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Archive for March, 2006

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Bitten by the Travelling Bug and how! Check out this family from France who have been travelling around the world in a camper van! Read it here.

Written by aditya kumar

March 15th, 2006 at 8:50 am

Posted in Asides

In the Hangar

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My latest acquisition:

An Official Pan American Airways Aircraft Replica!

Written by aditya kumar

March 14th, 2006 at 8:27 pm

Posted in Aviation,Personal

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Dr.Amartya Sen’s new book, ‘Identity and Violence’, is out. It’s said to be thought-provoking and also provides a never before glimpse of the author’s life as the book is a semi-autobiography. Looking forward to it !

Written by aditya kumar

March 14th, 2006 at 11:17 am

Posted in Asides

Indian Express Revamp

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The Indian Express, one of the leading newspapers of the country, has just ‘upgraded’ it’s website. The design is sleek and has an International feel to it.. Top Class, very Impressive and the Best Indian Newspaper site maybe!

Written by aditya kumar

March 14th, 2006 at 1:01 am

Posted in Asides

England loose the second test:

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In Mohali, the Englishmen overdo their defensive approach and pay the price. You just can’t play on the backfoot all the time in the Subcontinent!

Written by aditya kumar

March 14th, 2006 at 12:27 am

Posted in Asides

I Love This Game

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More than Three decades of ODI cricket. Almost 35 years. Not one team, ever, crossed the 400 run barrier. Not even when they played 60 overs per innings.

So today, When playing for a series winning decider against South Africa in Johannesburg, the Australian team made a bulky sounding 434/4 in their allotted 50 overs, most people believed that the rest of the cricket about to follow, had nothing but an academic value. Another Aussie dominated day in the offing? Different opposition, same result?

But South Africa have a certain man in their team called Herschelle Gibbs and I have always felt he has often been underestimated in the arena of International Cricket usually dominated by Batsmen of the likes of Lara, Tendulkar, Gilchrist …the list goes on… Blame it on his average of 35.77 runs maybe, he has usually found it difficult to get his photo printed on glossy paper.

Tonight, when he was playing the innings of his life, most of the world was sleeping. Tomorrow, in fact, a few hours from now, everyone will be talking about it.

Belief, you know, does some incredible things to people. One 35 year old man, once discarded by his critics and the team selectors makes his way back to the team and becomes the first Indian bowler to take 500 test wickets, the second-fastest ever to achieve this record. At 35, when most cricketers nowadays “consider” retirement and start tuning their English speaking skills to allure the viewer from the commentary box, this man tells us that ‘600 wickets is a possibility’. Another cricketer, a few thousand miles away, goes on to bat with a target in front of him that no one ever in the history of cricket had to achieve and facing a bowling attack which is literally the world’s most potent under any conditions. And almost single-handedly, this man turns the tables.

If you watched the game live, I bet you must’ve had the feeling that these had to be the highlights, such was the frequency of the ball crossing the boundary. Afterall, it’s not everyday that you get to see an innings comprising of 7 sixes and 21 fours coming from one man’s willow in little more than 2 hours time. Such was the rush.

And what is with Gibbs and dropped catches? When he dropped Steve Waugh in the 1999 World Cup, it was (rightly) said he had dropped the World cup. Today, Bracken dropped a sitter from Gibbs when he was at 130. Ouch. No World Cup but still, that must’ve hurt.

As I mentioned, it took more than three decades for any team in International cricket to achieve 400 runs in a one day innings. The best part was, the record lasted merely four hours.

Match report here and here. Scorecard here.

Written by aditya kumar

March 12th, 2006 at 11:17 pm

Posted in Cricket

What women want

with 2 comments

A sense of security, of course.

Yesterday’s Sunday Magazine of The Hindu carries a very thought provoking, well-researched article by Kalpana Sharma. The article is titled “What Bush did not know” and contrary to the impression this title may give you, this is not an article focussing on Bush Jr’s recent visit to India.

Instead, the article throws open an issue that often has provoked debates but more often than not, has failed to find solid conclusions.

Consider this — Of the 14000 people interviewed in Delhi, 50% of women do not feel safe in the city. Nine out of ten women who used public transport felt unsafe about it. 45% of women felt unsafe at their workplace.

These are staggering figures. These are disturbing figures.

There is more. Delhi records the highest percentage of reported crime against women. Mind my words here, reported crime.

Keep in mind, a big part of these crimes go unreported. Obviously, there is more to it than what meets the eye.

So what can be done? A lot can be done if only the cities are planned keeping in mind the threats faced by the most vulnerable of the society. Poor people and women working late hours among them.

As the author rightly points out, three factors need to be considered — The Environment, The Poor and The most vulnerable. Roads could be well lit for example. We could do with more emergency services. Going to the Police and invoking the law should be encouraged.

But obviously, as evident, Malls and shopping centres are the money churners now and the Government, take any State Government, has half a dozen of these projects going on in the main cities.

There is nothing wrong and I don’t have anything against it, but I always have felt, the basic needs of the city should come first. What is the point of having glittery, seven floor shopping centres if a city doesn’t have well lit roads. Even in Bangalore, the city where I live, a lot of the colony roads, or whatever is left of them, are enveloped in darkness after sunset. Clearly, a lot can be done about it but in the past one year that I have been here, I have seen negligble development regarding the city’s infrastructure.

Then of course, is the factor of the mental attitude of people. In a hypothetical situation where we may have the same city conditions in both Delhi and Bombay, women in Bombay are bound to feel safer than their counterparts in Delhi. As the author rightly points out again, the difference here is in the ‘way women in public spaces are viewed in the north and the south’.

Meanwhile, please read the article here.

Written by aditya kumar

March 6th, 2006 at 11:45 pm

Posted in Bangalore,Society