With the second annual Mumbai Festival just ending (January 14-26th), we still have a number of events to look forward to on the Mumbai arts, film, & literature calendar..

Mumbai International Film Festival: February 3rd-9th 2006

Kala Ghoda Arts Festival – Feb 4th-12th

Check out the NCPA's site for their wide-ranging events scheduled this month..

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For more info on Mumbai, read the urban travel blog Gridskipper's section on Mumbai and also the Metroblogging Mumbai page.

Another perfectly good day gone....
..and all I have to show for it is a new background on my blog(s).

Life goes on... and maybe so it should be...

"Art, like life, should be free, since both are experimental." - George Santayana

Have bad flu-like symptoms (heavy head, cold, slight fever) ... feel like doing this...






















And its snowing outside... (although this view from the bed doesn't look bad!)






















And I have been listening to Jazz and Blues radio stations on Shoutcast.com since yesterday...

All in all...there has been no inclination to blog ..though it hasn't kept me away from surfing on the internet and such..

Will be back soon... but unfortunately, I had no updates over the weekend on the Pakistan-India cricket test nor the Australian Open tennis scores nor the Ranji Trophy semis nor anything else...

All eyes on the pitch as India, Pak ready for the 2nd test - After the Lahore test run-glut on a flat docile pitch, the Faisalabad pitch now apparently 'shares with Sehwag, Dravid, Inzamam and Shoaib, headline status.'

And this quip from an article by G. Rajaraman in the Outlook, says it all... 'Good from far....far from good'!

I saw wrist-spinner Anil Kumble returning from the nets, his pads still in place and told him "Door se dekha to thoda ghaas nazar aaya...(From the distance, it looked as if there was some grass on the wicket)." He stopped in his tracks, offered me a Mentos and even sang a part of the jingle that is part of the commercial. "So what did you say? Door se dekha to thoda ghaas nazar aaya? Paas jaakar dekho, kuch khaas nazar nahi aayega (Go closer and you will spot nothing)," he said, getting more lyrical.

On the eve of the 2nd test, Moin khan is overly pessimistic in this article - saying India gained a lot from the Lahore test, despite all the distractions with Ganguly, whereas Pakistan did not gain anything at all and in fact lost everything, including the momentum they had after the win against England! He also makes the controversial assertion about the Lahore pitch saying it was so dead because Pakistan wanted it to be so...and that

Pakistan declared their first innings at 679 and if my memory is correct, they scored something like 350 runs in under 60 overs on the second day. I think they thought that on this wicket, the ball would reverse and their pace trio would run through the Indian batting line-up that was a bit nervous due to several reasons. The home team was also banking on Danish Kaneria to pick up a few wickets on a pitch that would deteriorate because he is a big turner of the ball and has plenty of varieties that he uses intelligently. That game plan backfired simply because Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid played marvelous innings.

Given Shewag's record against Pakistan, Moin Khan expected thinks that Pakistan have an 'uphill task of preventing the flow of runs from Virender Sehwag's wood in the Faisalabad Test. The solution, apparently, is simple but the execution is difficult -- bowl as straight as possible to Sehwag and frustrate him by not allowing him to free his arms....he has also shown over the years that if he fails to penetrate into the opponent's bowling, he throws away his wicket with a silly stroke. So the best bet for Pakistan is to not allow him to score easy runs and wait for him to repeat that silly mistake.'

And yes..he also adds later in the article that Shoib should ball more yorkers, to be effective on placid pitch! Ok.. sounds simple. no? . Lets see how they execute it :)

Meanwhile, mere speculation aside that Ganguly will be dropped in place of a 5th bowler, all indications are that Ganguly will play again and it's been confirmed from the captain himself that India will persist with the 'makeshift' Shewag-Dravid opening pair atleast for now. I guess Ganguly supporters will argue that if they chose him for the first test, he has done nothing since (other than take a spectacular catch after misjudging it) to warrant dropping him!

But like Gulu Ezekiel writes:

The manner of permutations and combinations the Indian team think-tank is having to conjure up simply to open up a place for Sourav Ganguly is assuming ludicrous proportions.

His loyal Kolkata fans have sent across a signed bat to Dravid. This is apparently a peace gesture after their disgraceful behaviour towards the captain and the Indian team during the ODI against South Africa at the Eden Gardens late last year. One wonders if they will ask for it back if the team management finally takes the bit between their teeth and decides to drop him for the second Test at Faisalabad!

Gautam Gambhir and Wasim Jaffer must be wondering what they are doing on this tour if having been chosen as openers they will then be forced to cool their heels..

Amazing..never heard of this before..

Apparently, there is a little-known ripple in American history as a result of the switch from the Julian to Gregorian calendars, part of an ongoing struggle to realign the days with Earth's orbit. This came up in the context of the Jan. 17 celebration of the enlightened and much celebrated American scientist & inventor, statesman, librarian (apparently, he started the very first public library with a lending program), printer, philosopher, musician and economist, Benjamin Franklin's 300th birthday in the US this year.

But apparently,

There is just as much reason to party this Friday, Jan. 6, which was Franklin's birth date before time skipped ahead 11 days in 1752. Because it takes just more than 365 days for the Earth to rotate around the Sun, calendars eventually shift out of line with the seasons unless adjustments are made. The Julian system, introduced by the Romans in 46 B.C., was advanced for its day but still added 11 minutes every year.

According to historian Robert Poole, this shortcoming had pushed Easter's date so out of whack by the sixteenth-century that Pope Gregory XIII felt compelled to act.

"The Gregorian reform removed the unbidden ten days from October 1582 to bring the calendar back into the same relationship with the heavens which it had borne in 325, and introduced a modified pattern of leap years to keep it there," Poole writes in the journal Past & Present.

When Britain and its American colonies reluctantly adopted the new system in 1752, a jump of eleven days was necessary to correct the imbalance. By legal decree, at midnight on the night of Sept. 2, the clock ticked forward and it became Sept. 14.

Anyone living at the time of the skip had to adjust their thinking as well as their birth dates. To avoid confusion, dates were referred to as "Old Style" or "New Style," as Franklin does writing about an uncle in his autobiography of 1771:

"He died in 1702, Jan. 6, old style, just 4 years to a day before I was born."

Officials throughout the British Empire were also forced to quell taxpayers' fears that they would have to fork over money for days that never existed. A common story, which Poole denounces as mostly folklore, goes that some people believed their lives were actually being shortened and rioted to get their eleven days back.

The Beauty of Simplicity - Simple is the new competitive advantage...
'By one estimate, the world produced five exabytes (one quintillion bytes) of content in 2002 - the same amount churned out between 25,000 b.c. and a.d. 2000.'

I am real late with this news but somehow I missed this...

Management guru and arguably the Man Who Invented Management, Peter Drucker, died on Nov 11, 2005 in Claremont, CA at age 95, eight days short of his 96th birthday. Drucker was a Presidential Medal of Freedom awardee in 2002 and taught at New York University as Professor of Management from 1950 to 1971 and rom 1971 till his death, he was the Clarke Professor of Social Science and Management at Claremont Graduate University.

(I didn't realize till I read in the wiki entry today that he was not American - he was of Austrian origin - moved to America in 1937 in the face of Naziism's threat and became a naturalized citizen in 1943.)

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You learn something new every day... never heard of the "father of scientific management", Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915) before I read about him in the wiki entry for Drucker! Stevens Institute of Technology, where he earned a night-study degree in 1883 houses archives of his papers in the Special Collections section of their library.) Modern management theorists, such as Edward Deming, often credit Taylor, however, with generating the principles upon which they act.

Eldritch Press has his classic work online..
The Principles of Scientific Management,
Copyright © 1911 by Frederick W. Taylor
Published in Norton Library 1967 by arrangement with Harper & Row, Publishers, Incorporated,
by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110,
ISBN 0-393-00398-1, $8.95 paperback

• Introduction...................7KB
• Chapter 1: Fundamentals of Scientific Management...34KB
• Chapter 2: The Principles of Scientific Management..179KB

Here is also a short online biography, at:
http://www.stfrancis.edu/ba/ghkickul/stuwebs/bbios/biograph/fwtaylor.htm

One home page on Taylor as inventor is at:
http://www.ideafinder.com/facts/inventors/taylor.htm

Also can read the text of this seminal work here

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Management consultant, Tom Peters writes about why Drucker was the Right Man for His/Our Times

Also see list below of related reading, cut-n-pasted from the aforementioned wiki entry

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations by Peter Drucker

• Thought Leaders Forum: Peter F. Drucker
• The Business According to Peter F. Drucker
• The Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management
• Peter F. Drucker: A Biography in Progress
• Peter F. Drucker, a Pioneer in Social and Management Theory, Is Dead at 95 (The New York Times, November 12, 2005)
• The Man Who Invented Management (BusinessWeek)
• Special report on Peter Drucker (The Economist, November 19, 2005)
• The icon-speaks: An interview with Peter Drucker - Interview
• Career moves for ages 20 to 70
• Peter Drucker's at it Again! What He REALLY Thinks about Libraries and Librarians
• Current Commentary on AI and Positive Change: Peter Drucker's Advice for Us on the New Ai Project: Business as an Agent of World Benefit
• The Corporation That Plays Together, Stays Together: An Interview With Peter Drucker
• More links
• Full articles at Peter F. Drucker Foundation [1]
  • Managing Knowledge Means Managing Oneself by Peter F. Drucker
  • The New Pluralism by Peter F. Drucker
  • Civilizing the City by Peter F. Drucker
  • The Shape of Things to Come: An Interview with Peter F. Drucker by Peter F. Drucker

No details or comments from me at this point in time (more because I lack the time and not because of any lack of opinions)...

Cut-n-paste from a post at Prufock's Page, On The Bannedwagon

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James Laine's controversial The Epic of Shivaji, a translation of the Sivabharata (with the aid of S.S. Bahulkar) was actually published in 2001 -- two years before his Shivaji: Hindu King In Islamic India (which was banned by the state in 2004). In proscribing this earlier book now, the Maharashtra government said that it 'could threaten law and order and overall stability in the society'. (Considering that no tremors rocked the state in the four years that the book was available, one can only guess at their motives.)

In a recent conversation with Mid-day's Deepak Lokhande, Laine said:

'I am beginning to wonder whether your people want to participate in a scholarly debate. It happens in the rest of the world. My book was for scholars - I am not a popular author who writes for masses. I don't understand why so much attention is being given to some lines here and there....The Indian government and the Indian people have the right to decide what book they want to read...A few lines picked from the introduction have been used for banning the book. It's sad it is being stalled and it's a pity that Indian intellectuals are not raising their voice against it.'

In the Hindustan Times, Laine commented: 'Some time ago, the publishers said that there were people offended by the use of the word 'Oedipal.' I told them I had no objection to the use of another word. I have had no contact with the government.'

Well, what does it matter as long as we get a Shivaji memorial rising from the sea? Oh, hold on, there's someone else protesting.

(The Literary Saloon's earlier post here, and current one here.)

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Doctor, heal thyself..!!!!

Salman Rushdie recently commented in the Paris Review on his growing ambition to tell a story simply and clearly: 'I've gotten more interested in clarity as a virtue, less interested in the virtues of difficulty - I don't like books that play to the gallery, but I've become more concerned with telling a story as clearly and engagingly as I can... A story doesn't have to be simple, it doesn't have to be one-dimensional but, especially if it's multidimensional, you need to find the clearest, most engaging way of telling it.'- via Prufock's page:
(The interview with Rushdie appeared in the Summer 2005 issue; some extracts are online here.)

Haven't read much about Arundhati Roy for a while... suddenly she's in the news again... this time for her decision to turn down this year's Sahitya Akademi award and obviously she is not reconsidering the decision... Ms. Roy had declined the award, saying she could not accept the honour from an institution linked to a government whose policies she opposed, they told PTI.' 'The Algebra of Infinite Justice', a collection of essays by writer Arundhati Roy on the hubris of the rich and the powerful and the plight of the poor and the homeless, was selected for the 2005 Sahitya Akademi Award in English.

Interestingly, she also recently recieved the 2004 Sydney Peace Prize. You can read a transcript of her lecture, Peace and The New Corporate Liberation Theology, given on this occasion.

And here are a couple good recent interviews with her...
Arundhati Roy discusses her role as writer and activist, the importance of non-violent dissent, and the potential for finding justice in the world.

And a really deep interview with Amit Sengupta of Tehelka.com

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Some other references from the past..

Link 1: "In May 1999, in the two Indian news magazines 'Outlook' and 'Frontline', Arundhati Roy published a lengthy political commentary on the Narmada dam project, its history and context, and its impact on the people it is displacing. An abridged version of the same article entitled ' Lies, Dam Lies, and Statistics', published in the Guardian newspaper in the UK two weeks later.

The text of the full article, entitled The Greater Common Good, is available from the Frontline website here. The article was also published as a book in India, and has since been repackaged with The End of Imagination essay as 'The Cost of Living'."

Link 2: War Talk - Arundhati Roy, the internationally acclaimed author of The God of Small Things, addresses issues of democracy and dissent, racism and empire, and war and peace in this collection of new essays.

Twin triumphs for women in politics.... two women coming to power today in two different countries after getting elected to lead their countries..

Historic win for Michelle Bachelet, elected as Chile's first woman President.

and

in Liberia, the first ever Woman president of Africa, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, gets sworn in today, (with Condi & Laura Bush at the inauguration showing support for 'Girl Power' :))

Bachelet's win is historic given the context that "Chilean society is often portrayed as ultra-conservative, dominated by men and the Roman Catholic Church. Only 4% of senators are women and divorce was only introduced last year.'

...writes Red, ... 'In a deeply Catholic conservative nation where politics is dominated by machismo (rememeber Pinochet), Bachelet is a divorced single mother , who publicly declares herself to be an atheist and was previously tortured by the Pinochet regime. Bachelet returned after the fall of Pinochet and was made Ministers for Defence and Health, irnoically placing her in charge of the same army that once tortured her.'

After giving an update on the Bolivian elections, (where 'For the first time in Bolivia a candidate has won the absolute majority of the votes. Evo Morales, a Quechaha Indian and high-school dropout who herded llamas as a boy,leads the Movement to Socialism, counts Chavez and Castro as his buddies and calls himself Washington's worst nightmare. He is the first indigenous President in Bolivia.'), Red concludes, 'Latin Americans now live in interesting times'.

Indeed...12 of the region's countries prepare for presidential elections between November 2005 and the end of 2006. And with socialists and supporters of Chavez & Castro winning many of these elections, the next few years are going to be interesting, to say the least... dealing with Iran, Iraq, and Korea (the self-labelled 'axis of evil') is going to keep the US really entrenched.. but the Bush administration is definitely going to sigh that 'Democracy can be so inconvenient'. The question in my mind is whether history will repeat itself? Will we see a number of military coups that put in place puppet regimes? Hope not...

NPR had a great interview with pig farmers in the mid-west who have decided to start operations in Brazil. Now, these guys aren't big corporate farmers just a couple of family farmers trying to expand their business. The world is certainly flat! - via John Winsor's blog. John is the author of the recent book, SPARK & an earlier book, Beyond the Brand.

Given the recent history, this Ranji trophy clash between Mumbai and Maharashtra has some special significance... and despite what they said going into the match, some of the players atleast are bound to be on edge and have some strong feelings going into this match.

Mumbai start as favorites, being the top dog in the Elite group - especially given Maharashtra's dismal performance so far, despite a new foreign coach (Darren Holder from Australia) and a new-look team with ex-Test team stars like Bahutale and Kanitkar and future-test hopefuls like Munaf Patel (Munaf & Bahutale played for the Bombay side till last year...see earlier post about this).

Well.. Day 1...and Maharashtra predictably flounder around to a less than respectable score of 213 allout ...pretty good considering they were 137/7 at one point but reached 213 thanks to a quickfire 39 off 40 balls from Munaf Patel and 29 of 35 balls by #10 player, SR Burkul. However, Maharashtra gave some indication of putting up a fight... dismissing both openers before the close of day, leaving Mumbai at 21/2.

But the greater surprise has come on day 2... Munaf Patel strikes terror as he dismisses the top order batsmen for single digit scores leaving them reeling at 47/6. Mumbai's top order doesn't have quite a good solid feel to it this year after all the pre-season changes - and without Wasim Jaffer, who is in Pakistan, it was even more severely crippled in this match. Munaf went on to take 5 wcikets and Mumbai was dismissed for 175, giving Maharashtra a morale-boosting first innings lead! And this thanks to a gritty performance from Ramesh Pawar, who put up a great fight, reaching an unbeaten 78* before running out of partners. Ramesh Pawar, who played a few ODIs when India last toured Pakistan, regularly chips in with good performances for the Mumbai side and is one of the few players in the country with great all-round ability... I hope he is groomed and developed more and given more chances to play for India, especially in ODIs.

Lets see if Mumbai bowlers fight back on day 3 and go on to win the match for Mumbai (not an unrealistic expectation)!

Day 3: Powar takes 5 wickets in just 13.5 overs and Maharashtra crumble to 187 allout... leaving Mumbai 226 to chase to win. However, Maharashtra fight back, taking 155/7. Powar is still there and so there is hope for Mumbai but 71 runs still in arrears... might be tough!

Day 4: Well..well..well.... Maharashtra beat Mumbai!!!! Munaf Patel ^& Bahutale have the last laugh .. Mumbai, having resumed the day needing 71 runs, managed just five runs. Sairaj Bahutule got rid of Rajesh Verma while Munaf Patel removed Ramesh Powar and Nilesh Kulkarni, the overnight batsmen, to bring up the Maharashtra victory.

In another great match in this round, Bengal also stormed to the semis with a great win over Railways.. Bangar (remember him?) set Bengal a target of 303 in 54 overs with a sporting declaration (prompted probably because Railways didn't even have the luxury of a first-innings lead, the curse of domestic cricket petering to meaningless draws) and Bengal grabbed the chance with a thrilling win with 1 ball to go. Abhishek Jhunjhunwala's magnificient 139 in 135 balls and and Subhomoy Das with 83 helped Bengal reach victory... concluding a good match, compared to the usual humdrum in domestic cricket!

The outsourcing of evil ...Salman Rushdie

Researchers in Taiwan have engineered pigs that glow green in fluorescent light, thanks to the addition of a jellyfish gene. In daylight, their eyes and skin are green-tinged. They are the only ones that are green from the inside out. Even their heart and internal organs are green!

Maybe one of these days, pigs will fly too..!

It is the time to be discussing Ganguly these days while we wait for the first test to begin...and so in that spirit.. here is an interesting analysis of Ganguly's impact as a captain and as a player. We keep talking about the Ganguly-Wright era, about how Ganguly brought a step-change in the Indian teams attitude towards winning, etc... but when we look at cold hard stats, how well did he really do?

Saurabh Wahi, who even by bloggers-standards seems to have a lot of 'free time' on his hands and conducts some real amazing analyses of cricketing stats at his blog, Vital Stats, writes:

Ganguly's "intangible contribution (to Indian cricket) is that he built a new sense of confidence and cockiness within Indian cricket, groomed youngsters and has a big part to play in getting Indian cricket to where it is now and no amount of graphical analysis can do justice to his legacy

But ..

"How many did he win, and lose? What was his record against the leading nations, and against the minnows? What was his batting record as captain and how did it compare with Tendulkar, Dravid (in ODI's & Tests), Sehwag (in ODI's) and Laxman (in Tests)? And lastly, how did he compare with his peers like Vaughan, Inzamam, Ponting, and Fleming."

Read the detailed analysis here.

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Sidenote: Tells you why the Pakistanis are so worried about Dravid more than anyone else (though, I am sure, Shewag also probably gives Woolmer a few sleepless nights, given his record against Pakistan and when it comes to Indian batting, they can never really lose sight of SRT)...

However, as the hangover from the celebration of the Ganguly-Wright era recedes and the more permanent euphoria over SRT's undeniable record-breaking exploits simmers in the background...two quiet men whose contribution cannot be understated ought to be celebrated - Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble.

More about Kumble later but here is an interesting observation about Dravid from a plot in the above post which shows us how well Dravid has done ...even moreso than SRT...in tests that India has won! Dravid stands out as the chief contributer (batting-wise) in Indian wins..even better than SRT..although it is true that this data captures only tests in which Ganguly was the captain and as Saurabh points out, it does not include a significant inning by SRT (the 194* in India's win Pakistan in 2004 under Dravid.) Would be nice if such a comparison could be done overall.. not just in tests where Ganguly has led.. and maybe Saurabh will do that soon! :)

But in any case, in tests where Ganguly led the Indian side to victory, there is a big difference in Dravid's average (102.8 overall, 111.3 excluding Bangladesh and Zimbabve, the minnows) compared to anyone else in the Indian side. SRT's overall average in wins (69.9) falls significantly (to 53.3) if you exclude the wins against minnows, against whom his performance is significantly better (a Dravid-esque average of 103.4!).

Playboy Makes Move in India, but Without the Centerfold - Playboy is seeking to do in India what it had never done before: publish a magazine with its usual fare, except for its name and its nudes.

Shouldn't matter...right? We read it for the articles, dont we? ;)

I often find that New York Times movie reviews are really great literary pieces by themself.. here is a recent sampling

'Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont': An Aging Grande Dame and Her Youthful Caller Dame Joan Plowright endows Mrs. Palfrey with stoic charm and decency in this unabashedly sentimental film.

'The Libertine': A Noble With Big, and Fatal, Appetites Johnny Depp's beauty and talent salvage this rigorously stagy film on the life and bad-boy times of the second Earl of Rochester.

'The Boys of Baraka': Goodbye City Streets, Hello African Wilderness This rich documentary proves that inner city boys have a better chance of thriving if removed from their poor neighborhoods.

'Exist: Not a Protest Film': Two Young Radicals and Their Dovetailing Destinies By dramatizing the lives of two activists with candor, sympathy and a healthy strain of skepticism, "Exist" offers an antidote to the whimsy and solipsism endemic to much of what passes for independent filmmaking.

'First Descent': Extreme Snow and Its Enthusiasts If this chronicle of snowboarding has no more heft than a fresh coat of powder, it's awfully fun to roll around in.

'Little Man': A Story of Mothers' Love "Little Man" is an unusually honest film about the ambiguity of maternal love.

'Walk the Line': The Man in Black, on Stage and Off Johnny Cash gets the musical biopic treatment in this moderately entertaining, never quite convincing chronicle of his early years.

'The Kid and I': The Perils of Privilege A chore to watch, "The Kid and I" is self-congratulatory, excruciatingly sentimental and sloppily written and directed.

'I Love Your Work': It's Lonely, at the Top, and a Little Scary, Too Directed by the young actor Adam Goldberg, "I Love Your Work" is an attempt to say something interesting about modern celebrity.

'Be Here to Love Me': Portrait of a Problem Child With a Songwriter's Soul Margaret Brown has directed a tender, impressionistic film biography about the Texan singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt.

'Far Side of the Moon': A Pair of Brothers Learn How Strong Gravity Can Be It takes about 28 days for the moon to orbit the earth and approximately 60 minutes for "Far Side of the Moon" to reveal its full splendor. 12PM 2 Jan

'Transamerica': A Complex Metamorphosis of the Most Fundamental Sort 'Transamerica', starring Felicity Huffman as a pre-operative transsexual, is touching and sometimes funny, despite its overall air of indie earnestness.

'Aeon Flux': In 2415, There are Still Bad Hair Days A. O. Scott (Movies)"Aeon Flux" is best appreciated for the costumes, the sets and Charlize Theron's haughty athleticism.

'The World's Fastest Indian': An Old Man and His Bike, Chasing an Impossible Dream Stephen Holden (Movies)This based-on-fact story of a New Zealand coot who defies age by racing his motorcycle competitively is a big mushy piece of ice cream cake for Anthony Hopkins.