Subramanyapuram

Can a movie be made in an interesting and crisp format in spite of a boasting of a huge star cast?

Director Sasikumar, who had his tutelage under Bala and Ameer, has proved that a quality entertainer can be made with less-known faces provided the movie has interesting storyline with the right amount of twists.

Designed in a retro classic style, Sasikumar portrays Madurai in a different color and with a new perspective. As the title suggests, the entire movie is set in Subramaniapuram, a hamlet in Madurai.

The story, set in the 80s, takes place in Madurai Subramaniapuram, a suburb of the city. Movies like Palaivana Cholai dwelt around four friends. Perhaps Sasikumar impressed by such classics, has made an attempt of chronicling the life of a group of friends.

They are fun-loving and carefree, who spend most of their time together. Jai, Kanja Karuppu and Sasikumar (the director himself), are typical youths, who do not miss an opportunity to fight when they come across a brawl on the streets. Often arrested, they come out of jail with the help of a neighbor, played by Samudhirakani. The neighbor's elder brother happens to be a former Councilor.

The irony is that Jai falls in love with the Councilor's daughter. When the councilor is ditched by a member of an opposite gang, the trio step in and bump off the man. Unfortunately Samudhirakani doesn't help them this time and the three are remanded for murder. However, they manage to come out themselves.

They then vow to settle scores with Samudhirakani and the Councilor. The revenge plot has enough twists and turns.

A movie is loaded with fun and suspense all through and is pleasant to watch coming across as a whiff of fresh air amidst commercial clichés. Sasikumar and Jai impress. Their body language and diction of the Madurai Tamil are noteworthy.

Due credit should be given to music composer James Vasanthan, a television anchor-turned-music director. He has reminded everyone of Ilayaraja during his heydays, James Vasanthan's background score is scintillating.

Sasikumar is a welcome addition to the list of talented directors taking centre stage in Tamil cinema in recent days.

’Subramaniapuram’ is a must-watch movie for those who love realism in Tamil Cinema.

The Game

Hitesh Jhabak whose production house Nemichand Jhabak Productions made the successful films 'Naan Avan Illai', 'Anjathey' and 'Pandi'. The producer has now collaborated with S. A. Chandrasekhar's production house V.V. Creations for the under-production film 'Pandhayam'.

The film stars Nithin Sathya and Sindhu Tholani in lead roles. A major attraction of the film would be the fact that Vijay plays a cameo in the form of a guest role.

The film is directed by S. A. Chandrasekhar and has the music of Vijay Antony. Expected to be a typical S. A. Chandrasekhar movie, the film would have the right mix of emotions, action and of course love. Nithin Sathya plays a die hard Vijay fan in the film.

Good chance for Badrinath

Its a good chance to cement his place in the indian line up for the TN batsman S.Badrinath, who has been named as a replacement for Sachin Tendulkar for the one day series in Sri Lanka.

Young and run-hungry, S Badrinath has been the mainstay of the Tamil Nadu batting for the last three seasons, and also their captain for the last two. Standing tall at the crease, Badrinath, who plays with a correct technique, was pitchforked into the national consciousness in 2005-06 when he nearly topped the batting charts, scoring 636 runs from 7 matches at almost 80, missing pole position by 36 runs to Amol Muzumdar, who played one match more. In comparison 2006-07 was not as spectacular, but Badrinath managed 436 runs at almost 50. An excellent fielder at point, and elsewhere in the circle, Badrinath began as a grafter, something quite rare at a time when strokemakers ruled, and expanded his repertoire of strokes as he gained experience. In 2007, he piled on the runs for India A on their tours to Zimbabwe and Kenya, and in the home series against South Africa A. In October, he was called-up to the ODI squad for the last three one-dayers against Australia, though he did not get a game. He was dropped for the series against Pakistan that followed. He shrugged off the disappointment by performing well in the 2007-08 Ranji Trophy season, scoring 659 runs at 65.90

Kuselan comedy

Vadivelu has expressed his disappointment at couple of comedy scenes involving him in ‘Kuselan’ has been axed.

According to Vadivelu, 'there were few more comedy scenes involving me in my saloon in the movie. Unfortunately considering the length of the movie, it has been axed. Those comedy scenes had come out well. I wonder why it was axed'.

Recently, Meena too in an interview to a newspaper had said that her role had been cut short. Though she did express her joy at being part of a Rajinikanth film, she said a few emotional scenes involving her had to be axed in the film.

KP does it again

"The captaincy will cramp his style," was the cry that went up when Kevin Pietersen was unveiled as England's new leader. And to a certain extent it did. There was not a switch-hit in sight as KP set about building on the advantage that his bowlers had given him on the first afternoon - instead he produced 137 balls-worth of solid, confident, and unyielding strokeplay, in an innings that was the very epitome of responsible. Perhaps his only moment of hesitancy came when Paul Harris entered the attack with Pietersen a single blow away from his hundred. At Edgbaston, he went for it and memorably failed. This time, he came half-forward and was saved by his thigh as Harris tweaked one past his bat. One over later, however, and a forceful clip off the toes whistled through midwicket to cue the trademark leap and punch, and the latest bout of adulation of Pietersen's Oval love-in

Kuselan

How many times have you walked out of a theatre emotionally choked up after watching a Rajinikanth film? How many times have you seen Rajinikanth not uttering a punch dialogue in his films? How many times have you not seen Rajinikanth flexing his muscles and bashing the baddies in his movie?

Watch ‘Kuselan’, where one can find a completely different Rajinikanth – the real Rajinikanth, the human being. The movie is perhaps an answer to his critics who have been criticizing the actor for doing routine 'commercial masalas'. Thanks to P Vasu, Rajinikanth reinvents himself bringing out the actor within him through this film. One thing is very clear. He has not acted to commercial compulsions.

The movie throws light on the real Rajinikanth, who has been quite a puzzle with millions of his fans. And the star himself answers questions that have been plaguing the minds of millions of his fans. Want to know the answers to why Rajini has not entered politics? Why the superstar often goes to the Himalayas? Why the actor still prefers to work in run-of-the-mill stuff?

‘Kuselan’ has got all the answers. With Rajinikanth by his side, P Vasu has come out with a message that is quite though provoking. The usual adage is 'Matha Pitha Guru Deivam'. With ‘Kuselan’ the adage gets an addition - 'Matha Pitha Guru Nanban Deivam'.

He plays the 'Super Star' himself and does not at any time impose himself on screen. Watching Rajinikanth play the role with consummate ease is like watching Sachin Tendulkar on song at the middle of the crease. It's like listening to Beethoven's symphony sitting under the moonlight. Though the story doesn't revolve around Rajinikanth, he manages to leave his indelible presence on screen. Especially towards the climax, an emotional Rajinikanth identifies his friend recalling their good old innocent days. These are sequences that evoke tears to our eyes bring the human side of each of us to the forefront.

It is a tough task for an actor like Pasupathy to carry the entire burden on his shoulders acting alongside a scene stealer like Rajinikanth. As a poor barber, fighting for survival, he evokes all the sympathy. Seemingly an extension of his role in ‘Veyyil’, Pasupathy passes out with flying colors. Hats off to him!

Meena as his caring wife is more of a realistic portrayal. She understands the emotional struggles of her husband and gives him the much needed solace and comfort. She sure manages to get under the skin of her character and has done an extremely good job.

Nayanthara plays herself in the film and executes the job entrusted to her quite well. She plays a heroine in films, who shoots for a movie alongside Rajinikanth. She fulfills the glamour quotient and serves the purpose indeed well. Vadivelu's comedy compliments the script well. His trick to get an audition with Rajinikanth, who is shooting in the village brings down the roof with laughter.

The movie boasts of a huge star cast including Livingston, M S Baskar, Sona, Geetha, Fathima Babu, Brahmanandham, Chinni Jayanth. All have significant parts to play in the film.

Prabhu plays a cameo while a host of stars including Sneha, Soundarya Rajinikanth, Suriya among others appear for the ‘Cinema Cinema’ song.

Kuselan is about two childhood friends, with one becoming the Numero Uno in the film industry, while the other lands up as a barber in a hamlet.

Balakrishnan alias Bala (Pasupathy) is a poor barber in a village. He leads a happy life with his wife Sreedevi (Meena) and his children, until a film crew lands in their village to shoot for a movie. Coming to know that Super Star Ashok Kumar (Rajinikanth) has come for shooting in the village, and also with the understanding that he is Bala's childhood friend, villagers flock to Bala's house with favors. A man with tremendous self dignity, Bala fears to meet Ashok Kumar thinking that he may not identify him. But, when the two meet after a long gap, the emotional drama between the pals, sets up an emotional 20-minute climax.

Complimenting Vasu's hard work are Arvindh Krishna's excellent cinematography and the brilliant musical score by G V Prakash Kumar. The catchy numbers ‘Om zarerare’ and ‘Cinema Cinema’ have especially been captured in an attractive manner by Aravindh Krishna. The background score towards the climax sets up the momentum.

Hats off to director P Vasu! The film-maker, who knows the knack of remaking a Malayalam hit in Tamil, has rendered a movie that has the right packaging of emotions. He has intelligently packaged the movie with commercial elements that a hardcore Rajinikanth fan would love without spoiling the crux.

Produced by Pushpa Kandaswamy and Vijayakumar, ‘Kuselan’ is a movie that would go down well with Rajinikanth fans and this is a great opportunity to see the real side of this spectacular actor though on celluloid.

Real test for Pietersen

Although he has played 42 tests till date, this will be the first "real" test for Kevin Pietersen. Thrust into the role of captaincy after Michael Vaughan resigned few days back, Pietersen is all set to face the first real test of his cricketing career against the South Africans in the final test at The Oval starting today.

As a first step, Pietersen has named an attacking team, which has both Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison combined with the swing of Jimmy Anderson and the wily left arm spin of Monty Panesar. Ravi Bopara, who was brought in as a replacement for Vaughan, seems, will be left out of the playing eleven.

Pietersen has been an attacking player all through his test career till date and it remains to be seen whether he plays the same way with the captaincy being the additional burden. There was also some speculation about the rift between coach Peter Moores and Pietersen and that has been put to rest by KP himself in the pre match conference.

It remains to be seen if Pietersen will enjoy the support of his mates as he has few captains' within his team himself. He has asked all the players to play by instinct and play attacking cricket.
Welcome to the new world of captaincy. Its the Pietersen's world of captaincy. Will it be a hit? Will it take England to the next level? Only time will tell.

Ajith In Race Remake

Ajith's passion for motorbike racing is widely known. He took part in many motor racing championships and carved a niche for himself.

The actor, who bid adieu to car races a couple of years ago, is now getting ready to act in the Tamil remake of Hindi blockbuster 'Race'.

Ashok Amritraj who produced Shankar's film 'Jeans' has approached Ajith with this offer. 'Race' is about two brothers played by Saif Ali Khan and Akshay Khanna double crossing each other which eventually leads to their downfall.

Attracted by the storyline, Ajith has expressed his consent to act in the film.

End of an Era

Michael Vaughan, the most successful captain of England cricket team resigned after his team's loss to South Africa in the recent test series. It brings an end to Vaughan's 51-match run as captain, four games short of becoming England's long-serving leader, although his 26 victories makes him, statistically, the most successful captain.

Pressure on Vaughan has been growing in recent months despite back-to-back series victories against New Zealand. The series loss to South Africa is England's third in five series, dating back to the 1-0 reversal against India last summer. They then lost by the same margin in Sri Lanka before losing the first Test against New Zealand in Hamilton. Vaughan led a shake-up of the team by dropping Matthew Hoggard and Steve Harmison and England hit back to take the series, but the performances were not convincing.

Winning the ashes in 2005, beating South Africa away and beating West Indies away were one of the high points in Vaughan's captaincy tenure.

Singh is King

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh won a vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha with a comfortable margin belying predictions of a close contest on a day marred by unseemly scenes over allegations of bribery.

The Prime Minister's motion expressing confidence of the House in the Council of Ministers was carried with 275 votes in favour and 256 against.

In a House with an effective strength of 541, it was not immediately clear how many abstained. The results were announced after nearly an hour when officials corrected the initial figures which showed 253 votes in favour of the motion, 232 against and 2 abstentions in a total vote of 487.

In the din caused by BJP members demanding Prime Minister's resignation and shouting down his speech, Singh laid his reply to the debate on the table of the House.

As Opposition members pressed for a division, Speaker Somnath Chatterjee ordered voting by electronic voting machine.

Even before the final result was announced, ruling alliance members went to the Prime Minister and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi to greet them on the victory in the confidence motion, the first in over four years of this government.

The Prime Minister sought the confidence of the House after the Left parties, which provided outside support since May 2004, withdrew it on the issue of government operationalising the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal by approaching the IAEA.

The two-day debate on the motion was often acrimonious but it took an entirely different turn after BJP members shocked the House by producing bundles of currency notes alleging bribes by the Samajwadi Party to them to abstain from voting.

Four BJP members, including former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, were permitted to vote from the inner lobby of the House through slips on account of their ill-health.

Race

The director duo, Abbas-Mastan returns with yet another thriller, but this time around a flick that is sleek and high on style. After over 6 years of waiting, the duo finally does a film with Saif and is it worth all that much?
Well to take off, the film revolves around two brothers; Ranvir [Saif Ali Khan] and Rajeev [Akshaye Khanna] who own a huge stud farm in Durban, South Africa. They breed horses on their huge ranch house and are also the biggest bookies in the horse racing circuit. Ranvir, the elder of the two, is known to be a very shrewd man. He is very aggressive and is always on the move. Rajiv, on the other hand, is very laidback and is also a chronic alcoholic.

Sophia [Katrina Kaif] is Ranvir’s personal secretary. She adores her boss and loves him. Ranvir is totally unaware of her feeling and regards her adoration as her efficiency. Sonia [Bipasha Basu] is an upcoming Indian ramp model in Durban.

Sonia loves Ranvir, but through a twist of fate gets married to Rajiv. When she discovers that Rajiv is a chronic alcoholic, things begin to get worse.

Eventually, Ranvir and Sonia come very close to each other and an affair starts between the younger brother’s wife and the elder brother. When the younger brother starts suspecting his wife, all hell breaks loose.

A murder is committed, a contract killing is issued, double crossings become the order of the day… A sharp-tongued investigative officer R.D. [Anil Kapoor] starts an investigation with his brainless assistant Mini [Sameera Reddy].

Abbas- Mastan have proved it over the years that no one can beat them when it comes to the thriller genre. With films like Khiladi , Baazigar , Humraaz ; Race might just add to their list of hits. The film has several twists and turns that keep you saying ‘oh’ and reanalyzing everything so that bits and pieces of the story fill in to form the collage called Race.

But one little factor that has to be noted is that as the duo directors attempt to make things complicated and shock the audience , they just kind of lose out on the whole plot and this con man film at the end makes the viewer wonder when did certain characters team up to plot against the others.

The screenplay of the film by Shiraz Ahmed is good but at times is loose. The 1^st half of the film is quite a drag and the songs look really forced upon. Next time around, Abbas-Mastan should consider chopping some tracks. Maybe this time they couldn’t do so considering their producers are Music giants.

On the acting front, the film truly belongs to Saif. Saif looks stylish, smart and carries the adrenaline in the character perfectly. His dialogue delivery is just amazing and the action sequences considering he did them all by himself is just commendable. Watch out for Saif’s jump from a great height. It’s terrifically done courtesy Allan Amin.

With due credit to all the actors in the film, Race wouldn’t be all that racy if it wasn’t for Saif. Watch out the dialogue where he addresses his younger brother on the funda of winning-losing and on the outcome of betrayal where he blows up his jockey’s car.

Chaos theory

As i said before, went to watch Dasavatharam on first day.Was fortunate i should say. I was dumbstruck seeing the technical quality ,the screen play,kamal's getups ,the story and the list goes on.Wait wait this is not a review of the great movie but this is something related to the movie(spoiler:I have revealed the plot).After coming back from the movie I still did not understand what a butterfly was doing in the opening scenes of the movie.Well thats the central theme 'butterfly effect'.To tell in a single line the small variation in initial conditions of a dynamic event has a great impact in its eventful result.Is it confusing ? Well the theory says that a flap of a butterfly might well change the initial conditions for occurrence of a tornado by stopping it or changing the direction or even changing its speed.Still more confusing? Here we go again let us consider a ball set on top of a hill it might run down in any direction that depends on the initial conditions.So now in the movie Dasavatharam which is about chaos theory the events like the immersion of the 12 century idol can be taken as an initial condition for the occurrence of tsunami(chaos) and thus the plot.So in the movie thus from Govind's perspective the idol was just part of the chaos theory but from Aandal's perspective its GOD's will at which the events have happened.So next time when the butterfly flaps remember some thing might well be on its way.

Review

One striking feature that hits you in the face once you have watched ‘Dasavatharam’ is Kamal Haasan's passion for filmmaking. All the ten roles he has essayed have been meticulously planned right from the body language to dialogue delivery. Be it the American president George Bush, the Vaishnavite priest of the 12th century or Fletcher, the American baddie.

The eyes are considered the most effective tools in creating the right kind of attitude for any actor and Kamal Haasan is a master at that. There are many a time in the film when the audience would have to force themselves to believe that it is the same actor who is the good guy as well as the bad guy.

The expressive and determined eyes of the priest, the mushy and yet funny countenance of Balaram Naidu, the hilarious CBI officer and the peaceful martial artist eyes of the Japanese character have all shaped up to fit into any acting text book. Hats off to Kamal Haasan on the acting front!!

Based loosely on Chaos theory, the narration of the film promises a lot of excitement and as the story unfolds, somewhere down the line there are a few missing links that have been forcefully stitched together. Govind, the bio-scientist in the United States of America has been wronged by his boss who has intentions of selling his invention to wrong hands. The determined scientist doesn't give up. He sneaks it away and after a few accidents the invention lands in India. The hunt and race against time especially with Fletcher, the ex-CIA baddie sniffing at his neck with murderous intent culminates into Govind meeting an irrationally sentimental and at times sweet Andal (Asin). The baddie with sizzling Mallika Sherawat for company proceeds along the vulnerable Indian security system and shows up at the right places at the right time.

The narration then makes sure most of the characters played by Kamal get into close proximity in terms of geography. The stunt sequences are quite professional with its share of thrilling moments, but then there are too many coincidences consistently. The protagonist and his slowly, but surely falling-in-love lady companion seem to be jumping off just about everything. Soft landing seems to be a predictable option at most times.

When it comes to action and stunt scenes, ‘Dasavatharam’ is head and shoulders above most Indian films. The music element in the film is passable with some breathtaking re-recording bits in patches.

Cinematography has been simply awesome. The heavy compositing and trick shots have not dampened Ravi Varman's innate talent at creating the right kind of mood the film depicts.

‘Dasavatharam's’ review can never be complete without talking about the makeup part. Apart from the desired result one can guess the kind of effort and hard work Kamal Haasan would have had to go through just to get them on and that too on a daily basis. Makeup has been good overall except for a few shots that show off a kind of plastic look.

Computer Generated Imagery plays a huge role in the film. When the same actor plays seven feet plus youth and an old woman who is barely five feet, one can imagine the kind of intensive scaling and image manipulation by the CG team. Recreation of the 2004 Tsunami is impressive and the action part weaves the intensity of the story.

The direction has been apt sticking to the script in the true sense of the term. K. S. Ravikumar known for his simple style of narration has not been himself with ‘Dasavatharam’, but has shown sparks of ingenuity.

Kamal Haasan has stuck to his favorite subject of the 'no God' debate in this film too and has glorified himself probably for the first time on screen with a dialogue directed at him as being the 'Ulaga Nayagan'.

With Kamal Haasan playing ten roles, all other actors have been completely overshadowed.

This is a movie that has highlighted a highly talented and passionate actor in his entire splendor. At the end of the film one tends to ask….has Kamal Haasan been so spectacular that he has overshadowed the script and story this time?

Dasavatharam

Dasavatharam is gonna realease tomorrow(June13th). I have got the tickets for first day. Waiting to watch the movie. I will post the review once i watch it.

The Nano

When I was figuring out the meaning of technology this is what I ended up 'an application of science' to be in short, to add to that I found this 'Economics is a branch of social science'.So then an application of Economics can also be called a technology right.So lets take this we produce some thing at a low cost and expect to sell the item in large numbers in a market that is often driven by competitive pricing.So now you might be wondering why I am telling all this as most of you might be knowing it.One such application is the NANO the new car from the stables of TATA MOTORS. My initial reaction to this car, when it was announced long back was that it might be more like a share auto,but I must confess that this one is not of that kind .I am sure it will give sleepless nights to other automobile companies especially the Maruti Udyog.I am extremely astonished by the fact that Ratan Tata has taken this challenge and has come out extremely successful.I Salute him and his team.Tatas have once again proved that the word TATA means TRAILBLAZERS.Having talked about the brain behind the project lets now shift the focus to the brain child.The design of NANO looks stylish,it claims a mileage of 20kmpl.The most important point is the price 1Lac that makes it a value for money car.The new kid on the block is sure to rock! This will surely be a car with both MASS n CLASS.The only problem with its launch is that will there be space on the road to drive it ? Lets see.

About Hammi

Now a household name and an inspiration to many across the UK and beyond, Lewis's motorsport career started in 1993 when he was just 8 years old. By the age of 10 he had won his first British Karting championship. A further four British Karting championships followed in 1996 and 1997.

At the age of 13, Lewis was talent spotted and subsequently signed to the McLaren and Mercedes-Benz Young Driver Support Programme by McLaren Group Chairman and CEO Ron Dennis. The programme, established by McLaren and Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, provided Lewis with a long-term contract guaranteeing financial and technical support to help with his future motorsport career.

Lewis makes sure that he enjoys his time away from the track as well, spending time with friends and family.

Favourite Music: Hip-hop, R&B, Reggae and Funky House

Favourite Artists: The Roots, De La Soul, 2Pac, Biggie, Nas, Bob Marley, Sizzla, Sean Paul, Freddie McGregor, UB40, Chaka Demus & Piliers, Beenie Man, Sanchez, Warrior King

Hobbies: Music, playing guitar, books, gym, cycling, squash, tennis, karting, partying with friends, chilling with family and friends, cinema, watching DVDs

Sourav-The Dada

In the Behala suburb of Kolkata stands tall a four-storey palatial home of printing business baron, Chandidas Ganguly. This residence is home to around 50 members of Ganguly family. Among all of them also resides the Prince of Kolkatta who also is known as Sourav Ganguly.

The second son of Chandidas and younger brother of Snehasish, was born on this very day of 8th July 1972 in the City of Joy Kolkata. Being a true Bengali, his first and true love (not to forget Dona) was Football. His favourite position was that of a striker, but destiny had something else written for this naturally right handed batsman.

Yes, little would people know that Sourav was actually a right handed batsman. He became left-handed for convenience. His brother Snehasish was an accomplished left-hander and was the one who pulled Sourav from football to cricket.

Nevertheless, thanks to Snehasish the cricket world could see one in a million off-side batting God in Sourav Ganguly. Sourav's international debut was a forgettable one, way back in 1992. Almost all or whichever cricketing pundit saw him must have written him off then and there. Sourav Ganguly was almost like a story that started to end on the same day.

But he was determined to make an impact whenever possible. Selectors gave him a couple of high-performing youngsters a nod for the English tour. Sourav was one and the other was Rahul Dravid who from then till Sourav became the captain remained in his shadow. His breathtaking back-to-back centuries in England remained one of the most scintillating debuts in Indian cricket.

From then till now Sourav Ganguly's tale has been the chronicle of cricketing circles most unpredictable intellectuals. For his impulsive way of cricket he was perceived to be a brash person too. But records gave another side of the story that he was India's best ever captain. His strong belief in individualism led to his evolution of being one of the most revered cricket leaders of all time.

This also led to his down fall. Cricket showed its other side to a man who possibly gave the world the likes of Yuvraj, Harbhajan and many more youngsters who became show-stoppers from no-showers. In a cricket-crazy nation, the famous bare-chested captain of Natwest series and the heroic leader of 2003 World cup became an anti-hero. His run-ins with the administration and especially against the much-hyped coach Greg Chappell went against him.

But his insistence and patronage to this attitude gave India many glorious moments. His unflinching support to the likes of Yuvraj and Bhajji made them stand against the world in support of their beloved leader. Yuvi on one of his comebacks was quoted "I'm ready to die for such a captain". The quote said volumes about how Sourav galvanised his team. Probably, no one else than him understood the insecurities of a newcomer as he had received a raw deal in the beginning of his career.

It was under his stewardship that India's dismal overseas records took a u-turn. His instinctive, tough and hardnosed leadership saw India going on to the World Cup finals in 2003. The most difficult part of his captaincy was the fact that he took over the reins when the country was sucked up by the match-fixing scandal. His in your face stance got his equal appreciation and criticism.

But he became the cult idol of India after beating Pakistan in Pakistan. That was the peak from where he actually started sloping down. He strongly believed in brinksmanship which could be easily seen when he kept many captains including Steve Waugh waiting at the toss. This got on to the nerves of Waugh sr. but in his autobiography confessed that Ganguly brought a 'new steeliness in the team'.

But for all what he is, in Bengal he is one of the most influential personalities. His one word here or there makes noise of great magnitudes. Any criticism on him becomes a state-level issue. When he was dropped from the Indian team, it became a point of debate in Bengal state legislative assembly. From a layman to the top political leaders of the state, all worshipped their 'prince' from the bottom of their heart.

But all this didn't actually help when Sourav had not scored anything substantial and his athleticism was as usual a question mark. He was out and pundits thought that this was the end of the Sourav era. However, Ganguly in his unflinching ways was determined to prove all his critics wrong. He went back to domestic cricket, scored a couple of hundreds and made a comeback to the Indian team when the formula of young blood was failing.

When all seemed to be over and out for him, Sourav turned the tables around. His comeback to Indian team was one of the most fascinating ripostes ever seen in this game. It was nothing short of a fairy-tale. This comeback fetched him the Castrol Asian Cricketer of the year award for being the highest run scorer in Asia in the year 2007.

Keeping all his whims and fancies aside, Sourav gave the world of cricket many reasons may be good or bad to read about. His cricket story is nothing less than a drama or a soap opera. Believe it or not Ganguly amader ashol jhyodha (Ganguly is a true warrior)

Fantastic Opening

Dazzling fireworks that lit up the sky and a glittering opening ceremony attended by the top brass of the ICC and the BCCI kicked off the DLF Indian Premier League (IPL) in Bangalore on Friday evening.

In a spectacular ceremony before the lung-opener between Bangalore Royal Challengers and the Kolkata Knight Riders, the BCCI patted itself for heralding the start of a new phase in international cricket.

A packed house erupted in excitement as captains of the eight participating teams walked out to sign the MCC's Spirit of Cricket, under which the entire tournament will be played out.

BCCI President described it as a ‘historic day’ for international cricket and hoped that fans would maintain their interest for the next 44 days, which will see 59 matches.

Later in the night, the Kolkata Knightriders team went on to beat the Bangalore Royal Challengers convincingly.

Indian Premier League

Indian Premier League (IPL), a brainchild of BCCI or to be precise its vice-president Lalit Modi, is a Twenty20 league sanctioned by ICC. Eight franchise teams owned by business tycoons, Bollywood stars and media magnets feature in the league.

Each team will have a pool of 16 players, with a max of eight overseas players and a min of four U-22 players besides a min of four players from the catchment area as is fixed by the governing body. IPL franchises bought the best cricketers of the world thro' the players' auction held on Feb 20 in Mumbai. The franchises sans icon players - Chennai and Hyderabad - spent lavishly to net big fishes in the shape of Dhoni ($1.5m) and Symonds ($1.35m) respectively. Franchises bought players -Indian and international - of their liking from a pool of 77.

Each team will play seven others in the fray on home and away basis. The top four teams at the end of league stages will make it to semis' and bottom four will play classification ties. The inaugural event, involving 59 ties, will kick-off on Apr 18, when Mallaya-owned Bangalore Royal Challengers take on Kolkata owned by SRK at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. The franchise teams will battle it out for 44 days for a US$3m prize money.

IPL, the billion-dollar first-of-its-kind in cricket, is loosly modelled after the mega sporting events English Premier League (EPL) a football league in UK and MLB (Baseball league in North America). However the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question is: Will the much-hyped T20 league match EPL and MLB in magnitude or is this a gigantic bubble waiting to burst. Time alone will tell.

The teams that are going to take part in the inaugural IPL tournament are

• Mumbai Indians - Mukesh Ambani - Captained by Sachin Tendulkar
• Bangalore Royal Challengers - Vijay Malya - Captained by Rahul Dravid
• Chennai Super Kings - India Cements - Captained by MS Dhoni
• Delhi Daredevils - GMR Group - Captained by Virendra Sehwag
• Deccan Chargers - Deccan Chronicle - Captained by VVS Laxman
• Kolkata Knight Riders - Shah Rukh Khan/Juhi Chawla - Captained by Saurav Ganguly
• Kings XI Punjab - Preity Zinta/Ness Wadia - Captained by Yuvraj Singh
• Rajastan Royals - Emerging Media Group - Captained by Shane Warne

How to bell the CAT

Approach:
Treat each & every mock cat like a real CAT - with as much seriousness as you would treat CAT. This means that you will divide your time in doing the sections in a manner that you demonstrate your competence in all the sections so as to achieve the sectional cut-offs.

You are advised to distribute the total time available to you over various sections as per the "Test taking Strategies" session/note.

Easy questions:

A sure-shot way to conquer CAT or any other exam is to identify easy questions and doing these as fast as you can with good accuracy. The other important part is to leave most of the difficult questions so that in the given two and half hours, the number of questions that can be attempted, is maximized.

Scanning skills:

Scanning the paper to identify easy/difficult questions is an important skill that you will need to build, develop and hone with each mock CAT. A series of mock CAT tests, therefore, greatly helps in developing this ability.

Accuracy:

You should target at achieving an accuracy level of 70-80%, which means that out of every 20 questions attempted by you, at least 14 questions should be right.

Importance of Analysis:

A large number of successful students have confirmed that a "thorough analysis" of mock CAT papers was the most important ingredient in their preparation & their eventual success.

Are u depressed?

Well, obviously if you're really bad off you should really talk to a professional, but as long as you're not contemplating any ugly irreversible acts, here's something that might help.

Think of someone you know that seems pretty happy about life. How would you describe their attitude? Are they kidding themselves? Are they ignoring the ugly truth about life that's right in front of their eyes and pretending that some happy fantasy world that exists only in their heads is real? Well, guess what. That is exactly how every happy person in the world acts. And the really strange thing is that it's OK. Because the reason that you are unhappy is that you have constructed a fantasy world just as complete and just as removed from the "facts" as the Pollyanna imaginings that you so despise in those happy people.

Reality is in fact neither good nor bad, it is a very plastic inkblot sort of thing that can be bent and twisted in many directions depending on your beliefs. WHAT! you say? What about THE TRUTH? Well, that's a complicated question and it gets into the meaning of life bit that we haven't gotten to yet, but suffice it to say that what is REALLY going on is so strange, so complex, and so far beyond our everyday understanding, that it bears no relationship to what you think of as "reality", "truth", or "reason". Good and bad, happy and sad, these are notions that you are imposing on the world around you. But, more on that in part II of the Meaning of Life Page.

The answer to unhappiness is both liberating and infuriating, but here it is. Happiness doesn't depend on anything that has or has not happened in the past, nor does it depend on your future prospects (thank God, eh?). The simple fact is, in order to be happy:

YOU MUST DECIDE TO BE HAPPY

Yep. Isn't that aggravating? You can't blame it on anyone else, and no one else can do a thing for you. You've just got to decide to be happy, whether or not your logical mind thinks it is rational to be happy and whether or not your moral sense thinks you deserve to be happy. You absolutely will not be happy for any length of time until you decide to, and if you decide to, you can be happy in the face of the most miserable circumstances.

Happy deciding.

Violence in our society

There is one thing that makes people feel enough rage to commit violence, and that is a feeling of powerlessness. If people feel that they have no control over their destiny and environment, if they feel that they cannot act effectively, then they can reach a point where they believe that nothing short of violence can change their situation.

Acting effectively requires you to influence other people and to control your environment. To influence other people, they must respect you and be willing to listen to what you have to say. To control your environment, you must understand it, have the skills to affect it, and be permitted to act on it.

It should be clear that these conditions are not met very often in our society. Many people in our society are alienated from one another and have few opportunities to exert any real influence on one another. Many poor and uneducated people do not have any control over their environment whatsoever.

However, powerlessness is not the only ingredient in violence. The real question is not why people are violent, but why so many men are violent. Although women are just as capable of violence as men, crime statistics show that it is not women who are turning our urban environments into war zones.

Both men and women must abide by certain expectations. Even though people have few instincts and all of our adult behavior is learned, we labor under the misconception that men and women are biologically destined to behave completely differently. Women are supposed to be yielding, they are not expected to forcefully express their own wants and needs. Men are supposed to be dominant and commanding, and are regarded as weak if they express any tendencies to yield or to behave in a "feminine" way.

As psychologists have discovered, however, the most mentally healthy people express emotional and behavioral characteristics traditionally assigned to both sexes. The fully functioning human can be either forceful or gentle, commanding or submissive, strong or yielding, as the situation requires. Unfortunately, the acceptable range of emotions for men is rather narrow, and what happens is that men must express all of their emotional energy through the few emotions available to them. This leads to rather exaggerated expressions of strength and virility.

Now, couple this self-image men have of strength and domination with the feelings of powerlessness rife in our society, and you have a recipe for disaster. Men must express their exaggerated sense of dominance, but they are rendered impotent by their inability to act with any effectiveness. To these men, violence seems to be the only way to affect their environment.

This will continue to be a problem until men are raised differently.

Page Rank

Google PageRank (PR) is a measure from 0 -10 of how important Google thinks a webpage is. In Google's eyes a web page with a PageRank of 10/10 is very important and a web page with a PageRank of 0/10 is not very important. If you have the Google toolbar installed on your browser then it will automatically tell you the PageRank of any webpage you are looking at, if you do not have one then you can check PageRank by visiting the following website.

• PageRank Checking Tool

Generally websites with higher PageRank will get better rankings in Google's search results. Google takes into consideration many things when it is calculating PageRank, the most important factor is the amount of quality incoming links a webpage has. Generally the more quality links a webpage has, the higher the PageRank will be, therefore you can increase PageRank by gaining more quality links.

PageRank updates about once every three months. People have come up with ways of trying to predict what your PageRank is likely to be at the next update and although no one can tell for sure the guys at Iwebtool have come up with a pretty good prediction tool.

• PageRank Predictor

This tool does not always get it right, and it is mainly for entertainment purposes only. However if you work hard at link building you will see your predicted PageRank increase and when the next update comes you should see your PageRank increase.

For a more in-depth analysis of PageRank, please read Phil Cravens article PageRank Explained.

Justice

It is an illusion. A myth. A fairy tale. Life really isn't fair. The question is, why do you think it's supposed to be? Who started that idea? Job? The people who tried to put a good face on beating people up by inventing the Queensbury Rules? We don't know.

Justice sounds like a good idea because it sort of equalizes the pain. I get hurt, so you get hurt in return. Well there's more ocean than land, more roaches than roach motels, and more salesmen than prophets. Things just aren't meant to be equal. Suffering and happiness are not weights in some cosmic Martha Stewart food scale, their relative proportion is completely unpredictable, just get over it.

Here's the deal. Tragedy may be unequal, but it isn't random. Yes, there is a meaning, we're giving a bit away early here. Bad things usually happen to forcefully slap us out of whatever stupor we are in at the time. We are supposed to start questioning our beliefs. We are supposed to figure out what is and what is not important to us. People usually don't change unless they feel sufficient pain to overcome their natural resistance to change. Change takes energy. Nothing energizes like tragedy. What suffering is usually supposed to encourage us to do is figure out how to avoid suffering in the future. Find out what happy people do and imitate them. This is not rocket science.

If tragedy seems random and cruel now, it isn't. You're just not wanting to look at the facts. What facts those are exactly will be addressed in the Meaning of Life Part II.

Of course, if people don't get the hint and continue to imitate deer staring into the headlights of destiny, well, that's their lookout. Do not get mad at God/the universe/insert your cosmic principle here. Do what you're supposed to do, pick your ass up off the ground and try again. Nobody likes a crybaby.

You can't get out of it by going limp and giving up. That usually makes it worse. Athletes must tolerate a certain level of pain to reach their goals. You are no different.

As for the injustice of loved ones getting killed, etc., that has its own purpose. Don't ask unanswerable questions about other people; you've got enough to worry about with your own situation. If you get tragically killed, then you'll understand. Until then, forget it.

We have been criticized about the callous nature of this page. For people who have recently lost family members, etc., this little diatribe can sting. However, the message is still true even for them. Life is very unfair, but like chemotherapy, it does the job.

Switch: Sound Conversion Software

Switch audio file conversion software is a sound file format converter for Windows or Mac. You can convert audio files from many different file formats into mp3, wav or wma files such as wav to mp3, mp3 to wav, wma to mp3 and much more. This audio file converter is easy to use. Just add the files you want to convert, select the output format, and then click convert.

Switch is not a simply mp3 converter, it is the most comprehensive and stable audio file converter around. With Switch you can convert your sound files into the formats you need to compress for storage, create ringtones, add to a presentation, listen on your portable device and much more. In fact, the possibilities are endless using this powerful audio converter.

CLICK HERE to download this software

Supported File Formats

Converts a variety of audio file formats to mp3 or wav such as:

wav, mp3, mp2, mpga,

m4a, ogg, avi, mid

flac, aac, wma, dct,

au, aiff, ogg, raw,

msv, dvf, vox, cda,

atrac, gsm, dss, sri

shn, dss, msv, wmv

Try this out. This software rocks.

National Do Not Call registry (NDNC)

Disturbance from your mobile service provider? Wanna avoid getting unwarranted telemarketing calls? Here is the way to do that.
There is something called as National Do Not Call Registry(NDNC) set up by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India(TRAI). Subscribers who do not want to recieve unsolicited calls can register over here. Once you register, it takes 45 days to process your request. This is totally free of cost. If you continue receiving these calls even after the deadline of 45 days, you can file a complaint with TRAI, which in turn will penalise the service provider.

The NDNC Registry will be a data base having the list of all telephone numbers of the subscribers who do not want to receive UCC.After the establishment of NDNC registry, Telephone subscriber (Landline or mobile) who does not wish to receive UCC, can register their telephone number with their telecom service provider for inclusion in the NDNC. Telecom Service Provider shall upload the telephone number to the NDNC within 45 days of receipt. The Telemarketer will have to verify their calling telephone numbers list with the NDNC registry before making a call. To discourage the telemarketers who make calls to the numbers registered in Do Not Call List, a provision has been made whereby Rs.500/ - shall be payable by the telemarketer to the service provider for every first unsolicited commercial communication (UCC) and Rs.1000/- shall be payable for subsequent UCC. There is a provision for disconnection of the telemarketer telephone number / telecom resource if the UCC is sent even after levy of Rs.500/- & Rs.1000/- tariff. In case of non-compliance to the Telecom Unsolicited Commercial Communications Regulations, 2007, the Service Provider is also liable to pay an amount by way of financial disincentive, not exceeding Rs.5000/- for first non-compliance of the regulation and in case of second or subsequent such non-compliance, an amount not exceeding Rs.20,000/- for each such non-compliance.

Radio Revolution

Radio industry in India is set for a big boom in the coming years. Many private FM stations are getting launched everyday in almost all the big cities of our country. Many years back before TV was invented, radio was the only source of entertainment. But when TV came into existence, the FM, which comprises of frequency band from 87 to 108 MHz, lost its popularity . There were only maximum of 2 FM stations in big cities, that too run by the Govt. of India.

But things have changed these days. Private FM stations have taken over and are ruling the air waves. Advertising slots are queing up and the advertisers do not mind shelling out a few extra pounds for a slot in a popular FM station that too in prime time. These stations get somewhere close to 1500-2000 bucks for a 20 sec slot in prime time. The number of people who listen to FM are increasing day by day and are catching up with the ones who watch TV. As Radio recievers have become cheaper(you can get a FM reciever for as low as Rs.50), even a common man can afford it.

These FM stations attract listeners by including interactive programmes wherein the listener can speak with the RJ and ask for a song to be played for him/her. Because of this radio revolution, the demand for RJs has gone up. RJ ing has become a popular profession these days, but RJing is not an easy job. It requires some special skills such as good oratory, voice modulation etc. RJs are paid handsomely and as a result many youngsters are attracted into this field.

As far as Chennai is concerned, there are total of 9 stations(7 private and 2 Govt.) which play non-stop music for 24 hours. There is stiff competition among these stations and they mainly target the youth section of the listeners comprising the age group of 15 to 30. Almost all the stations start with spiritual music in the morning followed by an rather soft breakfast time programmes. The tempo of the songs played increases slowly as the day progresses. They also conduct various SMS contests to attract many ppl. Some stations conduct mapping survey among the ppl of a particular city about the kind of music they like to hear at a particular time. So, is this the beginning of what we can say as a "Radio Revolution"??

Happy New Year

Wish u all a very happy and a prosperous new year 2008. May all your wishes come true and you reach a great height in your life.