An Evening to Forget...

The evening of the 20th of June, 2006 was one I would like to forget. The evening started off with a soon-to-be-married girl stating, "Thank God I am not marrying you" in response to a critical remark from me. The evening then went rapidly downhill from there! Over the years, I have heard statements like, "Your poor future wife! I already pity her", "I hope you get a wife who's everything you wouldn't want her to be", "I would like to talk to your would-be-wife before she marries you to warn her of the big mistake she is making", etc. in response to my incessant leg-pulling/criticism (usually justified) of various members of the fairer sex. I suppose a lot of the other women were also thinking "Thank God I am not marrying you" when they said what they said. But, this was the first time I have heard it stated explicitly and I thought it was a bit harsh espescially coming from someone I have been rather nice to by my standards!

Anyway, I was ready to explain it away as a lack of patience and I was visibly perked up by the awesome start that the Mavs made with a 26-12 lead with about 2 minutes remaining in the 1st quarter. Then, the Heat started playing catch-up and thus began what I think was the most profanity-laden 4 hours of my life. People who have known me for a while know that I am a person who swears or uses profanities only on the rare occasion or two. But, last night I was hailing expletives at virtually everyone who had anything to do with the game-Refs, Wade, Avery Johnson, Terry. I got so agitated and frustrated that I was close to throwing things at the T.V. a few times. Thankfully, I remembered everytime that the expensive T.V. did not belong to me!:) I think NBA should draw a virtual 3-D cylinder (like the yellow lines they use to indicate first-downs in NFL) with a radius of 2 feet with "princess" Wade as center everytime Wade touches the ball. It would be easier for the audience (and the concerned players) to discern a foul call. Only one simple rule to remember-If any part of the body of a member of the opposition happens to be in this "Wade cylinder" at any point in time (due to motion by Wade or the defender), the defender shall be called for a foul! I can recall, at the very least, 7 freethrows that Wade got to shoot on bogus calls. Even subscribing to the idea that superstars get the calls in this league, when I contrast that with the number of calls Nowitzki got for all the bumping, shoving and virtual man-handling the Heat defenders subjected him to throughout the series, I am stupefied. I wonder how the Mavs kept their cool and didn't resort to idiotic fouls and were largely well-behaved except at the end of Game 5. I guess that's why they get paid in millions while I'll be extremely lucky to land a job that pays 100K. Inspite of all that, Mavs should have still won the game if not for some of the worst coaching and poor shooting I have ever seen from the Mavs. I hold Avery Johnson squarely responsible for some senseless moves like:

• Taking out Marquis Daniels in the 4th quarter when he looked like the only player other than Nowitzki who was playing decently.
• Letting Terry shoot all those ill-advised 3s when none were going in.
• Letting Howard go careening towards the basket manned by 2-3 defenders when there were open players standing around.

Oh, well! All said and done, Mavs lost the series and with it a golden chance to get theit first title. Marc Stein can now officially call this the most stunning collapse in NBA finals history. I guess they relaxed a little bit after that Spurs series thinking they had crossed the major hurdle on their path to glory. I don't know what to expect next year, what with the Western conference including a seething Spurs team and a Suns team with Amare Stoudemire and Kurt Thomas back in the line-up and pending free-agency of Jason Terry and Josh Howard. R.I.P. Mavs 2005-06 season - a season that turned out to be much better than anyone ever thought but still left a bitter taste in the mouth because of the manner of their exit. Here's my final score for the series

• Heat 1, Mavs 2 (Games 1, 2 and 4)
• Heat + Refs + Mavs 1, Mavs 0 (Game 3)
  
• Heat + Refs 2, Mavs 0 (Games 5 and 6)

Mavs had no chance really! On the question of referees, I was offended by the inanities mouthed by the court-side commentators about poor calls. I also happened to catch the controversial U.S.A - Italy match on the same ABC network and I was struck by the contrast. The commentator at the football match would have said things like "This referee has no clue what's happening" and "I hope he never officiates another game" (the audio clips are used often enough in the ads) about a zillion times. Agreed the first red card was stupid, but the second one was just a consequence of Pope picking up two deserving yellow cards. On the other hand, in the NBA (and other American professional sports that I have followed for close to 5 years), we have respected people like Hubie Brown look at a call that is blatantly erroneous and make a comment that doesn't even acknowledge it happened leave alone criticize it - John Madden is the only exception I can recall. Why this double standards?

The icing on the cake as far as the evening was concerned - My PC simply stopped working after some burning smell that I didn't realize came from the PC until it was too late to do anything about. It looks like another AMD processor (2nd one) is toast. May be my anger was felt by the processor too! I am even more disappointed because I have been telling anyone who ever asked my opinion about buying a PC/laptop to buy one with an AMD processor and have also been constantly cheering AMD's small victories in its David-like fight against the Goliath-like Intel. I think I am just going to ask Raapi to get me a new one. I believe AMD owes me one!:)

Apex or Nadir of Creation/Evolution?

We, the human beings are supposed to be the apex of all creation - the most sophisticated, powerful, and intelligent creature to inhabit this planet. I wonder what our co-inhabitants think of us though. One often hears phrases like "fighting like an animal", "eating like a pig", etc. If animals could understand our words, they might actually believe we are giving compliments because:

• When we aren't "fighting like animals", we simply use multi-million dollar machines to kill scores of people just because one group doesn't agree with the other on any number of "important" issues like religion, form of governance, territorial limits, etc. We fight wars for holding on to an inhabitable piece of land covered by a glacier and are proud to proclaim that it is the highest battle-field in the world. I was reading the other day about the Rwandan Genocide after seeing the movie Hotel Rwanda. Some figures were just staggering - almost a million people slaughtered in a matter of 100 days at a mind-numbing rate of about 10,000 people a day. It was not like they were bombed or anything but most of the killings were by machetes or hand-held guns. The rest of the world was just watching! And, we are supposed to be better than animals..huh!
• When we aren't "eating like pigs", we spend tens of dollars to eat a "salad" in a fancy restaurant while a siginificant portion of humanity cannot even have a single meal a day. A pig's tongue by the way has about 15,000 taste buds compared to the modest 9,000 we humans are supposed to have.
  
• We invent things that supposedly make our life better, then figure out there is a problem and then try and solve the problem by inventing a new thing along with associated problems.
• We keep multiplying, pushing the other hapless creatures to smaller and smaller vestiges of land and then feel proud about protecting them with reserve forests. We even hunt defenceless animals for pleasure and to prove our macho credentials.
  
• We consume and consume from nature and give nothing back except polluted air, land and water.

Imagine a court of all livings things on this planet that wants to try humanity for crimes against nature. I wouldn't want to be the lawyer representing humanity in front of that court!

Infinity...

One of my favorite hymns is the following because I simply love the sound of it as well as its profound meaning:

Aum Poornamadah Poornamidam Poornaat Poornamudachyate;
Poornasya Poornamaadaaya Poornamevaavashisyate

It can be loosely translated as:

What is Whole (Infinite) - This is Whole (Infinite) - What has come out of the Whole (Infinite) is also Whole (Infinite); When the Whole (Infinite) is taken out of the Whole (Infinite), the Whole (Infinite) still remains Whole (Infinite).

One may think its a mathematical definition for infinity!:) . I found this interesting blog that compares this hymn with elements of Taoism. Other entries on the blog (esp. comments by kichami on the above article) are worth checking out.

WOW...

Who would have thought Ghana would score the fastest goal at the world cup (at about 1:14) and that too against Czech republic who by all accounts were just awesome in their 1st match against USA!

and then, they win the game 2-0...they should have won it at least 4-0 - missed a penalty kick and an easy goal on a bone-headed off-side with just the goalie to beat!

Random thoughts to start the day...

I woke up this morning with the dreadful thought that I had left the sun roof on my car open last night and what if it had rained? It turns out, I did leave the thing open and there seems to have been a light drizzle smack in the middle of a hot summer in Dallas. Thankfully, increase in moisture content of the arm rest seems to be the only damage caused. It's as if Nature was warning me, "Don't do this again or I'll kick your butt!". Incidentally, the car parked right next to mine had both its rear windows partially open...always good to have company when you do moronic things!:)

As espn.com analyst Marc Stein points out in today's daily dime, winning Game 5 is more important for the Heat than the Mavs. So, I am still a believer...the belief has been shaken a bit yes...but I continue to believe Mavs will win this thing and Nowitzki will have two monster games that will shut up critics for years to come! Go Dirk!

As a follow-up to my post on Al-Zarqawi, I found this funny cartoon I must have received as a forward a long time ago...



I shamelessly edited it to get this one...:)



If there are any copyright violations, please leave a comment and I'll promptly remove the file(s).

I wonder why support for U.S.-led war on terror has increased substantially in India even though the general opinion about the U.S. seems to have take a beating as per this yearly survey by The Pew Global Attitudes Project?

I should call it a night...

Went to Chaat Cafe tonight and had a pleasant meal with my friend Mansi. As usual, the cashier asked Mansi if she wanted the potato salad or the cucumber salad with the veggie wrap and I remembered Srinadh's humorous take on that very question.

Well, it seems like Jeev Milkha Singh was the 1st guy to make the cut, but way back in 2002 according to this website that claims to be "Everything Indian Everything Golf"!

Miserable sports week continues....

On my way back from work, I heard Stackhouse has been suspended for Game 5 for his foul on Shaq. If they had called all the fouls that Miami committed in Game 4, their whole team would have been suspended! Stu Jackson is a retard!

And, surprise, surprise, Tiger Woods missed the cut at the U.S. open...how often does that happen? How about NEVER since he turned pro in 1996. Looks like the sad demise of his father did affect his game...But, Jeev Milkha Singh did make the cut...now to find out if any Indian has done that before.

That's my 5th post for the day...Hope I can sustain this interest in blogging!

The rise and fall of al-Zarqawi

We have been asked to believe that the death of al-Zarqawi is a major accomplishment and he was "the most" important terrorist leader in the region. But, I wonder (as have some in the mainstream media) if he would have ever graduated from being a petty criminal if not for being anointed the face of terror in Iraq by the U.S who were looking for any sort of justification for the war? I am reminded of the book The Death lobby: How the West Armed Iraq by Kenneth Timmerman, which I read a long time ago. It talked about how Saddam Hussain would have never been what he became without a great deal of help from the west and the first gulf war was just a means of destroying a monster they had created. Sound familiar? That book is an excellent read and excerpts are available at this link.

While I am rambling about the subject of war, one of the most sarcastic and funny movies I have ever seen is Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Anybody who hasn't seen the movie must see it. One cannot but appreciate and wonder how relevant the movie is even after 40 years.

"Children of Heaven" from "Axis of Evil"?!

As I keep seeing articles on Iran and its alleged nuclear weapons program, I recall watching this beautiful Iranian movie, Children of Heaven, a few days back. My friends and I were somewhat surprised by the quality of the roads and some posh neighborhoods that were portrayed in the movie as it didn't seem to fit into the stereo-typed image of Iran that we seem to carry in our heads. The story itself is astonishingly simple yet moving and is centered around a young boy, his little sister and a pair of shoes. The movie is not about politicking and so, anybody will enjoy the movie whatever part of the spectrum they belong to-left, right, center, ultra-left...blah..blah...

Am I crazy or what?

This actually happened couple of days back....There were two boxes - one with some rice and another with rajma. I had to mix the two items and transfer to a lunch box that was washed but not dry. I could have done it in two ways:

1. Dry the lunch box, mix the two items, transfer to lunch box and wash hands.
2. Mix the two items, wash hands, dry hands, dry lunch box, transfer to lunch box and wash hands.

I just happened to complete the task using the second approach and I became a tad upset because I didn't think of the first approach while I was doing it...it would have been more efficient! And, even as the thought went through my mind, I was thinking..."What is wrong with me? Am I crazy to have such thoughts?"....

A pathetic week in Sports...

Almost every team/individual I support/like lost this week and the one team I dislike did well. I am in a depression now!:(

It started out with Schumacher finishing second to Alonso at the British GP. Then, Federer lost to Nadal at the French open. How can a guy who is touted as the best ever lose this often to a teenager? "Team India" once again managed a draw in a test they should have won hands down courtesy some inopportune interruption by the weather gods, that maan Brian Charles Lara and some very ordinary bowling! The Dallas Mavericks went from eyeing a sweep to playing the worst game of the entire season to leave the series all tied up with Miami Heat. As if this wasn't enough, England qualified for the 2nd round of the World Cup after 2 prelims!:( The lone bright spot...Jeev Milkha Singh was +3 and tied for 28th at the US open after round 1! I wonder if an Indian golfer has ever made the cut at US open...He's +7 now...oh, well...Hope next week turns out better than this...