India win again Pakistan in the final and are the twenty 20 world champions

Wow, this was some amazing final. After India's poor showing with the bat, everyone felt that Pakistan would easily overhaul this total and win the final. But, it was not to be so. The Indian bowlers though wayward at times, kept their cool and somehow managed to win by a narrow margin of 5 runs. This was a good game for India and more importantly, a good one for the twenty 20 version. This version is here to stay and it is the future.

Guess what, I didn't have to cook up any false reason to go home early. Amdocs decided to screen the big final on the big screen for all to watch. Way to go Amdocs!

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India Pakistan final at the twenty 20 world cup today

Leave alone the mother, it is the grandmother of all cricket matches! An India Pakistan clash at a final of a world cup, it is the dream of every Asian cricket fan.

India will grind to a halt today starting 5.30 pm (luckily, it is almost the end of an office day). Poor me, the start is at 3 pm local time here in Cyprus. I am still working on the pretexts i can give, to leave early. I hope that this match turns out to be as exciting as the India Australia semi-final clash and i hope that someone hits six sixers in an over just like Yuvraj did the other day.

All the best India!

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Karunanidhi adds fuel to the Ram Setu controversy

Everyone is talking about it, every news channel has a debate on it, whole of India is talking about few kilometres of sand somewhere in the middle of Palk Strait between Sri Lanka and India called Ram Setu (or Ram Sethu in some cases). This sand bar is mythologically supposed to be the bridge that Lord Rama built to cross over to Sri Lanka in search of Sita.

What i don't understand is none of the TV channels ever called me to take my opinion. How can they not take the opinion of RajaRam Sethuraman!! My name is in the midst of this entire controversy (or the other way around, whatever!) and no one asks me for my opinion! The next time, you hear Karunanidhi asking which engineering college Ram studied in, just say to him that it was in BITS Pilani and I am sure that he won't say anything more.

Not many know that I am a direct descendant of Lord Rama and that it why I am named so. Unfortunately, there is not enough freedom of speech in India for someone like Dan Brown to write about Ram's bloodline like he wrote about Jesus' bloodline in the Da Vinci Code. But why, you may ask, am i a dravidian now when Lord Rama was an Aryan? Elementary, my friend! It gets damn cold in Ayodhya in the winter months and my ancestors decided to move down south to the much warmer areas. So, in all aspects, I am a dravidian now.

Looking back, i regret ever being an Aryan. They do whatever they can to put down the dravidians. Yes, Rama the king existed (how else would i be here now!) and an evil Sri Lankan had indeed kidnapped his wife. So, Rama had travelled down south to rescue his wife. But, centuries later when Valmiki decided to put this story on paper (or whatever was the equivalent at that time), he wanted to add glamour to the story and in doing so, the true nature of aryans came to the fore. Why else would he write thus "Rama marched south and took the help of the monkeys to cross over to Lanka"! Did only monkeys live in the south? or were rama's forces primitive enough to know only to communicate with monkeys?

This attitude still prevails today. Recently, the Indian Railways decided to remove Idlis and Dosas from the menu on the trains. Yeah, the South Indians have to survive by having Hot Jalebis with milk (yuck!) for breakfast like i had to during my stint at BITS.

But, don't worry, my dear Dravidian friends, the time is ripe for a revolt and who else but Rahul Dravid to captain us on this holy war. Rahul Dravid had timed his resignation to perfection. In a way, he knew about this impending struggle and had to resign because, according to BCCI clauses, you cannot be a part of more than one organisation. Forget about Karunanidhi and his DMK, let us march with RDMK (Rahul Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) led by our beloved Rahul Dravid.

And, anyone who dares to make any further comment on NDTV about Ram Setu, talk to me before you even utter a word ...

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The Cyprus Invasion - Is Cyprus ready for war?

Breaking News: Read about it on the Cyprus Blog.

Yuvraj Singh hits six sixers in an over

First, it was Herschelle Gibbs, now it is our very own Yuvraj Singh. It was the penultimate over of the Indian innings and god only knows what came over Yuvraj Singh, he just broke loose hitting poor Stuart Broad for six sixes in the over. In case you missed the India England match yesterday, you can watch the video of Yuvraj Singh hitting six sixers here.

All you Singhs/Sardars/both, it is party time. Go ahead, shed your apprehensions, raise your hands and dance!

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Happy Ganesh Chaturthi

So, it was Ganesh Chaturthi the last weekend and like last year, Vidhya made a Ganesha idol, only that this year Lord Ganesh turned out to be a little fatter than last year. I hope that this is a sign of prosperity in the year to come :-)

This year, there was an extra member added to Ganesha's family, his friendly rat!

Next year, we should think of changing the colour of the clay we use. We might get a cool looking Ganesha then!

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Quiz questions from a recent quiz event

Below are the questions from the pelims of a quiz contest recently conducted in amdocs. The questions were framed by Lokesh. Leave the answers in the comments. i shall publish the answers in a weeks time.

1. Name the project developed by a Stanford Univ. graduate, during his free time given officially by his employer. The name is an old Turkish word, meaning “city of happiness, pleasure, joy, luck”. >> Orkut
2. ___________is the country named after Lord Jesus, referring him as “The Saviour” in their native language. >> El Salvador
3. Hotmail --> Microsoft :: PeopleSoft --> Oracle :: Cramer --> Amdocs :: TimesTen --> ________. >> Oracle
4. ___________, a famous American Actor spent a great time on impressions, than his academics. His future was put into jeopardy, when he was nearly expelled for assaulting a Teacher in school, as the teacher referred him as a “caveman”. He has now surpassed the earning power of all other famous Hollywood Stars , with grosses as a leading man that total over US$3.35 billion. >> Eddie Murphy
5. In a pack of playing cards, “A” (Ace) had the least value, whereas “K” the most valued. But, after the _______, “A” is considered to have more value than “K” (King), depicting that the common civilians are more powerful than the King. >> The French Revolution
6. Identify the brand names for the following tag lines
   a. The Passionate Pursuit of Perfection. – ____________________ >> Lexus
   b. Like.no.other – ___________________________ >> Sony
   c. Sense and Simplicity – ____________________ >> Philips
   d. Ideas for life - ________________________ >>Panasonic
7. Connect the following cities: Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, Rotterdam, Antwerp, New York. >> World's busiest Sea Ports and Commercial Centers
8. Whenever, we write the name of this famous website’s brand name, we generally end up in writing the name, which was trademarked by another company (manufacturer barbecue sauce and knives). What is the name of the website ? >> Yahoo!
9. Identify the Hollywood movie released in November 1980:
   The movie is the real-life story of an unlovable, stubborn middle-weight boxing champion as he struggles to be champion. The director of this movie even though was not recognized by Oscar, the applause for the movie was so much encouraging, and finally he hit the OSCAR Award for his recent movie. >> The Raging Bull
10. What is the name of the company, started in 1982, less than 25 years old and their couple of software products, combined are installed on more than 700 million connected PCs and devices worldwide. _________. >>Adobe
    What are the names of the software products ?? _______and ______>> Acrobat Reader and Flash Player
11. Dennis Gabor (1900–1979), a Hungarian physicist, received the Nobel Prize in physics in 1971, for his invention in 1947. His invention added a new dimension in consumer products labeling technology. What did he invent? _______ >> Holography
12. Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K , a company established in Nihonbashi after the Second World war, had its brand name as “Totsuko”. In Jan 1958, they chose a new brand name, because their customers of other nationalities were finding difficult to pronounce the brand name. This company is now called as ______>> Sony
13. The "CE" Mark, labeled on Toys, machinery, electrical and electronic items , has no meaning as an abbreviation in English, but the marking is done as an indication of _______.>> European Conformity (for safety) - Conformitte Europeane (in French)
14. VIACOM (a group which owns Paramount Pictures), started a chain of seafood restaurants, with the first restaurant in Cannery Row, CA. , inspired by __________, the movie they produced. The restaurant gained fame for its unique paging system consisting of two license plates on the tables. STOP & RUN. (Clue: Movie released in 1994 & a winner of 6 Oscars). >> Forrest Gump
15. i, i*j, i*j*j, i*j*j*j, …. where j is the common ratio and i is the scale factor. In mathematics the above sequence of numbers are termed as ________ .>> Geometric Progression
16. _____________, is the term used in Software Engineering to describe a dying project which has little by little become too complex to be understood even by its own developers.>> Software Peter Principle
17. Connect the words: Smart, Hero, Fire, Eight O’ Clock, Lift, Coke, Real Gold, Signature.>>Branded Drinks of Coca Cola Company
18. Admired by the philanthropic efforts by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, this multifaceted artist, declared that, when he dies he would donate half of his assets to charity to help the needy. (Clue : His birth name literally means “born in Hong Kong”). He is known to us as _______ >> Jackie Chan
19. B . C = Before Christ (Ex., 5th Century B.C)
    A . D = _________ (Ex. 20th Century A.D) >> Anno Domini
20. Expand the following acronyms. (0.5 x 4 = 2 Points)
    i. B M W - ______________ (Category :Automobile) >> Bayerische Motoren Werke
    ii. J V C - ________________ (Category: Electronics) >> Japan Victor Company
    iii. H S B C - _______________ (Category: Banking) >> Hongkong Shanghai Banking Corporation
    iv. N C R - ________________ (Category: ATMs , Technology) >> National Cash Register
21. On July 17, 2007, an Airbus A320 (Passenger Airliner), during its landing, slipped, overran the runway of Cogonhas Airport in Sao Paulo (Brazil), crashing into a warehouse. This is the deadliest air crash in Latin America, with no survivors on board. The plane was operated by __________ airlines. >>TAM Airlines
22. ______ , a famous Greek Mathematician, is “The Father of Geometry”. His unique way of solving the theorems, by logical reasoning and a set of accepted first principles, still serves as the backbone of mathematics. (Clue : He is from a city, which is not a part of Europe) >>Euclid
23. This song is considered to be the one hit wonders of all time. Brazilian Air Force used this song in its advertisement in the second half of the '80s, in the Brazilian TV network and was also played at the closing ceremony of the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. Identify the song.>> The Final Countdown
24. The Tennis Championships at Worple Road, Wimbledon, London has been started since 1877. Who is the youngest-ever winner of Men’s singles title @ Wimbledon ? >> Boris Becker
25. Hollywood star _______, sued the owners of the Florida airport, where he’s looking to land his jumbo jet, claiming that the airport owners falsified their 2006 records to show that the landing field could not accommodate large planes. >> John Travolta
26. The following Internet domain extensions are assigned to countries that are from the same continent. Identify the countries for the following extensions. (Ex., *.cy – Cyprus)
    i. .ng : _______________________ >> Nigeria
    ii. .za : _______________________ >> South Africa
    iii. .zm : _______________________ >> Zambia
    iv. .zw : ________________________>> Zimbabwe
27. Ethanethiol which gives a pungent and repulsive odour, is added to natural gas (used as fuel), for easy identification of the fuel leakage and its disaster. This additive is popularly known as _______________ >> Marcaptans
28. People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), distributed ________, free of cost, to the people in city of HamBurg in USA, asking them to accept for changing their city’s name, during its campaign against cruelty to animals. >> Veggie Burger
29. Airbags deployed in cars, is a marvelous invention in the field of crash science & safety engineering. In cars its denoted as SRS Airbag, where SRS refers to _________. >> Supplementary Restraint System
30. The US Federal Government signed a law in July,2002 in response to the major scandals in corporate accounting. (Companies : Tyco, Enron etc.,) President George W. Bush signed it and stating it included “the most far-reaching reforms of American business practices, since the time of Franklin. D. Roosevelt”. This world famous US corporate law is named after its sponsors and is known to as ________. >> Sarbanes-Oxley Act or SOX
31. In 1892, two major electric companies, Edison General Electric Company and its business rival Thomson-Houston Electric company, merged to form the General Electric Company (GE). The merger was arranged by __________, a famous financier in US. >> J.P.Morgan
32. A five year, intercontinental project of study of human anthropology, worth US$40m is sponsored by the National Geographic Channel, IBM and Waitt family foundation. This is referred as “moon shot of anthropology”. The name of the project is _______. >> The Genographic Project
33. Which is the home country of third largest film industry in the world next to US (Hollywood) and India (Bollywood) ? >> Nigeria
34. In which country, it is illegal to chew gum, as it causes a uncontrollable public nuisance ? >> Singapore
35. After winning the World War II, United States fought a battle with Japan to re-capture this territory. (Clue : The motto of this territory is “Where America’s Day Begins”)
    i. What is the name of the territory ? ____________ Guam
    ii. what is the name of the battle ? ____________ Battle of Guam

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IKEA opens in Nicosia, Cyprus

IKEA is probably the biggest thing to happen in Cyprus since Souvlaki and Halloumi Cheese. The new Ikea store in Nicosia (next to the upcoming Mall of Cyprus) is big, very big, extremely big!

I had been to one Ikea store in San Jose before, but i went straight to the bulbs section, so i never realised that the store could be so big. If you are in the mood for a good walk, but the weather outside is not conducive, then all you have to do is to go inside Ikea in Nicosia and check out all the items on display. Yeah, you may burn a hole in your wallet, but you will , for sure, burn a lot of calories too!

The Cypriots are going gaga over this new store. Of course they have to, this is just too big for the cypriots! The shop opened on Friday and we were there yesterday and we had to wait outside the store for 15-20 mins, as the crowd was so big that they had to let people in, in batches.

We spent more than 3 hours inside the store and we came back home with lots of stuff, stuff not necessarily useful, but stuff that were so attractively displayed that Vidhya just wanted to buy them.

The prices currently are introductory ones and they are very reasonable compared to other shops in Cyprus. So, go on, have a picnic in Ikea!

Update: I have already been to IKEA two times and it is a wonderful place to spend time and I always end up buying some stuff or the other. If you are driving from Limassol, take the roundabout when Nicosia (don't go over the bridge, but under it to the roundabout), then take the last exit (turn right) and then turn left at the first roundabout. You will then reach the backside of IKEA where you will find signs to reach the parking.

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