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LOGICAL THINKING
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Finding a space to park in a city, where the growth of the vehicle population is inversely proportional to the width of the road, can be frustrating. Occasionally you find spaces when looking from a distance but eventually it turns out that that space is the front yard of an apartment whose gate greets you with a number of steel boards all reading "No parking in front of the gate".

I have always wondered what to do when confronted with such signs. The gate clearly says "No parking in front of....". The most logical, optimal, well worked out, practical, pragmatic, and apt long-term solution for this would be to PARK BEHIND THE GATE. Hope the owners of the house/apartment will not object.
Property of Sheks @ 2:53 pm   5 comments
Paradox
Thursday, February 22, 2007
I was reading last week's issue of India Today (Feb 19th edition) when I came across the special marketing feature, "IMPACT". For the uninitiated, IMPACT is an exclusive space in the magazine, where you can market your company, product, service etc.

There is no greater epitome of irony than IMPACT. Before the incident of Nithari killings came to public light, IMPACT carried a feature on the "Glorious Rule of the Samajwadi Party in U.P". To make things better, there was a photo of Amitabh Bachchan with the S.P symbol in the background.

In the Feb 19th edition, it was about the changing face of New Delhi. There was a mention of the various developmental schemes executed by the Sheila Dixit government and how Delhi was slated to become the "model city" of India by 2008. Now check out this week's(Feb 26) issue. There's an article on the Delhi Master Plan 2021 that throws light on the schemes that have been planned for the future. It says that the current issues need to be addressed first, before actually executing the steps of the Master Plan.

One problem that citizens of Delhi face is that of frequent power cuts. In summer, the situation only worsens for the electricity board shuts down power for more than 8 hours during the day time. Clearly there's a huge gap between the demand and supply. The article states that little has been done to rectify this situation while the IMPACT feature says that Delhi is geared up to meet the demand-supply gap with an additional capacity of 3000MW(??). The problem of water supply also found a place in the article. In the IMPACT feature, it was stated that Delhi would be receiving surplus water from nearby dams in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The reality is that the water level in such dams is insufficient to meet the needs of the people of those states.

When reading the IMPACT feature, do not get carried away by the facts and figures. A closer look would reveal that only the positives will be highlighted (after all it's a marketing feature). You would very soon notice a contrasting article in a subsequent issue.
Property of Sheks @ 10:42 am   0 comments
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
The cat's out of the bag, finally. The team for the forthcoming cricket World Cup has been chosen. As always, the team has evoked mixed reactions.

As expected, the erstwhile pillars of the Indian team, Tendulkar, Dravid and Kumble are in. Not to forget Ganguly who has been rightly rewarded for his successful stint in the series against South Africa. The four are established professional cricketers and have a few more years of cricket left in them that it is absurd to say that McGrath and Warne have set a fitting precedent to "ageing" cricketers like Tendulkar and Dravid.

The selection committee had second thoughts about including Sehwag but thanks to Dravid, he is in. Tendulkar was caught in a similar situation before WC 2003 when he was not at his best in the Test series against New Zealand. But did he not go out and prove his worth in the World Cup?

Dinesh Karthik, who had been sidelined on numerous occasions before, rightly deserves a place. Zaheer, Agarkar, Munaf, Harbhajan and Pathan--better equipped to handle pressures than Rudra Pratap Singh or V.R.V Singh. The case of Dhoni must also be mentioned as he has been regaining his lost form.

Now should Yuvraj Singh really be there? Chappell had been lobbying for him occasionally and therefore his inclusion comes as no surprise. Maybe Ramesh Powar would have been a better choice. Same case with Robin Uthappa. With only a few matches of experience behind him, this World Cup would be a testing track for him and it would be a surprise if he adapts himself to the conditions in West Indies.

Angry fans burnt effigies of Chappell and Vengsarkar in Uttar Pradesh because Mohammed Kaif was not included. Tough luck that the selectors chose to ignore him. Maybe he should have been sent to the domestic team to prove his worth by performing better to please the selectors.

Madan Lal and Kapil Dev suggest that Ganguly is a better captain but speculations will not work. 26 more days to go.
Property of Sheks @ 8:17 pm   1 comments
TEN THINGS THAT DEFINE ME
Friday, February 02, 2007
I'm back after taking a short break in Pune. I open my blog after almost a week to find a tag from Bengaluru's most hardcore fan of Sachin Tendulkar err... A. R. Rahman. The theme this time is to state 10 things that define me. Here goes:

1. My PJs

2. My ability to remember incidents

3. My rash, but controlled, driving skills.

4. My smile

5. My tendency to help people

6. My tendency to socialise with anyone (with exceptions like the fairer sex)

7. My character

8. My attitude

9. My sense of humour

10. My smile

Anyone can take this tag. For once, I'm not quoting any specific names in order to not get screwed by those whose names don't feature in the list.
Property of Sheks @ 11:06 am   3 comments

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Name: Sheks
Home: Madras, TamilNadu, India
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