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Update: Thanks for the clarifications, Su. The post’s duly updated to reflect your clarifications.

A couple of years ago, I had ranted (parts 1 and 2) about the disdain shown towards “massy” dappankuthu (and in general non-Hindi/non-Bhangra) type numbers by DJs and the “classy” crowd at dance parties both here in videsh and back home in India. But my personal experiences have mostly been outside Chennai, in fact outside India.

And those who know me will attest that, at times, I can be as “massy” as one can get, mostly in the (few) aforementioned dance parties that I get to go to. And most of the DJs I have seen in these parties, suck. One DJ even went as far as feigning loss of the mix CDs (they magically re-surfaced at the end of the party) that a couple of us had painstakingly created so that he has a mix of Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Marathi numbers to play during the party. But that old post immediately came into mind when I read about the fiasco Radio Mirchi RJ hunt party at Dublin, the disco/night club at the Park Sheraton in Chennai. (more…)

Aakash Chopra, writing on the TMS Blog, writes (via),

In this millennium, India have won more Tests away from home (16) than any other country apart from Australia (26) in the same period.

Interesting. But how many of these have come in series that India has won? I would say (without going to Statsguru for reference) that this number is either 3 or 4. And if I remember right, most of these wins have come either in test no. 1 or 2 of a 3 (or) 4 match series.

Why do we win one and lose the rest? Complacency? That’s the most obvious answer.

While I think that this will be fact of choice for Team India’s ardent supporters for some months to come (incl. me), I’d be happier to quote the number of series wins as my reason to support this Indian team.

As for Aakash Chopra, his dropping continues to irk. Sure, Jaffer has his occasional monster score, but Chopra tended to inspire more confidence. And also the context of a Chopra innings is different. I think even with a test average of 23, he did quite well, considering that the man at the other end was Sehwag playing a swashbuckling innings. So to me, Chopra remains a “what if”.

Is Subhash Chandra trying to do a Packer? Is this what India needs? Let’s wait and watch as more details unfold…

Incidently, another Cricinfo piece by Sambit Bal calls for something similar - A revolution, if you please. Hmm…

For more, head over to my World Cup guest blog at UberDesi….

Our relationship turned three today. One day I read about you and wished I had met you. Then later on that same day, when I finally got to meet you, it was love at first sight. And you have been with me ever since, through thick and thin. So why am I talking about our love affair like it has soured?

Well, you know our relationship HAS soured. No, it is not you, honey. No, darling, I am not breaking up with you with the the “It’s not you, It’s me!” speech. I am not breaking up with you, period. But something has gone wrong. I am sure.

It is not you and it is surely not me either. It is them. All of them. The whole world. Some of them must be dumb if they cannot figure out that our relationship is unique and one in a billion. They don’t seem to understand that just because there are more like me, they can’t have the same relationship that we have. (more…)

Last week, this blogger commented on the “mother of all deals” - the one that the Mumbai police “signed” with Google and went to town about how it is going to stamp out Internet hate.

Google spokeswoman Victoria Grand issued a statement today in relation to this (text via Boing Boing) (more…)

Looks like the mother of all deals has been signed. No, Microsoft and Apple are not merging. Neither are Toyota and Honda. Rather, it is Google and the Mumbai police that have come together. So if you are a member of the “I hate Salman Khan’s hairless chest” community on Orkut and have in the past went off on a rant there that you want to throw acid on Salman for uttering lines like “Hey, I know you.. you are the tellaphone man!”, it is time for you to leave Orkut now, when you can. (more…)

Minutes after I posted my first post on ÃœberDesi, my GTalk popped up announcing a message from X. Regular readers might know X from here.

12:23 AM

X: wats this uberdesi?

some nri focussed blog?

(more…)

Prem Panicker’s Rediff piece on the World Cup super 8 scheduling seems to have touched a nerve (going by the comments on the article). Apart from the fact that if it’s true leading to the assumption, then the ICC does not expect any upset victories (unlike the previous editions), the only thing that worries me is the prospect of India not playing enough weekend games.

Yesterday I noticed (via the schedule on my Willow.tv subscription) that if India beat Sri Lanka (and) West Indies beat Pakistan (and) there are upsets involving these teams, then India would finish B1 and Pakistan would finish D2 and their much awaited clash will be on a weekend (on April 1). (more…)

Everyone assumes and makes an ASS out of U and Me. Sounds cliched, huh? Someone assumes that everyone who searches for “hot madrasi gals” on the Net is South Indian. And yet another assumes that someone who bitches about India is an NRI. In either case, the people making the assumption end up sounding like they have their face up their asses. What is even funnier is the people who follow these first movers and agree with the same assumptions under another mistaken assumption that more people agreeing to the same assumption makes the assumption come true. (more…)

A couple of weeks ago, I had a few hours to kill at Heathrow while coming back from my India trip. After killing time at a restaurant over a lunch of pizza and coffee, I walked into a WHSmith in the Terminal four lounge and was browsing through their cricket section when I chanced upon Richie Benaud’s My Spin on Cricket. I picked it up and put it on my “to read in bed” list that I had begun as a (my only) New Year resolution.

I started on the book and during this past week, I read about the GOI’s latest ordinance forcing private broadcasters to share sports feeds with Doordarshan. I realized that their could be an Australian precedent, according to Benaud. And based on what I have read about it these past two days, it looks like the Aussie measure dates back to a time as recent as ‘04 early as 1992. (more…)