used the last box for a conference and don't expect further supplies until this afternoon." This is beginning to seem like Friday the 13th!! I check the date. No luck there even. Nowhere close to a Friday, nor the 13th!! Will anything go right??? Pin. Something pointed. Something thin. Where? Where? How? How? Sat down at the table and laptop again, waiting for the to light up and show me the way!! Just as I sat down, something poked me just below my belt. JUST below the belt, I said, JUST. Not the 'proverbial' below the belt. Ouch! Ouch? What could poke me JUST below the belt? Dint get any ideas now and keep that imagination under check please. I ran my hand down my zipper JUST below the belt. AHA! Something bumpy. Reign in that imagination now, please!! There it was, there was something, under the zip flap and over the flap under the zip. You check and work it out what I mean. Without getting myself into an awkward place, I cannot elaborate further. And what did I say about the imagination?? Reign it in. The only way I could make sure what was it that I was feeling, was to unzip upto where I could feel something. Quick furtive glances around. Anyone looking. Check the walls and ceilings for cameras. I would'nt like to be the star of next Candid Camera or some such ridiculing show on the idiot box. All clear. No one around. No cameras. Let the unzipping commence. Mind that imagination now!! As I unzipped, it slowly came into sight. A label. Something shiny. A safety pin. A safety pin and a label? In my pants? Where? Where? How? How? Ohhhhhh Hoooooo! Its those label and safety pins that most dry cleaners use to identify the pant with the owner's ticket. Careless of my not to have taken it off before wearing the pants. Thank goodness for my carelessness!!. Gingerly. Yes, gingerly - I was taking a pin out from JUST below my belt. Imperative that I was gingerly!!! Gingerly, I take the pin out. Zip up quickly, lest someone catches me and then has to look at me with unapproving eyes and shakes of the head! Open up the pin, insert it into the reset hole behind the PDA, turn it over and Taaaa DAAAAAAA, drum roll please, the familiar start screen fires up. P H E W !!!!!!!!!
'Address book' , scroll, find the name, extract the details, insert the details and send off the communication. All done. All dusted. And all the paperclips of this world have found a new home in a cozy little pocket in the corner of the laptop bag. An innocuous safety pin. A Timely Tool.

Ashes 2005: T3 D5

171-4: 6 wickets to win.
Runs needed no longer in the equation. The balance of the game strongly and surely in England's favour.
Australia playing this out for the draw.

Having looked at the replays of the previous wickets, Martyn's LBW was not an error, but a disaster due to a monstrous lack of judgement from Bucknor. Obviously the ball went the bat - pad route, even without the sounds. One of those 'oops-a-daisy-i-made-a-mistake-sorry-we-are-humans-doing-a-tough-job-Mon!!' decisions. Atrocious.

Ponting finally getting things together and playing a much needed and required captain's knock. A 100 if scored, should be a much satisfying and confidence and belief boosting. These runs under pressure and , if, a draw being squeezed out, will add a bit of belief back into the Oz.

212/5: 5 wickets to win
Close LBW shout against called not-out by Bowden. This brought on a deluge of acidic, charachteristically Boycott, remarks in the ears of Greig. Surely, Greig must wish as times that Boycott teamed up with someone else. Tea called. Just one more session to play out. Just one more session to get 5 wickets.

Last session in play:
Clarke playing positively, but just a tad more casual than he should be. As he plays more, hope he settles down and not play airy fairy shot like he did in 1st innings which lost him his wicket.
Ponting on 91. Nine huge runs to his well deserved, well earned 100.

225/5; 198 to win; 5 wickets to win; 8 runs to 100

There it is. Ponting's 100. A timely, much deserved, much needed performance from the Oz captain. Ably, tad casually, supported by Clarke.

260/5: 5 wickets to win

Clarke gone to a brilliant inswing. Tad too casual. The arrogance of youth. Clarke needs a few more matches to settle into a groove where he can be judicial in the the style he adopts to that any situation warrants.

Gillespie gone. Trying too hard to play the the trademark Gillespie 'forward plop'. Warne in. Talk of a rift between Ponting and Warne. Seems that has been left back in the dressing room. The bigger fight to win, be that in a draw.

Pietersen diving totally unnecessarily to stop a cracking four by Warne. Diving, sliding straight into the advert boards on the boundary. So what if it is a four. At this stage just not worth the risk of an injury.

309/7: 3 wickets to win: 17 overs to draw
Ponting going well. Warne playing as Warne. Riding Lady luck - (he is known for his riding - albeit off the cricket field!). Two brilliant boundaries off Giles. A Square cut and a sweep, consecutive. Showing the top order bats a thing or two. Need the OZ grit and determination, exemplified by Ponting and Warne, during this particular stage of the game. Half chances which were taken, tend to become no chances - dropped. This one by Pietersen off Warne. Pietersen not having a good test.

The England fight losing momentum. Crown tiring. Bowlers blaming the pitch. Catches downed.

314/7: 3 wickets to win; 15overs to draw. Final hour now. Let the nail biting commence!

Warne gone. Flintoff > Warne > 2nd slip Strauss > bounces out > Jones catches one handed. Good catch.

340/8: 2 wickets to win; 54 balls to a draw
The spirit in the crowd and the players back up. Fighting.
Ponting will do the Dravid 'Wall' bit now. The door to a possible, amazing, unthinkable win surely and firmly shut. England in the meantime, doing a West Indies bit with 4 slips, gully.  Last ball of the 100th over, Lee to play it out, got it away to slip, just short. Rooooooooar and a huge sigh of relief.

341/8: 2 wickets to win, 47 balls to draw

This has been one roller coaster of an Ashes Test match. This is the benchmark that all other tests played all over the globe should be measured to. One week we have a test match which ends within 2 days - Zim v NZ - making a mockery of the very essence of Test Cricket. The next we have the Ashes Test matches 2 and 3 which restores all belief in Test Cricket. This surely proves yet again, that real cricket, if fought well and hard, has to be Test Cricket.

Australia forced out a draw off the very last ball. But it has to be considered a magnificent win for the Australians. The Australian grit and determination came through again. Yet another match which went down to the wire, to the very last ball. Nail biting, hair raising, heart thumping.

Ashes 2005. T3.
England 1 - 1 Australia
Two to go.

False Alarm

This is not a the best of pictures from the Samsung phone, due to the flashing lights. There we were sitting at the sidewalk tables of the Coldstone. Wonderful, barmy evening, topped off with Coldstone icecream. Just a nice way to end the a nice Saturday evening. Relishing the ice cream - I had a simple yet, wonderful mix of coffee and sweet cream - watching all sorts of people walk by. Big, small, wide, narrow, every shade of humanity. Walking forth, walking back. Walking in, walking out laden with unimaginable calories. Kids with dads, mother's with kids. One such kid in the mother's arms, walking out of the Coldstone, thinks those 'Fire Alarm' boxes on the wall, to be a toy and must have whacked it. Bright lights, piercing siren. Its saturday, could this be the disco??!! A fire in an ice cream store? Possible? Obviously a false alarm. The mother with the kid-culprit then had the gaule to rejoin her group of mums and kiddies and start depleting the ice-cream!!! Oblivious to the rancour caused and the inconvenience created. Not long before the main street is clogged up - about two minutes - by the flashing red and whites of a fire truck responding to the alarm. Exciting. Yes. False. Yes. So much of inconvenience caused. So unnecessary. Wasteful. Its only a firetruck with a few men in oversized overalls. So what? I'm here to enjoy my icecream!

Scrumptious

It's Sunday. Nowt on the agenda. Hmmmmmm let's see..I know..cropped up the idea. PING! Let's go grocery shopping!! Nice afternoon though. Not as crowded as the store usually is for a Sunday. It is amazing how an Italian owned store can cater so well at such reasonable prices, to the ethnics. Did the usual circuit of the store, cart piled heavy and full. No 'free tasting' of the grapes and/or fruit, along the way today! It was just after lunch, hence no small hunger pangs to satisfy. Rush to get to a checkout with the shortest wait. Thought smart to get to a checkout which had no one waiting! Maybe the other customers knew, on hindsight, that this was the training checkout! BIG Mistake. Watermelons being rung up as Cranberries, Oranges as Melons!!! Also realised how inadvertantly, a careless checkout operator helps in bumping up profits for the store. Put the fresh produce on the countertop scales and punch in the code and weight and price are extended to the cost of that item. But a careless operator can leave his/her hand on the produce while the countertop scale is weighing, weight added. Customer pays for that 'extra' weight. Kaaa chiinnnnng! Load up the groceries in the van. Cart empty. Cart bay too much of a walk. Look around. No one watching. Leave it by the side there!!!! Hop into the van and drive off, shaking the head disapprovingly at someone not rolling the cart back to the cartbays!!!

Ashes 2005: T3 D4

Simon Jones cleaned up the tail. Gillie did well with 26, good support to Warne, sadly out on 90. The nature of the way Warne plays the game, deserves him a 100! Australia just might find Warne as that elusive all rounder! Expected Lee to do more than the solitary run. Either less application or Jones was on fire.

123/2; 265 ahead.
Strass and Bell taking Warne on. Warne seems to be tiring. Too much bowling on D1, without a break. Warne seems to be bowling without his normal rhythm. Add Strauss' new found confidence and aggression, and we have Warne, a pedestrian leg spinner. This is where McGill would have made a difference. Into Tea 270 runs ahead. Post tea England will probably up the ante and play a 20/20 game and get the lead up to around 400 - 450. Australia would do well in expecting the same of England and sharpen up the bowling and creating a bit of pressure on the batsmen, not being able to do what they came out to do. Pressure causes mistakes, brings wickets.

Going back to D3 - [Langer gives a bit of insight] into what some of the Aussie players did during the long rain interruption.

Glenn McGrath and Michael Clarke spent time with Errol Alcott our physiotherapist. Between therapy on his ankle McGrath played Sudoku, while Brett Lee spent about three hours in a small room out the back honing his skills on his beloved guitar. Shane Warne sat in his corner for an hour or so signing fan mail and reading letters from mostly adoring fans.
The television is always a welcome ally for some and with a rugby Test match between Australia and the All Black followed by Manchester United's 2-0 victory at Everton, a feast of football, and the World Championship athletics for the sport fanatics within our team.
Lucy Frostick our long time masseuse was kept busy all day by some of my mates looking for a rub of their weary bodies.
Most of the daily newspapers were read in different parts of the changing room and a couple of guys spent time in the gym or doing a yoga session.

Langer close's his D3 report with: '..we will keep fighting as you might expect from Australia in an Ashes series.'

Gillie's bowling a lot more controlled now. Gillchrist sharper too. Made a nice stop down the leg side, full stretch off Gillie's ball pitching on the off. Good stop.

Strauss' performance this 2nd innings probably will seal his opening spot for some time, providing the Oz bowlers don't get the better of him in remaining tests.

This bowling performance by Gillespie is surely going to catalyse his replacement in T4 and T5. 3 No-balls on the trot. Few good balls in between run-of-the-mill-club-level bowling. Lee or McGrath needs to be brought back. Ponting's dilemma: Destroy Gillie's belief and take him off, bring back Lee or McGrath and tire them.

160/2: Brilliant ball by Warne. Batsman missed the leg to off spin; Gillchrist missed it, 1st slip missed it, goes on for four. Half chance which England converted and the Aussies have failed to convert.

McGrath brought back just as the run onslaught is about to begin. Will the bat turn out to be better than the ball or vice versa? Probably the bat, since McGrath is half the normal bowler. Being hit around the park, at will and with ease. Aussies visibly shaken. Mini conferences going on all over the ground. Gillchrist with Ponting, followed by Warne with Ponting. Hayden with McGrath at the other end.  180/2; 322 ahead.

Warne just not getting that bit of help from lady luck. Come to think of it, the Australian team seems to have fallen out of favour of Lady Luck. Nothing seems to be going their way today. They, the OZ, would be glad to see the back of this particular day and regroup for the last time for T3. Serious thinktank sessions are due.  204/2; 345 ahead

What is a safe declaration figure? 98 overs tomorrow x 4 runs per over = 392runs. Australia have the potential to make this figure. So a safe pressurising total for Australia to chase would be around 5/over = 490 runs. So anything around 450 would be what England will be hoping for, providing for individual batsmen's milestones: Strauss' 100 and Bell's 50 and/or 100.

Strauss' 100. Opening slot sealer performance. Well played. Looks even better with Strauss' left ear all bandaged up after Lee's ball hit him on the helmet!! Well played. 220/2; 362 ahead.

The stage of the game and the run of 'non-luck' reminds me of Alec Stewarts shouts to the bowlers from behind the stumps when things are not going right. 'One gets us two. C'mon. One gets two'. Getting that ONE seems to be pretty far off for Australia right now. The OZ just need that ONE to turn the tide of luck in their favour.

There's the ONE! Strauss gone off McGrath, holes out to Martyn. 106. Good catch eventually. Does the tide turn now??  Peitersen comes in at a stage and time, just right for his style and tempo of batting. Interesting battle within a battle.
224/3: 366 ahead

There you go: ONE gets TWO. Pietersen gone. LBW 0, off McGrath.
225/4: 367 ahead.

Flintoff in. Standing about 2ft in front of the crease to McGrath. Intention telegrahed. Bell's well deserved steady 50.  Milestones done. Flintoff on the off now, I presume. Warne>Flintoff, bat, pad, shoot up, reaching Gillchrist fails to keep the ball in his glove. Life. Will calm Flintoff down for an over.
226/4; 368 ahead.

The number of words I have written about today's proceedings can only show how engrossing a day's play this has been. This is what Test matches are about. True test of Cricketing skills.

Bell on 61. Does Flintoff allow Bell more of the strike to get his 100, negating his (Flintoff's) role and purpose in pushing the score along?? Bell being given a shot at his 100. Flintoff locking one end up for Bell to push forward. Making Freddie play his unnatural game. McGrath sees that and as Mark Nichols says: 'That is that'!! Freddie's castle knocked over by a well deserving McGrath. The tide of luck turned?
248/5: 390 ahead

Bell's gone. Didnt get his 100. Holed out to Katich off McGrath. England's purpose pushed them into all these mistakes, and will make McGrath's figures look good.
264/6: 406 ahead

McGrath to Jones: 6, 4, 6!!! England declares. A shade too few runs to declare on. Aussies playing for draw or push for a win???
280/6; 422 ahead
McGrath: 5/115, off 20.5 overs
Australia need 423 runs to win. England need 10 wickets!

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423 runs, 10 wickets, ~ 98 overs, ~ 4.31/over required.