Sex no bar - Aussie bar-bar!

It is 23rd March 2003. The venue was South Africa. Millions & millions of cricket fans across the world sit glued to their TV screens in the hope of witnessing a fascinating tussle for Cricket's crown between the world's best team and another that had dramatically improved as the tournament had progressed. India lost its match of the tournament (quite badly) to Australia, but improved in every following match and beat teams like Pakistan & England with relative ease. They didn't lose any further match and made it into the finals. Australia had no such stories. They played, and they won. They made it to the finals on virtue of not having lost a single match in the tournament.

Australia were hands-down favourites to beat India in the finals of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2003, but everyone expected a fight - and a good one at that. What happened was this - it was anything but a contest.

Forward to 10th April 2005. The venue is again South Africa. The fan following was markedly less, but the occassion was no less important for the players. India and Australia lined up to lock horns for the Finals of the Cricket World Cup.. again. Though this time, instead of Sachin, Saurav and Dravid taking to the field, it were Mithali, Amita and Anju. And this time again, India had made the finals having lost just once in the tournament, and Australia had reached unbeaten. It started as a close match, but quickly degenerated into no-contest. Australia win the Women's World Cup... also.

History repeats itself. And have placed Australian cricket at the pinacle of the game, in every version of the game!

PS: for the non-Hindi understanding readers, bar-bar is the Hindi term for 'again & again'.

Sky Burial

Sky Burial - An eyewitness Account of China's Brutal Crackdown in Tibet, by Blake Kerr


This was the last book I read, and was a first-person account of the happenings in Tibet after the Chinese occupation. Like most writings about military occupation, this book doesn't leave you feeling very good about being part of the human race - the extent of the crass, savage nature of the human race comes exposed in this documentary as the author relives the scenes that he witnessed during & after the Tibetan rebellion on October 1st, 1979. As a recently graduated doctor, Blake Kerr's trauma at not being able to help the injured & dying in the wake of the Chinese police brutalities on that day leave a strong mark.

What started out as mountaineering-hiking holiday with a long-time friend, ended up with the 2 friends becoming part of the Tibetan underground as they tried to help the injured monks & other Tibetans, knowing that if they got caught, they would be sent straight to a Chinese prison. The book progresses, as the 2 of them manage to escape from Tibet and enlighten the world on the happenings in this quaint, Himalayan region. As the book progresses, he returns to Tibet in an attempt to study/investigate the 'family planning' policies imposed by the Chinese on the Tibetans, and how abortions & sterilizations were forced to become the way of life for Tibetan women.

I'm quite sure that there are other books written on this topic (or other similar ones) which I'm sure are as (or more) haunting; and I do not plan to suggest that this book is a 'must-read'... but, if you do come across it, and can stomach some really abusive human behaviour, do read this. It's something that I'm fairly confident you will not regret reading.

Google Sets

Everyone who has spent anytime on the web, knows about Google, Google News, Google Mail and so on. For the 1st time though, I came across Google Sets. Quite an interesting 'application' from Google Labs.

This has been available since 2002, but never to the best of my knowledge has it been publicised by Google. Probably because although Sets is quite cool, it has absolutely no usefulness :-s

The name's Craig. Daniel Craig.

The latest replacement for Britain number 1 spy - Agent Double-O Seven - has been announced by Barbara Broccoli, the producer of the hit movie series James Bond. As per the tradition, yet another Briton - Daniel Craig - has picked up the baton against crime.

Though, after the super-popular, Pierce Brosnan, Daniel Craig is a relatively unknown name (atleast definitely to me), but apparently he is quite well known in land of the Queen. How will he measure agains the other greats who have spent time at the pinacle of crime-fighting; only time will tell. In the meantime, Daniel Craig will be heard saying the (arguably) most famous line in English cinema atleast 3 times. Link.

Quirkies (April 2nd)

Quirkies is a section that will link up to any interesting article that I may have come across recently. Likely to be something that very unique and something to lighten your mood!

Size does matter!!! Even in fast-food!
An ad for KFC has been banned in the United Kingdom because their ad seems to indicate that their burger is bigger than it is in reality. The fact that they named it 'mini', and the fact that it was charged at less than 1-pound, apparently isn't enough to suggest that the burger is infact, 'mini' and small.
Read More here.

When Cyber-space and reality come together, disaster is round the corner!
A chinese man who had been spending way too much time in front of the new generation's idiot-box (the online gaming machine, also known as a PC), has stabbed a co-gamer to death because the co-gamer 'sold' his cyber saber sword to a 3rd gamer. Probably the guy thought that since a felony in the game isn't punishable, a murder isn't in real-life either.
Read More here.

How perverted can people be?
Swedish clothes maker Lindex actually released a girls' top (and we are talking about baby girls aged 1 to 2) that looked like bikinis. Yeah you read that right... a bikini-style dress for baby girls aged less than 2. Thankfully they had enough sense after some serious criticisms from a Norway minister to take this piece of 'merchandise' off the shelves.
Read More here.