I want to have one..

One of the greatest in the history of cricket...



None other than Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. I know mere words and statistics alone cannot describe the greatness of him and his passion towards the game and so this post is just my thoughts and experiences around Sachin. It is an one time opportunity for me to refresh my memories about him before he brings his curtain down soon. The things that I like about him the most and why? and the lessons that I had learnt and need to constantly learn and apply. Firstly it feels good to be in the era of Sachin as we are all privileged to see some wonderful batting and sportsmanship and most importantly the professionalism that he brings to the game of cricket. Needless to say it's because of him, I love the game of cricket a bit more, and I feel it's an honour to write about him all the time.

My first encounter (not in person but TV) with him was probably around 1992 world cup but at that stage I didn't had a close look at him because I was curiously following Ravi Shastri then. It was in year 1994 during the New Zealand land tour where he smashed 80 odd runs in 40 balls I started to watch him closely and it has continued from there (I remember we were having a night study for exams in my classmate's (KTK) home and used to get up early morning to watch the game).

Sachin is definitely an inspiration and positive influence to me right from that time. We used to have plenty of discussions and fights about him during my engineering days. We almost had a whole night discussion when India lost against Srilanka during the 1996 world cup semi final and the kind of game Sachin played throughout that world cup. Excellent memories they are. As students we usually have fights for who is better player question all the time Brian or Sachin? All that feels a bit funny now when they two have a good rapport among them and Brian went on to say if he has a boy he would like him to play like Sachin (that shows his magnanimity and truth as well) and the best of all comments is from Obama when he recently stated that, he understood now why is his country's productivity went down by 5% when Sachin is playing. I will tell Obama that from the hindsight it could look as if it is down but when India wins and Sachin plays well the productivity will be tripled as most of the professionals would get a boost to perform well in their job :)

During my early days I used to see this in the streets of India, whenever he plays the talk will always be around Sachin and those people who do not have TV at their homes they generally assemble outside TV showrooms and will be relishing those moments. Every one of them will be tense as if they are playing against Pakistan. Such is the impact that he had among people. I usually enjoy and feel a bit tense too the moment he comes to crease and with that boyish look when he takes guard and adjusts his abdomen guard, wow I live that moment and my heart pumps very fast when he is at the crease and when India chase a good total. I always think what would be running in his mind when they make a big chase. Plenty of such moments when Ganguly and Sachin used to open for India and I remember those now. He has succeeded many a times and India as well and made all of us happy and sometimes India had lost, that's ok after all it's a game and the better team will win on that day.

Tears oozed out when he played that cover drive against Akram with a dead straight bat and showed elbow to the photographers in that 2003 world cup when the ball screamed to hit the boundary line. I didn't move an inch for the next 3 and half hours. What a game that was, chasing a total of 272 against 4 top class bowlers Akram, Waqar, Shoaib and Saqlain.

On his 24th birthday when he made a century during the sand storm and I was watching alone late in the night when my parents were sleeping. I was crying in joy and when he had back to back centuries against Australia and Steve's comment was apt that we lost against Sachin :)

There was another moment when India played Pakistan in Dhaka in 1998, when India were chasing a total of 315. Azhar was captain then and when the first half was over, while coming back to dressing room he was having a word with Sachin. I was curious what he would have told him. And India is back in the hunt Sachin scored a quick fire 40 odd runs in 26 balls and that changed the complexion of the game. I particularly remember a over from Azhar Mahamood where he had a 7-2 field and the plan was to bowl every delivery around off stump and not giving any easy run. Sachin hit 4 fours in that over alone and every time the ball pierced the field it was a joy to watch and they just couldn't do anything to stop. I had never seen a player like him at that point in time, such a dominating player he was.

I was completely mood off when in 1999 when was adjudged LBW when he ducked and McGrath's delivery hit his shoulders ( I guess that was in Adelaide). It was a harsh decision but he was given out. And in Sydney Melbourne he made a century during that tour of Australia.

In 1999 when Pakistan toured India, Sachin had a severe back ache and with that severe pain he managed to score that famous Chennai century 139 and India went on to loose the game. Normal beings would have been shattered with the way the rest of the 4 players got out and not able to score that 14 odd runs to win the game, after all cricket is a team game. But he is a not a normal man and supported the team and his men all the time. A very team player and encourages other players to play well and give their 100% all the time.

Once I heard Sidhu talked about him and this was his debut game in 1989 against Pakistan when he was hurt by a bouncer from Waqar and blood was coming out from his nose. He didn't do anything other than just to wipe off his blood and took his guard again to face the next delivery. To me that stands out at an young age of 16 that could shaken up anyone. Later in an interview Sachin mentioned after that first game he felt he can't ever play international cricket. But he didn't give up and continued to score two half centuries in the first tour itself and the bowling attack was one of the best in the world Imran, Akram and Waqar. He probably would have felt that ok this is the most that could happen when you don't watch the ball carefully and so let me watch it more closely from the bowler's hands.

He was slightly out of form after 2003 world cup and he struggled in that Australia tour but with vintage heart he scored that 249 241not out in 2004 January. Once again his mental strength and deep concentration leaving the balls outside off stump and curb his instincts to play the outside deliveries. I love his taking guard and stance depending on the match situations, he reads the wicket, bowlers, match situations much earlier than any other players and that is the hall mark of Tendulkar. Most of the other players tend to play their own game and do not adjust most of their strokes or shots based on the wicket or other variables and I love that about Sachin. It's because he wants to do well whatever be the situation is, he wants to give his full.

"No player in this planet would have gone through the sort of expectations that Sachin has to shoulder and most importantly delivered his best all the time". Sachin is able to tackle that mental pressure and that alone simply puts him in front of many other top players.

Next, I still see Tendulkar is the only player who has not had any technical weakness at any point in time. Technically he is very compact in making all sort of strokes in the book. He would have been bowled through the gate few times and that shows that he is human and possibly could be out of form (hence it's temporary)

Thirdly, he has shown his adaptability to all sort of conditions, wickets, bowlers and every format of the game. I mean the range is huge from Merv Hughes and McDermott to James Pattinson, which is why I rate him the best amongst all the contemporary players. For instance Lara is an attacking player but generally he is vulnerable in the beginning and has not played many attacking one day games and his T20 is a flop and that holds good even for Punter too.. I see Sachin's greatness from that perspective and to me he is a complete player (batting, bowling and fielding) with his ability to shine in all the departments.

I watch his interviews and his stroke play from many of his innings that is available in Internet when I need a little bit of boost at times. I have enjoyed every bit of his stroke play and what he has done to Indian cricket and to the world cricket. A great ambassador and used to be surprised and amazed with the kind of ovation he gets in most parts of the world outside India. God gifted and most importantly he put that to good use.

Harsha said once many people think Tendulkar is gifted and batting comes fluent / natural to him but the fact is it is because of the tremendous work ethic he showed towards cricket he is able to do what he could do. The sort of net practice that he does but the way he approaches his game and the kind of practice he put himself in and his work ethics. At the age of 12 when we were all playing with friends and watching TV he had spent about 16 hours in the ground playing cricket. It is this sort of dedication and professionalism that has made him what he is today and many of us would wish to to do the same in their walks of life.

Few things that I learnt and want to apply consistently in my life are these,

·         Positive thinking, mental strength and attitude all the time

·         Worry about things that you can control and leave the rest. 

·         Process of winning matters than the actual win itself. In other words, living in the present and not focusing much about past and future.

·         Last but not least, Stay humble all the time and don't let anything to go to your head.

Soon he is going to retire in all forms of cricket (International) after playing consistently for about 24 years. Of course one cannot play at the same level of cricket that he played at the age of 18 or 20. I meant consistently playing cricket at the highest level for 24 years. I would miss him definitely from the Indian team but I can still go on and cherish with all the good memories of him while there are some good young talents coming out. I wish him all the best and thanks for everything he has given to many people like me.

Cheers Sachin !!!

My first cricket article in year 2000

I mentioned some time ago that I had to dig out some of the cricket articles that I wrote were stuck in my old notebook which I can't boot up. It was my first notebook that I bought in year 2000 ( Fujitsu Lifebook). I managed to take out the hard disk and recovered all data but I can't save the notebook though. So this was a match between Australia and  India happened in Nairobi Kenya in 2000.

India Vs Australia 

I was absolutely enthralled by the emphatic win over Aussies at Nairobi on Saturday the 7^th October once again proving the history Right that Indians cannot be beaten on a Festive day. On Saturday, being Dasara in India, Indian players triumphed once again against Aussies which means technically the Green caps has to catch their next flight back home. Ironically, this is true for the second time the first being at Dhaka since the start of the ICC Knock Out tournament.

On Saturday, danger signals came in the form of Sachin Tendulkar as he was in a devastative mood proving a point that given a day he can tear any attack in the world which then perfectly steered up by youngster Yuvaraj to hoist a huge total of 265 runs against the world champions. This gorgeous win has come as a sort of compensation for the bad memories we have had early this year in Australia. Indians had a real tough stint against their umpiring and the media blemishing the images of few Indian players for absurd reasons.

I am not saying all this just because India has won a game today against the world champions. Indian cricket and for that matter the world cricket, is of late surrounded by a thick cloud of match fixing and bribing scandals. But it’s not that everybody does indulge themselves, there are good players indeed who play for their country and who sees the game as their life. We should see to that those players should not be offended by the petty things, for this lovely sport of Cricket won’t be there but for the Genuine players.

If one thing this match is going to teach us all, which is "Every-No-thing is Im-Possible" when you apply yourself, looking at the positive side of the game.

Wishing Indians A Very Good Luck at Nairobi.

Cheers All.

Image added on 27th Oct 2013, courtesy www.sportskeeda.com

What most schools don't teach

Great video to start off the day. One thing i always enjoyed is to see my code working. It makes me think on behalf of computer, sometimes it's simple and other times it's a bit complex. But i always felt when we breakdown to smaller constituents and understand the fundamentals it's not that difficult. I don't do plenty of coding these days but still do among other things. Nevertheless, it feels fantastic when the code actually work and solves a specific business problem :) 

Happy learning and coding ....

Growth and Comfort do not co-exist

You have to keep reinventing yourself and that can happen only when you take risks. I couldn't agree more :)

Here is "Ginni Rometty" the new IBM CEO replacing "Sam Palmisano" on taking risks

Got to appreciate this man...

What a leader he is, no wonder why Sachin recommended him to the board when he was offered the second stint for captaincy.. I love this Ind vs Eng series and the next 5 days will be very interesting :)

IBM Centennial Film - Wild Ducks

World Cup Cricket 2011

I think i am slightly late to the current world cup cricket party but i have been watching the streaming in the internet once in a while, reading reports, watching scores in HTC (they have a ESPNCricInfo app) and watching video blogs ( like Harsha's daily). When i start to write this, this reminds me of the good old days when i started playing cricket.

For people who know me personally you know how much i like cricket in the earlier days.. I used to play lots of street cricket in my very early age in 80's. We started going to school and college grounds to watch and play cricket using cork and cricket balls without mat. We all move as a gang in the morning and come home in the evening times to get some good scolding and at times beating from parents. Our faces would look red after playing almost whole day and mind you, it's not cold out there, it's damn hot but hey when you are young no one would give it a thought whether it is hot or cold.. All these things happen in the week ends.

During the week days, we play at our school using whatever we could ( rubber balls, tennis balls, plastic balls and sometimes even those corn stems, dried ones are good for hitting). All the team selection and the toss would happen during the course of the class and the matches begin during the lunch time. Haha, it was way cool.

Apart from this we love to play book cricket along with our own commentary. Those days we also listen to radio commentary a lot when players like Srikanth, Shastri, Kapil and Gavaskar plays the game. My class mate, Faizal Mohammed was among the greats in book cricket, he loves Kapil dev a lot and he himself is a fast bowler too. We take our science book which is the biggest of the lot and play cricket during free times. It's so very interesting, we have some dedicated note pads only for the team score cards.

Then came the B.Sc college days and later during my B.Tech university days, my playing has come down a lot but started watching, reading and commenting about cricket a lot. I love reading articles by R.Mohan from Hindu paper (now i think he's not there), Prem Panicker, Avinash subramanian from Rediff, and last but not least Harsha Bhogle and they are the ones who inspired me a lot in terms of writing and talking about cricket. Those days we do lots of debate about who is the best batsman and all that stuff :) People who know me personally would know that I always love Sachin Tendulkar both as a cricketer and as a person (some one who doesn't let success to his heads) and I personally always consider him as the best batsman in the world.

I also had written some odd cricket articles in the past, I will have to dig it out from my notebook. Will be doing that some day.. So these days i rarely play cricket and even watch but mostly read articles and watch videos clippings etc. 

Anyways, for this world cup Cricinfo has introduced the concept of Harsha's daily a summary of the day's game which i like a lot. He'll bring most part of the match through his ever smiling way and I feel like i have watched the entire game.

Follow this for the rest. Thank you Cricinfo for this.

HTC Desire First Impressions

Finally i have settled with HTC Desire after contemplating between this and iPhone 4 for some time and few friends stated to go for Android than iOS. Thanks to them. So i just bought this Chinese New Year, there was a bit of promo from Starhub for many phones including HTC Desire and i happily settled with one.. Here are my first impressions after using for about a week..

Pro's

• Quick and very easy setup.. Just provide the Google account everything is taken care. Mails, Calendars ( I haven't explored tasks yet) and it even syncs your Facebook account including the events there.. So you can see everything at one place in your calendar. FB contacts will sync with your phone contacts.
• Seamless connection between Wi-Fi and 3G. Picks up automatically based on your location.
• Email client is cool, and at the moment am using only Gmail . Search also works pretty good highlighting the word that you searched for and also saves the word for next time search.
• Browsing is breeze and the screen reacts sharply to pinches etc for expand and collapse very well. 
• Big screen means a lot when you want to read while commuting in MRT
• Android market place app is way too cool when compared to Ovi store. Now i remember someone mentioned Ovi store is a joke.. Ok, am not bashing Nokia though b'cos i still love my E71.
• 5MP camera is good and have taken nice shots in day light.. Not tested in night times.
• Overall phone looks are great when it is in hands. 

Con's

• Not many but one noticeable thing is the battery,, drains like rain water , very fast even though i don't seem to run any background tasks
• Am not sure how Android works though, when i have finished using an application, does it still run in the background and so taking lot of battery life etc? 

Overall it's very good and at this moment, i don't i regret not using iPhone b'cos in this part of the world almost everyone carries that.. Is there any specific thing which iPhone does very well when compared to HTC Desire? May be iPhone fans will know :)

The Nostalgia has dropped suddenly

but only temporarily. I have been doing some Lotusphere nostalgia things just for a while and then came to end abruptly.. Well, i normally i am a good basher of myself but this time around i am not going to do that. I had to handle quite a few things in between and just couldn't sit and blog.

Frankly, it's a little bit hard to keep with things that's happening around you and then also allocate time to write about it.. But i would like to tell you this, i enjoy doing this work and so i can make some time. It's just that i am a bit lost in organizing all this properly. At times, i will think a bit complicated and cannot think SIMPLE. 

Meanwhile, i am finding my way out to manage all these and already doing some home projects towards that. Having said that, there is indeed some good news that is coming up. Please stay tuned. I will try to update as and when things happen or may be a bit later ;) 

As far Lotusphere 2011, there were some excellent all around news from LS2011 as well. I will have to read all the contents available and hear from friends before writing anything about it. But one thing is clear to me, IBM is  taking more of the Lotus Connections route to re-brand the entire Lotus portfolio which will compete with Google more than MS. I think the strategy is very good indeed and a very long term vision. With all the push from MS around SharePoint I think companies are discussing more about Google than MS. At least IBM is giving that sort of a feeling but will have to wait and see.

Another certain thing is Lotus UI is going to change in the years to come and end users will start getting a feeling that finally the software is their own rather than only for developers and administrators. This will surely increase user adoption rate and we will hear some day from CIO's that my users are asking for Lotus and so we have to make a switch. The perception is going to change sooner than latter :)

Good day people... Cheers

Wishing all the readers of my blog an

EXCELLENT NEW YEAR 2011 AHEAD AND ON THIS DAY I ALSO WISH EVERYONE TO LEAD A HEALTHY AND PROSPEROUS LIFE AND MAY ALL YOUR DREAMS,WISHES COME TRUE IN THIS YEAR AND IN THE COMING YEARS :-)

IBM to Collaborate with Leading Singapore Institutions

IBM has announced a research collaboratory in Singapore, where researches from IBM will collaborate with Singapore local institutions to improve urban services. This is one of the project which will come under IBM Smarter Planet strategy.

From the news,

IBM will work with several agencies including the Economic Development Board (EDB) and the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to develop decision support tools to help Singapore more effectively manage its resources. As part of these efforts, IBM also intends to drive research collaborations with an ecosystem of research institutes and universities in Singapore.  

The collaboratory will enable world-class researchers in Singapore and IBM's mathematical experts, renowned for applying advanced analytics to solve real-world issues, to share skills, assets, and resources to achieve common research goals.

Singapore is one of the most advanced cities with extremely high demands placed on its urban infrastructure (water, transport and energy) due to its geography, size, population and dependence on neighbors for natural resources such as water and power. The country has also been at the forefront on the global stage in rallying for liveable and sustainable cities for the future. Besides promoting a learning network through the hosting of the biennial World Cities Summit, Singapore also aims to serve as a living lab for companies to test-bed innovative solutions for densely populated, compact urban environments. The research collaboratory for smarter cities will advance this endeavor.

The Group director of LTA Singapore Dr Chin Kian-Keong stated

"For LTA, the use of technology has always been at the forefront of what we do - how do we squeeze out more efficiency out of our transport system, and at the same time making it safe." 

Dr Chin said the research could provide intelligent solutions to real-life transport problems. "If you can get information of any traffic congestion to motorists way before they reach this incident side, and get them to detour, that will help to relieve the congestion that can be caused," added Dr Chin. 

While Singapore already has mechanisms to control traffic and the traffic alerts in place, I believe this initiative would push it even further and could well end up with personalized commuting. Here is a little video to illustrate some of the upcoming innovations from IBM where personalized commuting is a part of it. Come to think of it, I see Singapore is already laying foundations for personalized commuting.

Once upon a time, West Indian Cricket

Excellent Video on West Indian cricket...

Beware of Starhub Digital Voice Line Bills

Recently, Starhub has been upgrading their IT systems and so the customers have not been receiving monthly bills in their usual billing cycle. I for one had not received my bills for few months ( but as i am making my payments by GIRO) every month the amount has been automatically deducted. And recently i have received bills for the month of December and i noticed that there are some charges towards the Digital Voice Home line which is around S$10 (originally it was free). Even though it's not a big amount for anyone in SG, i just wanted to clarify and called Starhub. 

Nowadays, the line seems to be very busy and finally got connected to a customer consultant about 30 mins later ( thanks to the speaker phone facility, if not you got to hold the phone all the time). To my surprise the consultant told me that " The Digital Voice Home" is still free and Starhub has not introduced any charges till now. By diagnosing further, he told me that my Digital Voice line is registered under my old address where i lived many years back and was then using Starhub also. 

So what could have happened is during the IT systems upgrade there are some details which are messed up and showed up as charges in customer's bill.  And you know what, this has been happened for the last 3 months and since i have not been receiving any bills, i didn't had a chance to realise the amount. So eventually it turns out to be around S$30 which is a decent amount anyway..

Ok, the point here is Singaporeans are very busy in day to day life and don't have a chance to notice some of discrepancy in the utility bills.  But these things could happen, so please be aware. 

Had i not noticed, i would have missed around S$30 which could well be used for a family dinner in Food Court :) Say what ?

Lotusphere Nostalgia Part 3

Ok, here is another awesome video during the closing session of LS 2010. This is done by a gentleman named DJ Steve Porter who is renowned music director, remixer and it seems one of this video Slap Chop Infomercial is viewed more than 11 million times.. Wow.

Well, we also need to congratulate the LS team for bringing in such great people and advertise the products. These sort of things will definitely appeal in general public. Look how people are enjoying themselves and some people i could recognize are Andrew Pollack, Nathan Freeman, and Mikkel besides Bob Picciano and Alistair Rennie..

Hmm, Let's see what is in store for Lotusphere 2011.

Lotusphere Nostalgia Part 2

Key Highlights from LS 2010

IBM Project Vulcan - To me this is the single most important thing from LS 2010 even when there are other things like LotusLive, Lotus Notes Traveler etc.

Because it is going to appeal to both end users and as well developers and business partners. For the end users b'cos they are going to have an user interface which is very much like any other social software they use daily eg: Facebook

And for the developers and business partners IBM is going to release a common set of API's which will talk across the Lotus portfolio starting from Notes / Domino until Lotus Connections, Lotus Live and IBM WebSphere Portal. But it is not going to happen in the next release of Lotus Notes and Domino but will happen over a period of time. That's why Project Vulcan is not a code name like 'Hannover" ( code name for Lotus Notes 8) but is a blue print for the IBM future collaboration strategy.

That being said Vulcan will include all the latest technologies to achieve this vision namely HTML5, XPages,CSS3, Web Services and may possibly include WebKit etc. Of course it has to b'cos what IBM is trying to achieve is to make the entire concept of collaboration as "loosely coupled services" which can then applied across the organisation. To make that happen Lotus has to include all the Open standards ( it is already doing though) and only then if the developer wants to go integrate Lotus Notes with any of the services available in the  Internet he / she will be able to do so. 

Some questions comes to my mind though, while in the process of making it slimmer, will IBM cut down some of the features Lotus Notes has already got but for now we don't have to worry b'cos LS 2011 will answer those and shed additional light.

The purpose of this writing is only to highlight some of the key things about LS 2010 in my eyes b'cos i have caught up with LS fever now :) We may come back here again before I close down Lotusphere Nostalgia...

Thanks for reading this and stay good.. Cheers

Lotusphere Nostalgia

With only 36 days left for Lotusphere 2011, i started browsing through the contents that are available from the past Lotusphere events. I will be including some of the interesting things for the next few days. Already caught up with the Lotusphere fever :)

Now, here is a video which is considered as one of the best in the opening general session of Lotusphere.

Fourth week in Independent consulting

I am already in the 4th week in my new Independent consulting role and would like to say i have thoroughly enjoyed it. One of the key reasons I prefer this, is every single second of the clock is yours and you decide what you want to do with it. I didn't had much chance to connect with many of my old friends in the last few years  mainly b'cos of the work commitments etc and one of the first things i did is connecting with them. I am stunned to see many of them in the FB and just repent why i haven't connected with them early.. it's really a fantastic feeling to see your old friends and talk with them. Almost all of them are having cute kids at least 2 and more in some cases :)

As for the work, i am fortunate enough to get some small work from customers and will be getting some additional work in the future (hopefully). The work that i am currently involved is more to do with business process re-engineering and i am currently identifying the as-is business process with the team. There are few other cases i am waiting for the customer's decision. Since this is a holiday season the decision will generally take a while. Having said that, this is just the beginning and i know it's a long way to go from here but i believe that i should be able to do it. If i take a look at the current situation the expenses are more than the revenue that is being generated but it will take a while to turn around the situation.

Having said that, I also get to spend some quality time with my family which i missed to a certain extent in the past. I enjoy being with my wife and kids and all the more since it is school holidays, they are also thrilled at me being with them :)

There is 1 more item, since i have all the time in this world now hopefully that means i can focus more time in blogging as well, pls send me your comments, feedback and i promise i will try my best to incorporate in my blog. Thank you so very much for visiting my site and your feedback / comments are much appreciated. Please drop a note to skumar75atgmaildotcom

P.S. If you are leaving comments in the site, kindly leave your name and URL (if any) so that i would be able to put comments against a name. It's little hard to reply for anonymous comments, am sure you understand what i mean. Please select a profile when you comment and there are options to enter name and URL. Thank you much for your time.

Graduation Day Concert

My son Jai Ganesh has graduated from Apple Tree KinderGarten to join Primary school next year. We attended the school concert and ceremony arranged by them. It's always fun to see children performing in the stage. Jai also gave a opening talk with his fellow classmate before the class choose to opt for "We are the world; we are the children" song.. he also performed in a chinese song and always good to watch your kid performing in the stage.. his performance in "Jai Ho" song during his K1 last year was much appreciated by teachers and other parents.. Will have to upload in "You Tube"..

Doing opening talk

Collected the Certificates Already

We are the world song

Performing a wonderful chinese song

Nice step during chinese song

Photo Courtesy - Raymond ( Jai's friend Aaron's Father)

Browser Statistics

I noticed that for this month November, Chrome is very close to IE. Interesting that many have opted for Chrome than Firefox.. Hmm, let me see.

Pageviews by Browsers

Internet Explorer 231 (39%) Chrome 230 (39%) Firefox 108 (18%) Opera 8 (1%) Flock 6 (1%) Safari 4 (<1%) NetFront 1 (<1%) Version 1 (<1%)