A booster shot

Fattie, a.k.a. Priyatham (u asked for this!!), said something today that moved something inside me.

He narrated his visit to the hospital to see a friend and how he felt what a brave girl she was. How cheerful she was in the face of a plastic surgery!!

He said he almost broke down seeing her. He went on to say that he would never forget this Sunday in his life. It brought him immense resilience and resolve to never, never give-up in life.

I usually don't associate Fattie talking like this. Being honest Fattie.

But his words manifested into fort walls today - lofty, strong and infallible. Something about them gave me strength. And I needed it.

Was a indiffirent weekend, this one. Was feeling gnawed all through. Just generally.
Life is so difficult to fathom, so difficult to be in control of. But then, just when you are about to lay down arms, reinforcements come up from avenues you never expected or bothered to look to.

Thanx Fattie...the old Horsie will wake up again tomorrow, Monday morning.

The Steve Waugh spirit is rekindled.

The week in Sports

U.S. Open 2006

→ Roger Federer claims his 3rd successive US open and 9th career slam. Phenomenal!!

→ The ohhhhhh-so-sexy Maria Sharapova vanquishes Justine Henin-Hardenne for her maiden US open and 2nd career title. Hoping countless more follow ;).

→ Justine Henin becomes the first player since Steffi Graf to reach all 4 Grand Slam Singles Finals in a calendar year. She won the French but lost the other 3 - Australian & Wimbledon to Amelie Mausresmo and US to Sharapova.

→ First time in Tennis history that a male and a female player reach all 4 Grand Slam finals (Roger Federer and Justine Henin).

→ Martina Navratilova continues making a mockery of age and all sorts of records as she powers her way to her 59th career Grand Slam title partnering Bob Bryan for the Mixed Doubles.

→ Two tennis greats finally adieu to the courts - Andre Agassi and Martina Navratilova. Bleary eyes and heavy hearts the world over.

F-1, Italian Grand Prix @ Monza

→ Michael Schumacher & Ferrari once again outfox the nitwits at McLaren at pit strategy and win the race.

→ Alonso blows up his engine in his bloodrush allowing Schumacher to close to within 2 points of the championship lead.

→ The season's nicely poised for one of the tightest and fiercely, closely fought finales with the Chinese, Japanese and Brazilian Grand Prixs to come.

→ Michael announces his retirement shortly after his victory with the unimaginable 100 victories mark just a season away.

Cricket - DLF Cup, Malaysia

→ West Indies wither away and squander a golden chance of putting one over the indomitable Aussies as they lose 9 wickets for just 29 runs in the series opener.

→ Match 2: India vs. West Indies - Tendulkar returns with a bang to silence all those aspersing him as a Titan of the past by slamming 141 against the Windies. But it’s déjà vu all over again as the Indian bowlers get tonked all around the park and India lose the match courtesy M/s Duckworth and Lewis.

UEFA Champions League

The heavyweights of European football return to the biggest club football saga in the world. Amidst much fanfare, some clubs go about doing their business clinically – play football, score goals, win matches while others get lost in the blitz of the media lights.

→ Defending champions, Barcelona hammer 5 past new boys Levski Sofia.

→ Usual Suspects Chelsea, Milan, Bayern Munich all win comfortably scoring 2,3,4 goals respectively.

→ Valencia produce a masterful performance powered by Fernando Morientes’ hat-trick to win 4-2 away to Olympiacos.

→ Last year’s runners-up, Arsenal commence with a convincing win away to Hamburg with new signing Tomas Rosicky justifying his multi-million pound deal with a classy strike that will surely show up in the season’s best goals list.

→ The much hyped Real Madrid under Fabio Cappello once again disappoint as Lyon easily defeat them 2-0.

→ Liverpool make heavy weather of a reasonably manageable fixture, as they so often do, to earn a 0-0 draw in Eindhoven.

→ Celtic throw caution to the winds as they push Man Utd. To the edge and almost over as they make the Red Devils slug out a 3-2 victory at Old Trafford.

Name = Horsie, Work = Donkey's ;)

Without the slightest of doubts, my best day in life!!

Morning 10am - Night 9.30 pm: All I did today was data setup, cleaning and formatting today.

Activities include:

1. Copy pasting of cells from across Excel files - As the great gyaani Baba Mohanty would say, "draugg it".
   
   
2. Coloring various cells with the wonderful palate that Mr. Gates provided in his most benevolent gift to mankind so far
   I think I exceeded expectations on this activity today. Optimized on the color use - the file actually has an artistic hue to it now.
   The satisfaction one gets out of doing "creative" work is unparalleled. I titled my creation "Global Unity & Harmony" as that is what you'd get if you randomly mixed the colors of the flags of the world.
   
   Thinking of patenting this idea, selling it to Bill Gates/UNO/US President (the man concerned most about world peace). And ofcourse, all the proceeds will go to charity ;).
   
   
3. Reconciling 3 formats used for reporting the same data - I am only now beginning to appreciate the finer nuances of how sensational the Gillette methods of working are.
   Considering they had no significant competition to give them so much as a hiccup in this region, they had to indigenously come up with challenges for their employees - you have to be at the "cutting" edge.
   
   So, they came up with up an absolutely ingineous plan.
   Shipments, Consumptions and Annual reports are quoted in entirely anti-similar formats. Anti-similar as there's no obvious linkage between Shipments and Consumption of various brands. Infact, shipment data for the same country, brand, period combination when drawn from different sources can be conflicting. Sub-brand and group totals can exceed mother brand / company shipment totals :D.
   
   So, the challenge is to know the right source, all the right sources for the 500-odd SKUs that they have and the right brand list.
   
   Now, that's what I call challenging work!! And people wanted to participate in the Crystal Maze to test their claimed intelligence...idiots.
   
   Dumbguns, learn from Gillette - learn to make challenges for yourself by mangling and juggling around with your data. It will always keep your employees at their "sharpest".
   
   Obviously, such extra-ordinary methods were devised by some high-flying MBA. And you necessarily have to be equipped with an MBA to even being considered worthy of deserving a shot at this twister!!
   

What a day!! Wishing that my entire career is full of such days...

No, though I know you guys are envious, you can't bribe me out of my job.
I love my job!!!

New English word: Schumacher = perfection, domination, God-status

I don't know when I last felt so despondent. Michael Schumacher is retiring after this season.

An era 's ending in the history of sport. Not just F1, all sport. From the time when Ferrari was a car that had to be wrestled to the chequered flag to that sublimal 15-race dominating dream baby of 2004, Schumacher has single-handedly rewritten every single history book there ever was in F1.

He is a game changer. He is inspiration. He is supremacy. He is trying that one bit harder and beyond. He is the man that rewrote the very definition of perfection and domination.

There have been countless and there will be countless who every now and again will rise to prominence, surpass existing records and be masters of their own game. But rarely do Schumiz arise who transcend conventional boundaries of their spheres of excellence and go on to have a profound impact on human society in general. They become the benchmarks, the touchstones which the world would endeavor to equal endlessly. Lance Armstrong and Tiger Woods are the only two similar names that I can recall in contemporary sport. The FedExpress and maybe Rahul Dravid are on their way there. And I am pretty sure you can't append too many more names to this clique.

The jobless HR departments of the world (that tells you my opinion of them!!) would do well to take a cue from this chap's life. Put up his poster in office instead of making all those jazzy pin-ups with big-big words in them which do anything but motivate.

He's had his detractors and his moments of madness. But you can't take away his passion, his single-minded focus on winning everytime he got behind the wheel. It takes some fire in the belly to go and slug it out fortnight after fortnight when you know that you have nothing left to prove, that you sit unchallenged at the peak, that there are light years between you and your peers. God only knows what it takes to come out and dig in for some silly zig-zagging across a round circuit when you know your mother is also counting down a vital few seconds- albeit in a hospital bed.

I, for one, will definitely shed some silent tears. Cannot comprehend F1 as F1 without him.
Michael Schumacher - The Tiffosi God, the rainmaster, the legend...the world bows in deference.

An ailment called Apathy

During my round-up of the news today, stumbled upon the Jessica Lall murder case story. The accused doctor has appartently surrendered. That's all I know. So far.

Only after I had moved onto all the other more "interesting" news "stories", did this thought strike me as to how much indifference we Indians harbor in us. I just skipped over the story as though it were another flippant story.

Come to think of it - terrorist attacks, bomb scares, red alerts, devastating floods - have almost become daily, mundane chores in India's day. Scariest part is we seem to have internalized them just like share script swings from Siberia to Antarctica. And Dalal Street is more likely to cause the next emergency announcement in the country than serial blasts or floods in multiple states. :(

Back to the point: a big dimension of law is to set precedents and norms for the society as to what is acceptable and what absolutely isn't. Law works by example - that's the reality. People label Singapore autocractic - but look at the other side of the coin - it's close to a self-governing state. It is way too incomprehendible for an Indian who has just accepted the judiciary taking eons to even call so much as a Head or a Tail!!

If the gulity are actually brought to the book in the Jessica Lall case, it will be a landmark judgement in India's legal and social history. It will perhaps rekindle that dead spirit inside us telling us that a human life has value - every single one.

I personally too never realized this until I came to Singapore and were I in India currently, I am sure this entry would've been some electrical impulse in one of my neurons (few) that never quite sparked!!

Apathy and indifference could possibly, and quite easily, be the worst plague to have hit us - in epidemic proportions. Cure required...and real quick. Hoping that this case be the beginning of the End. Not a Fool's hope, I hope.

Cricket in throes...

I couldn't believe myself when I found Dumdum (remember, I have an evil twin ;) ) actually rooting for Pakistan in the 4th test of the England - Pak series.

Its saddening that even after all these years in international Cricket racism is so maliciously prevalent. Sub-continent players are penalized for what would be minor offences for the white teams while the whites - players and umpires - virtually get away with murder. Rahul Dravid - Michael Slater during the famous 2001 Calcutta test, Saurav Ganguly in Zimbabwe, Muttiah Muralitharan for chucking, Sachin Tendulkar - Glenn McGrath down under. South African cricket's unending troubles with the selection of black players..

And now, the ball tampering accusation on Inzy.

The magnitude of injustice against the brown and black skinned players seems to be amplifying ever more with each passing year.

Darrel Hair brought the entire game to disrepute with his audacious e-mail to the ICC and admittance to rigging of his umpiring decisions to favor the white teams. He literally slapped the ICC across the face, knowing they were a senile, spineless body of eunuchs who could cause him no harm even if they wished to.

And as expected, Mr. Hair is a forgotten chapter now. The spotlight now revolves towards the upcoming Champions Trophy in India.

Sports has an amazing knack of being able to show you the entire spectrum of human emotions and capabilities - from unabated ebullience of victory, masterful performances to the downright abject and detestable lows of doping, cheating, cold-blooded vendettas.

Perhaps reality is that these two aspects go hand-in-hand together - exactly like the precept of Dan Brown's Illuminati - perfect symmetry.