A Personal Victory

As a kid I used to play cricket a lot, and was a pretty good batsmen. But somewhere during my growing up years I got hooked to bowling and being a left arm bowler it helped. In the process I lost focus on batting and was always part of a team as good bowler who can somewhat bat.

Fast Forward to 2008, for the last couple of years I have been playing cricket once in a while. But once I moved to Austin I started playing once per week. Within the first week itself I was able to establish myself as a good bowler. But the first two weeks have been disastrous as a batsman such that in the third week I was taunted as "one ball batsman".

So today, during the third week I was very determined to bat well and decided upon one thing I am going to stay on the crease for a long time even though I am unable to score runs. The first couple of balls were with minor hiccups but the turning point came when I hooked one of the good bowlers for six. A SIX....after a long time, I don't even remember the last time I hit a SIX :-). After that it was quite a smooth ride and I led a good batting innings which took the team to victory.

So how did I manage to play well and surpass my own expectations. Well couple of things

1. I was determined to play well today.

2. Every ball I faced I tried to focus hard on that ball not thinking of the past or the future just the moment. This is easier said than done.

3. I was very aware of the fielders and tried to play the game at my pace than at how the bowler wanted.

Overall a good innings to get back my batting confidence and a personal victory for the day.

Olympics Games begins on 8-8-08 at 8:08:08 pm

By now you must have understood the obvious from the blog title. A lot of eights in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Well the Chinese have a fascination for number 8.

In Chinese culture numbers are considered auspicious or inauspicious depending on the Chinese word the number sounds similar to. The number 8 (ba) is similar sounding to the Chinese word 'fa' which means to prosper or wealth. Hence a lot of businesses and individuals shell out lot of money to have an 8 in the telephone number. The telephone number 888-8888 was sold out for $270k.

The Beijing Olympics organizers are taking no chances and want all the luck and prosperity with the number 8 for the Olympic games.

Amazing facts about 5 Asian Cities

1. Jerusalem - Its the most important city for Muslims after Mecca and Medina.

2. Dubai - 99% of UAE population lives in Dubai according to official figures.

3. Bomday - Founded in 1533 by Portuguese.
Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) founded in 1875 is the oldest stock exchange in Asia

4. Hong Kong - In 1898 China treaty made HongKong and about 230 neighboring islands under British protectorate for 99 years.
In 1997 Hong Kong came under Chinese Special Administrative Region.

5. Singapore - Singapore gets it name from Singha Pura meaning the "Lion City".

July 11 th 2006 - Mumbai Bomb Blasts

One of my earlier post in January 2007 - 187 Mumbai Stories I had mentioned about the commendable work by the Indian express team by covering each and every person who died in the July 2006 Mumbai train bomb blasts.

Today on the 2nd anniversary Indian express along with Harper Collins are releasing a book titled - 187 Lives. I look forward to reading this book. With the 187 Mumbai stores commendable work I am sure great work on the book too.

Check out the press release of the book - here

Two men and a truck

Today I purchased a used television. The TV was a sweet deal and a bargain for the size and the price offered. I just went bonkers once I saw the television and made a quick payment to get the television. Once the TV was purchased and the owner wanted us (myself and roommate) to pick the TV to our car I realized the TV was heavy, very heavy. We somehow managed to get to our apartment complex but the herculean task was to move TV on a flight of stairs to get to our living room.

Some how we were able to climb 3 steps when my roommate gave in and we realized the task required more hands. Finally two more friends helped up to get over the challenging task and we completed the job.

So how much exactly did this TV weigh since it needed 4 pair of hands.
Any guesses ....75...100 .......125 pounds.

Keep guessing .........154 pounds.

Lesson for the day : Before purchasing a TV decide if you going to carry the TV, if so then forget the price and the looks of the TV, weigh it first ;-)

PS: So what has the title suppose to do we the post, well I see these moving company trucks - Two men and a truck they are movers with a funny name. But today my roommate and myself were in this situation where two men picking up a truck (TV in this case which was size of a truck).

It can't get better than this

What a fantastic game of tennis. Whomever one would have supported for the Wimbledon Men's singles finals today - whether Nadal or Federer as a fan of the game would have just loved it. More than four and half hours of amazing tennis filled with tense moments. Though I am great fan of Roger Federer and love his game I had a strong intuition of Nadal winning the finals today. There are couple of reasons for this: one Nadal has been in great form on grass court. He has improved his grass performance a lot and also came in very close last year to win the championship. Though Nadal lacks the ability to hit aces at will like Roger Federer on grass he makes it up by his speeed and agility on the court.

I hope to see another great game between these two next year on the Wimbledon center court.

For a Family Guy Fan

There's a good article from a Family Guy fan on CNN today.

Check it out here