“Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” - Abraham Lincoln

Now that the IPL season is over, everything is back to square one. I guess most of India has resumed watching the dreadful ‘K’erials and cricket enthusiasts like me can finally cheer for the Indian cricket team once again. It doesn’t matter which team India is playing against, there’s no feeling like the one for the national team.

This blog post would be incomplete without a mention of one of the quirky promos of 10 ka Dum showing Salman Khan doing the ‘in’famous towel dance with some participant.

Kings XI beat Knight Riders in a match truly well played. It was an absolute delight watching Hussey go after the ball. From a required run rate that was over 14 runs per over, Hussey’s knock ensured that by the end, the Knight Riders lost by only 9 runs. My mind raced back to 1996 World Cup semi-final between West Indies and Australia when West Indies went down fighting and Richie Richardson had played in a similar determined manner. Notably, West Indies had lost by 5 runs in that match.

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve noticed my inability to identify with any particular team in the IPL tournament. I’ve just watched the matches because I like the game. Any day, I’d prefer to identify with the Indian cricket team.

Pic: Ambassador for Royal Challengers.

The Formula 1 season this year has already started passing by and I haven’t even had the time to watch the races live on television. I’ve just managed to grab some of the highlights and follow the driver and constructor standings. The way things currently are, I will not be able to watch most of the races of this season.

Anyway, I’m happy that Kimi Räikkönen has raced well till now.

For people who will be interested to know: Dr. Vijay Mallya’s team Force India doesn’t have any points to its credit in the constructor standings so far.

It’s a research analogy that my friend Vivek and I stumbled upon, while discussing other things:

Your beloved’s eyes are quite similar to research papers… both have the same intoxicating effect: One look and you fall asleep.

Side Note: Research papers are a sure shot cure for the biggest of insomniacs.

I came across a very interesting link while reading Ashish’s blog.

It’s a great review about upgrading your Windows Vista machine to Windows XP.

Review: Windows XP

“Commit all your crimes when Sachin Tendulkar is batting, they will go unnoticed because even the Lord is watching cricket at that time.”

John Mayer - Waiting on the world to change

me and all my friends
we’re all misunderstood
they say we stand for nothing and
there’s no way we ever could
now we see everything that’s going wrong
with the world and those who lead it
we just feel like we don’t have the means
to rise above and beat it

so we keep waiting
waiting on the world to change
we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

it’s hard to beat the system
when we’re standing at a distance
so we keep waiting
waiting on the world to change
now if we had the power
to bring our neighbors home from war
they would have never missed a Christmas
no more ribbons on their door
and when you trust your television
what you get is what you got
cause when they own the information, oh
they can bend it all they want

that’s why we’re waiting
waiting on the world to change
we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

it’s not that we don’t care,
we just know that the fight ain’t fair
so we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

and we’re still waiting
waiting on the world to change
we keep on waiting waiting on the world to change
one day our generation
is gonna rule the population
so we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

Nothing beats soaking up the sun in winters. It reminds me of college days when I used to bunk classes just to sit in the sun or even doze off for a short while.

It normally gets cloudy here in the north beginning late December till mid-January, on the contrary this season has been fine; so far. It was the shortest day of the year today and it turned out good with a fair share of the sun.