Inflation dips to 8.98%

Wow, what a good news it is to see inflation back into single digits. We can now hope RBI to cut interest rates further and ease the cash flow by cutting down CRR. Hopefully this should ease the liquidity concerns India is facing at the moment. IMO any measure taken now will require atleast one or two months to show any effect. So it is better our government acts swiftly and decides on PLR and CRR numbers before businesses across the country have to deal with irreparable damage. Anyways in this connection I have added a poll on when you people think our economy will be back on track. You have one week time to vote. I am interested in seeing the results as this will reflect the sentiments of Indians. 

Are we "Indians" the real communists?

I have been to China(Shanghai) recently and was eagerly waiting to see how different the world ruled by communists would be? To my surprise, the communists in China appeared much more capitalists than any country except for may be USA. Seriously, may be India is the only country which still follows communism in the disguise of democracy. It was surprising to know how easy it is in China to set up a business or get your work done with government officials inspite of it being a communist ruled country. Even they have changed, modified communism according to modern needs and may be that is the secret of their huge success. But alas!! we Indians still fail to come out of Nehruism (Communism in the guise of Democracy :) ) which never helped us in become world power!! One has to be in China to see its development. Aha, what roads, buildings, airports in word the infrastructure over there is mind blowing. May be its time India needs to change its ways if we have to have any chance to be a super power along with China and USA 20 years from now. 

Sports updates - of Mumbai Indians, French open, test series in England and west Indies and the memorial tournament in golf

Quite a few sports to follow last week and this week. We had a very close finish to Mumbai Indians Vs Rajasthan Royals match and poor Mumbai can't help but sympathize with me. They have come tantalizingly close to clinching the semifinals spot in the last three matches against Punjab, Delhi and Rajasthan. Well, that is what makes cricket such a great spectacle. Anyways, now the fortunes of Sachin's sena depends on the outcome of Chennai Vs Deccan chargers matches. Hopefully Deccan chargers will come out strong today and give Mumbai one more richly deserved chance. Mumbai has to take care of Bangalore though. Go Deccan chargers, Go Sachin!!

In the test between West Indies and Australia, WI surrendered meekly!! Very disappointing as they had a real good chance to go 1 up in the series. Stuart Clarke continue to take wickets and Australia juggernaut never seems to stop except for a brief period whenever they play India :) . Chasing 292, barring some courageous resistance from Ramdin and Sammy WI never seemed to be in the match. Giving Australia the lead is as good as losing the test series.

There is another test match going in England between NZ and the home country. Leaving the result aside the two left arm spinners seemed to have gained the most. They shared 13 wickets (Vettori and Panesar) among themselves out of 34 that fell. Panesar is the man of the match for his brilliant 6/37 which has helped England go 1 up in the 3 match series.

In golf, the memorial tournament is going to start this Thursday. Tiger Woods is not playing it and we have to see who will win it. K.J.Choi is the defending champion.

French open has also started and hasn't gained much momentum as it is only into the second round. I am sure you are all going to see a lot more posts and updates on this as the week progresses.

Jannath and Chronicles of Narnia (prince Caspian) are strongly recommended

Watched both these movies this weekend and throughly enjoyed them. Especially Jannath, one of the very few Hindi movies I liked (released in the last 3 to 4 years). It is a typical Mahesh Bhatt movie but with match fixing background. It is a beautiful love story and would have been a hit with any background. It is about how a man in search of giving all the happiness in this world to his girl friend employs illegal means of making money and finally is caught in a web which he never intended to and can't coming out of it. The climax also is well shot which is the most difficult part of any movie.

Chronicles of Narnia delivers big time inspite of its pre release hype. It is about how prince Caspian regains his thrown from his evil uncle with the help of Narnians and gifts it back to them. He continues to be the king though. The war episodes are executed impeccably though it seems pale and childish in comparison to the Lord of the rings trilogy. I enjoyed the movie thoroughly with not even a single boring moment. Strongly recommended for all the english movie buffs. And, it is not necessary to watch the first part to understand the second. Go and watch it

Go Deccan Chargers!!

Well, the passion will not die till the team has absolutely zero chance to make it to the semifinals. I am still hoping that the chargers will fire and win all the 5 matches so that they will be in the semifinals. Ok, let us take it one by one. We are playing Delhi today and it is one of the weakest batting line ups in IPL. Hopefully our bowlers will encash on the bad form of Sehwag and poor batting line up of Delhi Daredevils to register their third win in the competetion. Go chargers, Go gilly!!!

Shame shame Aamir!!!

It is well know to everyone by now that Aamir's pet dog's name is Shahrukh. What a loser you are Aamir, if you can't take the competetion get lost. This is absolutely demeaning to name a dog Shahrukh and above all mention it in the blog. May be the dog is his caretaker's, may be it was named Shahrukh even before he bought his Panchgani house, may be it could be anything. But mentioning the same and referring Shahrukh licking feet and all is such a shame on Aamir. Get lost man, you have seriously degraded yourself in everyone's eyes. Shame Shame Aamir!!!

IPL updates

As expected it was a low scoring affair and congratulations to Kolkata who scored a much needed win to consolidate their position at No.4.

Amit Misra surprisingly looks like a very competent batsman. He was very good yesterday and he bowled well too. 3 to 4 years ago he was considered as Kumble's replacement but he lost the plot somewhere down the line. Thanks to IPL, he is back in the reckoning competing with Piyush Chawla (who has been outstanding through out the tournament) for a place in the Indian squad.

It is Mumbai Vs Chennai today and the whole world will be looking on how Sachin responds to 20-20 challenege. Go Sachin!!! It will be a treat to watch Sachin and Jayasuriya open togather. A nice article on his return

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1164273

ICC wants to save Tests from Twenty20 lure!!!!

It is so infuriating to read something like this!!! What is ICC thinking? Do they just want to preserve the tradition or also make the game popular? Isn't it pathetic that an extremely interesting game like cricket is not even played in 10% of the world nations? The major reason is the lack of innovation in the game over the years. T20 has done something to attract world's attention and these bunch of losers (ICC) want to spoil that. ICC needs to be clear on their agenda, whether to preserve cricket or make it popular. They can't play double games with the paying public. Come on ICC, wake up!!!! What are you upto?

Can Deccan Chargers do it?

It is almost a do or die match for Deccan Chargers today. Royal Challengers is one of the easiest teams to beat and I hope Chargers do record their second win today. I don't call it a do or die match, but a loss here means our chance to get into semifinals would seriously take a dent. Nothing can be predicted in IPL till each team play atleast 7 matches. A win here for Deccan chargers means they will be tied with Knight Riders with 4 points each and just a win or two away from the fourth spot. Go DC. Make us proud.

Parugu is no good!!

Well, I haven't watched the movie but for sure going by the reviews it looks like the movie has bombed. I have posted an article on Sheila's fate lying in the hands of this film a week ago and looks like with this result she has to head towards Kollywood forever.

There are quite a few rumours going on at the moment about this film. A section of crowd feels that Chiranjeevi has asked to direct this movie deliberately so that the crowd can empathize with him for all that he has undergone during his daughters fiasco. And then there is another section who feel that the movie was directed for doom so that Ram Charan Teja can be higlighted in the course. As of me I think they are just rumours and nothing to be seriously taken about.

Can Sheila win with Parugu

Sheila is a beautiful and talented tamil actress. In my opinion not many actresses today can match her in terms of acting. For some reason she never got a start in telugu industry justifying her talent though she acted in movies like Raju bhai, hello premincu, sitakokachiluka etc. Dil Raju who co produced hello preminchu along with Puri Jagaanath was so impressed with Sheila that he signed her as his hero in in the movie parugu. Hope the good luck of Allu Arjun will rub off to Sheila. An actress with substance is the need of the hour in telugu industry. All the best Sheila

Will the uppal stadium ever be completed?

I have been to Deccan chargers Vs Dare devils match the other day and to my surprise the Uppal stadium is still not completed!! Mr.Shivlal Yadav, nothing to be proud about the 6 flood lights you were talking about the other day in the media. First complete the stadium!! Pathetic administration. I think the stadium has run into problems over the name when Mr.Y.S.Rajasekhara Reddy has proposed Rajiv gandhi's name to it. Actually the stadium was supposed to name after its promoters, but the givernment intervened and promised to refund the money to the promoters to change the name which I guess never happened and the stadium is stalled. Whatever it might be, it just highlights the pathetic state of affairs with HCA.

Is China on the down?

The topics most discussed about these days among business circles are, American recession, shift in economic power to China and India. Many have predicted that China would be 1.3 times of American economy by 2050 (though this alone shouldn't make it economically stronger than USA!) but the country truly seems to be on the down in terms of economic progress. Chinese government has stopped supporting their industries and left them on their own as many of the capilistic countries do, and the worst policy that is going to effect Chinese industries are that government has decided to allow their currency to apreciate and are not controling it. This is making their products more expensive and already industries started moving out of China. China's real challenge lies in sustaining their economy after the olympics when the demand for all the goods would come down drastically.

Cracker of a start to IPL

What a great start it was to IPL? Brendon Mccullum probably played the best he could ever!! What an innings. I feel sorry for Royal Challengers who had to take this pasting on the opening day of IPL on their home ground! Anyways, it has provided a royal start to what could be the greatest carnival in the world over the next decade. Go cricket, go IPL!!!

Earlier Vijay Mallya along with BCCI has ensured that the opening ceremony would be one spectacular affair that will be remembered for a long time. The tournament can only improve from here.

Chiranjeevi ki bhajana cheyyala?

Aa prasna adigindi evaro kaadu, okappudu telugu tera pai eduruleni nati ga nilichina vijayasanthi!! NTV ki ichina oka interview lo, Chiru party pai abhipraayam adiginappudu Vijayasanthi ichina pogaru samaadhaanam adhi. Amma Santhi, Chiranjeevi gurinchi ane mundu, janaalu neeku enduku bhajan cheyyalo cheppuntey baagundedi. Asalu Andhra raasthranikey chendani neeku janaalu enduku paggalu pattalo alochistey sababu ga untundemo! Why should people vote for you? Nee sontha prayojanaalakosam Andhra raashtranni vidadeeyalanukovadam siggu chetu. Adi mundu thelusuko. Telangana biddalu Chiru ki enduku vote vestaaru ani adigaavu choodu, asalu telugu daanive kaani neeku Andhra prajalu enduku neerajalu palakaali? Neeku unna gowravanni, BJP cheti lo cheppu debbalu thini pogottukunnavu, aa koncham migilinadaanni unchukuni telugu prajalu ninnu tarimi kottakamundey nee raashtraniki velthey baavuntundemo.