Blogthisway!

Want to blog but don't know where to begin? Of course, there is a bewildering array of jargon that you will encounter on the way to establishing your own corner on the web, but here's a link that will tell what the Ten Commandments (?!!) of blogging are. Instapundit, a blogging sage pointed me there. Incidentally, it was India Uncut, who pointed me to Instapundit in the first place! So if you have the time, just check his blog out as well, it's cooo.

Needless to say, I will be tinkering with the templates of cosmicdebris now. There's a fair bit for slightly advanced bloggers as well.

Breathless Godard

A lot of you who love cinema would have heard of Jean-Luc Godard. About 4 years back I too was taken up by the magic in his groundbreaking film A Bout de Souffle (or Breathless). Since then, I've just caught one other film of his (don't know the name), and I can't say I understood much of what I saw. Still, Godard remains a gem to me, much like the filmmakers of the 1960s.

The reason I bring this up, is that Godard recently gave a rare interview, in which he says Cinema is over. I believe that as well - the 21st century is more about technology and interactive entertainment than the good old 2-D world of celluloid (and well, digital cameras) that we're used to.

Placeholder

I've been drinking a lot of water these days. But that apart, nothing seems to have changed much. Yes I don't feel like writing much, but that's just a phase like any other. I've also been travelling a fair bit, and tonight me and the other inhabitants of z 22 head off to the hills of Uttaranchal to find some peace and quiet.
Full update when I get back.

Discovering Delhi II

India and Pakistan are still slugging it out on the cricket field, but I'm back in Delhi. Took three days off before getting back onto the desk, but there was no R & R for me. Rest Day 1 saw me and flatmate bike down to Gurgaon amidst chaotic Delhi traffic on some of the best roads I've been on. On Rest Day 2 I trekked all across Connaught Place till heavy breathing interfered with my general feeling of well-being. And yesterday, me and another flatmate went off on another of those Discover Delhi jaunts. We loped along to the Safdarjung Tomb, and spent a couple of hours walking in Lodhi Gardens. It was pleasant enough although we did stumble over the odd couple making out here and there.

The more I think of leaving Delhi, the more reasons I find to stick around!

Simple, sublime.

Indian philosophy decrees that one can achieve Moksha, or salvation through 4 ways: Bhakti Yoga (through devotion), Raja Yoga (through control of the body), Gnana Yoga (through knowledge) and Karma Yoga (through perfection in the workplace). Watching Sachin Tendulkar bat, you can't help the feeling that he's already qualified for a business class ticket to heaven in the Karma Yoga quota. If he so desires, that is.

Yes, he missed out on a world-record 35th test century, and fell 27 runs short of reaching the 10,000 run mark in the first Indo-Pak test in Mohali. But his 94 was as impressive a knock I've seen from his blade.

It's been well established by now that though Sachin doesn't carve up bowling sides like he used to, he still accumulates runs as effectively as ever before. The last year-and-a-half may have seen the unveiling of the New Sachin, but it's something that hasn't yet been absorbed by the public. Sachin in Mohali started off pugnaciously, but his run collecting soon dwindled into just poaching the occassional ones and twos. And it was while he was dot-balling deliveries after deliveries that I thought about the salvation bit. His run making isn't austere, but he looks every bit a saint these days, calmly piling up runs after assessing the situation.

It's deeply satisfying to watch him in this phase, just as it was thrilling to see him lay into the bowling during the bulk of his career.

Sachin Tendulkar

Dharamshala cricket

Exactly a year after I came to Dharamshala for the very first time to cover cricket, I've been sent back - for the same reason.
Only this time, the general hysteria has gotten even louder - Pakistan begin their tour of India in this little known hill station/HQ of the Dalai Lama. And though the rain gods haven't been kind so far, the people here will get to see their sometimes hated (and sometimes loved) neighbours from beyond the mountatins in action for some time atleast.

As for me, I'm not exactly the most gruntled person around for two reasons:

1. Covering cricket for a tv channel has got to be the only job in the world that looks as cool as it is bad. You work all day and pester the cricketers for that all important soundbite. And at the end of the day, you feel lousy about the whole deal.

2. What am I doing covering cricket in Dharamshala when I can go to the Tibetean temple, trek through the Dauladhar mountains and generally have a good time?

I'm going to close my eyes and do this on autopilot. The job doesn't need brains anyway!

Discovering Delhi

I've been going off on jaunts along the history-infested bylanes of Delhi with my flatmates. (It's been two years and the only places I've seen here is the Red Fort, Jantar Mantar and Chandni Chowk). Here's what we did last week:

National Rail Museum - it's places like these that really tell you what India could have been like in the 1930's or early 1900's. There's cutlery dating from 75 years back, sofas upholstered in the old style and even the commodes are revelation! There's also a fair bit of information on how the Indian rail network came to be. And of course, there are the trains. India's first steam engine, last steam engine, and personal coaches belonging to various Rajahs. All immaculately preserved - which in India means - lots of dust, cobwebs, rats, a few pepsi cans and some discarded chocolate wrappers.
The toy train was worth it too...

Great Indian Rock - okay this isn't exactly history, and it was more like the Great Indian Ruckus. Most of the bands were either trying to sound like Metallica, Obituary or Limp Bizkit in their own compostions or playing covers. The good bits were John Myung of Dream Theater fame playing his bass and the Norwegian band 'WE' with their heavy grinding groove and a frontman who spoke in heavily accented English.

Mughal Gardens - a part of the Rashtrapathi Bhavan, this garden is only open to the public in February and March every year. It was a fairly instructive experience. I actually got to see these actually look like - Damask Rose, Pansy, Daisy, Lily, and Lemon Grass. Found out that the very English sounding herb Basil is actually Tulsi and got to take home a Brahmi plant.

For this week, the plan is to visit Humayun's Tomb, Coronation Park and would you believe it, the Delhi Zoo. Let's see how long we can keep this up.

TESTING

Just trying some template changes...pray this works.

Chow chow baat

Just like criminalenglish, I've been throwing my all into cooking (including the kitchen sink). But in my case, this new found affliction is just a month old. I've tried my hand at rasam (moderately successful), chapatis (modestly successful), rice and dal. And I've managed not to poison anyone so far.

My last off-day (Friday) saw me measure distances in Connaught Place the kunda way. From KG Marg to M block is just one bag of popcorn away. M block to A block takes one vanilla ice cream cup. McDonalds is just one Chocolate truffle pastry away. And munching on a small bag of french fries takes you all the way to the auto stand.

By a curious coincidence, today's the day I start jogging.

'Owning' a breaking story

Senior journalists, who've covered just about everything, are often prone to having sudden flashbacks. Whenever that glazed look comes over their eyes, you can almost see that anecdote coming to life..

And in the course of such reminiscences, some of them talk about 'breaking stories'. Atleast twice in my short career, I've been waylaid by some boss who told me the importance of 'owning' a story. That is, you break it first, and then pull out all stops to ensure every aspect of that issue has been brought out. And of course, it has to be a story your rival channel/newspaper hasn't bothered to highlight.

Today we had a chance to to do something like that - Narain Karthikeyan announced that we would finally be getting to drive a Formula one car this season. A colleague of mine had figured out that something like this was happening and we had our coverage plan ready, right down to hourly breakdown through the day.
But the system had to cock up - an overhead broadcasting van wasn't at the press conference when Narain announced the news, BECAUSE someone higher-up had decided the story wasn't worth it. And of course we missed it, only to see our rival channel splash it all across their channel.
After 24 hours of preparing backgrounders, stings and a whole production/broadcast plan - we'd been pipped to the post.

I was of course furious - we'd been beaten at our own game. We'd missed the chequered flag, were last to breast the tape and so on. But I don't suppose our audiences noticed anything...

Isn't there supposed to be a lesson somewhere in all this?