MOHALI 2011, FAKR HAI!!!

 The biggest by any means of the cricket world cup 2011. 2nd semifinal between India and Pakistan. It still seems like a dream and I am waiting for someone to wake me up.

 The most talked about point at the start of the match was Dhoni's decision of playing Nehra instead of R. Ashwin. Nobody agreed with it and to worsen it, the pitch had ample turn to offer to the spinners. India won the toss and choose to bat.

 There is no denying the fact that Sachin Tendulkar is the numero uno of cricket, however there are many other players who have made countless contributions and won us matches...and are still happy under the shadow of God. Virender Sehwag, he may not have a great batting record, but the runs he makes and the way he makes them is a big confidence booster for the team. Just a Sehwag 30 odd can give India a blistering start, and Mohali was no different.

 The opening 10 overs were all hammer and tongs...from India to Pakistan! A total of 300 plus seemed inevitable, however the rookie Wahab Riaz who was given a go over Shoaib Akhtar had different plans in mind. He had the day of his life in bowling. Not many bowlers dream of dismissing five Indian batsman in a world cup semifinal including the likes of Sehwag, Kohli, Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh. Especially the first ball duck to Yuvraj Singh, was the turning point. India tattering at 6 for 205 in 41 overs. The score of 300 was beyond and there was apprehension, not only in the dressing room but in the hearts of 1.2 billion Indians.

 Batting powerplay has been a vital shortcoming for team India in this world cup. India have lost wickets like a pack of cards on a number of occasions. This time however, India were already six down and a repitition of the past would have been aberrant. Suresh Raina, who had played his first match in the Quarter Finals, had a crucial 5th wicket partnership with Yuvraj Singh which helped India defeat the 4 time champions Australia. This time too, Raina played an invaluable knock of 36 with the tail and made sure that India bat the full fifty overs and make a respectable 260. Also Sachin Tendulkar made invaluable contribution in the middle overs of 86 runs.

 Pakistan has been more than potent as far as bowling goes in this world cup with their captain leading the way with 21 wickets in 7 matches before the semis. India made sure that he did not get any wicket this time around. Pakistan batting, well there has not been a single century from any of their players in this world cup. Dhoni's sublime captaincy with attacking field positions and innovative bowling changes have been lauded by one and all. Semifinal was a masterful bowling performance by all the Indian bowlers, a perfect team effort. Only 5 bowlers used and all bagging 2 wickets each.

 Misbah ul haq....ROFL...poor fellow. He was the one who screwd up Pakistan in the first T20 finals in 2007 which India won and this semifinals, he did it again! He was the centre of mockery of one and all on facebook. He was a tad unlucky too...with wickets falling like heap at the other hand, he had to assure his survival. However he delayed the batting powerplay and the required onslaught, which resulted in their defeat. Again the captaincy and calmness of Dhoni was indeed legendary!

 After the match I decided to go for CAD M with my roommate. Halfway we realized there was not enough petrol to reach Aundh, which was indeed a blessing in disguise as Pune had come down on the streets in celebrations. Not only Pune, whole of India had gone crazy, it was the happiest and most triumpant day for all. There were bikers everywhere shouting and cheering, boys and girls sitting on the window of the cars, drums, crackers and delight. It seemed like a dream and the feeling is still not going...some incident and memories are lifelong and defines a generation. This World Cup semifinal against Pakistan will never be forgotten by anyone!

 Finals in 2 days time @ Mumbai @ Sachin's home ground....Srilanka must be already feeling the tremors of the assault they are going to face, not only from the players but also from the crowds! Jai Hind!

The new DRS & KERS technology @ F1, 2011!

 For those who follow it religiously are aware that since past 3 years, there has been a horde of changes in Formula One racing. I still remember how surprised I was when last year I just saw a race after long time and the rare spoilers were drastically very short in length. Also the qualifying process changes a lot every season, no different for tyre rules and refuelling!

 Come 2011, the gimick is, there are 5 previous champions battling it out this time, something that has not happened in the previous 20 odd years. The big five being Sabastian Vettel(2010), Jenson Button(2009), Lewis Hamilton(2008), Fernando Alonso(2005,2006), Micheal Schumacher (7 times!). Vettel seemed in sublime form in the first round of 2011 at Australian GP!

 Getting back to the technology changes of 2011. The two main addition are the DRS(Drag Reduction System) and KERS(Kinetic Energy Recovery System). The concept of KERS is very simple, as the name suggests, it does the same thing.The way it does it is very very complex.The mechanical KERS system utilises flywheel technology developed by Flybrid Systems to recover and store a moving vehicle’s kinetic energy which is otherwise wasted when the vehicle is decelerated.This is the link where you will find the technical information about it! For the just concluded race at Australia, Red Bull drivers including the winner Sabastian Vettel, did not use the KERS technology!

 The second one called DRS was used by everyone. It was even visible on the speedometer of a racing car which is shown during the race on the TV screen. To get into the details, DRS is implemented by using an adjustable rear wing. How it works is as the car approaches the corners, the rear wing is brought down slightly, which helps in increasing traction and for straights it is brought up, which helps in better acceleration, as simple as that! This is a fantastic link explaining DRS with a 9 minute video from Red Bull racing team, demonstrating the same!

 I am a F1 fanatic and I would like to state that, although these changes seem basic and miniscule, it involves lots and lots of research and millions of dollars worth of investment. Also getting a F1 license is not that simple, neither is F1 racing. F1 pilots(yes, they are called pilots and not drivers!) are subjected to forces of upto 3Gs and loose upto 5 kgs of weight after every race. F1 racing is very very demanding and requires a lot of talent and hard work!

Fortunately, there is gonna be an Indian GP this year at Delhi, first time F1 race in India. It is gonna be on 28-30th October and is subject to circut approval. If it does happen, it will indeed bring a lot of exposure for the sport in India. 

When India tamed the OZ, WC 2011!

 There was a time in Indian cricket before Dhoni when India used to enter every tournament with very high expectations from the crowd and ultimately resulting in disappointment and with majority of success due to Sachin Tendulkar!

Now, that time seem long long gone, Dhoni has indeed revolutionized the Indian cricket. If you thought that winning the inaugural T20 was a matter of chance, you would have definitely changed your mind now! India was ranked one in test cricket throughout in 2010, rank two in ODIs and undefeated at home! This is the new team India under the able, cool and highly potent as well as lethal captainship of MS Dhoni!

World Cup 2011, India v/s Australia, 2nd Quarter Finals. India one of the domineering favorites in the tournament. Australia, 4 time champs, but fresh from their first world cup loss in ages against Pak. Motera, Ahmedabad witnessed history on 24th, March, 2011.

OZ won the toss and choose to bat. India opening bowling with R. Ashwin. As per Sunil Gavaskar, he is gonna win the world cup for India. Such comment from such a man, means a lot and this guy Ashwin has great temperament, control and displays tremendous maturity! Australia made 260 in first innings, which could have been easily 275-300, had it not been for the best Indian fielding effort ever and fantastic bowling changes from MS!

Half time, the game is on! Enter Sachin Tendulkar, looking for revenge of the 2003 world cup final loss! However this Indian batting line up is much different than the 2003. These are bunch of talented fearless young guns who play with aggression, play with attitude and play like champions! This is the new bleed blue Indian side! Majority of the batsman chipped in the run chase and Yuvi was the man who saw it through!

Also it was no ordinary match for me! After the amazing experience of watching a movie in a thousand plus multiplex capacity at Infosys, Mysore full of youngsters, it was time something would be even more enthralling. Over 150 employees at Infosys, Pune at a small lobby, shouting at the top of their voice, cheering the Indian team to march on! The atmosphere was simple electrifying and an experience that I would never forget! With India taking on Pak next in the semis, you can only imagine....HELL WILL BREAK LOOSE!!!!!!!!

Untitled – Part 1: The Invention of the Time Trek

The year is 2152. The planet Earth is suffering from inhospitable conditions. The beautiful blue planet which once supported life, is now hot and dry. Humans have migrated to various other planets. What once used to be cities and countries on a single planet are now multiple planets and universe in a galaxy. Humans using the technology of anti matter plasma have been able to conquer the depths of space, found allies in Vulcans and have domineered majestically over the Milky Way galaxy.

Time travel has become a typical phenomenon, why not when travelling at light speed is a must to conquer the extremities of the universe. They call it Time Trek! Humankind now has the knowledge and technology to mutate their DNA and practically stop the aging process of the body. Also using the stem cell augmentation, the muscle tissues and sensory organs have become mighty powerful. The prototype human-vulcan is being considered, a hybrid definitive concoction of the two DNAs. Let’s go back to how everything started.

Hundreds of years ago when earth was still hospitable, there was a person called Mr. K. He was exceptionally bright and incredibly prevailing. By profession he was an expert in space information and technology. Founder of KSRC (K Space Research Center), he was administering infrastructure maintenance of the spaceships and also head of the research team.

Once he was on bench as there was recession and there was not much work to do. He used to get up at 10:00AM GMT (Galactic Mean Time). Catch the 12:30 bus to office. Life was good, until the day he found himself in front of him.

One day after getting up at 10AM, he went down to the nearby shop to have cutting chai, vadapav and bread pattice for breakfast. He did not take his mobile or his watch as it was just 11AM and thought he cannot be late for the 12:30 bus. He had his breakfast and unaware about the time, he started to leave for home. The bus stop to KSRC was just next to the tea shop and he saw some other employees already waiting for the bus there.

How could this be possible? The time could no way have been later than 11:30 and the bus was supposed to come at 12:30. Something was wrong! The possibility of K having done time travel came to his mind. He was suspicious as well as excited.

While walking back home, he thought if he had actually done time travel. He pondered if he was in a parallel universe! There should have been another K standing at the bus stop, but that was not so. He reached his block and called for the space elevator. The elevator was going up from the 400th floor, it stopped on floor 740 and then was coming down. It was the same floor where K lived. When the elevator reached down and the door opened…was the moment two parallel universes collided….Time Trek was born!

END OF PART 1

Link to Untitled Part 2: http://cartikvyas.blogspot.in/2011/05/untitled-part-2-logic-is-undeniablewhen.html

You know you are on bench when...

When you have a 10AM alarm in you cell phone...
When you have 5 minutes to polish your shoes and you do it everyday...
When you catch 12:30PM bus to office...
When you have tried all kinds of food in the FCs...
When your GK is at an all time high coz of reading newspapers everyday...
When you have time to think of some kool status for FB...
When you reach level 50 in Cityville, 3 million dollars in Poker and then get bored of it and leave it....
When you take snaps wherever you go...
When you tease your friends who are in project...
When you know the names of all players of Ireland cricket team...
When you think about writing this post while coming to office and thinking about what all to write for 1 hour!

Fingers crossed for India @ CWC 2011!!!

Hello! There has not been much bloging since some time. One of the reason is I am on bench. Well it should result in more blogging conventionally. But, there is convention and there is Kartik Vyas.

It's just that when you are totally free, you just pass time, uncreatively. In previous few months when I was in project and work was hectic, I actually used to blog a lot, especially in raat paali.

Ok, getting to the point of the cricket world cup. It has started and India had a good first game. There are loads of expectations on the team to win the cup, the side is also good and in form. A blend of experience and youth, agression and calmness and a very able captain in M.S. Dhoni. If we can actually do it or not, only time will tell.

Manchester United is doing pretty good in EPL, despite losing their first game few weeks back. They won the Manchester Derby against Man City, a scorcher of a goal from Rooney. He seems to be finding some form. Good for the team as Berbatov is already the top goal scorer in the league.

Poker is also going very well. Two days back reached the 1M dollars milestone. It took around 4 months since I started playing. And today I already crossed 1.5 million. I guess with time and experience you learn the ticks of the trade, not only in Poker, but also in life. Also another thing to learn is that it is never wrong to dream big. Hard work and common sense can sail you through.

Another analogy I was thinking of relating this too was of the big shots like the Ambanis and the Mallayas. How did they become rich. What's the secret? Well if I imply the lessons of poker, only reaching a certain level is difficult. Once you reach the level of 'above average', the growth is exponential. It was intricate in Poker to reach to 1M, but after that with all the experience and a strong balance, the next half million took only 2 days!

Poker has actually helped me be a better person intellectually. I mentioned about it in my previous post and I repeat it again. It improves your decision making abilities a lot and is good exercise for the neurons!

Meet Anushka Sharma, My Latest Crush!!!

 Back to Pune and back to office and back to raat palli. Those who know about it, know that this is my blogging paali and those who don't...know it now!!!

 Precisely remember in school days, I was bongs over Aishwarya Rai, then I came to college and Katrina Kaif came in my life and then Priyanka Chopra. Then it was Deepika Padukone and Sonam Kapoor until they came on Koffe with Karan. Deepika looks blind to me in all movies after watching Lafangey Parindey...she just has that look if you see carefully! Sonam, well, she showed her true side on the show and well I don't like girls who do bitchin an' all and that was the end of both for me!

 So after so many "relationships", I guess I should not have the heart to loose but one girl has got my eye these days. Anushka Sharma!!! :D

 Her first movie was Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi , she ws playing a young girl married to an older man....we all know the movie. She played her role very well...also I guess first film against any of the Khans helps big time! Also I really liked the song Dance Pe Chance...she's a gr8 dancer!!

 Second movie Badmaash Company...change in avtaar from a sweet and cultured kudi to a sexy babe...again I liked her in that too!!! The movie is also really good.  I have not seen Band Bajaa Baraat, but her upcoming movie Patiala House and especially the below song in it...wow took me off my feat!!! The song is really very good...feel like listening and watchin again and again...especially the 02:17 to 02:26 part where she goes up and dances is like...wow!!!



She's a perfect girl...beautifully cute, smartly sexy , really good dancer, great smile,jovial !!! Hmmm...perfect for me....


P.S. Hey, one thing is missing, she's not an Astronaut...but what the hell !!!

The Mumbai Diaries

 No. This is not about the movie Dhobhi Ghat. I have better things to do in life than see stupid crap art movies. This post is about my visit to home in this looong weekend.

 Last Sunday I came back to Pune DC from Hyderabad, also I am getting release from my current project from next friday. Looking forward to what comes next! :D. However I did take an off, last Friday and came home after doing morning shift on Thursday!

 I have a very bad impression of Neeta travels, based on my experiences and thankfully this time I traveled in some other travels. Dunno name but Purple was written in the front and Prasanna on the back of the bus. The best thing about this bus was that it was a non stop bus from Pune, started at 5PM, reached Panvel at 0630 and I reached home @ 0830...in time for dinner! :D

  Whenever I go home there always good home food waiting for me. This time was no different, Dal dhokdi, Cheese Pav Bhaji.Undhyu-Puri-Basundi, Dum Aloo Kashmiri and Ragda Pattice..Also Gajjar no halwo and halwasan of Ahmedabad for sweets!! :D . Thank You mama for putting in all the effort...bhagwan tamara dikra nu kalyan kare.. ;)

 Another thing you do when you go home is help out the family with the electronics stuff. Had to buy a chord-less phone, got one today. They are so pale comparing to the mobiles, I was hoping for a touch screen chord-less phone or something....so did that and also went to Taj Lands End, Bandra to celebrate the loong overdue anniversary celebration of mom and dad. Nice time there. One Veg Handi costs 700bucks and one garlic naan 215 bucks....they did have the silver spoon, fork and knife though.. :D

 What else, this time my neighbor Shrikanth is also here. Went to Oberoi mall with him yesterday, again something long overdue.  Oberoi mall is really nice, it is decently big and has everything in it. It has a biiiiiiig croma store and I had to check out XBOX 360 Kinect and Playstation Go and so I did.

 I went in to the store and I asked them if they have it on display, they had and I went there. I was searching for some joystick kinda thing but was amazed that its all gesture recognition. Played football, table tennis and boxing till my shoulders and legs started paining...(30mins) ..had great fun. Really nice thing. Di'nt have any energy left for the playstation, will check that next time. However I do know one thing that playstation 3 go is the best followed by Wii and XBOX is last. Always remember one thing..Microsoft is last in everything these days.. ;)

 Also Oberoi mall has a furniture showroom and we do what we do...we go there sit on the recliner and move up the leg support...Joey style.. ;) We also take pics till the store person tells us to stop..Mysore, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai...somethings never change...hehe

 Also the mall has a big crossword store and lots of good food options. The ambiance is also good in the food courts. Also played all the arcade games kids play...seating on a bike and driving it with a screen in front and all. FTR....I came 2nd in the Super Bixes console on my first attempt.... B-)

 Nothing else really, recently won a SitnGo in Poker and got 45k chips and my chip level is above $250K  now B-)  . I think India lost the 5th ODI, but should win the world cup!!! Manchester United spanked Birmingham 5-0 with Berbatov scoring a brace. Still undefeated in the league, they are at the top with two points lead over Arsenal and a game in hand!

 That's it...back to Pune tomorrow..hope not to get a Neeta bus...the stupid old Neeta bus with unnecessary stops in between which takes a lot of time!!! :@

The Rational Philosophical Thinking

Yes I am in raat paali, the paali where I blog the most and today I just saw Stephen Hawkings special and I am reading a book on Quantum Computing, so guess for yourself :) .

 Since more than a couple of years,I have been following Stephen Hawkings. Following on Discovery channel that is. How he speaks about the Universe and all. Today there was a Stephen hawking special, unfortunately was in Hindi, but still I did see around half of it.

 First thing first, and the the first thing on Earth and the how of it is still perplexing. What am trying to say is that there is still no single acceptable theory about the origin of life on earth. There is a vague explanation about origin of the Universe, but that is, as I said vague. The two most acceptable theory about origin of life on earth are beneath.

 First they say, that life evolved from water, yes correct, many people agree. However today I saw, Stephen Hawkings saying it was muddy water to be precise and it had loads of amino acids. I presumed amino acids are the constituents of the DNA, however I found out that DNA is made up of nucleotide and each nucleotide has three parts: a sugar molecule, a phosphate molecule, and a structure called a nitrogenous base. No amino acids, however amino acids are pretty critical for life with regards to the metabolism process. Ok, so I guess these facts make the first option feasible.

 Second theory is that life travelled to Earth via some extraterrestrial object like a coment, under the assumption that those life form had the ability to survive the hostile conditions of space. However if that were so, then how come, we humans who are the highest form of evolution cannot survive without an atmosphere? I disagree with Mr. Stephen on this one!

 Also there was the usual search for life beyond earth section with reference to Mars and Europa, just wondering if I would every get to see someone get out of our solar system in my lifetime?

 So this is the extreme end of dimension, the Universe and than there is another extreme, the cellular physics. Yes I am talking the physical cell, not the biological one. In one of my previous post, I talked about powering spaceships for intergalactic travel using anti-matter. Yes, you may realize that is too in raat paali..hehe. Point is power can be supplied via anti matter, which seems kinda fiction, more realistic may be nuke or plasma. What about the technology to be used in such spaceship? Well power is not enough rite, you need some intelligent computing for such a big thing, both in terms of size and purpose, and that is answered by Quantum Computing!!!

 I started reading about it and couldnt help my impatience and excitement to make a status update on FB which read: :"An algorithm that could factor a 140 digit long numbers a billion times faster than currently possible, a search engine that could examine every nook and cranny of the Internet in half an hour and a "brute force" decoder that could unscramble a Data DES transmission in five minutes! How? Quantum Computers! THAT'S HOW!!" Yes it is true, and it is magnificently amazing. To get slightly more detail on it, I can say it is using the concept of making a subatomic particle, like an electron store bits of data and also act like a gate. Well gates are a concept in Computer Organization and Arhitecture subject, there are various gates like the AND gate and all.

Also historically speaking physicists and computer scientists have been investigating the properties of quantum superpositions and their application to computing since the late 1970s, too bad nothing concrete has come out yet. We have millions and billions of transistors on a chip but still no progress in quantum computing!

 End of the day, I guess everything is set!!! There's gonna be a USS Enterprise, powered by nuke or something, having the brain of a quantum computer and me as The Captain, with my DNA biologically mutated to stop or reverse the aging process, as required... B-))

Today? Four of a kind!

 If you play poker you'd be aware of what that means. Today's date is four of a kind. Four of ones or rather four Aces in cards. Pretty strong hand huh, but not the strongest! Will get back to poker again. So how did I bring in 2011? Twilight New Moon, Lots of Poker and the first EPL match of 2011!

  Normally and conventionally vampire movies are supposed to be horror kind, however the twilight series is classically superb and amazingly dazzling. It is just the right mixture of everything and I love it for sure.

 Kristen Stewart casts in all the twilight movies and she is hot! How hot? If you speak the Joey language, she's stop eating your food hot! If you speak Fast and Furious language, she's smokin hot! Born in 1990, she's just all of 20 now and has proven her talent more than once!

 So I saw the Twilight New Moon and one thing I noticed this time is that it also has wonderful background score as well. One score which is my best is the scene where Victoria is chased by the Werewolves. Check this out, took me half hour to find this baby on youtube...and is totally worth!

 Ok so enough of Kristen and Twilight, time for Poker. Yes baby! Started playing poker since couple of weeks on FB, it's really gr8 havin lotta fun. You may have elders tellin ya dat gambling is bad and all, but poker is not gambling, it's about doing analysis, taking claculated chances, it's about learning to cope with the winnings and losses. It's kinda similar to managemant education and it makes you a more mature person and improves you decision making capabilities!

  Having already won over $100k in virtual chips I can surely give a tip or two for aspiring poker players. First poker is a game of patience, you need to be very patient, need to see the trend of other players to know what is their style of play. It helps a lot. Also sometimes in a shootout, you may get lucky if you are patient.

 Then one needs to be very good at analyzing the cards which the dealer opens on the table, with that you can figure out what the best hand someone can have and compare it with yours. Also always remember if you have two aces with you, you have a very good chance of winning, however remember it is not the best hand and can be beaten by a flush to A's.And the best one is the royal flush, see above. Finally I would say don't be too defensive, be patient but do take calculated risks as well, the rest you'll learn when ya play!

 Hmm..two things. The third thing? Hehe...Machester United. They are playin the first EPL match of 2011, away to WBA, score is 1-1 currently. My envisage is they'll win EPL for sure this season. Also with the cricket WC around 50 days away and the kinda form the playas are in riy now, it is India's destiny to win!