As I blogged earlier I was part of the COEP team for BAJA SAE INDIA 2009.
My story on it (Kinda meant for a press release, but too lazy to edit it! 
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Archive for February, 2009
The COEP BAJA 2009 story
Firodiya 2009 final results!
1st place: VIT
2nd Place: College of Engineering, Pune (COEP)
3rd Place: ILS
Yessssss!!! My college bags 2nd place at the Karandak! What an awesome performance! Congrats to the team!
After what many felt, a denied chance last year, and 3rd place in 2007, this one tops all results for a decade atleast!! Simply Brilliant! Will definitely watch all top three sometime.
I am sure there will be many individual prizes to the team as well!!
“JAI HO” as everyone would say right now!
Slumdog millionaire : 8 oscars : Jai Ho!
As I said here, slumdog fulfilled its destiny by bagging 8 academy awards for 2008! These include:
Best Picture
Best Director – Danny Boyle
Best Original Song – Jai Ho
Best Original Score – A. R. Rahman
Best Film Editing
Best Sound Mixing
Best Cinematography
Best Adapted Screenplay
TOI article >
The cast and crew found it hard to containg their excitement! No wonder! This will be the news for many days to come! A well deserved win for the movie which has won over a billion hearts
A. R. Rahman delivered the dialogue “mere paas maa hai” – “my mother is here with me” and even spoke tamil on dias. He also performed the two songs from SM nominated for the awards with indian dancers, drums and all! It was really wonderful seeing the Oscars getting an Indian Flavour!
In other India-linked nominations, “Smile Pinky” won the academy award for the Best Documentary. Full article >
Heath Ledger received the Oscar for best actor in a supporting role, Sean Penn for best actor, Kate Winslet for best actress. The curious case of Benjamin Button too walked off with multiple awards to its name.
Ponting to miss IPL 2009!
Yes its official now. We wont be seeing him play for Kolkata Night riders. Ponting cited heavily loaded Aussie cricket year and wanting to have the 14 day break, by not playing in the IPL, as his reasons.
Seems fair and sensible enough. Sadly, I will have one less face to laugh at after my team (Chennai Superkings) smashes KKR once again! 
For full story >
N so will David Hussey too it seems! KKR are looking in trouble again…
Worlds most pathetic dance video
An advertising campaign for the worlds most pathetic dance video:
Please please watch it and join the campaign
Video introduced to me by Aditya
Firodiya 2009 results for 1st round
Yeah, my college COEP breezes through to second round! Congrats to the team and hope they bring the trophy this year! All the best for it…
Surprisingly 7 were selected for final round. Finals begin on Monday, 23rd Feb. Hoping to catch some of them!
Others who made it through were: VIT, PVG, ILS, MODERN, FERGUSSON (my earlier college ) and BMCC.
Life in perspective
“We are searching for life, yet we have a little idea what life really is….”
A quote I read in a Natgeo article some years back. The article was based on SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence). And today I came across another article which reminded me of the line and about why liked it the first time.
Take a read. (Alien life on earth??? – the BBC’s Science portal)
The article essentialy is in 3 parts:
The first, suggests that alien life may exist in earth itself – in very unusual or toxic lakes etc. It could be the result of ferrying from comets, mars – the usual sources. Not very convincing though. As one scientist questions in the article – How do u differentiate between earth and non-earth forms? Even the article itself uses the phrase – wierd life everywhere. Not at all impressive.
The second part, calls for more exploration on earth itself. Sensible – no matter what “life” you are looking for… wierd, alien, earth like. But an interesting quote here – “Personally, I’m only interested in establishing whether life happened more than once. If we find it has happened twice from scratch then its going to have happened all around the universe.” This makes a lot of sense. I believe when and if we find life – this is the one that everyone would agree to.
It reminded me of another article I read (I will put in the reference as soon as I recollect it). This was about a team of scientists who modelled our galaxy from origin. They modelled everything (so they claim) and simulated the entire program to search for intelligent species and came up with (I believe what is an disproportionately large number!) 361 results. The findings were published with a theme like – Oh, you know, life isn’t rare after all! – - Is this really necessary????!
I believe I am ambivalent when it comes to SETI. Undoubtedly, it fascinates me. It is a part of a quest, which began with intelligence itself. The earliest of civilizations have put up questions – What is the life? What is its purpose? Does life exists else where? Now for me there exists just the question – Whether these questions will ever be answered?
But sometimes it makes me wonder, whether these people have nothing else more realistic to do. I mean the world is so full of problems that threaten our very existence – such genius brains could be of great use here, not to mention the money spent.
The third part of the article is what interested me. Titled ‘Life in the lab’ it interviews a group of scientists who claim to have prepared molecules that are capable of ‘Darwinian Evolution’. These molecules have a DNA – RNA base with 6 letters in the genetic alphabet. The scientists have observed that the mistakes made in pairing are carried forward – showing that the molecule is evolving. The scientists claim that “Since, the accepted definition of life is a molecule capable of Darwinian evolution”, they have developed life and they would be testing the molecules for natural selection.
The phrase “definition of life” caught my attention. That would be the biochemical way to define life.
I believe somethings missing in their definition. I think that only one thing stops us from being just a blob full of chemical reactions. As Agent Smith would put it – PURPOSE
We’re here because we’re not free. There is no escaping reason; no denying purpose. Because as we both know, without purpose, we would not exist.
It is purpose that created us.
Purpose that connects us.
Purpose that pulls us.
That guides us.
That drives us.
It is purpose that defines us.
Purpose that binds us. [1]
Life cannot be defined without it.
My head is full of thoughts and imaginations, doubts and debates which perhaps may never be sorted, a stand never be taken. And hence, I must end this blog the same way as I started it -
“We are searching for life, yet we have a little idea what life really is….”
Catches win matches? A: Adam Voges Catch
If u still dont believe in “Catches win matches”, then take a look at this
Adam Voges takes a stunner. I had the good fortune of catching it live on TV.
15th Feb, 2009. T20 at the SCG. It was a virtual decider given that the ODI seires had drawn 2-2. Australia went in to bat and made a modest 150. Some believed it was too less. But fine bowling from N. Bracken and D.Hussey quickly made the target appear harder than everyone thought. Still NZ were not going down without a fight.
New Zealand needing 20 to win of 12 balls, in form B.McCullum on strike, already past his half century. Ben Hilfenhaus the bowler. Length bowl heaved by McCullum to long off. He thought the man (Adam Voges) would complete it comfortably and started to walk back. But he had hit it better than he believed. Voges caught the ball right on the line, balanced almost on one foot, centimeters from the rope. And then he realised – he was going over. With no signs of panic, he threw the ball some 20ft in the air, towards the inner side of the rope, took a couple of steps over the boundary rope, slipped as he made his way back into the field!, finally caught it with a small dive forward! it was brilliant.Voges was calm in the face of a storm!
The catch turned the match around denying NZ a deserving win (what an awesome chase! made 53 off last 5 overs!). In the end, NZ lost by 1 run. Sadly.
India’s tour of NewZealand – a preview
The Indian team has been announced for the upcoming NZ tour.
It goes as:
India Twenty20 Squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Captain & WK), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Dinesh Karthik, Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, Munaf Patel, Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha.
Clearly, youth is the way to go. All the T20 stars included. Newcomers Pragyan Ozha and R.Jadeja find a place in the squad.
India ODI Squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Captain & WK), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Kaarthick, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Rohit Sharma, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, Praveen Kumar, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha.
Inclusion of D. Kaarthick makes some sense. Especially with Dhoni having some fitness problems at the end of the SL tour. Pragyan too is a smart choice. His omission in the last ODI in SL was a mystery.
India TEST Squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Captain & WK), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, V.V.S Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Kaarthick, Murali Vijay, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, L Balaji, Dhawal Kulkarni, Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra.
Murali Vijay is taking a bit of a gamble. With Jaffer in prime form in the domestic circuit, would it prove a foolish decision? Especially on Kiwi wickets, which are a nightmare for an opener. Dhawal Kulkarni is a bit of over the head choice. I think Irfan Pathan could have been included, considering the obvious help for swing bowlers. For me, introducing Dhawal so early into the scene, might do him more harm than good. Keeping him on the bench and under V. Prasad will be more sensible. Amit Mishra too is an interesting choice. Great opportunity now for all the so labeled ’surprise entries’. They got to live up to the selectors’ faith in them.
Injured Harbhajan on the tour is questionable. Hopefully he will get a role to play in India’s success and not just a game. Pace attack too seems a bit fragile bcoz of the inclusion of Munaf and Balaji, both lacking vital match practice. Rahul Dravid seems a misfit in this bouyant team. Perhaps, he would want to consider doing him and the team some good, by stepping down sometime soon.
India have a forgetful record in Kiwi-land. We may be on a roll, but NZ is new ground for a majority for most of the players. Even more notably for our skipper – MSD. Team spirit would get us half way now – need for everybody to give their best performances.
For many of you who may be unacquainted with the new NZ side here are some of their latest heroes.
D. Vettori : Cool, composed. Professional. Shrewd captain. World Class bowler. He will look to tighten the screws on India from the word – Play.
Kyle Mills: The new Kiwi pace spearhead. Accurate, Miserly, Pacey and more important – confident. A self made star, we should expect nothing free from him.
D OBrien and Tim Southee: Mills’ right hand and left hand men. Discipline – there lies their strength.
B. McCullum: Wicketkeeper and the prime strokemaker of the team. And with a level head on his shoulders, he knows exactly when to attack and when to defend.
Ross Taylor and Peter Fulton: The main attackers in the side. Some experience here, but more importantly, loads of talent, and strength.
Grant Elliot: The new kid on the block. With some sensational innings against the Aussies, he is more than a promising all rounder.
The test team also includes:
James Franklin: All rounder
Brent Arnel: Uncapped pace bowler. Interesting to see him bowl…
Jesse Ryder: Explosive top order batsman and also a fine bowler.
Peter McGlashan: Wicketkeeper. And like most of them around the world – a dynamic batsman
For the entire first test squad with bulletin on cricinfo
First Test squad: Daniel Vettori (capt), Brent Arnel, Daniel Flynn, James Franklin, Martin Guptill, Tim McIntosh, Brendon McCullum (wk), Chris Martin, Kyle Mills, Iain O’Brien, Jeetan Patel, Jesse Ryder, Ross Taylor.
With other upcoming talents in Guptill and Neil Broom, the Kiwi team looks almost as impressive as the Indian one.
Will the home advantage once again prevail or will Dhoni’s knights continue their romping form and come back with the spoils? We only have to wait a short time. I think we are all set for an exciting series. And I will pray that India emerge triumphant.
The fixtures are as follows:
T20 : 25th and 27th feb
ODIs : 3,6,8,11,14 March
Tests: 18-22, 26-30 March, 3-7 April
For detailed fixtures with IST timings click here.
Indian Team details thanks to http://cricketvillage.blogspot.com/
India Win T20
they(india) had lost it thanks to jayasuriya and dropped catch by pathan,
they won it through fantastic bowling by spinners
ishant lost it through 3 of his ultra expensive overs but clawed one back by giving just 3 off his last one!
they lost it after losing the openers for just 14.
they won it through UV n raina (8 ov 81)
they lost it through dhoni (13 off 17) and rohit sharma(the shameless got 4 off 11 in a T20)
they won it through the pathan bros. (both with strike rates above 200, partnership 59 off 25)
India have won it… while ppl wil comment that it came too close, SL had an inexperienced team, no murli, jayawardena, sangakkara. jayasuriya bowled just 3 and all the “expert” crap….
the fact remains
India have won it!
