India did shine in Athens....

kudos to the brilliant perofmance by Mr. Rathore, India's only saving grace in Athens.. barring that single silver medal, india returned void.... and our sports authorities would continue to say, this is only a beginning.. we have created history.. etc... hey, some one please tell me, when will we pass through this fledgling phase? in another 30 yrs??

on the flip side, am quite happy about china's (rightly called the asian lion) performance.... second only to USA in medal tally.. ma waiting for the olympic edition where china tops the winners...

ma back at work after a week's off.. been to my native place for Onam... i was in need of a break..

only 80 days for CAT 04... gotta run:-)

so long
roy

The charm of Haiku..

haiku, for the uninitiated, is one of the most important form of traditional japanese poetry; terse, pithy and cute... it was through a friend's blog that i came to know about haiku... spent a couple hrs trying to understand what haiku is all about... boy, i was captivated by the beauty of these pieces of poetry... though, haiku by birth is japanese, you can write a haiku in any language.. english, spanish, finnish etc.... it is all about sticking to the set of guidelines, which define a typical haiku...

take a shot at these samples from the web.... amazing indeed!!!

An old pond!
A frog jumps in-
The sound of water.

The first soft snow!
Enough to bend the leaves
Of the jonquil low.

In the cicada's cry
No sign can foretell
How soon it must die.

and needless to say, ma became a hardcore haiku aficionado now.. and my piece will come here in a couple days....

me outta town for a vacation...
adieu to blogging for a while..

so long
roy

Dramtic moments from Athens!!

i missed the drama unfolded in the Olympic aquatic stadium yesterday.. 21 yr old american aron peirsol cruised to victory in the men's 200 m backstroke.. he was well ahead of the silver medallist marcus rogan from austria... it was heart breaking to see the score board showing DSQ against peirol's name.. he was disqualified!! well, you are on cloud nine when you come to know that you have won a gold for your country in an Olympics.. nothing beats the feeling.. and it is deadly when u hear that the medal is going to be stripped off from u... anyways, it was a life for peirol.. moments before the award ceremony, he was cleared of the 'foul'... a technical error from the lane referee... kudos... he is there on top of the world again...

the austrian was disappointed too, albeit for a moment.. but he was quick in shoving off that euphoria... let me quote from rogan straight away...

"For a moment, I thought about gold and the idea was just beautiful, but after all, it's fair like this. No medal is as beautiful as a friendship."

coolio.... i love that....

on a side tragic note... doping rocks the indian contigent again, with the latest entrant being sana macha chanu... three cheers there lady.. keep the spirit up:-)

and india's only hope for a Gold, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi surrendered to the german duo Nicolas Kiefer and Rainer Schuettler... quite an unceremonious exit.....

so long
roy

Kudos to the Dreamers!

Dreams... as brazen as they come
Red as roses and soft as a feather
Taking you to the most intriguing fantasies!
The vicarious fulfillment of cherished wishes!

For a moment, you think
Am living that long longed life
Ephemeral... yet gratifying
On a real note, the physical world, where you face the harsh realities
Is no fantasy!

Learn to dream, if that does come easy..
And kudos to the dreamers!!
You are a bunch of awesome acheivers...

And thats the end of my reverie...
Am back at work...

so long
roy

Corporate Whitepapers??

ma writing all types of tech docs these days... starting from feasibility reports to random evaluation notes.... guess what, i end up churning out at least couple of docs every week.. the CEO goes for a prospective customers' meet, the sales manager making a presentation on extra features in an imminent product release, the content for new promotionals.. i need to come up with docs for all such trivia..

ma doing a bull **itting write up on prop-up blockers... hehe.. we need to convince a few of our tech savvy customers as to why our latest application falls victim to those little monsters called pop-up blockers... so it's docs all the way... corporate bull **itting:-)

so long
roy

The cute hurricanes???

a monster hurricane thrashed through the neighbourhoods of florida, demolishing hundreds of buildings, putting 13 people to death... the culprit is charlie.. all those hurricanes do invariably have sweet names.. the ones which rhyme with love, sophistication and politness....

see the list for a start.... the smiling, unscrupulous assassins??

Arlene, Bret, Cindy,Dennis,Emily,Franklin,Gert,Harvey,Irene,Jose,Katrina,Lee,Maria
Nate,Ophelia,Philippe,Rita,Stan,Tammy,Vince,Wilma...

the list is endless... and the best of my picks, irene...:-)

so long...
roy

Wither capital punishment.....

14 august 2004, the day when dhananjoy chatterjee gets hanged to death for raping and murdering a teenage girl.. well, this was a controversial case, started in the early nineties.. his mercy plea was rejected by the president and is waiting for death sentence... am not sure about the timing for the execution...mebe, in the wee hrs.. all i can say is that capital punishment is so barbaric and has to be abolished by legislation...

well, the antagonists to capital punishment include well known film maker aparna sen and magsaysay awardee mahasweta devi.... anyways, the president had a tough decision to make and he did indeed make a choice...

the man did commit a heinous crime and it has been proved. but it is not fair to kill a man just because he killed somebody... we really do not have the right to take away the lives of fellow beings.. that extra wisdom.... thats where man raise above the rest of the animal
kingdom... a life sentence would have been more justifiable.... am hoping the legislation would change for better:-)

so long
roy

The sole winner in Athens Olympics!!

came across this truly inspiring news while reading through the morning newspaper today.. 16 year old Dana Nasarella will represent Kuwaiti Women in Athens Olympics.. she is the first woman athlete representing her country.. kuwait is slowy yielding to the liberals, thrashing the fundamentalists' intransigence on various issues.. women enjoy more freedom in the society these days, barring the right to vote of couse... coming to Dana... she will compete in 100 M sprint.. the fact that she is nowhere near world standards', clocking a mediocre 13+ sec, is not going to be a deterrent.. and am sure she will finish last in the very first heats itself.. but thats a different story... it is the spirit of participation and the taste of freedom!! nothing else matters... way to go dana...

so long
roy

India in Olympics...

hey.. time to watch out for those breath taking moments when indian members compete in a handful of items (as ever..) in the Athens Olympics... well, here is my take on India's would be achievements..

athletics, the 4x400m relay squad with beenamol in the lead has a slim chance to barge into the semi finals.. the US team looks formidable in this exciting event..

anju boby george, if she can keep up the tempo and raise her performance level under severe pressure, she would end up with a bronze... and there is no doubt about her entry into the finals..

binu is not game enough for 400 mtrs race.. not world class to say the least.. india's shooting team led by Sunny Thomas is a cool squad!! we might end up with a couple medals from the shooting events...

leander and mahesh would bring a coveted Gold from the venerable olympic venue... reasons enough to celebrate for the indian contingency??

so long...
roy

Snapshots from Hell!!

I knew that this book is famous.. And got a chance to grab a copy during last weekend.. I was not disappointed either. A wonderful creation by Peter Robinson. A must read for all BSchool aspirants I would say... I was captivated... Didn't even close the book once I started reading... Lay your hands on this book... A must read indeed.....

so long
roy

The CAT Game...

Belling a CAT doesn't come easy, especially when it refers to the entrance exam to the venerable Indian Institutes of Management... And this is going to be my second shot at that monster of all exams.. Have joined TIME's test series... And the first of the series started yesterday, 01 August.. The test was easy by all means.. Did pretty well in English, as I always do.. But messed up maths and Di.. miles to go before i sleep... DI needs lots of practice... have decided to try atleast one set a day..

Today we had a buffet lunch at hotel Mascot, KTDC's flag hotel in the city.. the menu was fabulous... our relatives, who are NRIs based in UK, pretty much enjoyed the food.. sudesh has even decided to stay there for a couple days... and am back to office at 4:00 PM...