Turnarounds

I've heard a huge number of people complain about India's loss against SA on Saturday. Whatever may be the reasons, and there were many of them, defeat is one thing that is not so readily accepted from this team.

This wasn't always the case though. Moments of brilliance weren't savoured as much earlier because we knew they were fleeting moments. We would pray for draws and respectable second round exits, we would settle for a loss on the last day or in the death overs, considering them an honourable result.

Why now are we not as patient? If you try tracing it back to see if there was one point where change began, when it turned around, it's this game.
It's not exactly a moment, because moments cannot contain the struggle which tests you. Struggles are beautiful, they empower you.
My memories of the game are a bit hazy. We'd been rolled over in the first test and ecams were approaching so preparations were on in full swing especially at the tuition I would go to after school. A small TV would play on mute (If our tuition master felt like it) and the feed would be blighted by static but it was good enough. It was on the first day's afternoon that we saw Harbhajan put us in a good position for the first time. A lot of unbelievable Australian fightback followed which made use lose hope.
The first innings collapse was a stark reminder of our hopelessness. But what followed was history.
For two days we feverishly followed the score with transistors hidden in schoolbags, through the kids of teachers who had the luxury of going home during lunch break, or we would ourselves go to the school peon's quarters and beg their families to let us watch the cricket for that half an hour, giving up lunch for a seat.

On the final day, at the tuition, everything else stopped. Algebra and trigonometry could take a hike because we were egging the team on with every delivery. When the victory was sealed, our tuition master treated us all to samosas, a rare gesture from a man whose telephone lines we would cut and whom we would lock in his house (getting up at 5 am to do this stealthily - and we were a bunch of 12-13 year olds!) so that he couldn't call our homes or get out of his.

There was more drama within the next week at Chennai and then there were series in West Indies, England, Sri Lanka where we could sense possibilities but none can match up to this game.

Today is the 10th anniversary of this game. Here's a lovely account of the day by Sambit Bal, it's a gem especially with the anecdotes by then India coach John Wright.

So the next time you cry about India being a team that can only snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, remember the time it went the other way around.
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I talk about food

This article didn't butcher everything I said as much as it fabricated it.

• I eat everywhere, I wash my hands before leaving home just in case I see something I want to eat on my way. It's hard for me to pass on more than four food stalls in a row.
• I used to cook even when in school. It took me years to get to this really low rung of cooking ability I am on now, I didn't simply begin at a mediocre level. I had to get here.
• I can't experiment fo'shizzle and I'm a frikkin vegetarian.
• Also, no mention of my meandering monologue on the properties of tur dal, my discourse on why South Indian vegetarian food rawkz and finally my picture did not carry the 'avid eater of food' caption I'd suggested, nay, requested.

Food By Night stuck firmly to the lines though they left out the part about the anda bhurji which is the tastiest thing besides the pav bhaji to have at the Malad Mindspace khau galli. I plan drinking scenes around whether I can go to Mindspace khau galli, it's that good.
Also, I fall under neither of the categories I mentioned there. By assorted drunks, I mean you can really see the whole range from the just-got-started-and-heading-to-a-party-with-the-car-stereo-blaring to the out-of-their-minds-walking-funny-talking-strange-will-do-crazy-shit-and-not-remember-a-thing-the-next-morning kind. There are a few bars around too which are open till the early hours, another reason I love the place. Click on the image to read it in full size.

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Dinner With Friends: Astrology and shit

In the midst of dinner with friends...

A: I don't believe in it. Besides, my zodiac sign hasn't changed. It's the same.
P: Yeah, mine has. I was a Pisces earlier. Now it's the thing that's before Pisces.
A: Aquarius
P: Yeah Aquarius, and my planet, you know, my ruling planet, it was Neptune earlier. Now it's your.. what do you call it, it's....
A: ?
P: Wait, wait.. wait for it.. it's uhh..
A: Mercury? Venus? Earth? Mars? Jupite-
P: Anus. It's Uranus.
A: ....
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More Dinner With Friends


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Why Facebook Should Introduce Paid Searches

Type in something in the search box on your Facebook homepage and hit return. You'll get a list of possible results on Facebook (people, pages, groups and so on) and someway down the page, results from Bing, Microsoft's search engine.

I used their search a couple of times whenever I've had to research a brand's social activities, to see how and what they're doing. The trouble is that both popular and not as well known brands or personalities might have multiple pages and groups dedicated to them. So if I'm a fan of a show or a team and I want to receive updates or participate in contests to win free stuff, I'll have to go through a bunch of them to see which one is official.
Hardcore committed pages moderated by fans here are a pain in this case because even though it might be updated frequently and have a lot of extras in the form of fan art and fan fiction, the information is not being relayed first hand. Official pages which do nothing but only push out information like a publishing feed are no good either, they're missing the point of being on a social networking site.

Similarly, if your name is fairly common but your profile picture is not clear and most of your profile is restricted to friends, it's a pain for people to find you because they'll have to go through a bunch of profiles to figure out which one is yours and add you.

Facebook Ads already help brands promote their pages and sites to users who are a part of the demographic they've targeted. It helps them seek out users who might be fans or simply interested.

What if a user actively seeks out a brand and has to sift through the clutter of pages, groups and people (brand mascots)?
This is where paid searches comes in. Brands should be able to push their official pages to the top of the Facebook's onsite search results. If I search for say, Kenny Powers, the top result should be the official Eastbound & Down fan page. Below that could be a fan generated Kenny Powers Quotes fan page which would bring you the great man's quotes if the official page isn't doing it already. Which they would be doing if they read their Facebook Insights report properly every week.

 So if you want to know more about that little known band you saw live last week, it'll help you search for their official page or group to join. You could hunt for more bargains in your locality or other bands you may not have heard of which make the make kind of music you like.

It would help brands and social organizations with valuable RoI since there is no Facebook equivalent of Twitter's Verified Account badge to lend their page that credibility. Competing brands could take advantages of keywords to gain exposure, this would also separate the bargain hunters from loyalists right at the beginning depending on the keywords they used to get to your page allowing you a deeper targeting option.

Finally it would help Facebook's search feature if the results they fetched were more relevant. It gives them an option to offer businesses who may feel the budget at their disposal cannot sustain an ad campaign but who can boost their RoI by being smart and practical with their keywords and scheduling. To keep businesses with deep pockets from monopolizing the keywords, Facebook could restrict number of keywords they're allowed to bid for.

It's not just a win-win situation, it's a three-way of win-win situations. We all know how awesome three-ways are, hence this is something Facebook should jump in to right away.

PS: I haven't researched to see if Facebook has something similar in the pipes so please leave a link if you've read  this somewhere else earlier. Feedback is sought and will be appreciated.

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The Sentinel

Not the crappy Michael Douglas film but a brilliant short story by Arthur C. Clarke which was later adapted into an epic movie called 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley fucking Kubrick. The very movie I got the header image for this blog from.
Read it here.

Dinner With Friends: My name is Wiseguy

9:00 pm
Dinner, with friends.

9:07 pm
AG sits across me but I'd prefer he sat somewhere else so that XY would sit across me and I could look at her instead.

9:25 pm
There are nine conversations happening between eight people, I'm in two of those, only one of these is going two ways but it's only about deciding what to order, AG is not a part of any of the nine. And there are awkward silences interrupted by more scattered, simultaneous conversations.

9:45 pm
My food's not here yet, the talk's all about work and gossip, I'm bored. So is AG by the looks of it.

9:47 pm
Me: AG..

AG: Yeah?

Me: ......

AG smiles, passes his hand through his hair shyly.

9:50 pm

Me: AG

AG: C!

Me: ........

AG smiles, he's enjoying this. I must play it cool.

9:53 pm

Me: AG

AG: .......

Me: AG

AG: What?

Me: ..........

I sense a little irritation. Are we ready? Must test.

9:54 pm

Me: AG

AG replies with a cold stare. Yep, we're ready. All systems go.

9:55 pm

Me: AG!

AG: Fuuuuuuck! Kya hai bey?!

Me: AG, OG, lo ji, suno ji,
main hoon manmouji, 

karta hoon main jo woh tum bhi karo ji, 

one two ka four

four two ka one!

My name is Ga'-an*

My name is Ga'-an

sau kilo ka vazan,

mera naam hai Ga'-an

AG: FML

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*The G in AG rhymes with Lakhan. Not exactly though but the sound's pretty much similar.

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Make Music, Not Powerpoints

This is what I've spent a lot of my time at work playing with. Months, definitely.

I make arrangements which make me feel like I'm Daft Punk. Or a guy who makes elevator music or the music you hear in retail spaces.

Here's the ToneMatrix created by André Michelle, from his laboratory of genius inventions. Hope you create beautiful music with this.

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