Iceman’s Realm

February 24, 2009

I’m back!

Filed under: Say what? — Iceman @ 2:49 pm

It feels good to be back and blog again on my space here but first of all, pardon me for the short hiatus. Priorities are changing day by day and it’s an arduous task to update all the blogs. Regarding my short hiatus, there is probably only one reason why I stayed away from here. There’s nothing disheartening than losing your blog’s page rank all of a sudden, is there? Of course, no. Having spent about $35 on your blog, then writing plenty of articles on it and ultimately, you find your page rank reduced from 3 to 0 - you will feel despondent to even have another look at your blog, won’t you? Certainly! I didn’t even feel like updating this space again but a couple of days back I became deliriously happy. Reason? Well, I got my page rank back! My joy knew no bounds and I jumped for joy for quite some time.

That revived me and the very next moment, I decided to update my blog. Now that I have got my page rank back, hopefully I’m planning to update this space often. Sure thing, you can probably expect more entries from me in the coming months.

February 21, 2009

P.G. Wodehouse

Filed under: Novels — Tags: , , , , — Iceman @ 5:15 pm

‘What ho’ is the first thing that I would probably say  when I think of this prolific writer and his fantastic comical novels. Tell you what,  as a  matter of fact no writer has ever given me so much delectation in my life. Having read only just some of his  stuffs, I have already become an ardent fan of this great writer and I have now realized that no author can/will write like him. What I would like to tell you about his works is that out of his umpteen novels or novellas if you can call it, only a handful of them might be a little deadening, however most of them, I mean the remaining ones, are amusing and when I say ‘amusing’, I mean ‘amusing to the core’. For those who like to while away time reading some rib-tickling novels, if rib-tickling is the word I want, I would recommend P.G. Wodehouse for you.

Subtle humor is what his books are all about and I assure  you that he will never disappoint you. Jeeves & Wooster, PSmith, and Blandings castle are some of his renowned series and though it isn’t easy to pick up a Wodehouse novel, I will list some famous ones from what I have read so far. Here they are - ‘Right ho, Jeeves’, ‘Pigs have wings’, ‘The small bachelor’, ‘Stiff upper lip, Jeeves’, ‘Very good, Jeeves’, ‘Joy in the morning’, ‘Ring for Jeeves’ and some others which I don’t quite remember.

On a happy note, PG Wodehouse  has been admired both by contemporaries and by modern writers like Douglas Adams, Salman Rushdie, Terry Pratchet, et al. Also, Indian writer Shashi Taroor, who criticized R.K. Narayan quite badly on his online website, has admitted that Wodehouse is a splendid writer. This remarkable feat is something not many can achieve in their writing career. Quite amusing, this P.G. Wodehouse and he is simply great. Unquestionably, no author can emulate him.

February 15, 2009

Mumbai Indians

Filed under: Cricket — Iceman @ 3:04 am

The unavailability of Sachin Tendulkar for quite some time proved disastrous for the Mumbai Indians. It was a different team when he led the team - it won many matches on the trot. Though they came back strongly, an unfortunate defeat denied them a chance to play in the semi-finals. That shattered the Mumbai Indians’ dream quite badly. But things are looking good for them this time. Reason? Well, they have a balanced side with South African JP Duminy and Sri Lankan Lasith Malinga in their team and they can prove to be more than handy in this shortened format of the game. Came 5th in the first IPL season but I’m sure they will reach a better position in the second season.

February 14, 2009

Knight Riders

Filed under: Cricket — Iceman @ 3:57 am

Although Kolkotta Kight Riders (KKR) kicked off the tournament on a winning note, they couldn’t get things going after that. McCullum was available for only the first four matches and with the unavailability of Gayle throughout the tournament, KKR had to manage with Ricky Ponting and David Hussey. That hampered the progress of the team quite badly last time. Now this time around, it isn’t looking good either. With the team toying with the possibility of having multiple captains, it is quite clesr that the mood in the camp is not that upbeat. Apart from that, things are okay. With Brendom McCullum avaliable throughout the tournament, the team should play well this time around. Let’s wait and watch.

February 13, 2009

Royal Challengers

Filed under: Cricket — Iceman @ 2:37 am

Didn’t expect Royal Challengers (Bangalore) to fare this badly either. The worries started right from the first game of the tournament when KKR went in to bat and put up a mammoth total on the scoreboard. To their chagrin they were even bowled out for less tha ninety runs and the game was played on their home turf. Losing is okay but if it is by a very big margin, it is but pathetic. Meanwhile, with the inclusion of players like Rahul Dravid and Wasim Jaffer, they were also tagged the Test match team. But ironically, it was captain Rahul Dravid who scored the most number of runs for the Royal Challengers. With Rahul Dravid forced to relenquish the captaincy to Kevin Pietersen, hopefully we can expect some changes in their fortunes.

February 12, 2009

Deccan Chargers

Filed under: Cricket — Iceman @ 2:16 am

With Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds, Herschelle Gibbs, and a couple of others who would have thought The Decan Chargers (Hydrebad) would end being one of the beleaguered teams in the first season of Indian Premier League? Even with Shahid Adridi in the playing eleven, the team couldn’t turn things around them. Everyone including the captain played VVS Laxman didn’t play sensible cricket and that made them put up a dismal show in the tournament and it was Rohit Sharma who saved the grace on quite a number of occasions but that wasn’t enough at all. Ultimately, they ended up being the last among the lot. Sadly, they don’t have any big names in this season and with Andrew Symonds on national duty, it is worries galore for the Deccan Chargers. Let’s hope they play sensible cricket at least this time around.

February 10, 2009

Mangalore pub incident

Filed under: Say what? — Tags: , — Iceman @ 10:23 am

Activists of the Sri Ram Sena went on a rampage, barged in, vandalized the tavern, and attacked people especially women who were there in the pub last Saturday. Reason? Some undesirable activity, they allege, was taking place in the pub. Well, who asked them to visit the pub in the first place? As a matter of fact, having a drink and dancing at pubs or elsewhere are perfectly legal activities in India. Our country is a free nation and aren’t people entitled to do whatever that pleases them? According to the thugs, it is perfectly all right to storm into a pub, beat up men and women, verbally abuse them, chase them out of the vicinity and finally vandalize the pub. If they felt those undesirable  activities (which in fact, aren’t undesirable activities at all) were against the Indian tradition, didn’t it strike their mind  that beating up women is also completely against the Indian tradition and values? How can they talk about Indian tradition and values, when they themselves don’t know what it is exactly? Activists from these fringe outfits do all these condemnable acts in the name of God. How ridiculous!

They thought it would be a prudent thing to intervene and gain popularity but it has only ended up in a rather embarrassing situation where it has exposed the president of the fringe outfit with a fair number of charges against his name.  Perfect example of someone adding insult to injury. Sad to know that it has only earned them lousy popularity after all their earnest endeavours to oppose western culture in India. Sri Ram Sena, in news for all the wrong reasons.

February 6, 2009

Satyam debacle

Filed under: Say what? — Tags: , , , , — Iceman @ 11:21 am

The Satyam scam is condemnable and utterly miserable. With the new year unfolding, people would always expect something good to happen but the year greeted the employees working with Satyam computers  on a grim note. Of course, this was something disastrous for them when they news about the fraud came out. They expressed shock about this unbelievable news and the next day, as expected, the newspapers were replete with this debacle.  The Satyam Computers Services Limited (SCSL) Chief Ramalingam Raju is  primarily responsible for the ‘out of the blue’ debacle. The fact that the accounts of the company were automatically fudged is something not easy to believe. The auditors, however, are also equally responsible for the company’s fiasco. It is very disheartening to know that the 53, 000 employees, the investors, and also the professionals who are yet to join the company are the ultimate sufferers. It also created a panic situation in which the employees started becoming ambivalent about what to do next. With the news out - employees started sending their CVs to job portals, which almost flooded in less than 24 hours after the news broke out. With the IT industry getting murkier, this fiasco is another headache. Quite an unfortunate story this, Satyam fiasco. No doubt, this incident is a blot on the country’s image.

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