Lara's theme is definitely going to be haunting!!

In the last decade or so, the Gods in cricket seem to have diminished rapidly in their numbers. Gone are the days when you could pick two or three players in any team other than India and start your worship. These days there aren't too many cricketers for whom i would gladly pay and watch.

Here is my list of favorite non-Indian Gods:

1. Ambrose and Walsh bowling in tandem. Especially the thinking Ambrose, when the batsman gets better of him by hitting him over the ropes. You don't see any malice. Only a serious face thinking what went wrong and how to amend that the next delivery.
2. Shane Warne in action. There is something magical. The guy seriously thinks he can get a wicket every ball.
3. Waqar and Wasim bowling in tandem. All said, these guys were lethal.
4. Mark Waugh with his elegant drives. You wonder where he gets the timing from.
5. De Silva and Ranatunga. Especially liked the way Ranatunga defended Murali once when the umpire no-balled him.

And in this list without doubt is Brian Lara.

If i have to choose between Lara and Sachin to watch one of them in full glory, i personally would pick the former.

Heres a toast to Lara.. when he quits cricket, it sure is going to be a very haunting theme to forget!!

I wish my house had a garage.. ;)

Here is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005 at Stanford University that a colleague of mine forwarded..

http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html

Hewlett and Packard started at a garage..
So did the Googlers..
So did Michael Dell..
(And if i add an Amazon or an eBay not many would deny that...!!)

Found some nice perspectives from Mr.Jobs here, though i generally stay away from the Motivational-Self Help-Inspirational reads.

The superlative crimes!!

There are a number of web-sites which have reviews on everything under the sun. I keep checking one such site at times. Today I stumbled upon the reviews for the film ‘Black’. And that’s the reason for this blog.

The accolades for that film left me pretty confused.

I did see that film. And I found it a pathetic, contrived and appalling movie. This is in no way belittling the theme of the movie and the sentiments it aspired to showcase. I thought I am feeling that way because personally I’ve always felt a streak of hypocrisy and forced emotions in Bansali’s works. It is really a brave attempt by Bollywood standards to give a sensitive film. But I felt that attempt falls flat because it is forced on the viewer. This is fundamentally contradicting. However, I did expect a lot of people to like it for reasons I hated the film. The performances were good and technically it was well shot. And since there were enough fans for Bansali’s earlier works like ‘Devdas’, I was sure ‘Black’ will be talked about.

But boy, I was not prepared for ‘greatest film from Bollywood in recent times’, ‘Indian cinematic event for more than a quarter of a century’, ‘Sure-shot Oscar winner’ etc.

I realized is not just about the superlatives for ‘Black’. Its not about whether my views about 'Black' is wrong or someone else is right. Everyone is entitled to his/her opinions. Its not about that.

Look around. Almost every participant in the ‘Indian Idol’ competition is a great talent. All film actors are great dancers. There are no lesser music directors in the film industry. All are great. So is every hit film director. Even Television has its greats, every channel. All politicians are great in their region. The Indian Cricket team almost every time when it takes to the field contains 11 great players and 1 great substitute (and of course 1 great super-substitute!).

And finally, one of my own blog posts has been referred to as ‘Great’.

Aside: Isn’t that one hell of an example of self deprecation demonstrating great modesty ;-)!

Fundamentally, somewhere I feel we have lost that sensitivity to this word – Great.

When you think more on this, it is a far serious an issue than it appears at the outset. Guess we are surrounded by a sea of mediocrity that we have forgotten excellence. So much so that, occasional flashes of above average behavior is pretty much a great event in itself.