My 2 Cents & I am ....

Life is like a box of chocolates...you never know what you're gonna get.

A FLASHBACK
Why am I flashing back maybe it is the "Prassanna Rasam" that I am eating now :-)

Cut to 2000...
A guy named Bill Clinton was ruling America. I boarded the airplane and was on my way to Tempe, AZ and one of my relatives had reminded a few days before the flight that - "Clinton summa vida mataan. He has built a good economy"... Masters in EE was the reason for the Bon Voyage.

I landed in the United States after some 22 hours of travel. LA airport... flight to Phoenix cancelled. I say "FUCK". No phone numbers to call...arrived 6 hours late in Phoenix... people who were supposed to pick me up came and left... I am left high and dry in the desert...to add insult to injury, one of my suitcases and predictably, the one which had clothes was lost....spoke to the customer service folks at the terminal and they gave their customary "uh-oh" as a reply....

Thanks to some other soul, I reach "BHARAT BHAVAN" in Tempe. It is a place called Terrace Road Apartments. It is very much like the MIG/HIG (Middle Income Group/ High Income Group) flats you find in Chennai. Only difference this is in America and everything else is the same and that includes the roaches.

I go upto my apartment 205, a place I would call home for three years. A certain dude in his shorts and half cut t shirts( bannian :-)) opens the door and I say I am Sudarshan and he says his name. He invites me inside and I tell him my end of the story. he isn't surprised as he went thru the same plight three days back. He reassured me that I will get it back sooner than later and offered me some rasam. He is the dude I would live with till I move out of Tempe. Awesome cook and he was the initator of the scatalogical humor that would rock Tempe in the next few years. Also, he is getting his Ph.D.

I had a few friends from my undergrad at ASU- Birds of same feather literally. They lived a few houses away and the news had reached them that the "DUDE" had arrived. I was bathing and even in the thundering noise of the shower, I could hear his voice clearly. He was loud and in his usual smirkish style said " Bathing and all is enough. Come out. As if you are going to rule the world after bathing". He was an amplifier with excellent gain characterstics. He had minimum input, maximum output whether it was his voice or his education. He was the "A" man.

I enquired with him about the other two guys( lets call them dudes I and II) who came from my college. he said they both have gone dancing alongwith a certain senior. This senior dude was an artist par excellence in shaking his legs and apparently had enough dance classes to get a Masters in that specilization as well.

He also told me that they were pulling one of my friends who had gone to the dance floor( lets call him dude 1) with a certain Indian girl who came to their apartment and asked him to take her to the nearby Indian grocery store."Can you take me to I Mart?" she asked, I believe. I had no time for girls especially the Indian variety and I was dead tired. After I ate the moiety of rice with rasam, I hit the bed.

The next morning I wake up late and start calling the airlines. They put me on something called "hold" and play music for hours together. 3 hours and yet no reply. I wasn't liking the United States after all it has consumed my clothes....

I go around the school and I am pleasantly surprised by the size of the computer center and speed of the internet. I am shown around school by the dude who will share the bedroom with me for the next 9 months.

I go to the grocery store called "SAFEWAY" with another friend of mine and his roomies. His roomies have come with a long list and have made up their mind to save every single of penny. My friend isn't quite in agreement with them and I see trouble brewing. I buy a lipguard and watch the spaghetti tops, butt shorts while trouble is brewing at the other end...

I come home and go to meet dudes 1 and 2. The first person I meet in dude 1 and 2's apartment asks me whether I want "DEE". I say yes and after a few minutes, he gives me a cup of some of the best "Tea" I have heard. This tea would later come to be known as "Devil Dee".

I chat with Dudes 1 and 2. I am relieved after I see them. Dude1 basically tells me about Dude2's dancing feat and his moving style. Dude1 introduces me to a guy who is in serious doubt about why he came to America as he is having trouble getting apartment, courses, funding etc. I find him humorous and we share a few laughs. The common bonding was he got his suitcase after a week and also the fact that there was no love lost between him and the dud(pun intended) who was running for US Presidency.

I go home and I am told there are a few people who want to meet me as they have lost suitcases as well. A great way to become popular, I said to myself.In the meanwhile, Miss1 comes to meet my roomate, the dude who made me rasam on the first day. She is attractive but I find her snobbish and on first opinion, she sounds too studious. In a few months, this opinion would change and we get along really well to the extent that we might end up living together for the rest of our lives.

The "LS"[I meant Loud Speaker) guy tells me that I have a lot of work to do the next day and as he would instruct me for the next two years, instructs me to go to sleep ad wake up early.

I do all the necessary/unnecessary paperwork and get back home. I am in AMERICA, baby. In the afternoon. I eat in a place called "Burger King". They ask me something after I place the order which sounded like the sneeze of a mosquito. In the next few weeks, I would decipher it as "for here or to go". A Mexican guy calls out my order number "169" and asks whether I want "ranch"...

And it is hot in AZ. I am with two sets of clothing. I realize that I need to something about the suitcase and I decide to go to the airport with a girl, whom I would hate in the next two days, in a previous batch guy's car. A decision which will make me loathe AMERICA. As soon as I go to the airport, the news is that the suitcase was not in LA.

I share a few more laughs with Dude1, Dude2, LS guy, Bush hater and a few more guys. These sessions would be a regular feature of our lives over the next few months and years.

The next day in the evening, my last roomie arrives. He calls himself Tall, Dark and Handsome. I find him funny and extremely sporting. I was happy that he came to my apartment because he saved me from being the worst "cook" in the house.

Over the next few days, I meet three other folks who would in the next year become my roomies due to destiny. One guy was a good cook, sincere student and was the last bachelor standing in his tribe. He was my age but in his tribe, even at my age, fellas had toddlers. I simply adored him because he came along to my house with atleast a dozen playboy magazines :-)

"I was born on 17the June" said one guy and I said, so was I. Hence the connection was born. I would remember him for three things in every single birth of mine. 1. His love for Cricket 2. His Limericks and lastly, his least favorite "thing-to-do" cooking..

"Is that Randy Johnson" he would ask pointng to the frst baseman in the next few years. This dude could never be comprehended. He was a mystery of sorts. When I first met him, I thought he was an "Einstien like" genius. The next few months and years would knock him down to the human level. His monetary situation made us nickname him after a casino in Las Vegas...

An year and half later, one more good heart joined the web. We named him after an arachnoid. He is the true definition of deceptive packaging. Short, stocky and extremely lively, he can rib a person like you would never imagine...

[ To be Continued... Stopped because my fingers started showing the strain]

Donald Trump sucks, especially his hair. I have never watched "The Apprentice". Tonight, I just might.Tempe native goes for it and she is a Sun Devil as well.

I LOVE TEMPE. I went broke often but so what?... There were even times when my bank account was periliously close to a zero dollars but the place just rocked. It is very very hard to get back the times that I spent in the two apartments in the old and dingy Terrace Road Apartments. That was pure fun!!!!

There is something about Sushmita


I was as open mouthed as she is, when I saw her in this movie.... 

It is 2:00 am in the morning. I just finished watching this movie only because Sushmita was there to say "Main Hoon Na"( of course, I watched it with sub titles). There is nothing great about the movie. Usual Shahrukh Khan fare but Sushmita Sen sizzles in some stylish sarees. Although it is hard to believe that she has taken a role that required her to do nothing but run around trees, she has carried herself really well.

I suggest that you folks get the DVD, watch just the songs and return. The movie isn't worth it....

President Bush Inaguration Ceremony!!! Photo Courtesy: centricle.com 

PARENTAL DISCRETION ADVISED CONTAINS UNBELIEVABLE AMOUNT OF BAD LANGUAGE

This photo was taken when President Bush was asked to follow on with his second inning. An interesting caption indeed. This is not yet another post from the Bush hater....
I am actually deidcating this blog to the first word.... "FUCK"

Long long ago, when i was in sixth grade, I was introduced to this truly magical word by a friend of mine. My vocabulary of swear words then had included idiot, stupid, dog, monkey and a whole lot of species from the animal kingdom. When I was introduced to the f word, I did not realize the latent potential of this truly powerful word. The friend of mine told me it is something that the adults do with permission as against the more crude version - "RAPE".

After a while, I never used "fuck" in my everyday vocabulary but I always passed the word along to my friends. In sixth standard, you usually whisper into the ears of your friend and giggle as though you have mastered Shakespeare. Look how times have chnaged, today in 2005, I feel as if I can stand on top of the Everest and just shout "F_U-C-K" on top of my voice.

In all these years, I have also recognized the great importance of this word to her majesty's language. English would have been poorer if not for this enchanting four letter addition to the webster. The immense potential of this word is so tremendous that it can used to portray a whole gamut of human emotions...

Love: You are so fucking cute
Hate: FUCK YOU
Anger: FUCK OFF
Peace: This place is so fucking silent
Dispproval: This fucking idea will not work
Approval: He is a fucking genius
Joy: This fucking shit works
Sadness: I fucked up
Rivalry: Lets go and beat those fuckers
Friendship: That fucker is a good friend.
Victory: We fucked them
Defeat: We fucking lost
Shock: What the FUCK
Monotony: same old fucking life
Heterosexuality: I fucked her
Homosexulaity: He fucked me
Arrogance: What the fuck, I will do it
Subordinance: I will get fucked.. let me do it.
Relief: The first word I say after I emptying my bowels after a long time is "F-U-C-K"

So, please use this fucking word fucking more often...
Here is a tribute to the genius of the word
WHO THE FUCK IS ALICE

Since you all sat through the rather offensive post, here is a bonus


Another picture from the Bush protest rally... Courtesy: Centricle.com 

NY Times Editorial on the flawed Patent Bill

January 18, 2005
EDITORIAL
India's Choice

For an AIDS patient in a poor country lucky enough to get
antiretroviral treatment, chances are that the pills that stave off
death come from India. Generic knockoffs of AIDS drugs made by Indian
manufacturers - now treating patients in 200 countries - have brought
the price of antiretroviral therapy down to $140 a year from $12,000.

That luck may soon run out. India has become the world's supplier of
cheap AIDS drugs because it has the necessary raw materials and a
thriving and sophisticated copycat drug industry made possible by laws
that grant patents to the process of making medicines, rather than to
the drugs themselves. But when India signed the World Trade
Organization's agreement on intellectual property in 1994, it was
required to institute patents on products by Jan. 1, 2005. These rules
have little to do with free trade and more to do with the lobbying
power of the American and European pharmaceutical industries.

India's government has issued rules that will effectively end the
copycat industry for newer drugs. For the world's poor, this will be a
double hit - cutting off the supply of affordable medicines and
removing the generic competition that drives down the cost of
brand-name drugs.

But there is still a chance to fix the flaws in these rules, because
they are contained in a decree that must be approved by Parliament.
Heavily influenced by multinational and Indian drug makers eager to
sell patented medicines to India's huge middle class, the decree is so
tilted toward the pharmaceutical industry that it does not even take
advantage of rights countries enjoy under the W.T.O. to protect public
health.

In November 2001, members of the World Trade Organization agreed that
countries can issue compulsory licenses to permit generic production
of patented drugs without the patent holder's agreement in order to
protect public health, at home or abroad. But under the Indian decree,
getting a compulsory license would be slow and difficult; each
application would face a fight from multinational drug firms and the
governments that do their bidding. India should adopt laws that
expedite compulsory licenses, including allowing challenges to proceed
after production begins instead of holding it up. In addition, India
must close an important loophole affecting the sick overseas: under
the current rules, Malawi, for example, could not import from India an
inexpensive version of a medicine that is not under patent in Malawi.
This needs to be changed.

Industry lobbyists managed to insert two noxious provisions in the
decree that go well beyond the W.T.O. rules. The decree would limit
efforts to challenge patents before they take effect. Also, it is
uncomfortably vague about whether companies could engage in
"evergreening" - extending their patents by switching from a capsule
to tablet, for example, or finding a new use for the product. This
practice, a problem in America and elsewhere, extends monopolies and
discourages innovation.

While some drugs - those that existed before 1995 - will always be off
patent in India, some widely used drugs are at risk. So are new
generations of much more expensive AIDS drugs that will soon be needed
worldwide as resistance builds to current medicines. If the decree is
not changed before Parliament approves it, it will be very difficult
for India to supply them. India's parliamentarians must keep in mind
that this arcane dispute is actually a crucial battleground for the
health of hundreds of millions of people in India and worldwide.
You have read it, if you want to do something about it, please sign the petition at

http://insaaf.aidindia.org/

I KNOW HOW THIS HAPPEND

Kamal had an accident in Old Mahablipuram Road and Jeppiar saw him on the road crying for help, " I want a doctor, I want a doctor". Jeppiar understood his needs and said "Don't Worry Kamal, me giving you the docotor"


JPR MAKES HEADLINES AGAIN *WHISTLE* *WHISTLE** Photo Stolen from THE HINDU  

I think Jeppiar should let Kamal know that "Boy Boy Mingle, Girl Girl Jingle, Boy Girl no jingle mingle"

First Shot at poetry...

I watched Beyond Borders On Thursday and was moved by some of the moments at the relief camps. Suddenly, I put on my bard's hat and wrote this up...

A Wave

Chennai is famous for its beach
Where every tourist reach
Playing knee deep in the water and
building castles in the sand.

We all go to see the beach
For once it came to see us.

It was sunday
after christ's birthday
many thought it was just another day
until it turned out to be black day

We all go to see the beach
For once it came to see us.

Mother Nature roared out in anger
Leaving many lives in danger
Drowned neck deep in water and
Built tombs in the land..

We all go to see the beach
For once it came to see us.

Some were asking Where am I
Some were asking Who Am I
They called it Tsun Am I
which was not a people's "ami"

We all go to see the beach
For once it came to see us.

They said another wave would come
and wash away all that stood
Another wave did come
and gave them all that was washed

This time, it was not the water
that came as a wave
It was the love and compassion
that came like a wave

A momentous change of wave
Everyone contributing ONE
to people who lost many
A momentous wave of change

Many have realized that
lighting a candle is better
than blaming the darkness
A noble thought indeed!!!

We all go to see the beach
but never to see the people living close to it
For once the beach came to see us
and brought us all close to each other

---------------------------------------
If you like it, please credit Gordon Biersch.... :-)

Sorry Dawwwgggs, you have been FIRED...Blog-A Man's New Best Friend.

Go Veerans!!!!  

India Shining???- Please give me the person who called the campaign.....

2004- A Look Back

2005 came 15 days back and the year end frenzy of 2004 due to Tsunami took some gloss off the year 2004. So how was 2004?

At the beginning of the year, Steve Waugh said good bye to cricket and the red hand kerchief would never be seen again. Janet Jackson said goodbye to well functioning wardrobes and decided to open the gates to her nipples.

Around the same time, India Shining said BJP. India wat? Shining is a shameless truthless self promotion. The IT sector of India was shining for sure. But that contributes 2% of the economy. Agriculture which constituted 70% of the economy was indeed waning. Farmers were dying in every single state. After all for the capitalism driven Central Government, farmers were really not a part of India, were they???

Bush, in the meanwhile, captured Saddam Hussian but did not capture any WMD's. At the first place, someone please remind the premise of the war? After 2 years, this premise has been spun and counterspun that I have lost an account of the real cause.

Sometime in May, an Italian born Sonia Gandhi won the elections in India for India's oldest political party, the Indian National Congress. So the BJP lost. I was elated in a small measure because I did not want the BJP to win. The major problem I had with the BJP in this election was their apparent inaction during the communal carnage of Gujarat. I have had many arguments with my friends regarding this since 2002 and I have always maintained that the State was to be blamed for not stopping the riots. I take the same stand on Indira Gandhi Govt as well when her Govt. did nothing but sit and watch when the Sikhs were ruthlessly carnaged in 1984. So whichever Govt. supports sectarian politics needs to be punished regardless of the party....

In the midst of all this, a Swiss gentleman named Roger Fedrer was steamrolling opponents in Tennis and how about an Indian born kicking taming the Tiger in the woods of Golf. United States continued to lose its soldiers in a war they could have avoided.

Michael Moore, a fat man with a big tummy and a bigger heart made the most sensational movie of my times. He called it Fahrenheit-9/11. The movie kicked some heat and the President Bush was suddenly in the hot seat.

Sonia Gandhi shocked the world by deciding to relinquish the PM chair and decided to anoint the learned Manmohan Singh at the helm. Manmohan Singh was the real architect of the India's globalization designs in the 1991-1996 narsimha Roa ministry. So, I guess capitalist style economy would continue, but they said they would globalization with a human face? Who knows what that means?

Narasimha Rao kicked butt and M.S.Subbulakshmi, the lonely nightingale of Carnatic music kissed the lotus feet. I heard more M.S in the last 4 years than I did in the first 21years as my girlfriend had the MS Bhaja Govindam and Vishnu Sahasarnamam tape that she plays quite often in the morning hours. I think that is what makes my girlfriend so special to me because she is really an unique amalgam of style and substance. She loves loud hard rock music and at the same time she can lend a ear to some melodious carnatic stuff...

Boston Red Sox captured the World Series exorcising the ghosts of 86 years. Foulke tossed the ball to Doug Mientkiewicz and hell broke loose. Hell Broke loose but Doug kept his ball and doesn't want to return it to the Red Sox museum and he calls it his retirement fund....

Around the same time, a Vietnam war veteran named John Kerry was going hammer and tongs against the Preisdent of America, George W Bush...John Kerry came out relatively unscathed in the Democratic primaries with only John Edwards showing some semblance of a fight. Kerry swallowed some big names like Joe Lieberman, Dick Gephardt, Wes Clark and Howard Dean....

Come November 2... Bush and the Republicans schmoozed and seduced the American public by hitting the G spots - God, Guns and Gays... Bush won again and got 4 more years. Roger Fedrer was still winning and beating up his opponents big time...

Tennis had a new poster girl. Maria Sharapova was her name. She is a sex bomb and she can play tennis as well which means we get watch her voluptuous breasts and her mutlicolored undergarments even in the later stages of a tournament, a luxury we never had with Anna Kournikova...

Shaq and Kobe ended their love hate relationship. Shaq did not want to be anywhere near Kobe and decided to move to the opposite cost... Detroit beat them up badly and that set the tone for the major reshuffle of the Lakers organization..

The year ended with a pretty bad Tsunami which consumed close to 150,000 lives. It did end with a positive hope as the huge tsunami wave was followed by a huge wave of compassion.

I wish everyone a happy and hopeful 2005....

Bollywood on ABC Nightline...

ABC Nightline is doing a story on Bollywood tonight(Friday, Jan 14th) at 11:35pm EST ( what a time half of America would be drunk and drowsy). The show features interviews by Hrithik Roshan, Priety Zinta and of course, Aishwarya Rai. Aishwarya Rai is doing her best to share the bed with Bond but she has miles to go before she can sleep.
It would be poetic justice if ABC would also carry the views of my good friend KD who has started blogging and had the following comment about Bollywood..

"Bollywood movies are like porn, even the worst plots will have an audience"

Separatist Agenda...

Sometimes it is better to divide and conquer. As many will tell you, keep your public and private life seperate. Keep your checking and savings seperate. Keep the cotton and fire seperate :-). So, here it goes, no more sports posting on this blog... I am spinning off my own sports blog.... -All Day I Dream About Sports...

I love football on TV

I... love... football on TV...
Shots of Gina Lee...
Hangin' with my friends...
And tuh-wiiinns...

I! LOVE! BURRITOS AT 4AM!
PARTIES THAT NEVER END!
DOGS THAT LOVE CATS!
AND... AND TUH-WIIIIINNNS!

Folks who watch football, do you remeber those twins( or should I say quadruples :-)) on Coors Beer ad, here they are .....



Elaine and Diane Klimaszewski---- The Coors Twins with bunch of other dirty dawgss.... 

A Week of my life

I have lived in Chennai all throughout my life. We were not great travellers as a family mainly due to my mom's great and stationary job at Chennai. For the first 20 years of my life, I have never crossed Hyderabad in the Northern direction. For many chennaites, Hyderbad was like North India. Taj Mahal was as alien to me as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon or the Colliseum at Rome and I marvelled at its beauty when Aishwarya Rai danced before it in Jeans.

[Random Thought: Me was never a fan of Aishwarya Rai. I was a bigger fan of Sushmita Sen for the sole reason that SS's twins were better than AR's. Also, how thoughtless of Shankar to shoot in seven wonders of world with the most bizarre human being God ever created- Prashant. I have always thought God was in a pissed off mood when he decided to create Prashant- he decided to take the worst in both sexes and make an individual...]

But the chance did finally come before I left India for the Bush Country. It was in 1999. Four years after I had started shaving and three months after I ended my life as a teen in which I did nothing great but chase skirts. It was a college trip to Delhi, Agra and Nainital. I was initially ambivalent about going after a "not-so-great" GRE performance. But then, sometimes in life, you got to say "What the fuck?" and I decided to pack the bags in the eleventh hour and decided to go. Probably the best eleventh hour decision in my life and no exaggerations, there are many many more eleventh hour decisions that I have/am/will taken/taking/take in life....

[I have always wanted to do this in my blog. Put a Disclaimer. So here is a personal moment of triumph and cheap thrill...
DISCLAIMER: I am writing the details out of memory so there might be some distortion of facts. So, if people who were with me on the tour read it, please adjeest. There shall be no correction to this copy ]

We started from Chennai Central and I had 50 other people for company- 40 guys and 10 girls. This was our big chance to jingle, mingle although the ratio was bad. Having a walkman in those days was a major *philum* tactics... Having an headphone plugged into your ears even when there was no music playing was a big *ishtyle* statement. I did it many many times. In hindsight, I may look like a clown but I relegiously believed it when I did it. I am definitely not proud of some of the songs that played into my ears those days - "As Long as you love me" , "Words, everlasting words" and the worst part is I used to like them. A fair cry from my present day musical preferences ,where nothing but hard rock keeps me tuned to one station, but as I said before "Been there, done that"

So, the train journey was a day and half long through parts of South India, Central India and then finally the "destination royale"- Agra. I loved trains in India. It was a cross cultural experience. A true melting point of different cultures and points of view. Even when you did not have company, it was enchanting to occupy the window seat and look at the passing scapes, people, cattle etc. The train on this journey passed through places that I have read about in Geography books. For ex: Nagpur, the city of oranges. True to its name, people were hawking oranges even in the station just like Vegas has casinos even as you step out of the airplane doors.

The train passed through the Narmada river. The belief is that Narmada is like the wishing well and people's wishes come true when the drop the coins into the river. As we passed the river, I flaunted my General Knowledge to my friends saying "Medha Patkar is fighting against the dam" knowingly fully well that there won't be any more questions from them. I didn't know the full story of the dam then and if I get a chance again to pass through the river, I am sure what to wish , when I drop that coin into the lap of the river Naramada. And how I wish, I had known more then and did something about it.....

I am believing that the train must have passed through Bhopal. It is an irony that I don't even know whether the train passed through Bhopal when I speak about Bhopal at length these days. Life has indeed come a long way. I have vowed to take a journey to this resurgent and courageous city, the next time I hit India. Let me see whether I can keep it up..

The train trudged along the Chambal valley and we were promptly asked to close the doors as it was an area of the dacoits. So after a day and half, here we were at Agra. A city that houses the Taj Mahal.

I don't want to write more... the rest is here in these pictures- obviously not taken by me but these pics were the real inspiration behind this long post....

North India

Truth- the first casualty

In any disaster, truth is really the first casualty. People somehow use these tragedies to build up stories and earn brownie points. Read below for one such story from Amit Varma, who is maintaining an immaculate blog with his dispatches from ground zero....

India Uncut

Mysterious Malapropism


Photo Courtesy: http://pallavar.blogspot.com

The board was meant to say "Chilled Beer". It ended up saying "Child Bear".

THE LISTS

I wanted to write this a good ten days back but I have been deluged(sorry pun not intended) in the recrnt happenings in Chennai. AID Chennai continues its stellar work and I am happy, thankful to all bloggers who did their bit to publicize our efforts.

It has been 26 posts since I wrote something less preachy. So, I decided to break the monotny and I am lisiting 10 greatest sporting memories of 2004.

10. When her nipples touched down: Janet Jackson's Nipplegate lasted a few seconds but it successfully took away the spotlight from a memorable super bowl. Jake Delhomme and Tom Brady went hammers and tongs and Brady simply kept up his nerves ad Patriots won the Super Bowl. If this year's super bowl half time show has Jenfier Lopez revealing something, then it is worth the watch..

9.Shaq/Kobe split: The love-hate or was it hate-hate relationship finally ended. Shaq decided to go East while Kobe stayed put in the Staples Center playing for the most winningest franchise in the NBA.

8.Roger Fedrer's slam Dunk: 3/4 Grand Slams and undefeated in any major final.. Whoa!!! What a year for Fedrer. As Roddick said he threw the kitchen sink at Fedrer but Fedrer replied back by throwing the batroom tub at him...

7.When Tiger Slept in the Woods: Vijay Singh simply tamed the Tiger to win most tournaments, make the most money in a calendar year and also became the numero uno in the game that expnads as "Gentleman Only Ladies Forbidden". I am sure Arnika Sorenstorm would beg to disagree.. Maybe its time to call it GOLI - "Gentleman Only Ladies Included"

6.Every dark cloud has a silver lining: Major Rajvardhan Singh Rathore was the only silver lining in a rather dark and murky Indian Olympic performace.

5.There is nothing called Perfect: said who???. Randy Johnson did a perfecto on May 24 against Atlanta Braves. 27 in, 27 out!!!! Hats off, Randy!!! Now I have to support the Yankees every fifth day.

4. Anybody But Lakers: I HATE LAKERS. I touched the rooftops, when Detroit put the finishing touches on the laker dynasty. Phil Jackson, Kobe, Shaq, Payton, Malone were all spectators as Detroits "D" ruled them....

3.Playing games with your neighbor: India-Pakistan played after a long time and an Indian team set foot on the Pakistani soil after 15 long years. Scinitllating cricket from both sides especially from Sehwag and India won both the test and one-day series

2. Mama, I am home after 86 years: Boston- the biggest story of the year. What a fairy tale finish to the curse that bogged them down all these years? Hats off to Bostoners for being so faithful...

1. See you, Goodbye: said my idol, hero Steve Waugh. The farewell brought tears and life has never been the same. I will admire the man for eternity. STEVE WAUGH: AUSTRALIAN FOR MENTAL TOUGHNESS....