Archive: 2007

I love the ocean. Love, love, love it. My ideal location for a home would be on the beach. Although I technically live on an island, oceanfront-living is er… somewhat out of the question in NYC. So, I love our little beach vacations.

But one of the things I’ve never really understood was lying on the beach, under an umbrella¹. Isn’t it boring? Don’t you get hot? Wouldn’t it be more comfortable to lie on the balcony of your room perhaps? Don’t you feel totally decadent lying there – getting up only to apply more sunblock, or langorously pick up a drink or pop a snack into your mouth?

With all these questions flashing through my brain, I decided that before I judged what was heretofore a purely foreign concept, I should try it. So I packed up my bag with my book, sunblock, camera, wallet, iPod and sunglasses. I donned the requisite bathing suit and definitely requisite wrap, stylish hat and comfy flipflops and sashayed (I hope I sashayed!) over to the beach.

The perfect white umbrella was setup and I ordered the mandatory drink with mandatory umbrella and I settled down. Hmm… this was not so bad. The view was spectacular – wow! (for actual view see picture below) And the people-watching was quite fun too. Oh, couple frolicking at 11 o’clock. Father with cutie baby splashing about at 2 o’clock. Kayakers milling about at 1:30 o’clock (wait – I can’t say that, can I?)

Drink arrives. Enough looking around like an inexperienced newbie! I have to look the part – quick peek around at everyone else. Yes, they are all ensconced in their books. I too must do the same. Sip the drink, take out book. Sip the drink, read book (loop endlessesly). This was quite a lot of fun. The coconut tree branches make the most wonderfully soothing rustling noise in the wind. There are moments where there is no breeze and I start to feel a touch hot, but right on queue, the wind kicks up again. Perfect for a little nap.

The hours pass quickly. A late afternoon snack is consumed while continuing to recline. Little surprises are delivered just when you want them – a cold towel to wrap around a hot neck, a piece of melon to munch on. Equilibrium is maintained All is well with the world. And right around 5:30, the wind picks up, the warmth of the sun diminishes and I get ready to go back to my room having accomplished my mission.

All it took was one afternoon to make me a convert for life. I totally get what this is about. It is about nothing. Absolutely nothing. Deliciously spending an afternoon doing nothing. No stress, no to-dos, no walking, no talking, no heavyduty thinking. The only sounds you hear are the waves and the leaves. The only sights you see are the open water, the trees and out in the water, people being happy. What could be as relaxing? A massage, probably, but this is right up there with a great massage. And it lasts a lot longer and costs a whole lot less. What a novel concept.

I loved it. I am sold. I want to part of this club. I promise I will do my best to graduate to a full day the next time around. Ooh, just the thought of that sounds delicious! I can’t wait…

1. As an aside, if you actually spend all vacation lying under an umbrella, you may wonder why I go on beach-oriented vacations if I don’t lie on the beach. Well, the thing is that looking at the beach is wonderful too. And so is just being in warm, wonderful weather, eating yummy food, etc. etc. ↩

What. A. Match! Wow!! To watch a match like today’s Sri Lanka versus England match live is what makes cricket so much fun. While the World Cup so far, and most definitely the matches in Antigua, have been very one-sided, today’s match was amazing.

England bowled well to keep the Sri Lankans to 235. And then they batted well to stay in the match – for the most part. They sort of lost the plot in the middle and it looked like Sri Lanka might win handily. But Ravi Bopara and Paul Nixon came together and they batted brilliantly. Last over – England needed 11 to win. Last ball – England needed 3 to win…

The stadium was packed with English fans. Where are all the Sri Lankan fans? There were barely a handful and a big chunk of them were Indians who were rooting for Sri Lanka – like us.

Now, I’m perfectly fine being in the minority, but I’ve never really watched a match with English fans. While the large majority cheer their team and behave like “normal” fans, there are a handful that behave disgracefully. The problem starts because they drink non-stop. A bunch of guys around us were never without a beer and the few seconds their cups were empty was when they were walking to get more beer. That’s fine if you can handle your liquor, but some of them can’t.

So, around the 40th over, when it seemed like England was going to lose (before the Bopara/Nixon run-fest), there started to be loud cries of “Cheaters” hurled at the Sri Lankans. Excuse me?!?! Then, there was an incident when Sri Lanka appealed a tad excessively, the “Cheaters” and “Cheating” cries re-emerged. When does appealing constitute cheating, folks? Never, that’s when!

Then comes the final over. The final ball is due to be bowled. Three runs needed off one ball… Fernando runs up to bowl and completes his action – but where’s the ball? It never came out of his hand! Dead ball is signalled by the umpire. Now, I don’t know why that happened – if he had a glitch or if it was intentional. If he felt that he couldn’t deliver the ball the way he wanted, he is fully within his rights and within the rules of the game to not deliver the ball.

But it was very clear what the vocal English fans around us thought. Screaming, yelling, “Cheaters” “Disgraceful – that was disgraceful”. One of the guys yelling was right behind me, so turned around to get a quick peek and I noticed he was yelling looking at us (assuming, naturally, that we were Sri Lankan). It was almost frightening to see how upset and angry they were. I can understand disappointment, but letting their anguish get to the point where they lose all judgement? These are grown, adult men, behaving like children who can’t deal with losing a game. Disgusting. What was truly disgraceful is how these English fans behaved.

I never want to watch another match where England is playing. England, much like India, is a pathetically unpredictable team. They can be brilliant, but more commonly, they collapse dramatically without a moments notice. So their fans are likely going to be upset a lot. Who wants to deal with this kind of nonsensical behavior?? And remember, the English cricket fans are supposed to be leagues better than the English soccer fans!

Sorry, back to the match. Re-bowl the last ball. BOWLED HIM. Shattered the stumps. Silence all around. The handful of Sri Lankan supporters, us included, stand up and yell and scream “Yeah, baby!! Clean bowled!” (Well, to be honest, I said the “Yeah, baby” bit 🙂 ) The Sri Lankan team get in their huddle, celebrating. Amazing. Seven hours of play and it all comes down to the final ball.

This is why I love cricket! I could not have asked for a more brilliant match to end our wonderful sojourn in Antigua.

_{Photograph credits: Me 🙂}

It is a given than artists and other “creative” types are quirky. They get a lot of leeway because everyone expects them to be slightly odd. But I am discovering that scientists can be equally odd.

I am reading Bill Bryson’s A Short History Of Nearly Everything. It is a great book and I am fascinated by some of the more personal information he shares about the men who’ve changed our world.

Newton was a decided odd figure – brilliant beyond measure, but solitary, joyless, prickly to the point of paranoia, famously distracted (upon swinging his feet out of bed in the morning he would reportedly sometimes sit for hours, immobilized by the sudden rush of thoughts to his head), and capable of the most riveting strangeness. He built his own laboratory, the first at Cambridge, but then engaged in the most bizarre experiments. Once he inserted a bodkin – a long needle of the sort used for sewing leather – into his eye socked and rubbed it around “betwixt my eye and the bone as hear to [the] backside of my as I could” just to see what would happen. What happened, miraculously, was nothing – at least nothing lasting. On another occasion, he stared at the Sun for as long as he could bear, to determine what effect it would have upon his vision. Again he escaped lasting damage, though he had to sped some days in a darkened room before his eyes forgave him.

Amazing, huh? A supreme genius who did such crazy things. Apparently Newton also spent about half his life on alchemy and very odd religious pursuits.

In 1936, the economist John Maynard Keynes bought a trunk of Newton’s papers at auction and discovered with astonishment that they were overwhelmingly preoccupied not with optics or planetary motions, but with the single-minded quest to turn base metals into precious ones. An analysis of a strand of Newton’s hair in the 1970s found it contained mercury – an element of interest to alchemists, hatters, and thermometer-makers but almost no one else – at a concentration some forty times the natural level. It is perhaps little wonder that he had trouble remembering to rise in the morning.

Fascinating stuff. Thankfully, between all this, Newton found the few years to write down his work in the world changing paper, Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy.

And that’s just Newton. Bill Bryson makes science fascinating by also telling us about he people behind the discoveries we take for granted today.

He shares the most delightful tales about exasperating efforts – like the one where scientists from all parts of the world wanted to track the passage of Venus across the face of the Sun.

The tireless Edmond Halley had suggested years before that if you measured one of these passages from selected points on the Earth, you could use the principles of triangulation to work out the distance to the Sun, and from that calibrate the distances to all the other bodies in the solar system.

He goes on to give us the sad plight of the scientists who set out years in advance of 1761 to position themselves to track this event. Oh, the event happens in pairs of eights or eight years apart and then doesn’t happen again for more than a century. So… important to catch it

Many observers were waylaid by war, sickness, or shipwreck. Others made their destinations but opened their crates to find equipment broken or warped by tropical heat. Once again the French seemed fated to provide the most memorably unlucky participants. Jean Chappe spent months traveling to Siberia by coach, boat, and sleigh, nursing his delicate instruments over every perilous bump, only to find the last vital stretch blocked by swollen rivers, the result of unusually heavy spring rains, which the locals were swift to blame on him after they saw him pointing strange instruments at the sky. Chappe managed to escape with his life, but no useful measurements.

Unluckier still was Guillaume Le Gentil, whose experiences are wonderfully summarized by Timothy Ferris in Coming of Age in the Milky Way. Le Gentil set of from France a year ahead of time to observe the transit from India, but various setbacks left him still at sea on a day of the transit – just about the worst place to be since steady measurements were impossible on a pitching ship.

Undaunted, Le Gentil continued on to India to await the next transit in 1769. With eight years to prepare, he erected a first-rate viewing station, tested and retested his equipments, and had everything in a state of perfect readiness. On the morning of the second transit, June 4, 1769, he awoke to a fine day, but, just as Venus began its pass, a cloud slid in front of the Sun and remained there for almost exactly the duration of the transit: three hours, fourteen minutes, and seven seconds.

Unbelievable. It brings home how much pain and sacrifice these men of science made for the greater good. It makes them much more human and it makes me really want to keep reading more.

If you haven’t read this book, get it now. It is fabulous – so educational and also entertaining at the same time.

_{Note: I typed the passages out from the book. The publisher and author retain all copyright.}

One of my favorite charities (and one that I’ve blogged about before) is Magic Bus. They do truly outstanding work that makes a huge difference to the kids they work with.

So, I am very exicted to announce that DesiPundit, where I am a contributor, has decided to auction off the prizes it won at the Indibloggies this year, with all the proceeds going to Magic Bus! Please help spread the word and if possible at least bid on one or more of the items. The prizes provided by Indibloggies sponsors are:

• A copy of Reader 06 worth Rs 350 from Sarai – CSDS (Centre for the Study of Developing Societies), Delhi.
• A copy each of “Best of Tehelka 2″ worth Rs 350 and “Vox: Critical Conversations” worth Rs 250, both published by Buffalo Books, from Tehelka.
• One Gym Kit worth Rs 1500 from Black Panther.
• Gift voucher worth Rs 3000 for any art or craft item by Creativegarh Art and Craft Gallery, New Delhi.
• Amazon gift certificate worth $25 from online magazine Tamiloviam.
• Amazon gift certificate worth $50 from Digital Bhoomi.

Head over to DesiPunditand make your bid by leaving a comment (at a minimum, for the value of the item you are bidding on). The auction ends Thursday, April 5th 2007 at 11:59pm CST.

Happy bidding!

Since I moved to New York, I’ve been to a handful of Caribbean islands. Each one is unique in terms of culture, mix of population, types of restaurants, cost of living etc. But the one thing that has been universally true is that it is hard to visit as a vegetarian – at most a restaurant would have one veggie dish and at some restaurants, the best they could do was offer me salad (sometimes by “taking out” the seafood!)

Antigua though, is completely different. It is a haven for vegetarians. Both restaurants at the hotel have a plethora of options. Even the room service menu is packed with veggie appetizers and entrées . But the best part is that, much to my surprise, the veggie-friendly-menus are not restricted to the hotel. It is true pretty much everywhere. So, I’ve been eating well (perhaps too well!).

St. John’s is the downtown in Antigua and it is adorable. In a picturesque little square that is hidden behind some storefronts, I even found Mama Lolly’s Vegetarian Cafe! What a great island – it is rapidly climbing the ranks to the top spot on my list.

Antigua is beautiful. And the brand new stadium is stunning. Every seat has an unobstructed view and you feel really close to the action. But here are a few little tips to make your cricket matches even more fun.

1. Take a folding umbrella. Rain has interrupted play at a number of matches during the World Cup. Today was no different (in fact, for the first time, the reserve day will be used and the West Indies will bat tomorrow). We thought we were really smart that we thought to take an umbrella with us. However, all walking-stick umbrellas were confiscated at security. Goes to reason – you may poke someone’s eye out or shoot a missile at a player.

2. Bring food with you or buy food well before the lunch break. It appears that the basics of managing process are not part of the Caribbean plan. The menus at the concession stands have over 50 items. And each one is prepared *after* you place your order. So, after standing in line for over 45 minutes (in the rain, sans umbrella), we were still not at the front of the line.

3. Take empty bottle caps with you to the game. Really – you know, the screw on ones for colas and water? Take them. When you buy a drink they unscrew the top and only give you the bottle. Apparently, it is a safety mechanism to ensure that you don’t refill the bottle and hurl it onto the field at your favorite, incompetent team. But what that means is that you are carrying a half-used bottle around with no cap and liquid sloshing around.

4. Get there early. At least for Antigua, you can’t drive to the stadium. You drive to a parking lot and then take a shuttle. Except the shuttle doesn’t go when it has a few people. It has to be full. We tried to explain to the driver that we were going to the game late and no one else was going to show up, but it still took him 15 minutes to be convinced.

And why is it that everyone wears their team shirt to the game even if their team is not playing? Maybe I’m just being bitter since I can’t wear an India shirt. The game (or the half that was played today) was a blast. Matthew Hayden, congratulations on a brilliant 158. Go West Indies!

Highlight of the day: Rubbing shoulders with Jean-Luc Picard.

India is out of the world cup. They have only themselves to blame. They batted like they didn’t care, on a wicket where batting was not hard. And yes, I publish this before the game is officially over, but that’s a risk I am so willing to take!

Dhoni and Sachin are peas in a pod – can succeed only when there is no reason and always fail when they need to succeed. Bad run-outs. Agarkar playing so carelessly after his captain goes up to him and tells him to play properly. Ah… the whole team has failed pathetically. They lack the will to win. Crumble at the sign of any fight from the opposition.

The bowling… well, 27 extras. Wow. Letting them get to 254 was a mistake, but the batting made made even 150 look like a tough target.

Here’s the positive – I won’t be wasting any more time on watching. Yay! Hours and hours of free time are opening up like a vista in front of me. It’s been fun folks (well not really fun either), but it is all over.

I will say this. This team has played well in the past. When they are on fire, there is no team as fun. I’ve grown up watching some of these guys. So, for those memories, thank you. But this chapter is closed.

Good night and good luck!

Dravid said, after the loss to Bangladesh, that they are only going to worry about what’s in their control – he got his wish. The Indian team are now in control of their destiny in the World Cup. If they win on Friday against Sri Lanka, they are pretty much through. If they lose, they are out. As simple as that.

Today, Sri Lanka whipped Bangladesh. Bangladesh had a much worse day in the field, but it also showed how badly India played to lose to them. But, that’s all in the past.

Since Bangladesh has a significant negative Net Run Rate, they need to beat Bermuda by some enormous difference (350? 400? something like that). Let’s assume for a moment that that will not happen since no team has ever won by that margin.

So, all in India’s hands. Almost everyone wants them to lose –

• Sri Lanka wants to win because only if they win do they take 2 points through to the next round

• Bangladesh wants Sri Lanka to win because that’s really the only way NRR doesn’t matter and a mere win against Bermuda will put them through instead of India

• All of Pakistan probably wants Sri Lanka to win so that they are not the only big team eliminated and so that arch-rival India keeps them company on the long trip back home.

However, ALL OF INDIA wants you to win!!! So, Team India, time to step up, time to play big. It is in your control – go for it!

What happens if you lose your gloves towards the end of winter? It is still cold outside – freezing in fact. So, you need to wear gloves even though spring is just a few promising weeks away.

Well, you could go over to the nearest general retail outlet and buy yourself a pair, right? Wrong. Oh so wrong. I lost my gloves (or rather just one glove which makes the other one a decorative plant warmer). My first inkling was to look on eBay – whatever it is, you can get it on eBay, baby! But in addition, I decided to check out the retail stores as well.

I trekked to Macy’s – “Gloves? Oh no, we’re out of gloves, we have our spring season in already. Try H&M or The Gap.” Same story at H&M. Same story at The Gap where I got “Try H&M, they always have it. No?? Well, then Macy’s!!”

Regular retail is messed up beyond belief. Really long product planning cycles are the key problem. Lead times are so long that what gets sold for spring (not *in* spring) is probably decided in the fall of the previous year and all orders are placed.

But the consumer is made to pay for this silly process. Spring season items arrive in late Feb when most of the country is still covered in snow. Can you really think of buying that short pink skirt when you walk into the store in three layers, a scarf, ear warmers and a winter coat? I can’t. And on the flip side, you have to buy your winter boots when it is 80 degrees outside and the last thing you can think about is trudging through snow.

To save you from this messed up world, eBay to the rescue. I got online. Did a search for the brand of glove I had. I immediately found a pair that was just a couple of shades lighter than what I had, but otherwise exact. It was listed with Buy It Now. Hit buy, paid via PayPal and was done in exactly 2 minutes and just a few clicks. Amazing. The gloves cost a third of what they would at retail and arrived in perfect condition four days later, brand new with tags still on them.

When we were doing user research for eBay Express, this point kept coming up – off-season retail. It is such a critical market. Why should retail stores dictate when you can buy gloves? What happens if you really need them like I did? They just don’t care because their economics will not let them care. But with eBay’s distributed warehousing, where each seller has a pair or five, the cost structure is very different. Even all these years later, even having worked there for so long, I am still amazed by the power of the model.

So, if you ever want to buy boots when you really need them or a bikini when you really want it, head on over to eBay.

The match, not the country. Well, the match against the country’s cricket team. This is a must-win match for India. More than must-win, India needs to score at least 350 to get the net run rate in their favor. Time for the Indians to step up, time for the people who are failing to try to make it work. After all, folks, it is Bermuda! A match that should have been inconsequential has taken on monumental proportions.

To all my non-Indian readers, apologies that there is so much cricket on this blog of late – but I am Indian and it is in my blood 🙂

Post-script to the Indian innings: If you could bat like this what on earth were you guys doing against Bangladesh? Sleep-playing? Sure, they are a better team, but still… Well, at least you’re awake and alive now. Welcome to the World Cup, Team India! 413 is brilliant. Yes, it is against Bermuda, but still good.

Post-match update: India wins. Still some areas they could have done better. Like fielding and the inability to close things out – letting Bermuda get to their highest WC score of 156! But at least we won and the Net Run Rate for India is now +2.507. Based on what happens on Wednesday with Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, the scenario will become more clear.

———— Blogging the match (why? I don’t know… it helps calm the nerves)

2nd over: Robin Uthappa learns from Sehwag. Fishes outside his off-stump. Edges to a second slip. Dwayne Leverock stands at first slip, but he stretched from first slip, kept stretching and got it! Amazing. I think the guy weighs 300 pounds – amazing to see him get it. The bowler, Jones, is so happy that he’s in tears. Aww. I like Bermuda.

4th and 5th overs: After some usual swishes, Sehwag actually hits a couple of clean fours. Fingers crossed, fingers crossed. Please, please don’t give it away! If there is a time to redeem yourself, Sehwag, now is it. Step up to the plate!

6th: Two smashing fours from Sehwag. Sivaramakrishnan says “Could this be Sehwag’s day?” Don’t jinx him please!! Argh. Commentators curse is powerful.

7th: Oww. Another swish by Sehwag. Learn, for god’s sake! Move your feet! Ah, another one just misses the outside edge. Yikes.

8th and 9th: 4s from Sehwag. Hmm… is he back? Please be back.

10th: Four fours from Sehwag. Excellent. On a side note – Ganguly still refusing to take easy singles!!

12th: Sehwag’s fifty – yeah! Keep going – need to keep going today. Reclaim yourself in a big way!

13th: Ganguly dropped. Tough catch. Phew.

14th: Straight drive down the ground by Sehwag. Nice. Why oh why couldn’t you all play like this against Bangladesh?? And drinks.

Oh, a break for now. Blogging this helped me get over some of my nerves. I never knew all the benefits of blogging when I started 🙂

15th over: Two huge sixes by Sehwag. I have to stop asking why they couldn’t do this against Bangy. What’s done is done. Now they need to fight like men.

19th: After a maiden over, Ganguly hits a nice six!

20, 21, 22: Field is now spread (Bermuda did not take the 3rd and final PowerPlay) and India is now grinding away. Taking the singles, the twos. Moving along nicely. A time of consolidation.

23rd: Six from Ganguly on the first ball of the over.

26th: Bermuda takes the PowerPlay. Sehwag hits a big six. Gets into the nineties.

27th: Sehwag on 99. Ganguly drives down the ground for four that flies over the inner ring of fielders.

28th: Jitters. Swishing, swashing, flailing. Be calm. Get it together. Get your 100 and keep going, please. Mr. Sehwag! There it is. Congratulations. You needed it. We needed it. I hope you keep going. I hope this is a return to form. Finally, repaying Dravid. Yes, it is Bermuda, but better now than later. John Wright has a funny comment – Rahul signals to Sehwag: Great job, stay there, you owe me a 100 more.

30th: Fours by Ganguly and Sehwag. Oh, a mistimed shot. Sehwag skies one. Out for 114. Good job, Sehwag. Welcome back. Please don’t let this be an aberration against a minnow.

31-34: Somewhat tied down. A few runs here and there. Dhoni settling in, Ganguly not getting boundaries.

35th: Ganguly starts off with a lofted four. Ganguly goes down the track and is stumped. Out for 89. Nice job.

39th: Dhoni opens with a huge six. Yeah, let’s go. Another one in the air and he’s out! Still 12 overs to go. We need someone to power India past 350. I hope they don’t collapse again. Yeah, yeah, I know – no, I am not negative. I believe n de-jinxing this team 🙂 Tendulkar in.

40-43: Going along fine

44 and 45: Four and then six by Sachin and Yuvraj respectively.

46: Berserk. Two huge Tendulkar sixes

47: Yuvraj hits a massive six. Yeah baby!

48: Oh my god – two fours and two sixes. Yeah! Yuvraj on fire!!!

49th: Two huge Yuvraj sixes. And then, he’s out. 83 off just 46 balls. Amazing. But Tendulkar keeps going. Yes!

50th over: Six from Tendulkar first ball. Six from Dravid in the last ball of innings. Tendulkar scored 57 off just 27 balls. India finishes their innings at 413.