Up in flames

It was just another day at office and I was on the worst part of my day 'Traveling in my office bus back home'. Its a real torture traveling in Indian roads in the evenings, where the traffic is at peak and the climate being no less mean ..phew!! hot n sultry.

This day, it was a particularly long travel. The travel seemed to be smooth until Ottery. There was an intermittent rain here n there. Our bus has to take a big diversion these days, thanks to the never-ending Perambur fly-over construction. We have to go through the Vyasarpadi Jeeva junction and get back into Perambur. The under-bridge (if u can call it so, the one that goes below a railway track) usually messes up traffic. It's always a lot crowded there. But today the buses were really inching their way towards the Vyasarpadi area. There were huge crowds everywhere, lot of traffic diversions and people in khaki were in action too. We had no clue as whats happening, and we thought it was just another traffic jam of some kind. It took around 20-30 mins to cover a half a km stretch. Only when the bus neared the slum area we could sense the smell of smoke. A little further down the road, I was really shocked to see what I was really seeing. What had been a huge slum area with so many huts and small houses, was now literally a piece of land covered in black ash and thick smoke. It was a horrible sight for anyone to see their belongings going up in smoke. It must have been very difficult to those people. Almost all of them have been rendered homeless. To make it worse, it started raining again and people had nowhere to go. There were a lot of babies crying their hearts out, kids clinging onto  their moms and women desperately searching for their husbands and most of the people around with the local police trying to help each other.

I was just sitting in the bus not knowing what to do, and with an even worse feeling that afterall I can't do anything. At times I feel that God might have been a little rude. If everything happens for good, what good can this incident lead to? Only time can answer. I consoled myself saying that everything happens for a reason. And back home, I googled about the incident next day and found that nearly 40 huts had been gutted and around Rs 2 lakhs worth property has been destroyed. But, luckily there has been no casualities.
Seems like the fire broke out around 1.30 pm in Kalyanapuram near Vyasarpadi police station and soon engulfed about 40 hutments in the area. Seven fire engines from nearby stations were deployed immediately and the damage has been reduced to the least. But the people who saw it had a different story to tell. They complained that the fire engines took 45 minutes to arrive. By that time, everything was reduced to ashes. And as always, the police denied the charges. God only knows what happened.

As the old cliché goes, prevention is better than cure. The Government shoud start taking serious steps to avoid similar incidents. Am not sure whether the

[caption id="attachment_386" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Firemen trying to douse the fire"][/caption]

entire slum was a legal one, with proper precautions taken. I have heard of people renting the concrete houses provided for them by the Government and preferring to stay back in the slums. A task force has to be created to make sure that all people stay in their rightful homes.
There was a similar incident in Vysarpadi around 6 years back. People never learn from their mistakes :(
This time it was just a damage to properties which can be recovered, but what if its gonna be loss of lives next time! Food for some thought!

Foto Tag

No one has tagged me so far! So am gonna surutify a tag from one of my fellow bloggers
This one was interesting. The Flickr photo tag!

Here goes the rules

1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into FlickrSearch.
2. Using only the first page, pick an image.
3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.



1. What is your first name?
Ram Mohan

2. What is your favorite food? Right now?
Idly

3. What high school did you go to?
Montford Matric

4. What is your favorite color?
Black

5. Who is/was your celebrity crush?
Simran ;)

6. Favorite drink?
coffee

7. Dream vacation?
Australia

8. Favorite dessert?
Basundhi :P

9. What do you want to be when you grow up?
A media personality 8)

10. What do you love most in life?
Family

11. One Word to describe you.
Nallavan :D

12. Your flickr name.
Sankris Ram

Btw, I found a definition for Basundhi - Sweet fig in cardamom milk 8)

Photo Credits:


1. Ram Mohan Roy, 2. Idly_sambar_vada, 3. Rochester Cathedral HDR x5, 4. Solitude : Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self., 5. Simran, 6. Cookie splash! v6, 7. 'So what are you doing this Australia Day ?' Eyre Peninsula South Australia, 8. Sweet figs in cardamom milk!, 9. ABC coverage, 10. The Finger Family, 11. Nee Nallavanukku Nallavan, 12. Winter Ram

Time to fantasize

The IPL II comes to an exciting end today. It being a Sunday of underdogs in South Africa, with two retired war horses in Gilly and Jumbo leading their pack to the finals. No one would have expected them to pull this off given they were the wooden spoon holders last time around finishing 8^th and 7^th respectively.

One of the best things about this season’s IPL has been the Fantasy cricket, I have been playing throughout. It was really exciting to take a manager/captain’s role and pick the best 11 for your fantasy team.

So as a finishing touch, here is my hand-picked fantasy team with the best in this season so far.

[caption id="attachment_316" align="aligncenter" width="382" caption="Ram's 11 - My Fantasy team"][/caption]

Icon player [1]

It was a tough choice. Other contenders were Sachin and Dravid, but Yuvi has been good in parts with both bat and the ball, if not consistent. He has scored 346 runs and picked 6 wickets including double whammy of hat-tricks. His bowling and powerful hitting made him edge over Sachin. Dravid has been sort of in and out of the team, so he had an unsettled look. Sorry Viru, VVS and Saurav, better luck next time. But one small change, the icon player doesn't get to be my captain.

Foreign players [4]

Orange capped Haydos and his good old team mate Gilly were automatic choices. Mr. Priest, the walker gets to be my captain for his ability to lead from the front. Bowling slot was sweeped by Malinga given his consistent performance thru out the series. I couldn’t make a quick decision reg the 4^th slot. Should it be a bowler or a batsman? If a batsman then, ABD or Dilshan or Duminy. Else Nannes / Abdulla / Murali. I would love to have Abdulla in my team. This guy was amazing picking 14 wickets in 9 matches. He was unlucky to have Lee back in the side and he automatically fell out of favour. But inorder to maintain a balance, I have to go with a batsmen. And it’s the first centurion of this season ABD.

Indian under-22 [2]

Blore’s Kohli, Chennai’s Tyagi, Deccan’s Rohit n Suman, Delhi’s Sangwan, Punjab’s Sohal n Chawla, Kolkata’s Ishant, Mumbai’s Abishek, Rajasthan’s Kamran Khan n Jadeja have been really impressive and outstanding. I was really happy to see these kids perform well in the big stage, after all, IPL is all about identifying new talents like these. Now coming back to my pick, Rohit Sharma goes straight through. He has even been named the ‘Citi under-23 success of the tournament’. He rightfully deserves it. 2^nd slot was a tough fight between Ishant, Sangwan and Chawla. Sangwan gets picked for his wicket taking ability (He is 8^th in the top 10 wicket takers of this tourney) He bowls good left-arm medium-pace like his idol Wasim Akram.

Indian over-22 [4]

Purple cap holder RP Singh, the underdog and revelation of this season Ashish Nehra (I never expected him to be this successful) and namma Chennai’s very own super king Raina pick themselves up. The only remaining slot had the Pathan brothers from Baroda in a tussle. But, Yusuf lost it to his younger brother Irfan for his exceptional all-round abilities picking 17 wickets at an avg of 22.94 and scoring 196 runs @ a strike rate of 124.05.

All said and done, if there were no restrictions like Icon/Under-22/4 Foreigners etc., then the one below would have been my dream team.. Looks sexy na :)

[caption id="attachment_321" align="aligncenter" width="260" caption="My dream team"][/caption]

Let the games begin

I've lost track of days.. I don realise time flying by around me.. Days go on faster than nights.. I know wt u r thinking rite nw. No no! am not in love, but the Cricket carnival is back with a louder BANG!!

As sad as I am that it isn't played in India this time, am as happy tht it gets to be played at all. SA - the land of Goldmines, natural beauty, wildlife n all the action - gets to set the stage this time around. Hoping to have a cracker of a season. My favorites, namma Chennai Super Kings look better this time around with Haydos available for the whole tourney, the Million dollar baby Andrew, the captain himself on a roll after successfully touring with the Indian team around the world.

The 2008 finalists Super Kings n Raj Royals might start as favourites but I will hold the cards close to my chest. Look out for the Daredevils, MI and a rejuvenated Chargers and Knight Riders. I can't place the Royal Challengers anywhr. But somehw I feel Raj Royals n Punjab r gonna b a let down.
We r already a few days into it.. n there ve been few positives n negatives picked so far

+

• The carnival, big party and the opening ceremony


• English in IPL this time.. we ll get to see wt the kevins and Andrews get to do.


• No more Indians-led-pack. Last time it was all abt Indian war horses, young n old, leading the teams (with the exception of Warny). But this time common sense seems to prevail, with proper captains leading the pack (tho am nt sure if McCullum is better than Dada)


• All the Bollywood glam dolls being part of the franchises. Last time it was only Preity, this time we ve Shilpa, Juhi n Katrina joining her.


• N of course all those Cheer leaders. They really keep the game going :)

-

• ARUN LAL - no offense meant. but its getting really tired to hear him day in n day out during each break.


• One suggestion: Pack Arunlal off to Africa (so that we get to c him very less) n bring Mandira back on studios. I really miss the deadly combo of Charu n Mandira. Not that Mandira is anywhr near 'hot n happening', she looks overdone n old. But anyday she is better than few mokkai mannars. Not to mention the first day when I was really pissed off watching 2 Lal's (Arun n Lal chand rajput) discussing the 1st day's game.. I was like wt the hell!! the perfect way not to start the big games. Btw, all these with due respect to his contribution to cricket. It wud ve been better if he had only stopped thr.


• Big things come with controversies. All those things abt multi-captaincy, Pak players being withdrawn, few aussie players pulling out. Many turned out to be dampeners.


• The strategic time breaks, introduced to reduce the time taken for an innings, as the big-heads feel that more time is wasted to discuss strategies during a match. Tho i feel, this has not helped much, only benefit being to the organizers who ve found more time to sneak in their ads.


• CSK has started on a losing note. They ve lost 2 of thr 3 games!! :( Tho they had fought well, its really sore to be on the losing side. Hoping for brighter days ahead. So Goooo on CSK.. We r always behind u :)

And don miss my fellow IPL blogger Mr. Fake IPL Player, he deftly seems to pack a punch ;)

News and Views

City auto drivers to get lessons in spoken English

This is to showcase Chennai as as tourist-friendly city.

Do they fail to realise what is making autos non-user friendly. First we gotto give them lessons on proper usage of the meter and how to be fair in charging the customers. Even I have been a victim more than once, I was charged Rs.120 for a travel to Teacher's colony in Kolathur (thts less than 7 kms from Perambur). The biggest kodumai is that, they are not even ashamed to demand such illegal (yes, its illegal) prices.
But another news seem to suggest that 43,000 cases have been booked against autos in last 3 months! Really!?!?? o_O

Smoking by mother is the biggest baby killer

Maternal smoking has replaced sleeping on stomach as the biggest factor for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

This may not be that applicable to Indian moms.. but there shud be an awareness about passive smoking. Smoking alone doesn't kill, even being in the company of a smoker, kills. So all moms out there, stay away from ur 'smoking' hubbies.
I just wanna abolish the cigarattes from this world once n for all. Jus like that .. with the press of a 'Shift+Del' :(

Jaya may get into high-flyers club

AIADMK supremo JJ is reportedly planning to take to the skies on chartered aircraft for campaigns.

Ya.. recession has hit the nation hard. But i suppose it has not for this Re 1 salaried ex-CM of TN. Omg! Me and my big mouth!

Eating choc helps improving maths skills

Now some interesting news. People were found to be doing calculations more quickly and more accurately after they had been given a chocolate drink.

It would have been better had I known this during my school/college days. But, I needn't worry, as a wiproite we never run out of tests and assessments.
But that said, i wonder that if all these were true.. I should 've already been a mini Ramanujam :D

Genetic superkid, 3, moves furniture

This is a superboy who can move furniture at the age of 3.

No he isn't been bitten by a genetically modified spider. This  Michigan kid likely has a condition called myostatin-realted muscle hypertrophy, which means his body has very little fat and enlarged muscle fibres.
So, do we have a real-super hero after all these years!? :)

Made in India, to be sold in South Africa

IPL in SA could take the game to a new level. When SA was playing Aus in the T20 game recently, there were a lot of Indian flags flying around and messages welcoming IPL home.  Its quite evident that SA is getting ready to welcome this unique Indian innovation to their shore.

Ya.. who would  say NO to the Big Money Making Machine. The only few disappointed would be those fans who would have loved to watch these matches live in their home towns. But, its always better that its being played somewhere than not being played at all.

Courtesy: TOI for the news