Saturday, June 27, 2009
Carnatic Jazz Fusion via Alto-Sax
This is a performance of a portion of the album 'Kinsmen' at U-Mass. The album's name is quite apt. The collaborators are Rudresh Mahanthappa, U.S born Jazz Musician, and Kadri Gopalnath, The carnatic exponent. This article in the New yorker reviews the album and mentions how these two wonderful musicians got together and realized their parents are both from Karnataka (my home state) in India. You can listen to this album here. You can follow the Dakshina (i.e., "South" in the Kannada language) Ensemble if you are interested. Rudresh has gone on further to work with Vijay Iyer, another acclaimed U.S born Jazz pianist, who in turn, is also part of the band 'Tirtha', along with personal favorite Prasanna (see link on the right side of this tab).
A vigorous discussion of fusion music in general, including more feedback on this album can be found here.
These may be the next generation of musicians who take Indian (and south Indian) music to the next level and enable it to reach an even wider audience. This blog post talks about Prasanna in this context.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
U.S Citizenship inteview - feedback
This is perhaps the only part of the immigration process, where things are actually made easy for you to succeed. The new 'history and civics' questionnaire format requires you answer 6 out 10 questions (these are all sitters, and strictly sampled from a bank of 100 that you can find online or in their booklet/CD). You then read and write a simple sentence in English. If everything goes ok, its a 5-minute process (thats it!). The process of document verification and other questions to ensure that you aren't a commie, criminal, or an extremist, you've paid your taxes, etc. takes about 10 minutes. Make sure you have your green card and driver's license for the state you reside in, to make life easy (else you have to provide other acceptable evidence of state-residency). Of course, if you are filing based on your spouse, additional documents that are required.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
The Jackals lend their voice
After the T20-WC debacle, it is time for the inevitable pattern of criticism of Team-India coach Gary Kirsten by unemployed ex- and fringe Indian cricket 'coaches', who lay in wait until the Indian cricket team fails, to do their usual rubbish post-event expert analysis. Nobody likes being kicked off the gravy train.
John Buchanan who coached the Kolkata team right out of the IPL is now going to 'help' England before the Ashes. I cant wait to see this one ...
The best useless cricket coaches make the best useless cricket commentators, and vice versa.
John Buchanan who coached the Kolkata team right out of the IPL is now going to 'help' England before the Ashes. I cant wait to see this one ...
The best useless cricket coaches make the best useless cricket commentators, and vice versa.
Monday, June 15, 2009
T20 world cup crash
India was on par with England after 19.4 overs. Harbhajan then bowled a 5-wider with yuvraj misfielding. In fact Harbhajan had two of those in an otherwise excellent spell. The match was probably lost there. A dubious selection - Ishant Sharma is an excellent test/ODI bowler who shouldnt be playing T20 cricket - hasnt done much in this format and should have been replaced by Nehra or I.Pathan.
Anyway, its been an overdose of T20 cricket - even ODIs look attractive now ...
Anyway, its been an overdose of T20 cricket - even ODIs look attractive now ...
Monday, June 8, 2009
English Cricket momentum
English Humor on cricinfo blogs is back after the t20 victory over Pak. Excerpts:
" ... Physicists among you will know that momentum is the product of mass and velocity. When Rob (Key) propelled himself along the Lord's outfield, those two ingredients were present in abundance. If England can recreate that moment and harness the momentum, they'll win every match for at least the next 10 years .."
Dadaism redefined -
Do people still believe in dada?
another funny sound-bite on tv from the t20wc is the 'yahoooooo' call from the stadium-DJ after every few overs. this event is sponsored by the internet company. And this sporting headline is mildly funny if u read between the lines:
"Boxers off to winning start at Asian Championships"
In the twitter era, headlines are all that's needed. the actual stuff that follows is not going to be read anymore. Finally, a huge thanks to t20wc commentators in England. After the IPL mass-regurgitation, they are under no pressure to do an encore here, and the focus is back on cricket, even if its just 40 overs.
" ... Physicists among you will know that momentum is the product of mass and velocity. When Rob (Key) propelled himself along the Lord's outfield, those two ingredients were present in abundance. If England can recreate that moment and harness the momentum, they'll win every match for at least the next 10 years .."
Dadaism redefined -
Do people still believe in dada?
another funny sound-bite on tv from the t20wc is the 'yahoooooo' call from the stadium-DJ after every few overs. this event is sponsored by the internet company. And this sporting headline is mildly funny if u read between the lines:
"Boxers off to winning start at Asian Championships"
In the twitter era, headlines are all that's needed. the actual stuff that follows is not going to be read anymore. Finally, a huge thanks to t20wc commentators in England. After the IPL mass-regurgitation, they are under no pressure to do an encore here, and the focus is back on cricket, even if its just 40 overs.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Wagah ...
It is obvious that the entire news media, cable or otherwise in the US has had absolutely no clue about South Asia, not now, not ever. Any immigrant to the US from that region will tell you that. 'Da Man' and sought-after de-facto expert on Af-Pak is Ahmed Rashid of Pakistan. His first book was written before 9/11 and gives you a great overview of the rise of the Taliban. His more recent 'Descent into Chaos' clearly identifies the original culprits - the policies of the late duo of Ronald Reagan and Zia-Ul-Haq. Most Americans are totally unaware of this - they live in a collective bubble out here.
Equally interesting are the stories of Pakistani patriots (as opposed to simply being anti-Indian) who believe in country and common-sense more than ideology. Dr. Hari-J's blog talks about Ms. Sabiha Sumar, and the video of her brief interview with tribal elders is quite revealing. She's also talked to Musharraf and some of that is on youtube. As the Pak government (i.e., ISI/military/ministers) wavers, its up to the common Pakistanis to reclaim Jinnah's more democratic vision.
Equally interesting are the stories of Pakistani patriots (as opposed to simply being anti-Indian) who believe in country and common-sense more than ideology. Dr. Hari-J's blog talks about Ms. Sabiha Sumar, and the video of her brief interview with tribal elders is quite revealing. She's also talked to Musharraf and some of that is on youtube. As the Pak government (i.e., ISI/military/ministers) wavers, its up to the common Pakistanis to reclaim Jinnah's more democratic vision.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
On Obama and the great common-sense experiment
Having followed Obama since 2003-04 (lived/worked in the Chicago area for many years), yesterday's speech in Cairo easily beats everything else in terms of striking a blow for common-sense. Whether it leads to any change in ground reality is a completely unrelated question, but this much can be said. He's probably the first international leader in a long time (and probably the first US president ever) to present such a balanced understanding of what goes on outside the US. The beauty of the speech was to cut thru the 'dual noise' and for most part, state the obvious - what is, and what isn't. So what is obvious and why is it so difficult to state? Let's ramble a bit about our Janus-faced coin first.
The obvious thing about a coin is its duality - it has two sides, and in many cases, you look at one side, it is also obvious what the other is. But the problem is that most people covet this metaphorical coin but choose to live on, or favor, one side or reject the other. We are somehow shocked when we make a dent on one side and it shows up on the other side. Nothing new - it is just a restating of the ancient concept of 'Vasudeva Kutumbam' in Hinduism, that oldest statement of duality (as broadly defined by this tab). Neither Palestine nor Israel can be safe unless they both are. Violent movements ultimately turn upon themselves. Tradition/Culture and Progress cannot move independent of each other for too long, nor should they bog each other down. Urban prosperity in India without improving our villages at some positive rate is bound to fail. People ultimately come together only if they have the freedom to move apart but no longer feel the need to exercise it. The only thing obvious about these examples of duality is it is rarely followed by any of us, at least not all the time.
Obama is certainly not going to act on every one of his speaking points. It it much easier to focus on some quick-hit means that are then justified on the basis that it helps toward moving us closer to the big-picture ending. After a series of such hare-brained ideas riddled with noise, we find that it is just taking us on some random walk. Keeping this in mind, it is great to have a US leader who has lived in different continents and cultures, a mixed heritage, loves Hanuman, and one can who can apparently see the big picture clearer that most. For example, compare this to Bush Jr.'s "you are with us or against us" speech.
There are lots of sound-bites that appear to come right out of Hindu philosophy, with the phrase "Mutual Respect" being the most prominent, especially when viewed along with his statement (paraphrasing here) of wanting the world to move away from the notion of "for us to be defined, the other has to be rejected"- The classic false duality. A coin is never going to have just one side (at least not in the long run!) it is as if Obama has been reading up on Rajiv Malhotra's essays on this subject. Most of Obama's domestic speeches thrive 'on disabusing people of the notion' that there is any truth to this false duality (for example, his statements on torture and national security).
For this tab, the strongest part of his speech was is this simple sentence:
"I reject the view of some in the West that a woman who chooses to cover her hair is somehow less equal, but I do believe that a woman who is denied an education is denied equality".
This should be a lesson for some of us Indians who have been 'brain-washed' to believe that visuals of our women wearing western clothes and winning inane beauty pageants is necessary and sufficient proof of women's rights in India. Instead of being just one of the means with which to fight for the right to female expression, it's become an end in itself - yet another false duality (This tab may also have the narrow, vested interest of having actress Katrina Kaif move away from crappy western clothes and appear in more traditional Indian dresses. not that its going to help her acting or Hindi diction). Firstly, we have to allow girls to be born in India. Then while we cross that hurdle, we can talk about "right to education", followed by a right to economic opportunity, and the right to dump (or bump off) your lazy husband who's also the classic drunkard that beats you up at night and takes away the money you earned after 10 hours of manual labor, with little food in between, while also dodging harassment from co-workers.
It is shocking to see a politician who brazenly speaks common-sense. If it turns out that he's actually going to put some of this stuff to practice, well, that would be something, wouldnt it. After all, the world has seen several lunatic politicial experiments fail and we are comfortable with that. But if we do test the theory of common sense, it better not fail.... The outcome do not look obvious to me, but its worth trying.
The obvious thing about a coin is its duality - it has two sides, and in many cases, you look at one side, it is also obvious what the other is. But the problem is that most people covet this metaphorical coin but choose to live on, or favor, one side or reject the other. We are somehow shocked when we make a dent on one side and it shows up on the other side. Nothing new - it is just a restating of the ancient concept of 'Vasudeva Kutumbam' in Hinduism, that oldest statement of duality (as broadly defined by this tab). Neither Palestine nor Israel can be safe unless they both are. Violent movements ultimately turn upon themselves. Tradition/Culture and Progress cannot move independent of each other for too long, nor should they bog each other down. Urban prosperity in India without improving our villages at some positive rate is bound to fail. People ultimately come together only if they have the freedom to move apart but no longer feel the need to exercise it. The only thing obvious about these examples of duality is it is rarely followed by any of us, at least not all the time.
Obama is certainly not going to act on every one of his speaking points. It it much easier to focus on some quick-hit means that are then justified on the basis that it helps toward moving us closer to the big-picture ending. After a series of such hare-brained ideas riddled with noise, we find that it is just taking us on some random walk. Keeping this in mind, it is great to have a US leader who has lived in different continents and cultures, a mixed heritage, loves Hanuman, and one can who can apparently see the big picture clearer that most. For example, compare this to Bush Jr.'s "you are with us or against us" speech.
There are lots of sound-bites that appear to come right out of Hindu philosophy, with the phrase "Mutual Respect" being the most prominent, especially when viewed along with his statement (paraphrasing here) of wanting the world to move away from the notion of "for us to be defined, the other has to be rejected"- The classic false duality. A coin is never going to have just one side (at least not in the long run!) it is as if Obama has been reading up on Rajiv Malhotra's essays on this subject. Most of Obama's domestic speeches thrive 'on disabusing people of the notion' that there is any truth to this false duality (for example, his statements on torture and national security).
For this tab, the strongest part of his speech was is this simple sentence:
"I reject the view of some in the West that a woman who chooses to cover her hair is somehow less equal, but I do believe that a woman who is denied an education is denied equality".
This should be a lesson for some of us Indians who have been 'brain-washed' to believe that visuals of our women wearing western clothes and winning inane beauty pageants is necessary and sufficient proof of women's rights in India. Instead of being just one of the means with which to fight for the right to female expression, it's become an end in itself - yet another false duality (This tab may also have the narrow, vested interest of having actress Katrina Kaif move away from crappy western clothes and appear in more traditional Indian dresses. not that its going to help her acting or Hindi diction). Firstly, we have to allow girls to be born in India. Then while we cross that hurdle, we can talk about "right to education", followed by a right to economic opportunity, and the right to dump (or bump off) your lazy husband who's also the classic drunkard that beats you up at night and takes away the money you earned after 10 hours of manual labor, with little food in between, while also dodging harassment from co-workers.
It is shocking to see a politician who brazenly speaks common-sense. If it turns out that he's actually going to put some of this stuff to practice, well, that would be something, wouldnt it. After all, the world has seen several lunatic politicial experiments fail and we are comfortable with that. But if we do test the theory of common sense, it better not fail.... The outcome do not look obvious to me, but its worth trying.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Women Reporters in Cricket
The last few years have witnessed the emergence of many women who have gotten involved with cricket in some form. Let's start at the bottom and work our way up....
Most Indians cannot forget Mandira Bedi (some, not quickly enough). On the other hand, I did like the tricolor peas pulao in her old TV ad. One of the positive side-effects of the IPL has been in this area. We have a couple of rich 'Bollywood' glam-acts who own stakes in IPL teams. Then we had Ms. Tishani Doshi, a dancer (or is that danseuse?) / poet/journalist born and based in Chennai wo-manning one of the many IPL blogs on cricinfo. While she is no cricket expert, the view from the distaff side made for some interesting reading. A rather unexpected piece of cricket-related writing came from Rebecca Lee, one the 'mischief gals', hired as cheerleaders for home-team Bangalore for IPL-II. The blog by Ms. Lee was quite interesting, in that it comes from an American, trans-cultural perspective. Furthermore, their comments on the effort level and mental state of the Bangalore team while it put together a nice, long winning streak before the inevitable final tragedy was noteworthy. While I'm not a fan of this whole cheer-leading stuff, I do hope these gals return next season and blog some more.
IPL aside, we have more cricket-aware, serious lady writers/speakers today than ever before. Many of the cricketers who participated in the recent Women's world cup have blogged regularly on cricinfo during that tournament. It was a pleasant surprise to listen to the commentary on the recent Aus-South Africa (men's) ODI cricket series in SA. One of the persons on the commentary panel was Kass Naidoo (i think), and she was pretty good. Certainly better than all the crappy ex-cricketers throwing up en-masse into the mike during the IPL.
A personal favorite is Sharda Ugra, Deputy Editor of India Today. Her regular cricket columns (such as 'free hit') are among the best in the sports journalist business. She calls a chuck a chuck, and reminds me of Mary Carillo (Tennis), albeit less controversial. Among other things, she has worked with John Wright, former Team-India coach on his wonderful book 'Indian Summers' that captures many moments of the renaissance years (2001-2004) of Indian cricket. She is also the winner of the 'best sports writer of the year 2006' (India).
i've probably left out many more, and we'll have to end with this:
Behold, Mandira and Sharda,
meal-ticket and sticky-wicket
there's room for all in desi cricket,
but fitting 'em to rhyme is harda
Most Indians cannot forget Mandira Bedi (some, not quickly enough). On the other hand, I did like the tricolor peas pulao in her old TV ad. One of the positive side-effects of the IPL has been in this area. We have a couple of rich 'Bollywood' glam-acts who own stakes in IPL teams. Then we had Ms. Tishani Doshi, a dancer (or is that danseuse?) / poet/journalist born and based in Chennai wo-manning one of the many IPL blogs on cricinfo. While she is no cricket expert, the view from the distaff side made for some interesting reading. A rather unexpected piece of cricket-related writing came from Rebecca Lee, one the 'mischief gals', hired as cheerleaders for home-team Bangalore for IPL-II. The blog by Ms. Lee was quite interesting, in that it comes from an American, trans-cultural perspective. Furthermore, their comments on the effort level and mental state of the Bangalore team while it put together a nice, long winning streak before the inevitable final tragedy was noteworthy. While I'm not a fan of this whole cheer-leading stuff, I do hope these gals return next season and blog some more.
IPL aside, we have more cricket-aware, serious lady writers/speakers today than ever before. Many of the cricketers who participated in the recent Women's world cup have blogged regularly on cricinfo during that tournament. It was a pleasant surprise to listen to the commentary on the recent Aus-South Africa (men's) ODI cricket series in SA. One of the persons on the commentary panel was Kass Naidoo (i think), and she was pretty good. Certainly better than all the crappy ex-cricketers throwing up en-masse into the mike during the IPL.
A personal favorite is Sharda Ugra, Deputy Editor of India Today. Her regular cricket columns (such as 'free hit') are among the best in the sports journalist business. She calls a chuck a chuck, and reminds me of Mary Carillo (Tennis), albeit less controversial. Among other things, she has worked with John Wright, former Team-India coach on his wonderful book 'Indian Summers' that captures many moments of the renaissance years (2001-2004) of Indian cricket. She is also the winner of the 'best sports writer of the year 2006' (India).
i've probably left out many more, and we'll have to end with this:
Behold, Mandira and Sharda,
meal-ticket and sticky-wicket
there's room for all in desi cricket,
but fitting 'em to rhyme is harda
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Janani Janani - An ocean of devotion
This one is based on the song 'Janani Janani' by Ilayaraja. The original can be seen here. This song is a truly touching composition that left a deep impression, and is sung in praise of Janani (Mother) Mookambikai. It appears to be one of Ilayaraja's favorite ones.
This version is approximated on acoustic guitar using C, D, G, Em, and something else. We create the distortion effects to mimic the ocean wave ambiance using Audacity, a free sound editor. I've put the final output on YouTube:
The pictures were taken by my cousin N.M. Krishna of Singapore (get well soon!), photographer extraordinaire (Acadia, Maine).
Finally, this song is about the humility of the devotee surrounded by the omnipresence of the divine mother. This tab dedicates the song to those working quietly to overcome challenges in life - a mother battling lack of sleep while trying to care for her daughter, a daughter trying to be a good girl, grandparents staying healthy, a sister writing an exam (such as the CFA), a brother trying to make it as an entrepreneur or waiting to be with his kids again. This humble song wishes well for all. Om.
This version is approximated on acoustic guitar using C, D, G, Em, and something else. We create the distortion effects to mimic the ocean wave ambiance using Audacity, a free sound editor. I've put the final output on YouTube:
The pictures were taken by my cousin N.M. Krishna of Singapore (get well soon!), photographer extraordinaire (Acadia, Maine).
Finally, this song is about the humility of the devotee surrounded by the omnipresence of the divine mother. This tab dedicates the song to those working quietly to overcome challenges in life - a mother battling lack of sleep while trying to care for her daughter, a daughter trying to be a good girl, grandparents staying healthy, a sister writing an exam (such as the CFA), a brother trying to make it as an entrepreneur or waiting to be with his kids again. This humble song wishes well for all. Om.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
The first summer visitor
This guy visited home a few days back, much to the delight of my two-year old.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Gurobi v/s CPLEX: A real-life LP example
The general availability of Gurobi, the new solver in town means that it allows us to compare how the de-facto commercial standard for the last 3 decades matches up. For starters, lets look at that good old work-horse, the Simplex Method. In particular, we will look at the dual simplex performance on a particular LP from real-life that has very few rows and many, many bounded columns that tries to maximize a linear objective function subject to "<=" constraints. Perfect for dual simplex since most of your work is with 6x6 linear systems for this instance.
Let's see what the default solvers of CPLEX and Gurobi do with it. You would like to think that there should not be much difference when it comes to 'mature' technology. Surprise.
These are run on my personal Ubuntu-Linux quad-core PC, 4GB RAM in serial mode. While the data is not available for public use, it should be easy to generate random instances of similarly sized LPs and do your own tests.
The result:CPLEX-dual simplex is nearly 40X slower on this instance.
--------------------------------------------------------
Problem stats: 6 Rows, 935645 Columns, 3192263 Non zeros
Gurobi solves it in 76 iterations and 10.16 seconds
Optimal objective 9.531245720e+05
CPLEX
-----
Tried aggregator 1 time.
LP Presolve eliminated 0 rows and 392 columns.
Reduced LP has 6 rows, 935253 columns, and 3191065 nonzeros.
Presolve time = 3.06 sec.
Initializing dual steep norms . . .
Iteration log . . .
Iteration: 1 Dual objective = 1203067.101646
....
Solution status = Optimal
Solution value = 953124.5720420766
Solution time = 391.32 seconds
It is well known that f your dual-simplex implementation is fast, all your branch-and-cut operations that rely on dual-simplex will also be that much more faster.
CPLEX-Primal was even slower, but CPLEX-Barrier does it in about 100 seconds (including the cross-over to a corner solution), which is still 10X slower. I tried many other tweaks with CPLEX for what should have been a relatively quick and simple problem to solve for an industry-standard LP solver, but without much improvement. To be fair to CPLEX, which is still a fantastic product, this is just one instance. Without the barrier solver as yet, Gurobi may be slower on LPs that are strongly amenable to interior point methods (more on that in a future post).
Hopefully, the owners of these products will continue to devote R&D effort toward these two great products and keep pushing the envelope, so we practitioners get the best of both worlds!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer: These are purely my personal observations made in an unofficial capacity, based on tests on a very limited sample of real-life data sets, and do not reflect the views of my employers or associates. I am not affiliated with Gurobi or ILOG-IBM.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let's see what the default solvers of CPLEX and Gurobi do with it. You would like to think that there should not be much difference when it comes to 'mature' technology. Surprise.
These are run on my personal Ubuntu-Linux quad-core PC, 4GB RAM in serial mode. While the data is not available for public use, it should be easy to generate random instances of similarly sized LPs and do your own tests.
The result:CPLEX-dual simplex is nearly 40X slower on this instance.
--------------------------------------------------------
Problem stats: 6 Rows, 935645 Columns, 3192263 Non zeros
Gurobi solves it in 76 iterations and 10.16 seconds
Optimal objective 9.531245720e+05
CPLEX
-----
Tried aggregator 1 time.
LP Presolve eliminated 0 rows and 392 columns.
Reduced LP has 6 rows, 935253 columns, and 3191065 nonzeros.
Presolve time = 3.06 sec.
Initializing dual steep norms . . .
Iteration log . . .
Iteration: 1 Dual objective = 1203067.101646
....
Solution status = Optimal
Solution value = 953124.5720420766
Solution time = 391.32 seconds
It is well known that f your dual-simplex implementation is fast, all your branch-and-cut operations that rely on dual-simplex will also be that much more faster.
CPLEX-Primal was even slower, but CPLEX-Barrier does it in about 100 seconds (including the cross-over to a corner solution), which is still 10X slower. I tried many other tweaks with CPLEX for what should have been a relatively quick and simple problem to solve for an industry-standard LP solver, but without much improvement. To be fair to CPLEX, which is still a fantastic product, this is just one instance. Without the barrier solver as yet, Gurobi may be slower on LPs that are strongly amenable to interior point methods (more on that in a future post).
Hopefully, the owners of these products will continue to devote R&D effort toward these two great products and keep pushing the envelope, so we practitioners get the best of both worlds!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer: These are purely my personal observations made in an unofficial capacity, based on tests on a very limited sample of real-life data sets, and do not reflect the views of my employers or associates. I am not affiliated with Gurobi or ILOG-IBM.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
IPL update - More on the millisecond, and some Game theory
Two tabs in a day. This one was necessitated by IPl happenings, so apologies.
First, Ravi Shastri is the first IPL commentator to finally pick up on Raina's feinting action that this tab mentioned a few weeks ago in "the longest millisecond". Raina just bowled 4 overs for 13 runs with 2 wickets to sink the Punjab-11, clean bowling yuvraj (6 of 19 balls!) with that technique. He earlier bowled the last over in the high-scoring previous match against SRK's circus, and did so really well and almost got them to victory using his methods.
Second, it's game-theory time, which of course means duality. With the Punjab loss, 3 teams are vying for two spots (B'lore, Deccan, Punjab). The three teams are tied on points, with a game between Deccan and Blore left. Teams tied on points will be selected based on net run rate'. Obviously the winner goes thru, but that will be known only after the conclusion of the match. How should Blore and Deccan approach their match to maximize their chances of grabbing the remaining two spots? Its a classic team sport situation.
A) maximize your optimistic objective and go all out for a win, or the dual option:
B) minimize your worst case to ensure that no matter what happens, u grab the spot on net-run-rate
Punjab will certainly be hoping that the victory margin will be huge. In particular, home team Bangalore's net run rate is in the middle, below Deccan, so a bad loss would probably eliminate them. Too much dual noise..... Here's this tab's strategy for the home team:
1. win the toss. (heh). bat first and aim for a decent par score around 145. the logic is that unless u get a really low score, Deccan is not going to go crazy chasing it down in 17 overs. seeing dravid and kallis batting happily at run-a-ball with calm deccan nerves and they'll relax too. so your final net-run rate will not change much.
2. if u lose the toss - deccan will probably bat first and since they dont want to collapse, they are going to bat the same way. but gilly's game theory is 100 of 50 balls, so u have to get him out soon or you are IPL history very soon.
in some ways, the 2 teams will be playing punjab tomorrow. so if neither team rocks the boat and ensures an exciting last over finish, punjab-11 will sadly be eliminated. in short, play smart and reasonably aggressive cricket, keep wickets in hand, bowl well. Its' just sensible 20-20 cricket in the end. the math will just back u up. Now, if Buchanan coached Blore, we will lose for sure :-)
First, Ravi Shastri is the first IPL commentator to finally pick up on Raina's feinting action that this tab mentioned a few weeks ago in "the longest millisecond". Raina just bowled 4 overs for 13 runs with 2 wickets to sink the Punjab-11, clean bowling yuvraj (6 of 19 balls!) with that technique. He earlier bowled the last over in the high-scoring previous match against SRK's circus, and did so really well and almost got them to victory using his methods.
Second, it's game-theory time, which of course means duality. With the Punjab loss, 3 teams are vying for two spots (B'lore, Deccan, Punjab). The three teams are tied on points, with a game between Deccan and Blore left. Teams tied on points will be selected based on net run rate'. Obviously the winner goes thru, but that will be known only after the conclusion of the match. How should Blore and Deccan approach their match to maximize their chances of grabbing the remaining two spots? Its a classic team sport situation.
A) maximize your optimistic objective and go all out for a win, or the dual option:
B) minimize your worst case to ensure that no matter what happens, u grab the spot on net-run-rate
Punjab will certainly be hoping that the victory margin will be huge. In particular, home team Bangalore's net run rate is in the middle, below Deccan, so a bad loss would probably eliminate them. Too much dual noise..... Here's this tab's strategy for the home team:
1. win the toss. (heh). bat first and aim for a decent par score around 145. the logic is that unless u get a really low score, Deccan is not going to go crazy chasing it down in 17 overs. seeing dravid and kallis batting happily at run-a-ball with calm deccan nerves and they'll relax too. so your final net-run rate will not change much.
2. if u lose the toss - deccan will probably bat first and since they dont want to collapse, they are going to bat the same way. but gilly's game theory is 100 of 50 balls, so u have to get him out soon or you are IPL history very soon.
in some ways, the 2 teams will be playing punjab tomorrow. so if neither team rocks the boat and ensures an exciting last over finish, punjab-11 will sadly be eliminated. in short, play smart and reasonably aggressive cricket, keep wickets in hand, bowl well. Its' just sensible 20-20 cricket in the end. the math will just back u up. Now, if Buchanan coached Blore, we will lose for sure :-)
Death of a tiger
If you have traveled through the Shivajinagar area of Bangalore, India in the 70s and 80s, you would have seen a large photo of Vellupillai Prabhakaran next to the bus stand, in one of the many Tamizh-owned shops on the busy main road. That area was dominated by the Muslim and Tamil communities in those days, and some Dravida party candidates even won elections in those areas. VP was finally killed in North Sri Lanka yesterday. Looking at the newly released photos of him with what sure looks like a beautiful family is surreal, and triggers a lot of questions. VP's actions have several dual elements to it, riddled with noise as usual.
Like the old west, the gunslinger turned lawman is the hero everybody desperately wants until his heroic shootout. The dual aspect is that he then becomes the only guy in town with a lethal gun and therefore a nuisance, and ideally one who should have gone down while taking the outlaw out. Gunmen who outlive their welcome become the very problem they eliminated in the first place. Like all maoist/militant groups, the LTTE also falls in this category. They do not want to relinquish the power earned from the barrel of a gun. They first fight the fanatics (in this case, the Sinhala Chauvinists), but they reach a certain point where they become what they fight against. It's a classical but vicious fratricidal, boom-and-bust cycle - of who is more fanatic. LTTE's ruthless elimination of all common-sense, moderate Tamizh leaders is well documented. Ultimately, the movement is in tatters since the most fanatic are rarely the smartest, and are doomed to die a lonely death. If the Sinhala majority will allow for pluralistic views based on mutual self-respect, then a new LTTE will not spring up, else the new, deadlier VP is 10 years old today. Muthiah Muralitharan is an good positive example. He is the most successful cricketer in the history of Lanka, and is Tamizh, and morever, has been fiercely defended by (Sinhala) team-mates through all controversies. On the field, they are all Lankans. (Cricket rules!)
That photo of VP captured my imagination. India supported these freedom fighters too. That quickly disappeared when VP's gunmen entered an apartment in Madras and wiped out entire Tamizh families in cold blood. Folks who cry for VP today should also pause to reflect about these families and their offspring that never will be because of this man and an entire generation of smart Tamizh leaders who were wiped out, who will not be there today to provide leadership. In short, after all the fighting and the 100,000 deaths, the Lankan Tamizhs are worse off than just being back to square one. A new and smarter leadership for the 21st century has to arise, but from where?
The war nerd always has a wacky take on the LTTE.
Like the old west, the gunslinger turned lawman is the hero everybody desperately wants until his heroic shootout. The dual aspect is that he then becomes the only guy in town with a lethal gun and therefore a nuisance, and ideally one who should have gone down while taking the outlaw out. Gunmen who outlive their welcome become the very problem they eliminated in the first place. Like all maoist/militant groups, the LTTE also falls in this category. They do not want to relinquish the power earned from the barrel of a gun. They first fight the fanatics (in this case, the Sinhala Chauvinists), but they reach a certain point where they become what they fight against. It's a classical but vicious fratricidal, boom-and-bust cycle - of who is more fanatic. LTTE's ruthless elimination of all common-sense, moderate Tamizh leaders is well documented. Ultimately, the movement is in tatters since the most fanatic are rarely the smartest, and are doomed to die a lonely death. If the Sinhala majority will allow for pluralistic views based on mutual self-respect, then a new LTTE will not spring up, else the new, deadlier VP is 10 years old today. Muthiah Muralitharan is an good positive example. He is the most successful cricketer in the history of Lanka, and is Tamizh, and morever, has been fiercely defended by (Sinhala) team-mates through all controversies. On the field, they are all Lankans. (Cricket rules!)
That photo of VP captured my imagination. India supported these freedom fighters too. That quickly disappeared when VP's gunmen entered an apartment in Madras and wiped out entire Tamizh families in cold blood. Folks who cry for VP today should also pause to reflect about these families and their offspring that never will be because of this man and an entire generation of smart Tamizh leaders who were wiped out, who will not be there today to provide leadership. In short, after all the fighting and the 100,000 deaths, the Lankan Tamizhs are worse off than just being back to square one. A new and smarter leadership for the 21st century has to arise, but from where?
The war nerd always has a wacky take on the LTTE.
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