Book Review: In the Line of Fire

Just finished reading "In the Line of Fire". I read it just to see his side of the story. I am not an expert on any of the topics that he has written on, so I will not comment on the specifics mentioned in the book.

One thing that I find strange is that he has ways and means to justify all of his decisions and actions. He only agrees to a few juvenile mistakes, but nothing else. There are interesting insights on social reforms and national reconstruction.

On the whole, I think one should read the book to see his side of the story, but take things with more than a pinch of salt.

Water on Moon

For the last few days, TV channels have been carrying this piece throughout the day. Two things which I find quite ridiculous are -

• It was India's first moon mission and we were able to find water, whereas Americans went there so many times and were not able to find it.
• In future, we will be able to use the water on Moon for drinking, making rocket fuel, making oxygen etc.
• Till few days back, Chandyaan-1 was declared a disaster, and suddenly it has become a huge success.

To the news channels: please put the discovery in some perspective.

There was enough data available to suggest that there is water on Moon. However, the latest findings have given the scientific community conclusive evidence. In a nutshell, this has been an ongoing process and not a Eureka. Secondly, the amount of surface water on Moon is less that what is found on the hottest deserts on Earth. There are no lakes or ponds or glaciers there, not even a puddle. Nothing is known about the quantity of water buried deep inside the Moon, and whether there is any at all. That's what was crystal clear in the NASA press conference last night.

To all the scientists and governments: please manage the water on earth well. Otherwise we will have to really depend on the thin film of water that is present on the Moon.

Beauty of test cricket

Yesterday, I was watching the final test between England and Australia. The uncertainty - whether England will be able to bowl Australia out on day 4 or whether Australia will fight it out - was quite gripping. In the end, England did manage to win but Australia did fight it out, but it was quite gripping.

Hussey played really well, so did Katich & Haddin, but they made one mistake and that was the end of their innings. This is the beauty of test cricket - you make 1 mistake and you are out. As a bowler, you really have to bowl well (unless its your lucky day) otherwise you will get smacked all around the park.

I still remember in 2004, Rahul Dravid smashed a boundary of the bowling of Stuart McGill to win the Adelaide test match. How can we forget that? and India winning the Perth test after losing the Sydney test due to the most horrible umpiring in modern day cricket. How can we forget that? I belong to the school that believes in "test cricket is the real cricket"...

These days, T20 has resulted in an overdose of cricket, to the extent of causing indigestion. Test cricket has a soothing influence. 50-50 is the unfortunate victim of T20 overdose :-)

Finished reading "The Da Vinci Code"

For quite some time, I wanted to read this book. When I saw the movie, I could not understand one bit. I seemed more like a hollywood suspense thriller rather than anything else. Finally, I could lay my hands on it, and amidst a busy schedule, I managed to finish it over a period of 2 weeks. Quite interesting.

Next one will be "India After Gandhi - by Ramchandra Guha". The Jaswant Singh - Jinnah controversy has revived my dormant interest in history.

DDCA Vs Sehwag Saga

Last night, the news channels continued with their coverage of DDCA Vs Sehwag et all controversy. That is when I came across one of the DDCA selectors. The news channel was ranting about how the son of an influential office bearer of DDCA is being selected despite his poor performance and at the cost of other more talented players. Then they showed a piece of a TV interview with one of the selectors on why that particular player was being favored.

(A piece of unsolicited advise to news channels: This is not news, this is common knowledge.)

As far as I am concerned, this selector seemed very sensible. His argument was that the player in question is in the team of 15, but has never been given the opportunity to be in the playing 11. Since he has never played in the 11, how can we gauge his performance?

In pure hindi - "abhi tak to woh player paani pila raha tha. to jab woh bahar hi hai, to use aur bahar kaise kar sakte hain?".

Makes sense :-). Dude ! You have got to be a national selector. I am positive Salil Ankola (a competent bowler in my humble opinion, who very seldom got to play cricket) must be cursing his playing days when selectors did not have the common sense that you have shown.

Creativity at its best

Abhijit forwarded me the snap on the right. The snap on the left has been downloaded from google images for the sake of comparison.

Enjoy the contrast :-)

Litti Chokha

This Saturday, we friends went to a place called 'Chili Pepper' to eat Litti Chokha. Its a Bihari dish. The Litti is similar to the Baati from the famous dish 'Daal Baati', except that it is filled with 'sattu' and 'mustard'. I would say, it has a pretty heavy dose of mustard. I like that extra mustard. It just runs up my nose and makes me feel as if I have put my nose in a container of ammonia.

Chokha is nothing but mashed stuff - typically consisting of egg plant, tomatoes, potato, garlic, coriander and mustard oil. Except for the egg plant, everything else is raw. I love this combination. You can call it "Kachcha Bharit" in marathi.

The food was good. I really enjoyed the Litti-Chokha and along with chicken curry, it tasted fantastic.

Something that was really different was the attitude of the waiter. I guess he had a bad start to his evening because he was in a really foul mood. Some instances of his bad mood -

• He was unwilling to join two tables. When we told him that for 1 hour, we will be uncomfortable, he said - "aapko 1 ghanta baithaunga kya main?".
• Later, when we left some tip for him, he was unhappy with the tip and was grumbling under his breath.

Fortunately, there were more sensible waiters over there who told him to keep quiet.