Is it just me, or is he starting to look more and more like this man. Kinky!

***

Yes, it was the finish everybody wanted.

... And the Pakis didn't look too crestfallen, did they?

***

It's pretty elementary to see what this version of the game is all about. If you want to see it, that is.

***

Something to shake off that hangover.

I'm not anti-Hindu or anything but I hate how every Hindu festival spills out onto the streets, resulting in a public nuisance. I think the Gods would much rather be venerated in peoples homes than be made an exhibition of on street corners and at traffic intersections.

***

Jammed with couple of the boys from work this afternoon. Too bad there was no booze. Dry day. So many things in this country just don't make any sense. Like this Ram Sethu nonsense that has put the government in a spot. Ram should have done everyone a favour and just parted the waters.

***

JC went to see a movie with a boy today. Something which in my book qualifies as a date, even though she insists it wasn't. Anyway, whatever it was, she is now being subjected to a thorough interrogation ... quite funny to hear the old man giving her the gyaan on what goes on in the minds of young men these days - guilty until proven innocent!

***

O.K. How many of you with me on this -- Twenty 20 just ain't cricket. It has totally killed the strategic/tactical aspect of the game. And that bowl-out thing used to decide a tie is the most ridiculous shit I've ever seen ... it's like a football penalty shoot-out without the goalkeeper!

Heard it through the grapevine ... Mr. John "who'll stop the rain" Fogerty & Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Do take a look at BBC World's new Visionaries series, where they pit the old against the new in an attempt to decide (through viewer voting) who has made a more lasting impact on their respective fields of work.

I managed to catch the episode on architects Christopher Wren vs. Norm Foster. My vote definitely goes to Wren. Not that Norm Foster is any less a genius, but Wren had a certain passion that even today, some 300 years later, still oozes out of those magnificent creations in the city of London, most notably St. Pauls. And he did it in an age where one didn't have access to the tools Norm Foster has today.

I guess a true visionary is someone whose genius stands the test of time. That's why it's so surprising to see that people have voted Madonna ahead of Mozart in the music category. I mean, come on guys - Madonna?? Only thing about her that future generations will remember are those conical boob covers with the gold tassels which she wore in the Open Your Heart video.

On Charles Dickens vs. J.K. Rowling for literature ... well - tough one, wouldn't you say? :)

***

One person who sure as hell ain't no visionary in his line of work is Ram Gopal Verma! I hear audiences went through never before experienced levels of torture watching Aag. Friend of mine who's had his fill of the shit Bollywood's been dishing out lately says it would be better if every director in the Indian film industry switched to making porn. We could then call it Pollywood.

And Team India managed to live up to their expectation of not rising to the occasion once again. You'd have to be a complete moron not to see that the whole damn series was fixed. The way they let Utthapa score in those last few overs the previous game, it was quite obvious that they (or rather the bookies) wanted something to play for at Lords. Total no-brainer that the Limeys were going to win.

US Open. It gets so boring when all the pretty girls are out, no? Might as well just give Justine the bludy trophy and send her home.

***

Couple of guys from work want to jam up with the Blues this evening. You get the grog and the guitars and I'll bring my plectrum, is what I told them. One of them is an aspiring song-writer ... looks like I'm in for an overdose of 'original compositions'.

Change of plans. News has just reached me that Fats is down from Dubai ... guess he was planning to surprise me, the bugger. To hell with jam-session ... I'm chilling with Fats.

DM Band. This one for my old buddy Vishnu. Hope you're doin' good mate.

Someone said there'd been an accident up ahead. Half an hour of crawling through traffic later, I see the truck stopped on one side of the road. As we come up closer I can see the mangled frame of a motorcycle jammed under the front tyre. I turn my head away somewhat instinctively. But something strikes me as strange .... no blood, no splattered remains, nothing. They couldn't have cleaned up the mess that quickly. Then I see him, still holding his helmet, badly shaken ... a couple of bystanders trying to bring him back to his senses. The look on his face was one of disbelief. That he was still alive.

It takes a second ... to change everything. To bring faith back to one who had none; to remove the bitterness from one who was engulfed in it; to be grateful for what you have left ... and to want to make the best of it.