Dhoni bowling

Remember Will Smith’s final punch in the movie ‘Hitch’, “Basic principle – there isn’t any!”? India’s World Cup glory has just shown that this quote goes great for cricket, if not romance. And the man who made that happen is being pointed to as a model captain by hundreds of coaches to thousands of aspirants across the cricketing world, while in fact he is a rather unorthodox skipper that prefers to go by the gut. Case in point: MSD – Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

The typical ‘crucial’ match for MSD begins with critics either writing off the ‘Men in Blue’ or labeling them ‘Favorites’, a tag heavy enough to pull down an over-confident team to hard ground. And then the team is named – a team packed with surprise players – much to the astonishment of former players and fans alike. The battle begins soon after, there are a few ups and downs, yet the result is sweet for the whole lot of berserk fans and another mouth-shut instance for the gaping critics. And then the statistics come up, convincing everybody that all players have kicked ass. Not to mention, MSD’s speech at the post-match presentation!

Following your instinct necessarily is, atleast in certain scenarios, inflicting a gamble on yourself and the resources you possess. It takes a lot of balls to wander over to the very limits of certainty. Dhoni does have a lot of balls, literally, and most of his ‘tricks’ – as his out-of-the-box decisions are most shamefully referred to – have worked magic. Watching this guy leading this confident pack has taught me more about the ‘Gut-feel’ technique than my Economics teacher.

So what’s it like taking doubtful plunges and risking losses in matches, especially at vital stages? Sounds like disaster at first sight, but sadly, that is what one is frequently misled by, watching this daring captain play all the supposedly wrong cards. But what’s running on the guy’s mind is different. He believes in surprising the opponents with sheer mindplay – right from introducing them to folks that they least expect, to changing gears into aggression mode, at a stage where defense would have been the preferred option. The basic points are to land the opposition into unexpected situations, control the little crucial moments and turning points that are imminent in every game, and letting the merit of the player do everything. From his viewpoint, Dhoni does stick to HIS basics.

The incidence of ‘mistaken’ inclusion in the World Cup final versus SriLanka, where Ashwin was overlooked for the s(t)eamer Sreesanth , came in for brickbats, as usual. In fine form, and a rather low- key to the opposition having seen so less of him, one could bet a fortune that Ashwin would be included for the finals. Also, the question of the out-of-form Sreesanth – of all the bowlers – making it to the eleven was going to torment Dhoni all his life, in case it proved a bad decision. Sreesanth wasn’t too good in the match really, yet all these clouds of confusion drifted away once India won the cup and MSD was hailed as a truly genial captain. Of course, there were talks attributing the win to the decision to include the ‘lucky mascot’ Sreesanth, part of the winning T20 World Cup squad, by the dubiously ‘superstitious’ captain!

Who can forget his decision to bowl first on a seemingly batsman-friendly pitch at Cape Town during India’s tour of South Africa early this year? Placing firm trust in the seamers yielded profitable returns as they ragged the South African batting lineup, paving way to a face-saving draw in what appeared to be an easy win for the Proteans. Many more like these can be listed from memory with ease – debatable decisions leading to delightful results are always remembered.

Mention ‘cricket’ to anybody in India and if you could ever scan his brain at that instant, it would either contain Sachin Tendulkar, Kapil Dev or MS Dhoni. That’s the level this man of 29 has managed to reach, in a country that celebrates cricket and worships players. Like the other two legends, MSD has become a beacon of hope, a swashbuckling star that never buckles under pressure, and more importantly in the context of this new era of Indian cricket, a leader of everlasting trust and a never-say-die attitude.

Karl Marx once suggested that all demographic entities will sooner or later be gobbled up into socialism and democracy. With Egypt already having moved on to the next level towards democracy and now Libya stepping in towards people’s rule, one can only ponder over Marx’s unmistakable view of the future. Liberation in Libya has been the trending news in what has been the most dramatic turnarounds in the Middle-Eastern nations, hitherto ruled by monarchs and autocratic individuals, the best known being Col. Muammar Gaddaffi – or should I say notorious?

Having virtually ruled the country for over 40 years since 1969, Gaddaffi has made more enemies than friends during his authoritative regime, which is bound to end the way he probably wouldn’t want to. For the last four decades, Libyans have witnessed suppression and divisive politics, and hence been filling a dormant yet steady cauldron of outrage and rebellion. The current revolt against the authoritative chunk of leaders is no surprise – its just a venting of the collective wrath in the hearts of the public.

Apparently being fuelled by the rather successful civil uprising in neighboring Egypt, it has been almost a month since the first display of unrest and outcry in Benghazi, an important city, and Tripoli, the capital. The Day of Rage, on Feb. 17^th sparked continued displays of public outrage against the government, extending uptil the present day. With already about 3000 people dead and several thoussands injured, Tripoli has been a ravaging warlike zone as angered Anti-Gaddaffi forces fight the powerful loyalists of the Gaddaffi government, now a spent force politically.

But how did the people strike at the right time? What could have possibly weakened the 40-year-dictatorship by one of the most powerful rulers of the middle east? The factors that promoted the belligerence and the events that turned in Gaddaffi’s weakness is quite a story in itself.

Gaddaffi had always been known as a shrewd and imposing politician with a steel fist when it came to power. Among his intelligent tactics were filling his political network with sons, blood relatives and close associates, and dealing with his critics the hard way. While he had always maintained mixed relationships with the West, a pact that Gaddaffi signed with the US has now proved to be his Achille’s heel. According to the deal, Gaddaffi sold his rights to employ or sell nuclear weapons for a huge sum of money, back in the early 2000’s. Gaddaffi had earlier been known to possess a huge inventory of nuclear material, therefore this came as a sigh of relief to numerous western powers. But having now landed into a critical position he least expected, Gaddaffi has slipped into oblivion due to fear of the uprising, and tactfully blames the West as to instigating the current revolts.

Whether or not Libya moves towards democracy, it has certainly taken a brave step forward in trying to annihilate one of its strongest barriers to democracy – in the form of a once-war-hero, now a tyrant. A new belief has been instilled in the hearts of the Libyans who have looked up to their Tunisian and Egyptian counterparts. Tomorrow will arrive, soon.

Neil Armstrong may have experienced the moon in 1969, but back on the Earth nocturnal moonlight experiences and celestial romance was already being delivered to the not-so-lucky general public, heralded by a music group which was creating history already.

When David Gilmour left for the home lights of England (on a truck!), he’d have little wondered that he was going to make arguably the most influential lineup in rock music since ‘The Beatles’. Beginning his guitaring stint in France and Spain with a few friends, he played for a band they formed together. His big break came much later though, in the form of a writhing Syd Barrett – then the frontman – who had grave difficulties in performing and writing for Pink Floyd, thanks to his depression from drug-abuse. With his blues-influenced soulful solos, he quickly notched up the fame ladder, and quite predictably, by the late 70’s, he was the most loved member of the band.

While the first few albums garnered the attention of the general people – who were by then tired with the popular blues-rock – for their folk-soaked musical style, the subsequent ones witnessed a paradigm shift in Pink Floyd’s sound from country to classical and jazz influences. Then came their most significant album, The Dark Side of the Moon – a complete deviation from what was believed to be standard rock music. Critics began to turn into fans – Pink Floyd had arrived! Following it up with such albums as Wish You Were Here, The Animals, and The Wall, Pink Floyd made its presence felt in the popular music charts.

Pink Floyd’s USP was not exactly about their bluesy melodies and stirring lyrics, as compared to their remarkably progressive sound, given the rather sparse technology at that time. The music was characterized by the psychedelia of kaleidoscopes, the faint wailings of UFOs, and the cosmic echoes of heavenly bodies, all put together in resounding harmony. Adding to the out-of-the-world effect was the heavily engineered lead-guitar patches and the unforgettable solos that are still part of regular must-listen lists in rock music. What began as a band experimenting with psychedelic riffs and patches eventually ended up bringing about an irrevocable revolution in popular music.

To this day, Pink Floyd’s live shows (with the alive members) are a plethora of scintillating color lights, an amazing surround sound and their evergreen waves of progressive music, as has always been. David Gilmour, now a solo musician, continues to enthrall huge audiences that grew up listening to Pink Floyd with his timeless musicality and technique that is beyond physical aging.

LISTEN TO THESE:

“Comfortably Numb” – The wall

“Shine on You Crazy Diamond” – Wish you were here

“Hey You” – The wall

“Echoes” – Meddle

“Wish You Were Here” – Wish you were here

“Another Brick in the Wall” – The Wall

“Learning to Fly” – A momentary lapse of reason

“High Hopes” – The division bell

“Money” – Dark side of the moon

“Time” – Dark side of the moon

People in Japan had a horrid afternoon today as they were struck by one of the world’s strongest earthquakes over the last decade. An intensity of 8.9 on the Richter’s scale, the quake is much stronger than the one we faced in Gujarat, about ten years ago. But that’s not all.

The strong tremors, even as expert geologists feared, has now triggered mammoth waves from the Japan sea (Pacific Ocean) into the Japanese coasts – the first major tsunami the country is facing this millennium. Tens of thousands of people have hurriedly fled the coasts in the wake of widespread warnings, while the seas have begun to devour their towns and cities from all directions. Even as you read this, the casualties and losses are on the rise in what is going to be one of the worst natural disasters in the world in a long time.

Calamities like these do not occur once in a blue-moon in this island-nation. Anybody in Japan has certainly experienced atleast one earthquake, and the good thing about it – if there is a point that needs to be taken home – is most of them are ever-prepared to bear the harsh brunt of nature. Indeed, the country has a history beefed up with natural calamities and has seen most of the worst earthquakes and tsunamis that have ever been known. Which brings us to the question: why Japan?

Obviously, it has to do with the geographic position of the country and the tectonic arrangements that the islands are sewn up within. But what is not exactly as obvious, is the unfortunate proximity of Japan to a dangerous system of trenches and volcanoes in the Pacific Ocean, known as the ‘Ring of Fire’.

The ‘Ring of Fire’ is used to refer the chunk of the ocean surrounded by mountain ranges and volcanic islands which also constitute the borders of the Pacific Plate, a tectonic plate associated with the ocean. Any disturbances within this tectonic plate are directly transmitted to both its borders, Japan towards the West and North America towards the East. Thus, the tsunami waves triggered by a volcanic eruption or a tectonic shift in the region are headed for Japan and the US. But since Japan constitutes a larger junction of tectonic plates, the degree of damage is worse than anywhere else in the world.

The ‘Ring of Fire’ adds to the damage already created by the earlier mentioned factor: that of seismic tremors attributed to tectonic shifts between various plates situated in the islands. Today’s quake has most likely been caused by such a shift in plates which, as a result, has turned in the oceanic currents too. As a logical measure – as we see now -warnings have been issued to all other countries that border the ‘Ring of Fire’, namely the US, parts of Russia, South American nations, Southeast Asia and Oceania. It remains to be seen how the adversely affected Japanese will counter the horrid situation.

In all its strides towards perfection, science has hitherto been a cropper in comparison with mere animals, in its inability to predict disastrous natural calamities that threaten creation. Let us nevertheless put our brains in thought, and for now, our hearts in prayer.

Remember that ambitious resolution you made this New Year…was it something like trying to shed some weight or bulk up your arms or legs? Any good? No?

Well, you’re not alone. A majority of physique-related resolutions every New Year is more likely unfulfilled than successful. Ask anybody and they’re going to fret about how they’ve failed at it the last few years!

Picture this – January: All the gymnasiums are full, the roadsides filled with swanky people on the run, sometimes twice every day, and there’s not a single park in town you can’t find folks on their toes trying to shed some pounds. Come February, and half of these just disappear. By March, they’re all gone, having run out of the inspiration, the will and resolve, and of course, the physical and mental energy necessary for these routines!

Most of these people end up quitting fitness or bodybuilding routines for good, citing several reasons: they’re either tired or bored, or even injured. Halfway down the line, they’ve lost the drive towards their physical goals, and that’s bad. What’s worse is that they’ll soon find themselves back at square-one – the very same state they tried not to be – and are bugged down by disappointment about all their wasted efforts through their short-lived routine. Now this is quite a crowd that needs some address.

One has to bear in mind that fitness is not like money that can be inventoried and leveraged at will, but more like food for the body, required at regular intervals and in continuity. I mean, doesn’t make sense eating up enough food for a couple of days, does it? A fitness routine, much like nutrition, is a mandate for every day, in some form or the other, whether done as a conscious effort, like aerobics, or a by-effort, like walking to somewhere. Which means heaving out a week’s quota in a single session, or running 20 miles at a time in place of a ‘4-miles-a-day’ week is just not going to work – if you were ever able to do them, that is. The trick is to choose the limit wisely and focus on regularity, rather than trying to ambitiously raise the bar.

‘Aptness’ and ‘Properness’ are probably the most important aspects of working out, yet least attended to. A workout session is, theoretically, deliberate infliction of some damage to your muscle cells, so they can recover to form stronger and bulkier tissues. That’s how it works out. What follows logically is that there is a cap on the damage you can do to yourself – a limit to which the body can recover. You can’t just go about heaving fifty pounds just because your favorite star does that in a movie! An improper workout is simply damage and exasperation.

And keep the drive going! Your mind must picture what you intend to achieve and constantly prod you towards that direction. This might seem like straight out of one of those inspirational books but it’s the truth. It does work! Watch inspiring movies, read about physique maniacs like Arnold, Bruce Lee, and get a point or two from their methods, their goals and the means to achieve them.

“Remember, every time you go work yourself out, you’re going to look better than you did ten minutes ago.”  – Sylvester Stallone. I couldn’t think of a better way to end this.

The band has a rather interesting methodology of utilizing solar radiation to power their musical instruments and PAs, through solar panels and rechargeable batteries. As Alan Bigelow – guitarist and vocalist, who’s also a scientist – took me through a detailed explanation of this apparently complicated system, I could find the gleam in his eyes. “We’re on a mission to educate audiences on the environment through music” go the members, who’ve just concluded their third trip to India, this time focusing on the south.

So here they were – right in my college, ready to rock! Trying their best to tolerate the scorching sun which was literally frying them, they set out to charge their batteries with their panels. I began to wonder about how many of us in this country kept fretting about the heat, thinking least about putting it to some sensible purpose. Alan, however, was clear: “You guys have got big potential, both wind energy and solar energy”, while we talked about alternative power solutions later that day.

Evening was arriving and setup had begun for their gig. I was so engrossed about their technology that it never struck me about WHAT they were going to play. So what were they into? Metal? Jazz? Blues-rock? Joe Mitch – percussionist – suggested his jazz and funk influences, and I decided they were going to play just that. Walking about the stage helping setup, I got a sneak-peek into their set-list for the day. And what a shock it was! On the list were prominently featured, along with their rock songs, popular Hindi, Tamil and Telugu numbers. They were going to play Indian!

“Ah yes we’ve been doing it for some time now!” said James Dean Conklin – lead vocalist and guitarist – when I expressed my surprise over this realization. “I even know what those lyrics mean!” he went, my jaw gaping even wider! Sure enough he did, I knew, as he came up with translations of some of the neatly printed lyric-pages. I waited with bated breath and excitement, trying to imagine how the unsuspecting crowd was going to go gaga. Andy Mattina – bassist – was already on his toes backstage!

The gig was superb – two hours of gleeful funk on stage and euphoric cheers from the crowd. They made sure the students laughed a little, learned a little and sung a little. As expected, the crowd went berserk when they were treated to “Suttum Vizhi Sudare” and “Yun Hi Chala”. Songs from their album Surya went down fantastically with the audience, while their covers were just awesome – lovely improvisations and a colorful display of dexterity. A carefully chosen set of covers, I figured out, in that all of them featured the word “Sun”, be it “Sunshine of Your Love” by Eric Clapton or “Here Comes the Sun” by the Beatles. I understood that commitment was something beyond adherence to a set of practices – it was a way of living, where your beliefs are essentially manifested in whatever you do, wherever you go. What a band!

We live in a democracy, an open economy – your money and mine are both property of the nation, just the way the nation is ours. While saving the money is perfectly sane and logical, trying to conceal it is, I daresay, absurdity. Worse – stashing money in unknown locations, secret lockers and foreign banks – in the name of ‘savings’ – is pure stupidity. It stays there on and on, never to grow in value, nor to serve purpose, and in most cases lost for eternity as generations pass on. Even in the rare case you decide one fine day to open up your little treasure, you discover that it has diminished in value – it’s no more a treasure. Perhaps, if you had saved it a few more decades, it might’ve fetched a decent fortune in the name of ‘preserved antiquity’!

What was invented as a form of economic value and ought to be used as a device of purchasing power is now viewed upon as a precious commodity that should be inventoried for tomorrow. The very point of leveraging the buying power has been pushed to the back seat. While saving money has become a sign of practicality, generous spending has become but a joke.

Reserving money for uncertainty is a definitive and necessary utility, granted, but the underlying principle of earning your bucks is to spend them for products and services that keep your life worthwhile. The money you earn – I repeat, ‘earn’ and not ‘find’ or ‘get’ – is a way of compensating your efforts for some cause. Your money is what you reap out of your work – and it’s only fair that you convert these credits into something sensible, something of a more direct use by humans, like food, for instance, or entertainment, anything. You don’t eat money, nor do you feel relaxed merely sitting up and staring at it, huh?

And to all the folks that believe a penny saved today will make a fortune tomorrow, have you heard of anything called ‘inflation’? It’s this economic phenomenon by which your money falls in value over time. Which implies that a penny saved is not exactly a penny earned, it’s quite lesser! So spend your efforts, people, because you deserve lasting credit for what you’ve earned. Money is powerful, yet expendable.

Directed by the legendary Martin Scorsese, it is the story of a night-time taxi driver who takes to radical assaults and murders, resolving to clean up the ‘dirt’ in his city. Robert De Niro excels in one of his best-ever roles as Travis, the insomniac taxi driver – his love-sequences with Cybill Shepherd are especially elegant. The twists and turns in the movie leading to the alarming climax take the viewer through a roller-coaster of emotions. A regular feature on several ‘All-Time-Best-Movies’ lists, ’Taxi Driver’ is also famous for both Scorsese and De Niro being denied Academy Awards for one of their best efforts together.

The Dark Knight (2008)

Having delivered impressive psychological thrillers, Christopher Nolan sought to resurrect the ‘Batman’ franchise with his ‘Batman Begins’, and followed it up with ‘The Dark Knight’, which became the biggest superhero blockbuster. The film throws light on the Batman’s struggle to balance his personal sensitivities and public responsibilities, and of course, the conspiring Joker, to make things worse. Nolan received worldwide praise for his exceptional characterization of the Batman and of Harvey Dent, the mayor of Gotham City, but it was the late Heath Ledger as ‘the Joker’ who stole the show.

Pi (1997)

Easily one of the best debut movies for a director, ‘Pi’ is about a young reclusive mathematician who believes that all creation is based on definite patterns and numbers, and how he battles health troubles and pursuing strangers, only to be revealed a stunning secret that changes his life forever. Made in artistic black-and-white, it is a showcase of the enormous potential of director Darren Aronofsky, who went on to make movies like ‘Requiem for a Dream’, and now, ‘Black Swan’.

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Non-linearity, loquacity, bloodshed, dark-comedy – put these together and you’ve got ‘Pulp Fiction’, one of the smartest movies ever made. Immense performances by a star-spangled cast, Tarantino’s signature screenplay – nobody can claim to be a connoisseur of Hollywood without having watched this one. Nobody can deny that ‘Pulp Fiction’ was Tarantino’s outrageous take on contemporary cinema, more than anything else. And who can forget the biblical monologue by Samuel Jackson before the murder scene?

Rocky (1976)

A truly inspirational movie that went on to herald a new genre of sports-cinema. Written by ‘Sly’ Sylvester Stallone himself – weaving instances from his own life into the scenes – the film is about a struggling small-time boxer offered a shot at the World heavyweight title. Sly gave the movie his everything, and sure enough, ‘Rocky’ proved to be his dream Launchpad, as he went on to create the immortal Rocky and Rambo series of movies.

THE ONES THAT ALMOST MADE IT:

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – Michel Gondry

A Clockwork Orange – Stanley Kubrick

Ali – Michael Mann

Fight Club – David Fincher

Inception – Christopher Nolan

To Kill a Mockingbird – Robert Mulligan

Check out all of these movies…they’re absolutely path-defining and ground-breaking in terms of setting trends and mocking older trends.

Yo committed people out there…Wanna make your Valentine feel special this time around? Run out of ideas on how to pamper your dear ones? Check out some sureshot ideas that are gonna make your day this Valentine’s day. Best wishes to all of you !

#1. Act as if you forgot the occasion, and arrange for something big later in the evening.

This works big time for the ones that believe in strict adherence to routines and formalities. The ones to which failure to wish on birthdays and other occasions translates directly into faceoffs. Just give them a ‘busy’ expression if they try to contact you during the daytime, but don’t give yourself off or they might suspect. Don’t worry, they’not going to begin their complaints until they’re sure you’ve forgot! And then in the evening you’ll not call them, because you know they’re kind of pissed off already, but you will visit their place with your surprise, a nice huge surprise that’s gonna immediately drown off all the wrath piled up through the day!

#2. Get a reservation at a hotel and arrange for a cake or something, in advance, and then take your partner as if by chance.

A readywit idea for everyone – best executed by starting off with a rather nonchalant Valentine’s wishes and the traditional question of “how do we celebrate this”. Tell them about this new hotel that serves “piping-hot-mayonnaise-seasoned” crap and that you want him/her to try it out – this prevents any fuss about not coming! Lo and behold, there arrives the surprise, right at your table and then you’ll find yourself savoring the realization on his/her face!

#3. Buy him/her something he/she has been wanting for a long time.

The standard idea: actually most partners will expect gifts to be items they’d fancy or have been fancying for some time. The good news is that you’ll soon be able to figure it out: all you need to do is lend an ear at all times and pay attention to the details of what they talk about most of the time. And don’t forget to build it up with an account of all the hard work you did trying to figure out what he/she liked, and of the pains you underwent trying to obtain the thing.

#4. If you’re good enough, present something artistic that you made yourself, and tell your partner you made it just for him/her. Even a letter/ greeting card will do, as long as it is original and smart.

My kinda strategy: works great for a last-minute Valentine’s day preparation. Gift them a handmade greeting or toy. Even small things like poems, songs and stories are going to work wonders if presented with appealing emotion and conviction. Besides, it comes in handy to make up for late arrivals, absence or cancellation of plans in the past: just tell him/her, “this is what’s been eating me the other day I failed to turn up…Just wanted it to be a surprise!”

#5. Pep-talk over the phone and quietly visit his/her home with a little surprise.

None of the above are going to work out for you? No tension – grab some generic fancy gift from the nearest stationery and ride off to his/her place. Make sure he/she’s home before you call and wish a happy Valentine’s. Then talk into how nice it would be if you two were together right now, and try putting up a helpless expression before knocking at the door. The rest is up to your imagination!

Do you believe in sharing each of your moods and views through networking? Are you the sort of person that can’t let the day end without having chatted to atleast five of your friends about what happened today? If so, have you thought about your safety? Think it’s only your friend on the other side that’s listening to you, and nobody else?

Well, with the advent of social technology, most of us have been forced to put our introspective plans in ‘sleep’ mode. It might as well be said that the sense of socialness and co-existence of humans is pronounced profoundly in this age than ever before, as during any given time – except when asleep – everybody seems to be in some form of actual or virtual contact with someone else. However, when one begins to imagine from a scientific perspective, a vague idea of some of the inner implications of this phenomenon can be obtained. And some of these are troublesome and bitter.

Social networking websites have ceased to spare a single teen out of its tentacular bounds – you are treated as a waste of space by peers if you aren’t present on Facebook or Orkut. Also, this new wave of fascinating smartphone technology – namely apps – makes sure that the last ones of us are entangled on some form of a public domain. To introverts this translates into a massive compulsion to open up themselves to the tyranny of socializing. And when I say introverts I don’t necessarily refer to the shy ones – there are millions of genial people in the world that prefer seclusion.

Rather harmless, eh? Check out this possibility: you’re signed up with scores of the best known social networks out there. You’ve posted your information, your photos and videos, your moods, events in your life, and maybe even confided a lot of personal chutzpah with your close pals. What if those websites maintained a separate document that contained all your information, your personality, your achievements and your SECRETS? Think its not possible? Remember what Gmail says while loading, it goes something like “7000blah blah MBs of free storage, and counting!” – that’s enough to store all the information about your entire life, and even a few others!

Shocked? Wanna stay away from the computer, which you’ve just discovered could be your greatest spy? Bad guess guys, it’s not the computer, it’s what stays in your pants longer than you do yourself – your mobiles! Your service provider maintains a complete database of all communications from and to your number (which means not an ounce of proof is lost even if you’ve deleted your inbox, history or so on!). A simple deal offer from even more powerful online service providers like Google, and these network companies are gonna share their data with them, too! And, of course, as long as your mobile is alive and in your possession, you’re up there on their radar, wherever you go!

Why all this pressure to open up? Is this simply that we’re moving on to the next step towards “global village” thing? Or is it just the beginning of an exhaustive set of proactive “Public Data Aggregation” by an organization tired of doing all the same chores and winning the same awards every year? Why the heck is every social website free of cost out there? We’re suckers to freebies, that’s why! Why are all google services (Google Earth, Gmail, Orkut, Picasa, to name a few) connected systematically under a separate domain called your ‘Google Account’? To make your life easy? Honestly, think about it again people, that’s too good to be true!

A very predictable award function, headed by a self-conceited jury, will present the most coveted film awards later this February. Yes, we are talking about the 83^rd Academy Awards, Edition 2011. What follows is a rather wasteful attempt to tell you that the biggest awards in Hollywood are also the most deceptive and myopic.

Critic ‘A’ says:  What else does Christopher Nolan need to prove?

Inception is clearly the most mind-boggling and skillfully crafted movie of our times – or even for a long time to come. And Nolan is one director who has managed to drive intelligent ideas to average minds with his comprehensive narrative style – time and again. Given the storyline, very few can make ‘Inception’ as coherent and gripping as its present form. With abstract conceptual movies regularly being ignored by the Academy, one gets an impression of the bird-mindedness of the jury. As someone posted on Twitter, “Somebody must have incepted the idea of not nominating Nolan for Best Director into the jury’s brains.”…:)

Critic ‘B’ says: Where the heck is ‘Shutter Island’?

Shutter Island is nowhere to be found in any category of the Academy awards. A brilliant movie by past-master Martin Scorsese, it was very unlucky to have been shadowed down by the more engrossing ‘Inception’ starring the same Leonardo DiCaprio. Scorsese’s amazing experiment in the psycho- thriller domain, and though a box office success, the film is comfortably ignored and forgotten by most of us.  Not to mention, Ben Kingsley’s and DiCaprio’s stunning performances, that you realize is award-worthy material once you’re into the heart of the movie. A lost island – literally…:)

Critic ‘C’ says: Where’s the ‘Hate’ button?

All of us love Facebook. Granted. But that’s no reason to nominate a film on Facebook for 8 awards, which neither took a stand on Zuckerberg nor gave us the entire truth. Remember, these are awards for excellent cinematic features and not extravagant media sensations. If that is so, let’s wait and watch what will happen to a movie on Julian Assange…:)

Critic ‘D’ says: What is Toy Story 3 doing at the ‘Best Picture’ category?

I thought Toy Story 3 was an animated movie, and I also believe there’s a separate category for animated movies. Considering an animated flick for Best Picture just because it’s rated high at IMDB and because it grossed over $1 billion is humbug. Hell, there are a hundred meaningful movies out there, waiting to be recognized! Another exemplification of the bird-brains of the jury – only this one also proves they’re suckers for animated movies…:)…Looks like the Oscars have literally become a ‘Toy’ Story!

Critic ‘E’ says:

I’ve successfully failed in getting right the predictions of Award winners in the last 3 -4 years, but this time, I guess I’ll think along the lines of the jury rather than the common cinema connoisseur.

The best picture award will go to ‘The Social Network’, because that’s the only movie likely to be watched by the jury – along with ‘Toy Story 3’, perhaps. It will also bag the Best Actor award for Jesse Eisenberg, since Mark Zuckerberg is TIME person of the year. That’s explanation enough.

‘The King’s Speech’, the winner of several awards at the BAFTA and Golden Globes, will garner Best Director, simply because the jury will never leave behind a ‘royal’ English movie. It’s also quite likely that Colin Firth might be knighted in next year’s ‘Birthday Honors’ of the Queen.

‘Inception’, if it’s lucky, might lap up a few awards like Best Original Score and Best Visual Effects (as if for namesake), along with a ‘clinical’ observation by the jury, “Inception was a visual treat and a truly innovative movie”…:)

All that being said, there still runs in me this little prayer to the gods I know: let none of that happen, please.

I’m watching the award show anyway: I believe the most interesting part is going to be Anne Hathaway’s captivating attire and charming presentation.

The ‘Day of Anger’ has been fuelled by an amalgam of accumulated angst, disharmony and surging faithlessness in the governmental system. Events of brutality, injustice and rash violence meted out to the public had to be answered. And all this while, the dictatorship at the apex of the system – personified by President Hosni Mubarak – remained resolute and firmly fixed to its seat citing a possible surge of militancy and violence in the country if it yielded.

With most countries under the reign of individual authorities – excepting Israel – the word democracy is totally unheard of in the Middle-East. Experts retort that ever since time known, the Middle-Eastern nations have always been authoritative monarchies and that the ideology of democracy has never been compatible with the populace, especially since the advent of Islam. Even the sole survivor Israel has had to rely on US aid and support in various paradigms, the latter hence appeasing its mysterious concern in the Israel-Palestine issue.

Egypt has so far been a self-proclaimed Republic of sorts, with regular elections being held for powerful posts. Again, these elections were widely known to be one-sided, unreliable and corrupt, with a major chunk of the public complaining of single candidacy and illicit ballot-counting. It is generally believed that the winners were almost always decided by the President himself, who reserves supreme power in legislature according to the country’s rather shallow constitution.

But what exactly set the stage for the largest revolts in the country since 1977 has been the series of crackdowns during the December 2010 elections. A significant number of arrests and detentions by the police under the infamous Emergency Act and subsequent acts of fraudulence in the elections resulted in the public uproar that followed.

The long days of unrest that followed Jan 25 right into Feb 6 witnessed terrific revolting at various epicenters in the historic country, particularly in the chief cities of Cairo, Alexandria and Suez. With each day rendered a name and an objective of its own, the nationwide revolts seem to have undergone various levels of systematic planning. For instance, the first day, the ‘Day of Anger’ witnessed use of violence by civilians as a means of making a statement, while the last day, the ‘Sunday of Martyrs’, was largely a peaceful demonstration.

And what changes have these revolts forced? Huge revolutions, if not transformations, seem to be in the offing, with international pressure mounting on President Hosni Mubarak to yield to the demands of the populace. The government is forced to take a second insight into various legislations that are out of favor of the protesters, an example being the Emergency Law which renders civilians liable to imprisonment merely based on police suspicion. Besides, several apparently promising negotiations are on with the opposition group called the ‘Muslim Brotherhood’, an indication of reconciliation and a re-kindling of democracy in the country. In an optimistic sense, that would place Egypt among the few Arab nations that offer a significant role to public demand in decision-making and legislature.

Albeit, the fiery week has had its own toll on the people – over seven cases of self-immolation have been reported, and about 150 martyrs have lost their lives fighting for the cause of ‘for the people, by the people’. Tahrir Square in Egypt has virtually become a war zone, and the President’s residence has had to resort to military protection. Also, over two thousand people have been injured in the past week, making the Anger revolts the bloodiest public uprising in recent times. Let’s hope all their painstaking efforts and bloodshed are paid off through a new dawning in Egypt’s polity.

Metal music has been the fastest growing form of rock around the world, and is undergoing some remarkable evolution by fusing with other ethnic forms of music: as a result, we have Scandinavian rock, death metal, and even raga-based Indian metal! Meanwhile, another bunch of metal artists are constantly extending their creativity and musicality into a more complex and experimental form of rock called Progressive Rock, but that’s a different story for a different post!

So here they are: put up the volume and shake up your home!

Metal

FADE TO BLACK by METALLICA

The pioneers of the ‘Thrash’ genre, the trend setters in combining aggressive power-chording with melodious acoustic guitar patterns, the rulers of 80s’ metal music – that’s Metallica for you. Made during their heydays when their feud with rival band Megadeth was at its boiling point, ‘Fade to black’ is the typical Metallica song, complete with an acoustic intro, brittle vocals, heavy riffing and a crazy shredding-solo, characteristic of Kirk Hammett’s dexterous guitaring.

Liked it? You will also love:

“Under a glass moon” by Dream Theater

“Brave new world” by Iron Maiden

“Highway star” by Deep Purple

Grunge rock/ Punk rock

SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT by NIRVANA

Kurt Cobain, lead singer and guitarist of Nirvana, was the single most influential artist of his generation. Grunge was not just his music; he regarded it his way of life, an expression of his pains – what with immense fame, outrageous music, lots of pleasure and lots of drugs. He made the most of his youth and died a premature death, just the way he wanted to. This song is one of his most loved.

Liked it? You will also love:

“Beat it” by Michael Jackson

“Scar tissue” by Red Hot Chili Peppers

“Jeremy ” by Pearl Jam

Hard rock

SWEET CHILD OF MINE by GUNS N ROSES

An out-and-out power-packed song propelled to stardom by the shrill yet steady rendering by vocalist Axl Rose and lovely guitar solos that would later embody Slash’s unique guitaring style. Arguably GNR’s best product, ‘Sweet child of mine’ is a must-listen for any hard rock enthusiast.

Liked it? You will also love:

“Jump” by Van Halen

“It’s my life” by Bon Jovi

“Knockin’ on heaven’s door (Bob Dylan cover)” by Guns N Roses

Alternative rock

PARANOID ANDROID by RADIOHEAD

Radiohead was one of the few bands that triggered the shift of popular rock music from the 90’s grunge style to a more comprehensive, less radical, yet energized form of music known then as College rock. The progressive style of this song won critics and fans alike, and took Radiohead places. It remains a staple in every of their live performances.Liked it?

You will also love:

“Lazarus” by Porcupine Tree

“Fix You” by Coldplay

“Everybody’s fool” by Evanescence

A director that has inspired a thousand others, a past-master of the silver screen, a living legend – these are just a few common clauses used to describe Martin Scorsese, one of the best directors Hollywood has ever seen. Having delivered a huge bunch of unforgettable movies over the last four decades, the very longevity of the man in mainstream Hollywood amazes you. Doubt if his movies are still contemporary? Well, go ask every good director you can, past or present, and they will name Scorsese as a major influence. And there are still hundreds of others using his style and trends without even knowing them!

Among a rare few that bother scouting for defining roles even after achieving stardom is the handsome Leonardo DiCaprio. The actor has come a long way right from his first meaningful role in the Johnny Depp starrer ‘What’s Eating Gilbert Grape’ where he plays a teen affected with autism. With ‘Titanic’, he had teens going gaga, and with ‘Catch Me If You Can’, he’d announced his arrival as a true sensation.

The two artists, generations apart, and of completely different cinematic eras, have collaborated over the past decade to create some really awesome movies. Scorsese, though widely known for frequent collaborations with his lead actors, had never cast the same lead more than thrice, the only exception then being Robert DeNiro. As the world witnessed DiCaprio’s staggering evolution as a star, Scorsese went on to cast him an unprecedented four times, and remarkably, all four movies have turned out to prove as milestones in both their careers.

It was the beginning of the new millennium. Scorsese had always wanted to make a film on 19^th century New York, the life, the people and the impending issues of civil war. Throwing his failed attempts to the crows, Scorsese began scouting for young stars to film his new script. DiCaprio, a rising heartthrob then, was interested, and ‘Gangs of New York’ happened in 2002. A crime/action film set in the civil war era, the movie was widely seen as Scorsese’s bid at the box-office, pairing the gorgeous Cameron Diaz with Leo. The best role, however, went to Daniel Day Lewis, the antagonist of the movie. Academy awards? None!

Impressed with ‘Gangs of New York’ and his newfound transformation, DiCaprio signed up with Scorsese to film ‘The Aviator’ (2004), marking his second collaboration with the grand old man. The film, set in the 40’s, was based on the early life of troubled futurist Howard Hughes. A wealthy young man, Hughes tries out his hand at everything he wills, including flying airplanes (new inventions at that time!) and churning out mega-budget movies, attaining huge successes and facing equally massive failures. The movie talks about his inner struggles due to events around him, his self-imposed exile, and eventual resurrection. DiCaprio gave it his everything – his hard-work shows up especially in the scenes he stammers due to his obsessive-compulsive disorder. The result – 5 academy awards for the movie, but not Best Actor or Best Director as yet!

Then came in 2006, ‘Departed’. A gangster movie inspired by a Hong Kong film, it marked Scorsese’s return to what he’s best known for – flicks with dripping bloodshed and moving dramatism. DiCaprio – a mature actor now beginning to get compared with the all-time stars – carried his role with elan, supported by Matt Damon. A huge hit with fans and critics alike, the film quenched Scorsese’s lifelong thirst – an Academy Award for Best Director, to which he chipped-in on stage, ”Could you double-check the envelope?”

Shutter Island (2010) was a standing testimony to Scorsese’s huge presence in Hollywood. A psycho-thriller movie based on a book, this film was his first attempt at the genre, and a very successful one at that. In spite of some brilliant performances by lead actors Leonardo DiCaprio and veteran Ben Kingsley and a thoroughly haunting screenplay, the movie was very unlucky to have been eclipsed by another masterpiece in the same genre – ‘Inception’ by Christopher Nolan.

While everyone touted 2010 as Leo’s year – what with amazing performances in both movies – the Academy threw up a huge shock with neither roles being nominated for Best Actor. As for ‘Shutter Island’, it was totally blacked out, leaving critics and connoisseurs gaping wide in astonishment.

Movies like Taxi Driver, Goodfellas and Raging Bull remain the best-known ones that never got an Oscar for Best Director, vaguely similar to the fate of the timeless movies directed by Alfred Hitchcock, the pioneer of Thriller/Horror films in Hollywood. In the cause of appreciation for art, let us all pledge to donate a piece of our brains to the future juries of the Academy Awards!

Stoyline: A boy falls in love with a girl, and with great difficulty, gets the girl to love him. And just when everything seems to work out, issues get complicated, boiling the situation down to the standard question: Will she or will she not?

Prologue: The story of my VTV review

I caught this movie on its very first week and the movie gave me this palpable mix of feelings that I immediately wanted to transfer into some form of expression. I wrote my heart out on this movie the moment I was home. And there was my first review of this movie. And goodness knows where I lost it!

The second time I got to watch this movie was on a bus. I hated the experience – the bad sound and discomfort were already pissing me off. And the follow-up to the movie – a nasty assortment of Ramarajan songs and MGR songs – made sure I lost the last ounce of the feel of the movie. It was like a DJ ripping up a lovely Pink Floyd song into a hip-hop piece of shit and thrusting it through your ears.

And then, several months later, I got my third opportunity – this time with a few of my friends who were watching it for their first time. Now this one worked out. Reminded me of the very first statement in the movie:  You don’t chase love, it happens on its own. It suddenly comes from nowhere, totally bowling you over!

So here’s trying to put my thoughts in writing.

Body: The review

One paragraph for the most obvious aspects of the movie: brilliant cinematography and lighting; a fine job by the entire cast; the standard Gautham-type editing; Trisha’s costumes – a brilliant display of the designers’ skills. The dialogues – while they sure were straight from the heart – appear as artificial as a Gautham movie can get. And what awesome stuff by ARR: I guess VTV features his best BGM in years. The songs were crafted to perfection – high on both engineering and musicality. Overall, VTV is technically exhilarating to watch – bright on your eyes and ears.

The first half of the movie is the lighter and simpler half: where the focus is on the guy’s attempts to woo the girl. While he starts from scratch, especially during the scene he proposes love, the hero is as innocent as a squandering engineer can get.

Proposal of love – one major headache for lover guys; the subject topic of several movies we’ve seen. Straight in the face – nothing new for a Gautham movie. Boy filled with regret, girl filled with confusion. Then there is the scene where the two come towards a mutual agreement (in reality an escapist strategy) – analogous to winning a date, which, of course, in the Tamil context, is ‘Being Friends’. The forthcoming sequence of events leads to revelations that the girl has fallen in love already. First half over –an impressive, straight-forward and bright movie so far.

The first thing you’ll wonder is about what’s left in the movie, now that the most important hurdle is crossed: the girl is now in love with the guy. No dude, this is where the thing starts – the tradeoff between your family and your love. A trade-off? Why? Remember that there is no scope for a compromise (in our case, an arranged marriage) – this has been indicated from the very start of the movie – the families are poles apart in culture, life, everything. Which raises several questions in retrospect, primarily: why fall in love in the first place? A rather stupid question, but that’s what the mind gets in such a situation – stupid.

The other side of the intermission is where the kid in you is put to sleep and the adult in you is roused, yet subtly. Being in love is not like being in a fairytale anymore. Things begin to get as real as hard earth. Now this is what people mean when they say their relationship is rather complicated. Temporary fleets of romantic insanity, quirky suggestions, and petty quarrels over momentary fears, yet lots of love. You want to leave her for good, yet you tell yourself things will get better in the morning.

For the major half of the second part, the focus is on the pain – pain due to complications, pain due to sentimental considerations; the struggle between the heart and the mind. The ways things are handled by a pragmatic man’s mind are not exactly how they are treated by the delicate woman’s heart. The considerations of the future that lead to fear, chaos and mental wavering outshine the ecstasy of love. This is exactly where Jessy’s maturity shows up, in dubious reference to her being elder to Karthik: Ok, we’re in love now. What next? Where’s our relationship headed?

An especially significant sequence of scenes where the two discover, that their romance is rather blank, atleast momentarily, is where I believe is the life of the movie –beginning with the scene the couple get close at Karthik’s place. While Karthik broods on the joys of the present, Jessy, as in most other scenes in the movie, is still wondering about the future, when suddenly there is some instinctive realization that their relationship is headed nowhere – stalled for good. You realize that what was supposed to be a romantic feast has now turned into a pathetic betrayal of the hard truth. This is excellently portrayed in the closeness sans intimacy between the couple – summed up beautifully in the song ‘Vinnaithandi Varuvaya’, which literally seems like a last call out to the girl, not a romantic beckoning as in the previous songs, but a desperate one this time.

The climax is immaterial (surprised? I hear exclamations, “climax dhan da padame!!”). The facts and cues are already at your disposal. The director’s job is over even before the climactic portions of the movie are reached. Though, of course, the rivet in the climax comes as an explicit bugle of reiteration, when you wondered that the message was headed elsewhere. A veer is not necessarily an intense turn.

Epilogue: The aftermath

All this while, there’s one thing that the director tells you seamlessly: Never fail to chase your love – be it your girl, or your ambition. Karthik’s love for filmmaking never ceases – not even in an intense situation when Jessy wants to discuss her predicaments, while in a movie show, and he retorts (without even looking at her), “I’m watching the movie, but let’s discuss”. And of course, there are silly takes on other films in certain other dialogues; instances: “There are people who travel to America for their love, and here I am wondering about going to Kerala”, or “Enna pakka pakka dhan unakku pidichida?”, “crowdla yarukkavadhu objection irukkannu keppanga sir, cinemala pathirukken”. Just for jolly. But you get the message: Wanna be in cinema? Be a cinema freak first – eat cinema, drink cinema, talk cinema.

Another point put forth is that nothing much has changed about our culture and way of life. Transformations in lifestyle and trends are not logically conclusive of a changing society. Deep inside all of us are strong bonds with our traditions and our cultural ethos, characterized in our considerations, ideas and stances when it comes to managing our relationships with parents, teachers and friends. Which distances us from relatively extrinsic philosophies like romance – our hands are simply too soft to handle love. Can’t disagree that getting into love, exchanging feelings, and hanging out together, all those are perfectly the same in our case as anywhere else. Yet the sheer rigidity of our customs has forced us to choose between love and family (aptly reflected in yesteryear movies like “Alaigal Oyivathillai”), rather than try and eke out a symbiosis between the two, especially when the extremities in the case are considerable, like maybe religious differences. And in the whole point of choosing comes a tug of war: between your cultural bonds, borne out of years of sentiment, love and conviction; and your newfound romantic bonds with the best partner in the world, promising a life of peace, bliss and freedom.

Bottomline: Can’t stop writing about it!

How do you go about it? My all-time favorite strategy: trial and error. Now this obviously doesn’t mean listening to dozens of songs and picking your favorite – that’s a nagging idea. I have here a short compilation of all-time favorite songs from a variety of genres – songs that have been standing epitomes of their type.
Get these songs, give them a first listen, and you’ll have a piece of my mind when you read through what I’ve written about them. Liked any of them? Good! Now try the other songs listed in the same category. Find out your levels of appreciation for yourself and you’ll find your new inroad into rock!

In this post, we’ll focus on some of the most loved melodic types of rock music, like the blues, while the next post will introduce you to the heavier and more effervescent forms of rock, like metal and hard rock.

Classic rock

PEOPLE ARE STRANGE by THE DOORS
Widely seen as America’s answer to the Beatles, the Doors gained quick ground in popular music thanks to frontrunner Jim Morrison, who went on to become a cult figure in rock. This song is one of their most famous, and has inspired thousands of similar songs since then.
LIKED IT? YOU WILL ALSO LOVE:
“While my guitar gently weeps” by The Beatles
“Romeo and Juliet” by Dire Straits
“My generation” by The Who

Rock n’ Roll/ Swing

JAILHOUSE ROCK by ELVIS PRESLEY
A song that set the standards for Rock n’ Roll chartbusters that followed, by an artist that set the standards for being a rockstar loved by everyone. The song stands out even today for its merry lyrics and its down-to-earth rhythm that made everyone a dancer.

LIKED IT? YOU WILL ALSO LOVE:
“Johnny B Goode” by Chuck Berry
“I know a little” by Lynyrd Skynyrd
“Mannish boy” by Muddy Waters

Blues

LAYLA by ERIC CLAPTON
A song that truly justifies the famous phrase, “Clapton is god!”. What Eric Clapton wrote for his girlfriend Patty Boyd, the then wife of George Harrison of the Beatles, has went on to inspire millions of fans, thousands of his peers, and not to mention, a few covers by other artists too. A classic blues song most loved for its lyrics, and the transition into the ending solo.

LIKED IT? YOU WILL ALSO LOVE:
“All along the watchtower” by Jimi Hendrix
“The thrill is gone” by BB King
“Since I’ve been loving you” by Led Zeppelin

Psychedelic rock

COMFORTABLY NUMB by PINK FLOYD
If there ever was a song that would show you what heaven feels like, it would be this. A brilliant piece of art by David Gilmour, the song is widely considered a classic epitome of rock music. Featuring two heavenly solos, the song also contains soulful lyrics that keep you afloat for a long while. It’s more than just a song – it’s an experience. I suggest you try it while going to bed!

LIKED IT? YOU WILL ALSO LOVE:
“Ice” by Camel
“Shine on you crazy diamond” by Pink Floyd
“Sometimes I feel like screaming” by Deep Purple

Country / folk

HOTEL CALIFORNIA by THE EAGLES
It’s very likely that you’ve listened to this one already – if you haven’t, you’ve been taking all the wrong recommendations! Anyway, this song, this one song, was enough to fuel a huge fan following across the world for the Eagles, a country band. Such is its flavor – the song talks about being in a hotel called ‘Hotel California’- an apparent reference to getting addicted to drugs. The thing about this song is that there’s no reason for you to hate it – the chord sequences, the lively singing and a beautiful solo as an outro ensure that you don’t!

LIKED IT? YOU WILL ALSO LOVE:
“Jessica” by the Allman Brothers Band
“Blowin’ in the wind” by Bob Dylan
“Sound of silence” by Simon and Garfunkel

So down I went into working towards creating those tracks myself. Thankfully, I was able to create near professional tracks and the show was saved! Most of what I’ve written in this article was discovered in those two days of my research and hard work. So yes, here’s passing that to you: how to remove vocals from a song.

The primary things, rather, the only things you’ll need are: the song itself, and some audio-processing software, like Audacity or Garage Band. I prefer Audacity – its free and open (just like Wikitoday  … ) and has a really simple interface. It can be easily downloaded from the web: just Google for it! I assume you’ve got the software in a short while so I proceed with references to Audacity itself.Launch Audacity and open or import the song from the menu bar – wait for a while until the song appears on the work area in its analog signal waveform. Click on the play button and you will hear the song: just a confirmation that it is indeed the song you wanted. The track is essentially a stereo track, which means you will see two waveforms appear: they stand for left and right channels.

1. Our first duty is to break up the stereo into two separate ‘mono’ tracks: this is done to enable us to edit the two waveforms separately (You will notice that in a ‘stereo’ track it is not possible to select or edit the tracks individually). It’s easy: just select the tab “Split stereo track to mono” from the appropriate toolbar on the top.
2. After a while you’ll find two separate tracks on the work area that you can edit or select separately. Now select any one of those tracks completely (over the full length of the song) and click “Invert” from the menu bar. The signal now inverts itself, leaving you with two signals – one original and one inverted.
3. Now, select both tracks (press and hold ‘shift’ and click on their titles) and click on “Mix and render” to convert the mix into a single ‘Mono’ track. This track will have its vocals removed!

But how did this work?

Songs, in general, have their vocals center-panned, or equally shaped, in the left and right channels of a stereo track, hence the ‘vocals’ part of the waveform is same in both left and right. When you invert the signal in one of the channels and mix them back, you’re logically conducting some destructive interference of the vocal signals, or, to put it simple, cancelling out the center-panned waves. Because the inversion converts positive crests to negative and vice versa, the effective addition with the original amounts to zero. Now that makes sense, doesn’t it?

Troubleshooting:

• Some parts of the drums in most songs also happen to be center-panned – no wonder you’ll also lose some drums by this process. But don’t worry, once the vocals are removed, give the song a Bass-Boost (available in the ‘Effects’ panel) and there wont be much notable difference, atleast to the laymen!
• Are you done? But it doesn’t work? Maybe the final track is still a stereo, which means you will still hear both signals. Only in case of a mono track does the cancelling take place.
• Still doesn’t work? Maybe the vocals weren’t center-panned in that song, after all! Yes, folks, non center-panned vocals cannot be removed by this method! You’ll need some professional help in such cases. Nevertheless, this is one heck of a method for everyone – give it a try!

Rock music came from the popular Rock and Roll music, which itself had its origins in Africa. Ever since Elvis Presley took to Rock and Roll – considered the music of blacks at that time – the width and depth of rock music has expanded vastly to scores of sub-genres today. This was possible due to the sole fact that rock music was very libertarian when it came to fusion with other popular genres like Jazz, unlike rigid music like Classical and Gothic, which imposed orthodox restrictions on the content. Rock music, contrary to many other forms, was based on trends rather than rules – new men came with better methods, techniques and sounds to change its face for good. As the vast domain expanded, so did the quality of content due to experimentation by inquisitive artists, the genre taking the colossal form as we see it today.

There is absolutely no denial: Rock music is for anyone and everyone. Whatever type of music you’ve been accustomed to, or whatever is your favorite kind of music, there most certainly is one sub-genre of rock music that suits you at the least. That being said, it is also worth mentioning that there is a huge ocean of new styles to explore and unconventional musical patterns to discover, if only you are an intrepid music aficionado.

A lot of classically oriented musicians or even enthusiasts in our country take a fancy to refraining from rock music, sometimes even despising it and criticizing it of demeaning our very own musical forms. All I have to tell them is that they totally miss the point. Rock music is not a demon that loves to swallow other forms; it is an ocean, ever ready to accommodate the sweeter waters of music from glorious rivers of all lands. It stands classified, not divided, into sub genres pertaining to various unique features of the kind of music produced. Artforms are the only things on earth that can co-exist. Heard of Raga-rock, Sufi rock, Jazz fusion or Indo-progressive rock?

But wait…do you listen to filmy music? Are you updated with the latest Bollywood or Kollywood songs? Then I swear you have already listened to a lot of rock music already! Perhaps even without your own knowledge! Every film song that you may listen to has a tiny speck of western influence in it, and that’s the worst case! Not to mention the whole bunch of hundreds of non-filmy albums that release every year. Rock music has right under our noses impregnated the so called ‘conservative music scenario’ of our country. That’s the power of rock music!

This series ‘Rockumentary’ provides beginners with useful information and some really cool recommendations so you can plunge into the world of rock.

While it is true that you can’t train at home to be an Arnold or a Stallone, have no doubt in mind that home training can get you in crunchy shape and muscular enough to capture the envy of your friends. And be it known that both these icons started out with home training, which gave them the confidence that they could make it big, literally! All you’ll need is the drive to move forward – remember, the most important equipment for training is the mind!

So what’s all this talk of home training? Simple…Use stuff in or around your own home to bust yourself up! At absolutely no cost! (the only cost, obviously, is on the necessary food and supplements)

Calisthenics – a widely unknown term used to refer to some of the most common exercises we do – is a set of weight exercises for the body, that require no equipment. Now the first thing that you can come up with is – yes, that’s right! – push-ups. Push-ups are a great start to gaining shape and mass in the Triceps, Biceps and Chest muscles. It is no secret that a huge chunk of boxers and weight trainers – having regular hydraulic regimes – resort to push-ups as part of their everyday training. They’re the secret weapon for everybody, and generally the most ignored!

Some other calisthenics include crunches, chin-ups, pull ups, and sit-ups. When performed in regular repeats over a period of time, one can observe a significant drift of several muscles towards their right ratios of shapes and sizes, the overall effect being increased power, stamina, and of course, the machismo appearance! No weights required! Now isn’t that nice to hear? Of course, you can include weight (ask your friend to exert a constant push on you while you train, or wear a heavy backpack) for advanced training.

Cardio-training exercises – now what does this have to do with muscles training? Well, nothing much, but give this a thought – what does a knee-pad have to do with batting? Prevention against injury? Bullseye! Cardios before weights will do more good than just prevention – there’s the high-heartbeat advantage that can increase your longevity, as research proves.

So run for your life, run! Roads are public property – no reason you can’t jog every morning, except you can’t wake up that early! Early morning is the best time to run because it saves you time, there’s much less traffic to hamper you, much less pollution, and, you also tend to inculcate a good habit of waking up early! A good 3 kilometers every day is more than enough – eat anything you want, yet stay fit for the entire day!

Got a rope of about 8 feet or more, hanging around the corner? Try skipping! Another widely ignored technique, but it’s a proven workout for holistic balance and is an excellent startup to begin weight training. Ten to twenty minutes of effective jumping can yield a sprain-free workout session, besides the long-term benefits of cardio-training (due to increasing heartbeat rate).

Weight training – do you know what I use in place of weight-dumbbells? Well, I’ve got an old unused computer at home, which came with a UPS that was quite heavy..! Yes, it’s the UPS that I use for arm-curls and shoulder presses to give my forearms some excellent busting-up, and it works big time. I suggest you have a look around your home, and I bet you’ll find some wackier, yet smarter dumbbell! Similarly, I use filled water-cans (the  bubble cans) in place of barbells – smart idea, eh? The lucky thing for me is that both of these are just the right weights for my body.

Which brings my mind to this: one point to be remembered during weight training is about the weights you choose: choose a weight that’s just about heavy for you to complete one set, or 20 repeats – or heavier. While heavy weights that can gain you muscle mass, choosing lighter weights are great to tone your already bulky body parts.

Complement each workout session with a generous session of stretching and stress-relief. Only the professionals know the true significance of stretching: it’s a important tool that can keep your sessions going over weeks without injury. Don’t ever forget or neglect it – injury can keep you out of action for atleast a week – enough time for all your efforts to waste away, and for you to repent!

There’s yet another thing above all that said: there should be no compromise on the nutrition during training. While exercise is only the labour to build, it is the nutrients like proteins and carbohydrates that constitute the material required for shape, size and power. Spend generously on nutritional diets and foods that constitute your appropriate requirements and its good if you can get some supplements to ensure better eating habits. Remember, train good, eat better!

( Information on each of these sections is available on the web )

5) 106 of 266 balls

Sachin got his 47^th test ton against the South Africans during the test series in February 2010. Tendulkar’s 106 includes 12 boundaries. This was also the fourth hundred row by the Indian. His partner Sehwag too contributed a lot. He became caught out by the captain Kallis bowled by Harris. His strike rate was 51.45.

4) 143 of 182 balls

Tendulkar’s 143 against Bangladesh included 13 fours and a six and with a rate of 78.57. The partnership between Dravid and Tendulkar was absolutely fantastic. But then, Dravid was retired hurt because of a injury in his ear. The Master became out caught by Imrul Kayes in the 92^nd over of the Tigers.

3) 203 of 347 balls

This became Tendulkar’s fifth double ton in his career against Sri Lanka in the Micromax Cup 2010. There was a good partnership between him and Raina, who scored a merry 120. With his 203, he had achieved new records – he became the leading run scorer with 13,500 runs in Tests, became the first visiting player to score 2,000 runs in Lankan soil.

2) 214 of 363 balls

Tendulkar’s boundless 214 along with Vijay’s 139 helped India possess a huge total of 495. The Little Master had hit 22 boundaries and 2 sixes with a strike rate of 58.95.

He had scored this against Australia in the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2010 in which          India had won the cup.

1) 200* of 147 balls

The master became the first man on the planet to reach the double ton in an One Day International. This mighty had hit 25 boundaries and 3 sixes and a big rate of 136.05. His partner Dhoni had hit a massive 68* of 37 balls to post an enormous total of 401/3. The Proteans had a hard try to overpower this man, but in vain. This man had a very good partnership with Dinesh Karthik after the early wicket of Sehwag. This highest individual score in an ODI had beat the records of 194 and 194*, which was scored by Saeed Anwar of Pakistan and Charles Coventry of Zimbabwe respectively.

Sachin Tendulkar was at his peak in his 2010 career, having an average of 99.5 in Tests.

He was also declared as the “Sports News Icon 2010.” All set for the World Cup, we bet!