I am not Republican, i hate George Bush and his band of cronies, I was one of the many who cheered and rooted for Barack Obama, when he overcame race barriers to become the first Non-White to enter White House.

But i can't accept the Nobel Peace Prize for Obama, ITS A SICK JOKE.

Sure Obama has had to overcome race issues, but was it a greater achievement than Martin Luther King Jr's who had face arrests, assault by the riot police, was harassed, hounded?

Has Obama achieved more than Nelson Mandela, Dalai Lama, Aung Saan Su Kyi, Desmond Tutu, people who have had to fight corrupt, oppresive regimes, face imprisonment, beatings?

Compare the past US presidents who have won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Teddy Roosevelt- Negotiated the Japan-Russia treaty, and ended the war between them.

Woodrow Wilson- Played an active role in establishing the League of Nations, which was a fore runner to the UN.

Jimmy Carter- Won it when he was not in office, but after retiring from Presidency, he has travelled the world over to some of the hot spots, personally supervised elections in places, which never had seen democracy.

Barring speeches, i am yet to see a concrete initiative taken by Obama in any area. The mess in Iraq, Afghanistan still persists. Middle East is as unstable as ever, N.Korea and Iran, openly show the middle finger to the rest of the world.

I don't mean to decry Obama's achievement in getting to the White House, and maybe in due course of time he would find some solution to the issue facing us.



BUT YOU GET A NOBEL PRIZE FOR WHAT YOU HAVE DONE, NOT WHAT YOU PROMISED TO DO, AND WILL BE DOING.

Obama still has another 4 years to go, let us see how succesful he would be( I would welcome it), but please don't devalue the Nobel Peace in this way.

Sorry this is a very very hasty decision taken by the Nobel Committee.

I remember once i had a talk with my boss about my career, and improvements. One thing he told me stood out well, "Learn to listen a lot, it will help you".



Something i have observed a lot, i have seen people boast about their skills, their achievements, their careers etc. But why is it that i rarely see people listening or even trying to know about others.

Be it online or offline, most of the fights that take place for real trivial reasons, is because no one really bothers to listen to another. We have emphasized too much on communication, getting your point across and all. But how about things like listening to other's view points. It is not just the kiddish fights on the online forums.

I have observed even in meetings, that people generally tend to keep on rattling about their opinions, but rarely bother to listen to other people's opinions. Its like every person feels he/she knows everything, and they don't need to learn from others, whom they feel are not as "intelligent" as them.
There is no harm at all in listening to other viewpoints. In fact it helps you in a way, to better understand the other person. Remember one thing communication is not just showing off your English language skills, it is getting the other person to understand your view point. You might have all the skills, excellent speech, but unless you really don't understand what the other person wants, your brilliant speech is going to be a dud. And how do you know what the other person wants?
By listening to them.



Next time you are in a meeting, or doing a sales presentation or attending an interview or delivering a report to a client, do one thing, L-I-S-T-E-N.



Listen to the other person and understand what they really need. It does not take much effort or time.



Let us get out of our self absorbed "I am the Best" selves, and start to listen to others. It helps a lot.

Having been associated with Mouthshut for past 5 years or so, and written close to 370 reviews, i just felt like sharing some thoughts on improvement in MS. I have been raising these issues even in reviews, but again no response at all. I am hoping at least this dairy post would come to their notice.

* No Word Limit please.

Blogs dont have it, most of the forums don't have it. So why this Word Limit. Its ridiculous. Either i have to drastically cut down on the content, or sometimes it spills over into the comments section. This feature is totally pre historic and high time MS just gets rid of it.

* Formatting Sucks

And i am being very polite here. The formatting aspects here in MS is rubbish. You have some clean MS word HTML kinda icon, which does nothing. MS needs to take a look at other content driven web sites, which allow ample space for user to record his /her thoughts, and at the same time provide proper facilities for formatting. Even now typing this diary post is proving to be a major pain. DAMN, cant MS even get proper professionals, who can design a proper interface, where user can type the content as well as format it. That is the minimum requirement of any content based site.


Also whenever i post my review or diary, i find the entire formatting gets totally f**ked up, if i dont give a proper amount of space between paras. And there are no guidelines on this at all. Honestly it is just wasting a lot of my time.

One more issue i find with formatting is the bold and italic buttons. At times i make one part bold, and the entire post becomes bold, WTF. I request MS, for heaven's sake to seriously improve the Content Management, its rubbish right now, and honestly at times i am so frustrated writing a review or a post.

* Managing Reviews



The edit review feature is fine, but i feel there should be an option for the user to delete his or her reviews. At times while typing something i could hit the Submit by mistake, in such a scenario, there should be an option for a user to delete the review. I have been on other consumer review sites, and most of them give the User an option to delete their reviews.

Review Alerts



Also i dont understand this sending all review rating/comments alerts at one time. At times i get alerts of comments or reviews, long after they have been submitted. And this just does not make any sense to me at all.



These were just some of the thoughts in my mind, on what i feel are areas where MS needs to improve. Suggestions from your side are welcome in comments.

Ok seems like Quizzing season on MS, nowadays, and a die hard quizzer like me could never be left out from the fun. So deciding to start a very simple Quiz.
There are two lists. List A contains Amitabh Bachan's movies. List B contains the English movies from which they were copied or rather inspired. All you have to do is match the two lists. Unfortunately i am pretty clueless for now about points and gifting, so maybe from next game onwards.

List A
1) Main Azad Hoon
2) Satte Pe Satta
3) Agneepath
4) Hum Kisise Kum Nahin
5) Black
6) Ek Ajnabee
7) Sharaabi
8) Hum Kaun Hai?
9) Kaante
10) Aks


List B
A) Fallen
B) Meet John Doe
C) Reservoir Dogs
D) Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
E) Man on Fire
F) Arthur
G) Scarface
H) Analyze This
I) The Miracle Worker
J) The Others

So here goes and happy matching.

I could hear them, cursing about the latest Bolly flick, about how they wasted Rs 500 in a multiplex, about how inane the story was. I could only smile, as i reminiscenced about my movie going experiences in the 1980's. Oh how nostalgic those days were, sitting in overcrowded, stinking theaters, where neither the fan nor the AC worked. You crib about paying Rs 100 in a multiplex for popcorn and coke. Ha, so what about me, spending Rs 20 on soggy samosas and stale popcorn. And the constant battle in the theater with mosquitoes, bugs, ants and all the denizens of the insect world. Yes but I endured something more, the actual movies shown on the screen, and miraclously survived the decade. So here are some of my sweet memories of the 80's decade in Bollywood.

1) 99% of the movies were B Grade. But there was a differential system of classification. AB- A grade stars like Amitabh Bachan, Dharmendra, Jeetendra, Mithun but movie was still B Grade.
BB- B stars in B movies. By B stars i mean, actors who were not stars but who were really good actors. Some of these B stars did appear in A Grade movies, but after sometime they too were reduced to acting in B movies.
CB- C grade stars in B movies. C grade as in actors who were neither stars nor actors, but just lucky to be there in movies.

2) Spot the star in the movies. A vast majority of the movies had half a dozen stars packed into them, and movie watching became more like Spot the Star exercise. Time could be passed, by playing I Spy.

3) Songs in the movies of this decade were two kinds. The first was the Bappi Lahiri kind, which had lyrics that went "Tathhaiya, Tatthaiya" or "Oyemmma Oyemma" or " Bongo Bongo", making them sound like a series of African tribal chants. And dances resembling PT exercises, surrounded by female extras, resembling those whom you see in the Before picture, for any slimming Ad. The other one was the Laxmikant Pyarelal-Annu Mallik kind, songs that never seemed to end, and just go on and on. Also notable for WMD's like Shabbir Kumar and Mohd. Aziz, two singers, who seemed to mistake shouting for singing. Tough to make out, whether the mood is happy or sad, when they are singing, as every song would be sung in the same tone.

4) Thakurs in the movies were invariably evil, debauched souls, always lusting over the Gaon ki Gori or holding a whip in the hand to torment the poor skinny villagers, who would keep shouting "Daya karo maalik". If ever there was a good Thakur, he would surely be bumped off in the first few reels by his evil brothers or relatives.
There was also another equation, if Thakur was evil, the Daku was good, if the Thakur was good, the Daku was evil, of course there were some cases where both Thakur and Daku were bad. But a good Thakur and a good Daku, well not even Sooraj Barjatya has come up with such an idea.

5) The other baddies were the smugglers who would stay in large mansions, having henchmen like Robert, Tony, Aslam. The baad man, would have half a dozen bikini beauties in the pool, and cavort around with them. Most of the time, the baad man would make plans to conquer Hindoostaan, with the Desh ki Dushman. The heroine would either be the Baad Man's daughter, or else the Baad Man would lust after the heroine.

Anyway if any one here has some nostalgic memories about the 80's movies, post them here. Would be back with more.

When i announced a couple of months back, that i was not interested in extending my contract by a year more in Korea, and wanted to come back to India, many of my "so called friends and well wishers", were quite surprised and some even indirectly commented that i was an idiot of the first order. Well honestly speaking, on surface it looked a plain idiotic decision to take.

Korea was after all a nice and well developed nation, had a quiet and peaceful atmosphere, and it was beneficial for me both financially and career wise, hanging around for some more time. Trust me it was not an easy decision for me either. But many factors did influence the decision. The fact is I have never ever been comfortable with idea of leaving India and settling abroad. And no i am not one of those who believe that the West is all morally corrupt and decadent, and East is totally pure. Matter of fact many friends of mine believe i am quite westernized.

But again staying abroad for 1 year, made me realize i could never settle down there. Yes Korea like most of the developed nations has wonderful roads, towering skyscrapers, lush gardens and a good infrastructure. And as they say in initial honeymoon period, everything looks so beautiful, everything looks so lovely. But somehow after some time a kind of boredom crept in. Its as if every where in go, each place is a replica of another place. The same tall apartment buildings, the same 24/7 stores, the same departmental stores, honestly you can swap one area with another area, one suburb with another suburb, one taxi with another taxi, and you would hardly notice the difference.

Yes i did have a good time, visiting places taking photos, sending them across. But again it is the same case, boredom and uniformity. The palaces in Korea are well maintained for sure, but after seeing 2-3 palaces, i had enough, because while they were well maintained and had lovely gardens, it was the same uniform structure. Honestly i found it hard to find any difference between Palace A and Palace B, except the names. And the same with the museums, yes well maintained, good exhibits, but you visit a couple of them, and again the same depressing uniformity hits you.

And the feeling that inspite of my best efforts to fit in, i could never. No i am not a loner or introvert. On the contrary I had some of the best friends from various parts of the globe. But yet it became quite clear, that whatever you do to fit in, you willl never be considered as one of them. You will always be an outsider in spite of your best efforts. Maybe not directly, but in many subtle or indirect ways, you are reminded that you dont belong there. As also the loneliness and isolation you face, far away from your family members.

Maybe i could have ignored all this and hung around for some time, trying to deny it, and pretending there was no problem. Maybe like others, i could have stayed here, for that extra money, though i did not like it one bit, but honestly i did not want to keep fooling myself for the rest of my life. Do my kids miss out anything on it? Yeah maybe they may not have the chance to talk about the party they had in Starbucks, but if they feel happy in their visits to Big Bazaar or the local mall, does it really matter?

Did i miss out on money or better career opportunities? Maybe, yes i did. Yeah maybe am a kinda sentimental fool, who loves the simple things of life. Maybe in these days of rat race and competition, where people are career minded, i guess i am an old fashioned guy who believes in things like relationships and family.But whatever for sure, i know that i am being true to myself. And so here i am back in Swadesh.

In the movie The 10 Commandments, during that famous scene where the Red Sea parts, the Pharaoh's commander tells him about Moses"He stops us with a pillar of fire, and then he commands the sea to part for him,  this man is the  Son of God".  Yesterday VVS  must have wondered the same about a  blonde haired, pot bellied, stocky character, and so must have his team mates, who could not contain their enthusiasm. Shane Keith Warne,  take a bow sir, you are truly a once in a life time person. And to his team mates he must truly be a Moses, the way he has motivated them, led them, egged them on.


17 runs to win in the final over, just 3 wickets in hand, Deccan Chargers seemed all set to win their first match. Warne's  Aussie team mate Symmo comes in to bowl. Earlier Symmo had scored a destructive 100 off just 53 balls, and this seemed to be his day. Or so he must have thought. 3 runs off the first 2 balls. Now Shane Warne on strike. Ball No 3, thwack, over the bowlers head for 4. Target down to 10 off 2 balls, again the match is any one's guess. Ball No 4, Warne lofts it for a 6. The target is down to just 4 off 2 balls, and Warne obliges with a massive 6. Symmo, VVS, Deccan and the entire Rajiv Gandhi Stadium are as shell shocked, as the Pharaoh's soldiers must have been when they saw the Red Sea opening up. One of the greatest escapes in any form of  game, Harry Houdini would have nodded approvingly.


The matches in IPL seem to get better. If the match between Chennai Kings    and Mumbai Indians, seemed like an action thriller, this one was like one of those suspense thrillers, where things suddenly take a crazy twist in the last hour. Though I doubt if even Alfred Hitchcock or Robert Ludlum, could have scripted such a crazy twist. It is sad that Australian cricket missed Warne's services as a captain. Honestly the way he has motivated a team that had been written off by all and sundry, and not having any Glam Boys, and the way he has led from the front, is the stuff of which heroes are made of. Whatever happens to Rajasthan Royals, they can walk with their heads high, thanks to Warne. After the drubbing they had in the first game at Delhi, no one seemed to give them a ghost of chance. Now with 2 wins out of 3 they are in 4th position.



Warne's captaincy was seen in the early stages too. After Munaf Patel had been clobbered by  Gilly for 3 consecutive boundaries, he bought on Yusuf Pathan, who prom ptly pegged back Deccan by getting rid of Gilly and the dangerous Afridi.  VVS had also gone to a return catch by Warne. And at 75-3, it seemed advantage Deccan. But then Symmo justifying his high price for the first time, put on a 111 run partnership with Rohit Sharma, who maintained his consistency. In the company of first Sharma and then Arjun Yadav, Symmo played a blinder, hammering the bowlers all over the park, with effortless hits to clear the boundary. Records tumbled as Deccan scored a massive 214 off just 20 overs.


In reply Rajasthan lost Akmal early, but Graeme Smith and Yusuf Pathan put on a 98 run partnership, which laid a solid foundation. Smith played  a good anchoring role, as Yusuf, quite often in the shadow of his more famous brother Irfan, played a brilliant innings of 61 off just 28 balls. However Yusuf holed out and soon, the hero of their earlier match, Shane Watson, was bowled by Afridi. A tentative Smith and a Md Kaif, who was not exactly a blaster were at the crease. Kaif however shook off the jitters, and took on the bowling, especially Symmo, whom he clattered for 2 6's. Smith meanwhile was going steadily, scoring at every opportunity,. The two put on 60 before Kaif was caught by Symmo, and Smith feel soon, both of them to Afridi, bowling a brilliant spell. R.P.Singh bowled a brilliant 18th over, without conceding any runs, and both Jadeja and Salunkhe were out, and at 196/7 with 17 runs needed in the last over, the match seemed to be over for Rajasthan. But then as they say in cricket, it aint over till the last bowl is bowled. Till then cherish the memories of  Warnie, and feel privileged, to have seen this man live in action on TV.  There never will be another Shane Warne for sure.

An excellent thriller yesterday, with enough twists and turns, going right down to the wire, that sums up the Chennai Super Kings vs Mumbai Indians match yesterday at  Chepauk.  Though both teams were more or less balanced, Chennai had the advantage with Hayden, Hussey, Dhoni, Oram any one of whom could tear the attack apart. And in balance Mumbai had Jayasurya, Pollock and Robin Uthappa.


Bhajji won the toss and inserted Chennai in. I think the only reason i could reckon with this was of the dew and moisture factor. At best of times Chennai resembles a sauna, and during summer, it is like sitting in a gigantic pressure cooker. And we saw that too, as bowlers struggled to grip the ball, many times it slipped from their hands. And the heat was just energy sapping. Even bowlers like Murali and Pollock struggled to come to terms with the ball. And it was advantage batsmen. Parthiv Patel in his inimitable style continues to flatter to deceive, as he hit 3 4's before edging one to the keeper. Hussey the hero of the match against Punjab, was all deceived by one that came in from Nehra, and at 39/2, it was fairly even stevens. Hayden and Raina put on a 100 plus partnership to get Chennai to a position of strength.


Hayden seems to have a special liking for Pollock. He had earlier hammered him in a World Cup match, and he did the same today, taking him apart. Though Hayden biffed and hammered his way, for me it was Suresh Raina's that was the far better innings. Excellent placing, elegant shots, superb running between the wickets it was really brilliant. Raina later fell while trying to clear the field, and it was Dhoni's turn to come to crease. Though he and Hayden put on a 51 run stand, i really felt that they showed no urgency. Hayden especially seemed to be playing more for himself. With Pollock totally off color, the rest of the Mumbai bowling was plain mediocre. And that is what i could not understand Bhajji's tactics, Sanath Jayasurya's slower offbreaks work perfectly well in this kind of match, and he is a very tricky kind of bowler. Why was he not used at all? Neither did Bhajji try to bowl himself much either. Sachin's absence was clearly being felt here. At the end Chennai Super Kings set a target of  209 in 20 overs.


Mumbai started off badly with wicketkeeper Ronchi run out and then Jayasurya holing out, and the score 30/2. Uthappa and Pollock attempted to repair the damage, with  the former playing a brilliant innings of 43, before he was castled by the bowler Gony. This tall strapping Punjabi bowler was first rate, bowling superbly. Whoever said that T20 is all about batsman?  Pollock fell  soon, and when Dwayne Bravo departed to a stunning catch by Jacob Oram, it was 130/5 and after a couple of balls Khote also departed with the score now at 141/6 in 15.3 overs. With most of the batsmen back in the pavilion, and an asking rate creeping up to 15, it seemed like a total rout on the cards for Mumbai.


But then as you say that in cricket, the match aint over till the last ball. Bhajji was a failure as a captain, but as a batsman he showed that he can still fight till then end. And yes another hero came on to the center stage now Abhishek Nayar playing one of the best innings under pressure. Brilliant placement, cheeky running, clean hitting, superb innings by this young lad here. And most important he refused to give up, he made Chennai sweat hard.  Murali was taken apart, and so were Jacob Oram and local boy Amarnath. What looked like a walk in the park for Chennai was now becomming a down to the wire affair. 45 runs were put on, the hitherto relaxed atmosphere was now becomming tense, the Mumbai dugout which earlier looked totally dejected was now on its feet.


And then Bhajji holed out in the deep and the crowd roared their approval. 20 runs off 2 overs still needed. Abhishek Nayar refused to give up and clattered the bowlers at will, Dhoni's smile was gone. Last over, 14 runs needed. Joginder's first two balls went for 8 runs, the target was down. It was any one's match, and to make matters worse, a no ball and a free hit. However Ashish Nehra spoilt the chance given, and Joginder pulled it back. Chennai  Super Kings won by 6 runs, Mumbai however was not disgraced, they lost with honor. And Sachin's return could prove critical. Dhoni now seems to have become an expert at winning these kinda close matches, the T20 final, the CB series final and now this match. As also Joginder Sharma, who is doing what Steve Waugh used to do for Australia earlier, the ice mean in the death overs specialist.

Some time back i had welcomed some of the new features on Moutshut, hoping that it would lead to better interaction and more flexibility. But like anything else, most of those changes seemed to have lost  their meaning. And no use finger pointing here, every one is equally culpable of this. I just wanted to bring some of them to notice. 

And of all feature  the Bulletin feature sucks, big time. It simply does not make any sense to send a bulletin to all the people in your Trust Circle, just because you posted a review or a dairy post. I keep getting Bulletins asking me to check this review or that post. Sorry to say it, a majority of those reviews or posts are on topics on which i have absolutely no idea nor any interest. Let me make it clear i only RRC on those topics, which i am interested in. And i had an experience from other side also, when i recently sent a couple of Bulletins out, and i got some not too favorable responses. Dont blame them also, i certainly would not like it if i get a bulletin on something which i am least interested in. Yeah i do tend to ignore such bulletins, but i dont expect every one to do the same. MS management has two options either scrap the bulletin feature totally or make changes so that i can send the bulletin only to those in my Trust Circle whom i want to. I do hope that MS looks into this aspect as soon as possible.

One is a master of the line and length, renowned for choking the batsmen and getting them out. Another is a young tyro whose action is modelled on the former, and who takes pride in being called the next of that ilk. Glenn Mc Grath and Md.Asif, two bowlers, with a similar kind of action, both of whom have a reputation of being Uncle Scrooge when it comes to giving runs. And when both of them are on the same side, one can just imagine the plight of the opposing batsmen. Add to that Fervez Maharoof, who manages to choke batsmen with his straight line and length.


When the 3 came together for Veeru's Delhi Daredevils, the Deccan Chargers, filled with stroke players like Afridi, Symonds, Gilchrist, found themselves in a total choke. VVS found himself castled by one that came in, Gilchrist played on to the stumps, Venu Gopal looked like a deer caught in the headlights as he played and missed, before Maharoof put and end to his misery. Symonds threatened, and fell, Afridi fell before even threatening, and Deccan Chargers found itself totally discharged. The recovery was led by a youngster who played no fancy or flashy shots, just simple intelligent cricket. Rohit Sharma, take a bow, we knew he had the talent, we saw that in T20 and in the CB Series. And today he revealed that he had a mature cricketing brain, as he built up the innings intelligently and then exploded in the last 3 overs, including a 26 run over off the otherwise impressive Maharoof.


Actually it was only in those last 3 overs that Deccan Chargers seemed to be playing a game. Two teams were playing, but Deccan Chargers was certainly not one of them. Its array of stroke players and glam boys found themselves totally stiffled and choked by McGrath, Asif and Maharoof, and even the other two bowlers, YoMahesh and Bhatia. The fielding of Delhi was spot on, with balls rarely reaching the boundary. And had it not been for Rohit Sharma's brilliant knock, they would not even have reached that stage. The strategy seemed to make no sense at all.On what grounds was Venu Gopal Rao sent as an opener? He totally looked like a fish out of water in T20, and makes me wonder how he was even selected.


And their defence of the total was as listless. While Vaas did put in an effort to choke the runs, the others were not as impressive for sure. The only success they had was when R.P.Singh got Gambhir out to a nothing shot. And of course the biggest blunder was dropping Sehwag. It is simple, you drop Veeru, you are asking to get massacred. And a massacre it was, as Sehwag played a blinder of an innings. And no it was not just about big hitting, it was an intelligent knock with excellent placings and good running between the wickets. And of course the icing on the cake, when Veeru hammered Symonds for 30 runs, talk of getting a taste of one's medicine.


After Punjab, Deccan is the next hyped up team to disappoint in IPL. Maybe they could take a leaf out of Delhi's book. Veeru's team does not have any glam boys or stars apart from Veeru himself. What they do have is the ability to get the basics right. Bowl the right lines, stop the runs, place the innings intelligently, run well between wickets and build partnerships. When you win two matches consecutively by a margin on 9 wickets, that means you are getting the basics right. In the first match it was Gambhir and Dhawan, and here it was Veeru and Dhawan. Shikhar Dhawan certainly seems to be the next best bet for India along with Rohit Sharma. And their bowling attack is something any captain would die for. And Sehwag has been doing a good job as a captain too. One thing the IPL has proved ruthlessley, it is not glamor or marketing hype that wins matches, it is simple good old fashioned cricket.