An Immigrant's Life In USA

Rizvi in Tiger Airlines Roadshow

2012-01-20T01:08:00.000-08:00

Rasel's company Rectangle Communications organized the Tiger Airlines roadshow today. Rizvi (left most) participated in that roadshow. Picture taken from Daily Star 20th January 2012.

Looking for My Friend Aarif

2012-01-07T23:44:00.000-08:00

বন্ধুর জন্য বিজ্ঞাপন ( আরিফ এর জন্য ; জন্ম ২৭/০১/১৯৭৬, মৃত্যু ১৯/০৮/১৯৯৯) by Salahuddin Ahmed on Thursday, August 18, 2011 at 9:00am

“মনে পড়ে সেই যে রাখাল আর ঘরে ফেরে নাই
সেই যে ব্যথিত কবি বলে গেলো
আবার আসিব আমি চুলে মেখে কুয়াশার দাগ
তারপর কতো ঝরলো শিশির, কতো শিউলির শোক.....”

বাইরে টিপ্ টিপ্ বৃষ্টির শব্দ। প্রতি বছর এ সময় বৃষ্টি পড়ে । ভিজে এই শহর, মাদারটেক, তালতলা, টি এস সি, ঢাকা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয় , মুক্তিযুদ্ধ জাদুঘর,মিরপুর। তোর কবর টাও হয়ত ভিজে। আচ্ছা মিরপুর থেকে মাদারটেক কতো দূর? এখন ও তুই কি শুনতে পাস্ বৃষ্টির শব্দ? বৃষ্টিতে কি তোর শীত লাগে ? শীত লাগলে কি কাউকে ডাকতে ইচ্ছা করে ?কিছুদিন পর শিউলি ফুটবে । তুই কি শিউলির গন্ধ পাস্ । আমরা এখন আর শিউলির গন্ধ পাই না । তোর এখন শীত লাগলেও আমাদের করার কিছুই নেই । আমাদের কারোর ই আর কাউকে উষ্ণ করার মত সাহস বা শক্তি নাই । আমাদের রক্ত এখন ব্যাঙ এর মতও নয় , সারা বছর ই ঠাণ্ডা থাকে । ১২ বছর আগে তুই যখন আমাদের মায়া ছেড়ে চলে যাস, তখন আমরা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয় গণ্ডি ছাড়ি নাই। এক যুগ পরে আমাদের কারো চুলের রঙ বদলে গেছে, আর কারো চুলের রঙ বদলানোর সুযোগ নেই। জীবন এখন দ্রুত দিগন্তের পানে ছুটে চলেছে । আমরা এখন অনেক অনেক টাকা আয় করি, শনৈঃ শনৈঃ উপরে উঠি । আমরা এখন বেঁচে থাকার দায় নিয়ে ক্লান্ত, পরিশ্রান্ত । মাদারটেকে “আদর্শপাড়ার” যাদের জীবন কে শুদ্ধ করতে চেয়েছিলি, তাদের আর কোনই আদর্শ নেই। নিজের বিষয় “ অর্থনীতি” এখন তোর খাতার উপর লেখা বিষয় “ব্যর্থনীতি” তে পরিণত। আমাদের “মুক্তির গান” আর গাওয়া হবে না। অগাস্ট মাসে আমাদের শোকের মিছিল শুধু বাড়তেই থাকে । আমাদের যাদের যাদের প্রয়োজন , তারাই শুধু পালায়। নাজিম হিকমত বলেছিলেন “ বিংশ শতাব্দীতে মানুষের শোকের আয়ু বড়জোর এক বছর” । কিন্তু ভালবাসার আয়ু কত বছর? আমার জানা নেই। শুধু জানি

“এখানে ,সেখানে, শহরের পরিচিত অঞ্চলগুলিতে আমি সেই সরল সাঙাতটিকে
খুঁজি , আমি শুধু সারা জীবন একটি বন্ধুর জন্য প্রত্যহ বিজ্ঞাপন দিই
কিন্তু হায়, আমার ব্লাডগ্রুপের সাথে
কারো রক্ত মেলে না কখনো । ”

Played US National G60 and G/30 Tournaments in Santa Clara Hyatt

2011-10-06T03:13:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I played US National G/60 and G/30 championship at October 1st and 2nd respectively at Santa Clara Hyatt hotel. Bay Area Chess arranged these as usual in different sections. I made 50% scores in both of those at 1800+ (Open) section to my relief. My last month's tournament performance was disappointing (1 win and 3 loss) while this time in G/60 it was 2 loss, 2 win and in G/30 it was 2 loss, 1 draw and 2 win. With this performance now I am a bit relaxed and I think I can still carry on playing competitive tournaments for a few more years even if I don't hit the prize lists.

Here is my G/60 result - https://bayareachess.com/events/11/usg60.php

And here is my G/30 result -https://bayareachess.com/events/11/usg30.php

With this, now I am inspired enough to teach chess to my son and other children from next week.

Quick trip to Lake Tahoe

2011-09-17T16:06:00.000-07:00

Last month just before Eid, we went to a quick weekend trip to Lake Tahoe to have some breathe out of my busy office works. And know what, we enjoyed the short trip! We stayed in the beautiful David Walley's Resort few miles from South Lake Tahoe. The second day we spent time in South Lake Tahoe, specially on Gondola Ride. Here is a video and some pictures of that beautiful ride which goes more that 9000 feet above sea level.

Just after coming back and just before the Eid day, Ahyan started his first day at public school.

Saiful visited us from Atlanta in Eid night and spent a few days playing around Ahyan and Suhaila. I took him for a sight seeing to Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco. He bought an XBox Kinect for Ahyan.

The Last Question by Isaac Asimov (1956) - The Best Short Story I Have Ever Read

2011-08-08T07:35:00.000-07:00

Last week I finished Nine Tomorrows by Isaac Asimov which I bought along with a bunch of other books recently from Half Price Books, Fremont. One of the short stories there is The Last Question which Asimov wrote in 1956 and rates it as one of his most favorites. The story is such a master piece by the grand master of science fiction writer that I find my vocabulary falling short to praise it! It shows Asimov's depth and breadth of ideas and his love for twists! I took the whole weekend to get out of the aura of this story and yet haven't succeeded completely (the proof is that I am writing this blog post early in the morning while late for my son's school and my office)! I can't help but share with you the story here in case you wish to read it but forget because everyday life will keep you distracted from reading such a novelty and brilliance! Here is an HTML version of it -

http://reviewsonly.blogspot.com/2011/08/last-question-by-isaac-asimov-1956.html

Let me know if you read it and if you liked it. As of now, I am reading his another short story - The Last Answer.

Shakil Became IM, Liza WIM and Zia Moves For World Chess Championship

2011-03-30T03:01:00.000-07:00

Great news! My playing partner and gentle younger brother-like chess friend Abu Sufian Shakil has become International Master. Liza also became Women International Master, second only after WIM Rani Hamid. Moreover, Ziaur Rahman winning the 3.2 Zonal tournament will play the next cycle for World Chess Championship representing this zone.

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=179668

Shamima Akhter Liza became country's second Women International Master (WIM) after Rani Hamid, who won it in 1985, as she earned seven points from nine games in Asian Chess Zone 3.2 Championship in Sri Lanka yesterday.

Liza and Ranasinghe of Sri Lanka earned equal seven points but the latter finished top by virue of a tie breaker. Liza had earned her first WIM norm last year during Six Seasons Women's International Rating Chess in Cox's Bazar.

Apart from Liza, FIDE master Abu Sufian Shakil also earned his third and final norm of International Master from the championship as Shakil secured 6.5 points from nine matches to finish third in the men's section where GM Ziaur Rahman finished top to qualify for the World Chess Championship.

Shakil had earned his first IM norm back in 2009 from the National Chess Championship and then secured the second one from a competition in Indian state Orissa last year, according to information provided by Bangladesh Chess Federation.

http://www.prothom-alo.com/detail/date/2011-03-30/news/142789

বাংলাদেশের দাবায় একটা ভালো দিন গেল পরশু। এশিয়ান জোনাল চ্যাম্পিয়নশিপের ৩.২ অঞ্চলের খেলায় চ্যাম্পিয়ন হয়ে আগেই বিশ্বকাপ দাবায় খেলার সুযোগ মিলেছে গ্র্যান্ডমাস্টার জিয়াউর রহমান ও শামীমা আক্তারের (লিজা)। কাল পাওয়া গেল আরও একটি সুসংবাদ।
এশিয়ান জোনাল চ্যাম্পিয়নশিপে তৃতীয় হওয়া আবু সুফিয়ান (শাকিল) পেলেন আন্তর্জাতিক মাস্টারের খেতাব। এর আগে দুটো নর্ম পূরণ করা আবু সুফিয়ানের তৃতীয় নর্ম পূরণ হয়েছে শ্রীলঙ্কায়। সুফিয়ানের সঙ্গে শামীমা আক্তার হয়েছেন মহিলা আন্তর্জাতিক মাস্টার। রানী হামিদের পর দ্বিতীয় মহিলা দাবাড়ু হিসেবে এমন অর্জন শামীমার।

37th People's Chess Tournament In Long Weekend

2011-02-23T12:16:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I was quite busy with the 37th People's Chess Tournament in Fremont Marriott. As it was a long weekend, I registered it online through www.bayareachess.com after renewing my US Chess Membership.

After a successful World Cup Cricket 2011 opening ceremony in Dhaka where Bryan Adams, Shankar-Ehsan-Loy, Runa Laila, Sabina Yasmin et al perfomred in the midst of mind blowing fireworks, we gathered in Shahriar's house for the India vs Bangladesh opening match of the world cup in 19th February. He arranged lots of people and we had a nice time gossiping together (Ezaz, Amin, Dhanad, Sayeem, Wali Bhai, Sumit Bhai, Mamun Bhai, Dipu Bhai and some others). Although we lost due to a huge score from Sehwag (175) that took India's total to 370/4 in 50 overs, we gave it a fight by scoring 283/9 without being all out.

That meant I didn't get much sleep for the next morning's chess game in the tournament at 11:30 AM.

I won the first game nicely, drew a lost game against Kevin, got a win by forfeit in third round, won playing well in fourth game, drew a completely won game in fifth and finally lost a drawn Rook ending in the final (sixth) round. Despite this, I was in the prize list for my group (AB - 1700 to 1899) winning $66. I was jointly 6th-7th-8th for 4.0 out of 6 games. Look at the link below and check the AB section for my name in red in the prize list! I also gained 30 US Chess rating and my new rating now is 1797. I am planning to participate in short tournaments in future as well. This tournament was a 5 hour each game tournament for 6 rounds (move 30/90 + 60 each) spanning 3 days. My colleague Ganesh came twice during the tournament to watch my games and the final evening Amin, Shusmita, Ahyan and Suhaila came. Ahyan was very happy to see this vast gathering of chess players in Fremont Marriott (200+ participants in several groups).

http://bayareachess.com/events/11/221sp.php

In case you are interested for my games, please check my chess blog for the game notations to replay yourself at - http://chess4you.blogspot.com. I am showing you one game here out of those whichI was very happy to win due to it's attack and counter-attacking nature where I kept my head cool under time pressure.

Finally I purchased Shusmita, Ahyan and Suhaila's Bangladesh return trip air tickets calling Cathay Pacific Airways. They will start at 11th March early morning (5 minutes after midnight) and will come back at 6th May. I purchaseed Suhaila's full ticket instead of saving the money so that Shusmita can go comfortably with Ahyan and her. It will be quite difficult for her to handle such a big trip without me while going from San Francisco to Dhaka with a stop over of 10 hours 40 minutes in. Hing Kong. It will purchase my ticket later next month which will be April 9th to May 6th as I could manage 4 weeks leave from office. I received Ahyan and Suhaila's No Visa Required seal in their passports yesterday from Bangladesh Consulate of Los Angeles.

KChess - Chess For Kindle

2011-02-14T00:34:00.000-08:00

Today I found KChess, the chess software for Kindle in Amazon. It's built by Oak Leisure Systems Software and is available for $2.99 only.

It has 10 levels of strength, level 1 being the easiest and 10 the strongest. I was surprised to see how good even Level 1 plays. I have won against that after some accurate play and had to play all through a rook end game to win against Level 2. I am now playing against Level 3 and looks like this is the level where I will be stopped for the moment. The app is surprisingly well designed. I wish I could save the games that I play - that's one thing that can be done as additional feature in future release of this app.

I am so happy to get this. This game itself made me think again - Kindle Rocks!

Update: After a few days, I started winning regularly against the highest level (Level 10). I have been playing it now in both my Kindle DX and the new Kindle 3 that I bought for Shusmita this valentines's day.

Salesforce.com Chess Tournament Round 2: Ashik vs Ron

2011-01-28T16:40:00.001-08:00

I won the round 2 of chess tournament in Salesforce.com a little earlier playing with black. My opponent was Ron Pragides who sits in seventh floor in the same building as mine. He is Senior Director of Software Engineering. Shishir and Maithili joined me to watch the game. The chess clock we had actually ran out of battery so Ron did an interesting thing. He downloaded a chess clock in his iPhone where we set 20 minutes for each of us. It served the purpose fine!

Ron made the first mistake but I made a follow up mistake too to bring him back in the game. So it went down to Ron to make the final mistake by him through which I was able to mate him. Unlike round 1, this time I was ahead of time.

World Cup is in God's Hand

2011-01-26T15:05:00.000-08:00

As world cup cricket 2011 is approaching, some interesting cricket jokes are also on the horizon. Here is one -

I am eagerly looking forward to the opening game of 19th February that will be held in my backyard in Dhaka between Bangladesh and India!

I won the first round of the Chess Tournament in Salesforce.com

2011-01-24T18:18:00.000-08:00

I played the first round of the four round chess tournament in Salesforce.com. I won with White, although I felt I am out of touch by a good margin due to the lack of practice. My opponent was Didier Prophete who is PMTS and sits in 3rd floor in the same building as I do. Also I took lot more time than my opponent to move.

However, I will do some practice before next rounds so that I don't make simple miscalculations.

Soon after this, I exchanged the queens to make sure there is nothing left in the board except my Rook and Didier's Bishop while I have a bunch of queens side passed pawns to march for promotion. So he resigned here while I had some 3 minutes left in the clock as opposed to his 9 minutes.

Last few days I finished Himu Rimande and Kichukhkhon by Humayun Ahmed.

New York Trip, Winter 2011

2011-01-19T09:39:00.000-08:00

The eve of last year and the whole new year 2011 so far, I have been occupied with my daughter Suhaila and shopping with Ammu for my brother Rasel's marriage. I used my second week of paternity leave from office to visit my Uncle, Aunt and cousins in New York as well as send my Mom to Dhaka with my friend Paul. As a bonus we got snow, lots and lots of snow and snowfall in New York! In that sense this trip during 11th January to 17th January was a highly successful one.

Ezaz dropped us in San Francisco Airport early morning so that we could catch our Delta Airlines flight at 8:30 AM on time. Kakku received us in JFK airport, New York. in the evening. That very night there was continuous snow fall that we watched over the window and enjoyed. As usual Abir, Asif, Roton, Kakku and Aunt were highly delighted to see Ahyan and Suhaila. The next day morning I and Ahyan got down in front of Kakku's house to help him clean snows and take some pictures during that time. The pictures for this trip are at my picasa web album - http://picasaweb.google.com/ashikuzzaman/NewYorkTrip2011#

I went to Paul's house, Jackson Heights, Jamaica, met with Ullash - freely roaming around the streets of New York. Because due to heavy cold and low temparature Ammu, Shusmita, Ahyan or Suhaila couldn't get out of the house much except when we went to Long Island in Dali Aunt house for a dinner invitation. 15th January, Saturday morning Ammu went to Dhaka with Paul and his family from JFK in Emirates. Despite Ammu's recent pain in the leg, she refused to take wheel chair assistance. That same day we went to Nandita's house where Sangita and Beatris were also there to spend time with us. Before coming back to New York, I purchased 2 luggage and filed them with books from Muktodhara of Jackson Heights and all sorts of food from Jamaica. The foods that were outstanding - Sagor Kachchi Biriyani and sweets, Ghoroa Kachchi and Muglai Porota, Pran Mango Juice, various achar and sauces, bhorta, Vapa pitha, Chitoi pitha, Patishapta pitha etc.

We reached back to San Francisco, the next day by JetBlue airport. Dhanad just came from Bangladesh the same day morning. He got healthier as when I last saw him Dhaka, he was as thin as me. Amin and Sumit Bhai picked us from aiport. IN the evening we had a big gathering/party in house as many of our friends with their family paid a visit to us - Ezaz, Shahriar, Sumit Bhai, Amin, Ashfaq, Hasinur.

Measuring Average Differently: Highest Runs Per Innings Discounting Not Out

2011-01-01T11:32:00.000-08:00

Happy new year 2011! Last year 2010 was a very important year for me primarily due to the birth of our second daughter Suhaila. The last few days of the year I spent mostly with Ammu and Ahyan shopping for Rasel's engagement and marriage. It's lot of fun. Also I thoroughly enjoyed the India vs South Africa test series during this time. Sreeshant excellent bouncer to make Jack Kallis helpless in the second test turning him into a C shape will remain in my memory as long as I cherish test cricket.

Here is an important number in cricket for batsmen with some modifications from me as a new year gift for the readers - highest batting average. The traditional way of measuring batting average is to divide the total career runs scored by the number of innings he played excluding the not out innings. This way we know before getting out, the batsmen scores how many runs on an average. Forget about the Bradman's magical 99.94, then the good batsmen averages around 50 to 60 runs before getting out once. Amongst our current players, Sangakkara, Tendulkar and Kallis are top in this list. You can get a pick of that list from CricInfo in the following URL - http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/282910.html

A few writers tries to say that the high average of Tendulkar is due to his many not out innings and Lara for his reason is in the lower 50s because of only 6 not out innings in his career (and o boy, 3 of them I call recall are 400*, 375* and famous 153*)! Instead they were saying that if you measure runs per test (no matter if the batsmen could play in both innings or one innings) and discount not outs, then Lara is quite ahead. That is a very unfair comparison because Lara played almost in all Tests in both the innings while Tendulkar didn't get a chance to play in the second innings in many Tests. Instead I believe the measurement below I gave (Runs Per Innings) will give the view they wanted to have, how many runs a batsmen score on an average in each innings played without giving any special tribute for remaining not out in any innings. I have taken a minimum of 5000 test runs scored to filter out bolwers and batsmen I am not interested about. Bradman again obviously comes first with 87.45. Apart from him there are only 10 batsmen who are above 50 with the second placed Jack Hobbs at 53.03.

Player	Span	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	Runs Per Innings	100	50	0
DG Bradman (Aus)	1928-1948	52	80	10	6996	334	99.94	87.45	29	13	7
JB Hobbs (Eng)	1908-1930	61	102	7	5410	211	56.94	53.03921569	15	28	4
KC Sangakkara (SL)	2000-2010	94	156	12	8244	287	57.25	52.84615385	24	34	4
KF Barrington (Eng)	1955-1968	82	131	15	6806	256	58.67	51.95419847	20	35	5
V Sehwag (ICC/India)	2001-2010	86	148	6	7670	319	54.01	51.82432432	22	27	12
WR Hammond (Eng)	1927-1947	85	140	16	7249	336*	58.45	51.77857143	22	24	4
BC Lara (ICC/WI)	1990-2006	131	232	6	11953	400*	52.88	51.52155172	34	48	17
L Hutton (Eng)	1937-1955	79	138	15	6971	364	56.67	50.51449275	19	33	5
SR Tendulkar (India)	1989-2010	176	288	31	14532	248*	56.54	50.45833333	50	59	14
GS Sobers (WI)	1954-1974	93	160	21	8032	365*	57.78	50.2	26	30	12
DPMD Jayawardene (SL)	1997-2010	116	190	13	9527	374	53.82	50.14210526	28	38	11
Mohammad Yousuf (Pak)	1998-2010	90	156	12	7530	223	52.29	48.26923077	24	33	11
JH Kallis (ICC/SA)	1995-2010	144	244	37	11677	201*	56.41	47.85655738	38	54	10
RT Ponting (Aus)	1995-2010	152	259	28	12363	257	53.51	47.73359073	39	56	14
SM Gavaskar (India)	1971-1987	125	214	16	10122	236*	51.12	47.29906542	34	45	12
GC Smith (ICC/SA)	2002-2010	90	157	9	7422	277	50.14	47.27388535	22	29	10
GS Chappell (Aus)	1970-1984	87	151	19	7110	247*	53.86	47.08609272	24	31	12
IVA Richards (WI)	1974-1991	121	182	12	8540	291	50.23	46.92307692	24	45	10
Younis Khan (Pak)	2000-2010	65	116	8	5440	313	50.37	46.89655172	17	21	13
ML Hayden (Aus)	1994-2009	103	184	14	8625	380	50.73	46.875	30	29	14
R Dravid (ICC/India)	1996-2010	149	257	29	12027	270	52.75	46.79766537	31	59	8
Javed Miandad (Pak)	1976-1993	124	189	21	8832	280*	52.57	46.73015873	23	43	6
KP Pietersen (Eng)	2005-2010	70	122	6	5630	227	48.53	46.14754098	17	21	7
RB Kanhai (WI)	1957-1974	79	137	6	6227	256	47.53	45.45255474	15	28	7
RN Harvey (Aus)	1948-1963	79	137	10	6149	205	48.41	44.88321168	21	24	7
DCS Compton (Eng)	1937-1957	78	131	15	5807	278	50.06	44.32824427	17	28	10
Inzamam-ul-Haq (ICC/Pak)	1992-2007	120	200	22	8830	329	49.6	44.15	25	46	15
CH Lloyd (WI)	1966-1985	110	175	14	7515	242*	46.67	42.94285714	19	39	4
KD Walters (Aus)	1965-1981	74	125	14	5357	250	48.26	42.856	15	33	4
WM Lawry (Aus)	1961-1971	67	123	12	5234	210	47.15	42.55284553	13	27	6
JL Langer (Aus)	1993-2007	105	182	12	7696	250	45.27	42.28571429	23	30	11
M Azharuddin (India)	1984-2000	99	147	9	6215	199	45.03	42.27891156	22	21	5
AR Border (Aus)	1978-1994	156	265	44	11174	205	50.56	42.16603774	27	63	11
G Boycott (Eng)	1964-1982	108	193	23	8114	246*	47.72	42.04145078	22	42	10
SR Waugh (Aus)	1985-2004	168	260	46	10927	200	51.06	42.02692308	32	50	22
MD Crowe (NZ)	1982-1995	77	131	11	5444	299	45.36	41.55725191	17	18	9
G Kirsten (SA)	1993-2004	101	176	15	7289	275	45.27	41.41477273	21	34	13
GA Gooch (Eng)	1975-1995	118	215	6	8900	333	42.58	41.39534884	20	46	13
S Chanderpaul (WI)	1994-2010	129	219	34	9063	203*	48.98	41.38356164	22	55	13
AJ Strauss (Eng)	2004-2010	81	146	6	6024	177	43.02	41.26027397	19	23	12
CG Greenidge (WI)	1974-1991	108	185	16	7558	226	44.72	40.85405405	19	34	11
Zaheer Abbas (Pak)	1969-1985	78	124	11	5062	274	44.79	40.82258065	12	20	10
RB Richardson (WI)	1983-1995	86	146	12	5949	194	44.39	40.74657534	16	27	8
ME Trescothick (Eng)	2000-2006	76	143	10	5825	219	43.79	40.73426573	14	29	12
AC Gilchrist (Aus)	1999-2008	96	137	20	5570	204*	47.6	40.65693431	17	26	14
MC Cowdrey (Eng)	1954-1975	114	188	15	7624	182	44.06	40.55319149	22	38	9
MJ Slater (Aus)	1993-2001	74	131	7	5312	219	42.83	40.54961832	14	21	9
MA Taylor (Aus)	1989-1999	104	186	13	7525	334*	43.49	40.45698925	19	40	5
JH Edrich (Eng)	1963-1976	77	127	9	5138	310*	43.54	40.45669291	12	24	6
DI Gower (Eng)	1978-1992	117	204	18	8231	215	44.25	40.34803922	18	39	7
CH Gayle (WI)	2000-2010	91	159	6	6373	333	41.65	40.08176101	13	33	15
VVS Laxman (India)	1996-2010	119	196	30	7856	281	47.32	40.08163265	16	49	12
HH Gibbs (SA)	1996-2008	90	154	7	6167	228	41.95	40.04545455	14	26	11
PA de Silva (SL)	1984-2002	93	159	11	6361	267	42.97	40.00628931	20	22	7
RR Sarwan (WI)	2000-2009	83	146	8	5759	291	41.73	39.44520548	15	31	10
IM Chappell (Aus)	1964-1980	75	136	10	5345	196	42.42	39.30147059	14	26	11
GR Viswanath (India)	1969-1983	91	155	10	6080	222	41.93	39.22580645	14	35	10
DC Boon (Aus)	1984-1996	107	190	20	7422	200	43.65	39.06315789	21	32	16
MP Vaughan (Eng)	1999-2008	82	147	9	5719	197	41.44	38.9047619	18	18	9
ME Waugh (Aus)	1991-2002	128	209	17	8029	153*	41.81	38.41626794	20	47	19
SC Ganguly (India)	1996-2008	113	188	17	7212	239	42.17	38.36170213	16	35	13
SP Fleming (NZ)	1994-2008	111	189	10	7172	274*	40.06	37.94708995	9	46	16
GP Thorpe (Eng)	1993-2005	100	179	28	6744	200*	44.66	37.67597765	16	39	12
Saleem Malik (Pak)	1982-1999	103	154	22	5768	237	43.69	37.45454545	15	29	12
DB Vengsarkar (India)	1976-1992	116	185	22	6868	166	42.13	37.12432432	17	35	15
ST Jayasuriya (SL)	1991-2007	110	188	14	6973	340	40.07	37.09042553	14	31	15
DL Haynes (WI)	1978-1994	116	202	25	7487	184	42.29	37.06435644	18	39	10
MA Atherton (Eng)	1989-2001	115	212	7	7728	185*	37.69	36.45283019	16	46	20
JG Wright (NZ)	1978-1993	82	148	7	5334	185	37.82	36.04054054	12	23	7
AJ Stewart (Eng)	1990-2003	133	235	21	8463	190	39.54	36.01276596	15	45	14
MS Atapattu (SL)	1990-2007	90	156	15	5502	249	39.02	35.26923077	16	17	22
N Hussain (Eng)	1990-2004	96	171	16	5764	207	37.18	33.70760234	14	33	14
CL Hooper (WI)	1987-2002	102	173	15	5762	233	36.46	33.30635838	13	27	13
A Ranatunga (SL)	1982-2000	93	155	12	5105	135*	35.69	32.93548387	4	38	12
IT Botham (Eng)	1977-1992	102	161	6	5200	208	33.54	32.29813665	14	22	14
N Kapil Dev (India)	1978-1994	131	184	15	5248	163	31.05	28.52173913	8	27	16
MV Boucher (ICC/SA)	1997-2010	138	194	23	5257	125	30.74	27.09793814	5	33	16

Highest Parternships Centuries In Test Cricket

2010-12-24T12:39:00.000-08:00

My latest cricket statistics finding - Rahul Dravid has (highest) 85 test century partnerships followed by Sachin 81 & Ponting 80! But when it comes to 200 or more runs of partnerships in Test, Sachin is ahead with 18, followed by Dravid & Ponting 15 each, Bradman 14!

I found in cricinfo statsguru, some partnership related statistics here in a 2007 article of Players involved in most 100 and 200 partnerships - http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/conte...ry/300539.html. However, as its 3 years old already. According to this, Tendulkar's only been in three triple-century stands.

5: Bradman
4: Jayawardene, Smith, Gibbs, Dravid
3: Inzamam, Javed Miandad, Kallis, Sangakkara, Ponting, Tendulkar, Laxman, Younis Khan
2: Gower, Worrell, Gooch, Sobers, Amla, Trott, Viv Richards, Hutton, Hussey, Mohammad Yousuf, Atapattu, S Waugh, Jayasuriya, Sehwag, Ponsford, Lawr

You can get some more details and how we came to these statistics if you follow the forum thread here - http://www.cricketfansforum.net/showthread.php?p=386242#post386242

And here is a table which is slightly different than CricInfo's StatsGuru primarily due to how rtetired hurt calculations are done. But we can follow this at a high level considering a little margin of error inevitable due to not all records from past kept in precious details.

Name                     I   AtCrease    Share   AtCrsAve   Pships   Unbroken   PartAve   100   200   300
=========================================================================================================
RS Dravid            251     28,741   41.47%     114.51      634         31     47.66    84    16     4
SR Tendulkar         284     27,874   51.54%      98.15      582         29     50.41    79    18     3
RT Ponting           253     24,599   49.68%      97.23      456         28     57.47    79    15     3
AR Border            265     24,501   45.61%      92.46      618         33     41.88    63     6     1
JH Kallis            235     23,576   46.84%     100.32      529         36     47.82    56    14     3
SR Waugh             260     23,521   46.46%      90.47      593         30     41.78    64    11     2
BC Lara              230     21,430   55.59%      93.17      504          7     43.12    62     9     1
SM Gavaskar          214     21,080   48.02%       98.5      519         16     41.91    58     6     1
S Chanderpaul        215     20,572   43.60%      95.68      574         16     36.87    56     7     0
DPMD Jayawardene     187     19,170   49.08%     102.51      379         14     52.52    60     7     4
MA Atherton          212     18,468   41.85%      87.11      471          8     39.89    44     6     1
Javed Miandad        189     18,368   48.08%      97.19      397         21     48.85    50    13     3
ML Hayden            182     18,167   46.44%      99.82      367         14     51.46    49    13     0
G Boycott            193     18,031   45.00%      93.42      451         26     42.43    47     4     0
Inzamam-ul-Haq       198     17,601   50.16%      88.89      427         21     43.35    42     7     3
DL Haynes            202     17,585   42.58%      87.05      474         23     38.99    40     6     0
GA Gooch             215     17,313   51.41%      80.53      453          5     38.65    41     6     2
AJ Stewart           235     16,926   50.00%      72.03      506         13     34.33    37     2     0
JL Langer            180     16,454   46.64%      91.41      349         12     48.82    49    11     1
G Kirsten            176     16,377   44.51%      93.05      380         14     44.75    45     9     0
MA Taylor            186     16,342   46.05%      87.86      407         12     41.37    40     6     1
ME Waugh             209     16,291   49.28%      77.95      398         15     42.54    47     3     0
VVS Laxman           192     16,245   47.44%      84.61      418         22     41.02    39     7     3
KC Sangakkara        152     16,229   49.39%     106.77      352          8     47.18    37     5     3
DI Gower             204     16,012   51.41%      78.49      420         15     39.54    38     4     2
MC Cowdrey           188     15,925   47.87%      84.71      393         17     42.35    42     3     1
CG Greenidge         185     15,883   47.59%      85.85      345         17     48.42    47     7     0
DC Boon              190     15,614   47.53%      82.18      398         17     40.98    42     3     0
Yousuf Youhana       156     15,507   48.56%       99.4      342         13     47.13    41     8     2
IVA Richards         182     15,394   55.48%      84.58      360         13     44.36    45     7     2
GS Sobers            160     15,319   52.43%      95.74      331         22     49.58    43     7     2
SC Ganguly           188     15,190   47.48%       80.8      353         14     44.81    41     5     1
SP Fleming           189     15,098   47.50%      79.88      425         10     36.38    30     3     0
DB Vengsarkar        185     15,006   45.77%      81.11      401         22     39.59    31     3     1
CH Lloyd             175     14,219   52.85%      81.25      352         12     41.82    40     4     0
L Hutton             138     14,078   49.52%     102.01      314         12     46.62    41     7     2
GC Smith             149     14,074   50.86%      94.46      287          7     50.26    34    12     4

Also for interested readers, here is the same list for ODI (not T20) cricket.

Name                  I   AtCrease    Share   AtCrsAve   Pships   Unbroken   PartAve   100   200   300
======================================================================================================
SR Tendulkar        431     35,545   49.51%      82.47      889         41     41.92    93     6     1
RT Ponting          339     27,252   47.01%      80.39      635         37     45.57    66     7     0
ST Jayasuriya       428     25,576   52.24%      59.76      772         17     33.88    56     5     0
SC Ganguly          297     24,954   44.97%      84.02      608         23     42.66    67     6     1
Inzamam-ul-Haq      348     24,832   47.12%      71.36      723         49     36.84    42     3     0
RS Dravid           309     24,552   43.35%      79.46      649         38     40.18    55     5     2
JH Kallis           288     24,132   45.47%      83.79      632         52     41.61    48     0     0
MS Atapattu         259     21,005   40.60%      81.10      572         32     38.90    46     2     0
Yousuf Youhana      267     20,553   46.48%      76.98      561         40     39.45    39     2     0
BC Lara             285     20,293   50.99%      71.20      549         28     38.95    38     1     0
M Azharuddin        308     20,148   46.55%      65.42      592         57     37.66    35     2     0
DL Haynes           237     19,822   43.63%      83.64      503         28     41.73    46     2     0
S Chanderpaul       245     19,253   44.92%      78.58      563         38     36.67    29     2     0
DPMD Jayawardene    305     18,690   46.86%      61.28      549         31     36.08    39     3     0
PA de Silva         296     18,519   50.13%      62.56      598         30     32.60    36     1     0
ME Waugh            236     18,273   46.52%      77.43      472         20     40.43    40     3     0
Saeed Anwar         244     17,876   49.36%      73.26      501         18     37.01    26     3     0
KC Sangakkara       255     17,611   47.39%      69.06      502         27     37.08    37     1     0
SP Fleming          268     17,306   46.27%      64.57      531         20     33.87    31     1     0
AC Gilchrist        275     17,240   54.61%      62.69      425         10     41.54    41     2     0
HH Gibbs            240     16,511   49.02%      68.80      424         14     40.27    38     1     0
Javed Miandad       218     16,461   44.84%      75.51      505         41     35.48    26     0     0
SR Waugh            288     15,994   47.32%      55.53      542         58     33.05    21     2     0
NJ Astle            217     15,892   44.61%      73.24      502         14     32.57    36     0     0
A Ranatunga         255     15,274   48.81%      59.90      495         46     34.02    24     0     0
MG Bevan            196     15,253   45.32%      77.82      465         64     38.04    20     1     0
G Kirsten           185     15,120   44.96%      81.73      404         18     39.17    34     2     0
CH Gayle            212     14,968   52.31%      70.60      422         15     36.78    34     0     0
Saleem Malik        256     14,786   48.49%      57.76      479         38     33.53    21     2     0
A Flower            208     14,534   46.69%      69.88      446         15     33.72    32     0     0
GW Flower           214     14,380   45.70%      67.20      441         17     33.92    27     0     0
ML Hayden           154     14,322   42.81%      93.00      323         15     46.50    37     2     0
RB Richardson       217     14,184   44.05%      65.36      434         28     34.94    26     0     0
Yuvraj Singh        234     14,087   52.84%      60.20      421         30     36.03    29     2     0
AR Border           252     13,628   47.87%      54.08      437         36     33.99    24     1     0
V Sehwag            212     13,431   52.88%      63.35      353          9     39.04    31     4     0
Ijaz Ahmed          232     13,212   49.68%      56.95      455         30     31.09    17     2     0
Rameez Raja         197     13,124   44.51%      66.62      385         15     35.47    23     2     0
Younis Khan         201     12,976   45.57%      64.56      385         18     35.36    30     2     0
GC Smith            157     12,782   46.48%      81.41      313         10     42.18    31     0     0
DM Jones            161     12,732   47.66%      79.08      346         25     39.66    28     1     0
MJ Clarke           163     12,586   45.26%      77.21      317         34     44.47    32     2     0
RS Mahanama         198     12,382   41.69%      62.54      442         22     29.48    17     0     0
JN Rhodes           220     12,204   48.63%      55.47      386         51     36.43    19     1     0
IVA Richards        167     12,188   55.14%      72.98      301         24     44.00    32     2     0
DC Boon             177     12,104   49.27%      68.38      317         16     40.21    26     1     0
AD Jadeja           179     12,043   44.50%      67.28      387         34     34.12    19     2     0
MS Dhoni            151     11,872   46.82%      78.62      312         38     43.33    33     0     0
CL Hooper           206     11,829   48.70%      57.42      389         43     34.19    14     1     0
RR Sarwan           146     11,707   43.55%      80.18      332         30     38.76    20     0     0
DR Martyn           179     11,472   45.84%      64.09      361         47     36.54    22     1     0
WJ Cronje           175     11,375   48.92%      65.00      328         31     38.30    22     0     0
Shahid Afridi       283     11,302   56.57%      39.94      414         18     28.54    16     0     0
ADR Campbell        184     11,263   46.04%      61.21      388         14     30.11    17     0     0
Shoaib Malik        172     10,720   48.40%      62.33      338         15     33.19    16     3     0
CG Greenidge        127     10,635   48.27%      83.74      244         13     46.04    28     1     0
GR Marsh            115     10,572   41.21%      91.93      262          6     41.30    25     1     0
PD Collingwood      173     10,439   47.69%      60.34      355         32     32.32    13     1     0
Abdur Razzaq        212     10,369   46.99%      48.91      398         53     30.06     6     1     0
Aamer Sohail        155     10,220   46.77%      65.94      283          5     36.76    15     1     0
TM Dilshan          168     10,057   48.87%      59.86      333         29     33.08    17     0     0
CD McMillan         183      9,903   47.53%      54.11      330         15     31.44    16     0     0
AJ Stewart          162      9,892   47.28%      61.06      307         13     33.65    13     0     0
A Symonds           158      9,752   51.48%      61.72      283         32     38.85    21     2     0
CZ Harris           213      9,610   45.57%      45.12      472         51     22.83     7     0     0
MD Crowe            140      9,527   49.38%      68.05      293         19     34.77    19     0     0
NS Sidhu            127      9,503   46.44%      74.83      258          8     38.01    19     1     0
CL Cairns           192      9,292   52.53%      48.40      336         25     29.88     7     0     0
MV Boucher          213      9,230   48.76%      43.33      334         56     33.20    10     0     0
MEK Hussey          123      9,188   47.25%      74.70      264         37     40.48    18     0     0
HP Tillakaratne     168      9,172   41.31%      54.60      366         36     27.79     5     0     0
AP Gurusinha        143      9,076   42.99%      63.47      298          5     30.98    15     0     0
GA Gooch            122      8,997   47.68%      73.75      243          6     37.96    20     1     0
RP Arnold           155      8,791   44.93%      56.72      334         40     29.90    14     0     0
SB Styris           149      8,693   47.71%      58.34      283         22     33.31     8     0     0
ME Trescothick      122      8,480   51.12%      69.51      245          6     35.48    20     1     0
NV Knight           100      8,408   43.26%      84.08      259          7     33.37    15     0     0
RS Kaluwitharana    181      8,368   44.35%      46.23      290         14     30.32    15     0     0
DJ Cullinan         133      8,271   46.67%      62.19      258         16     34.18    13     1     0
GA Hick             118      8,222   46.78%      69.68      231         15     38.06    14     1     0
K Srikkanth         145      8,202   49.88%      56.57      259          4     32.16    17     0     0
JG Wright           148      8,148   47.75%      55.05      263          1     31.10    10     0     0
AJ Lamb             118      8,125   49.35%      68.86      250         17     34.87    13     0     0
G Gambhir            99      8,081   45.20%      81.63      187         10     45.66    21     2     0
Imran Khan          151      8,054   46.05%      53.34      295         39     31.46     8     0     0
PV Simmons          138      8,027   45.78%      58.17      232         11     36.32    17     0     0
MA Taylor           110      7,934   44.29%      72.13      213          1     37.42    20     0     0
DB Vengsarkar       120      7,866   44.60%      65.55      262         19     32.37    13     0     0
AJ Strauss          112      7,824   47.19%      69.86      213          8     38.17    15     3     0
AB de Villiers      100      7,795   50.11%      77.95      174         14     48.72    20     1     0
WU Tharanga         104      7,793   43.03%      74.93      215          4     36.93    16     4     0
BB McCullum         150      7,649   47.78%      50.99      257         22     32.55    11     1     0
AC Parore           161      7,538   43.96%      46.82      307         28     27.02    12     0     0
KC Wessels          105      7,477   45.03%      71.21      223          7     34.62    14     0     0
HH Dippenaar         89      7,455   44.27%      83.76      206         14     38.83    21     0     0
Wasim Akram         280      7,374   50.41%      26.34      395         53     21.56     1     0     0
Mohammad Ashraful   156      7,235   46.44%      46.38      300         13     25.21     8     0     0
RJ Shastri          128      7,057   44.04%      55.13      253         20     30.29    11     0     0
SM Gavaskar         102      7,055   43.83%      69.17      214         14     35.28    13     0     0
BRM Taylor          110      6,994   46.35%      63.58      236         11     31.08     9     0     0
Moin Khan           183      6,891   47.40%      37.66      339         38     22.89     3     0     0
KR Rutherford       115      6,832   46.00%      59.41      217          8     32.69    11     0     0
Kapil Dev           198      6,831   55.38%      34.50      315         37     24.57     4     0     0
L Klusener          137      6,786   52.70%      49.53      256         45     32.16     7     0     0
SO Tikolo           120      6,640   49.97%      55.33      230         11     30.32     9     0     0
DS Lehmann          101      6,630   46.43%      65.64      171         22     44.50    15     0     0
KP Pietersen         92      6,609   50.14%      71.84      187         15     38.42    10     0     0
WW Hinds            111      6,552   43.96%      59.03      203          8     33.60    12     0     0
SM Pollock          196      6,430   49.66%      32.81      312         64     25.93     3     0     0
AH Jones             87      6,377   43.66%      73.30      198          9     33.74     8     0     0
M Kaif              110      6,317   43.58%      57.43      220         22     31.90    15     0     0
Mudassar Nazar      115      6,162   43.05%      53.58      215         11     30.21    11     0     0
A Flintoff          119      6,143   53.61%      51.62      184         16     36.57     9     1     0
AL Logie            133      6,143   45.73%      46.19      232         35     31.18     5     0     0
T Taibu             115      6,001   45.63%      52.18      242         15     26.44     7     0     0
DI Gower            111      5,997   52.86%      54.03      202          6     30.60     9     1     0
SV Carlisle         107      5,991   45.74%      55.99      195          8     32.04    11     1     0
RG Twose             81      5,984   45.40%      73.88      163         10     39.11    14     0     0
HH Streak           157      5,984   48.48%      38.11      301         44     23.28     2     0     0
SR Watson            97      5,934   50.10%      61.18      175         19     38.04     8     1     0
GJ Whittall         142      5,884   45.97%      41.44      247         22     26.15     2     0     0
Salman Butt          78      5,864   46.47%      75.18      158          4     38.08    11     1     0
IR Bell              80      5,835   44.94%      72.94      163          6     37.17    11     0     0
Shakib Al Hasan      97      5,787   48.78%      59.66      195         16     32.33    10     0     0
VVS Laxman           83      5,723   40.85%      68.95      157          8     38.41    14     1     0
JC Adams            105      5,655   38.97%      53.86      214         28     30.40     7     0     0
H Masakadza         101      5,466   48.43%      54.12      186          4     30.03    11     0     0
SL Campbell          87      5,394   42.32%      62.00      181          0     29.80     6     0     0
SK Raina             88      5,378   47.01%      61.11      131         18     47.59    14     0     0
L Vincent            99      5,340   45.19%      53.94      179         10     31.60    11     1     0
RR Singh            113      5,333   43.80%      47.19      206         22     28.98     7     0     0
N Hussain            87      5,303   43.98%      60.95      147          9     38.43    12     0     0
LRPL Taylor          84      5,269   48.79%      62.73      183         11     30.63     8     0     0
GM Wood              77      5,260   42.19%      68.31      185          7     29.55     6     0     0
AC Hudson            88      5,230   48.93%      59.43      134          1     39.32    11     0     0
VG Kambli            97      5,218   47.47%      53.79      168         21     35.50    10     0     0
Kamran Akmal        108      5,195   49.61%      48.10      194         13     28.70     6     0     0
RA Smith             70      5,133   47.13%      73.33      151          8     35.90    10     0     0
GP Thorpe            77      5,066   46.98%      65.79      181         12     29.98     6     0     0
Tamim Iqbal          88      5,006   50.84%      56.89      198          0     25.28     3     0     0
MN Samuels           99      4,990   50.36%      50.40      166         15     33.05    11     0     0
Habibul Bashar      105      4,873   44.49%      46.41      188          5     26.63     6     0     0
Zaheer Abbas         60      4,869   52.82%      81.15      133          6     38.34     9     1     0
MW Gatting           88      4,842   43.27%      55.02      160         16     33.63     6     0     0
KO Otieno            87      4,692   42.97%      53.93      195          1     24.19     4     1     0
BA Edgar             64      4,685   38.72%      73.20      151          5     32.09     8     0     0
TM Odoyo            109      4,657   48.57%      42.72      212         13     23.40     3     0     0
SV Manjrekar         70      4,654   42.84%      66.49      146         10     34.22     5     0     0
GS Chappell          72      4,653   50.10%      64.63      156         14     32.77     6     0     0
S Matsikenyeri      106      4,635   47.38%      43.73      184          6     26.04     6     0     0
E Chigumbura        110      4,587   52.04%      41.70      205         11     23.64     3     0     0
NH Fairbrother       71      4,576   45.72%      64.45      147         17     35.20     5     1     0
MP Vaughan           83      4,430   44.74%      53.37      151         10     31.42     7     0     0
Khaled Mashud       110      4,404   41.28%      40.04      234         24     20.97     1     0     0
M Amarnath           75      4,402   43.71%      58.69      165         11     28.58     5     0     0
PJL Dujon           120      4,363   44.58%      36.36      193         35     27.61     4     0     0
JDP Oram            102      4,333   50.84%      42.48      163         14     29.08     5     0     0
M Prabhakar          98      4,332   42.89%      44.20      164         19     29.88     7     0     0
MJ Greatbatch        83      4,319   51.08%      52.04      152          5     29.38     4     0     0
RD Jacobs           112      4,313   43.24%      38.51      237         28     20.64     2     0     0
KLT Arthurton        93      4,304   44.24%      46.28      176         20     27.59     4     0     0
WPUJC Vaas          219      4,299   46.94%      19.63      345         61     15.14     0     0     0
MA Atherton          54      4,283   41.82%      79.31      123          3     35.69     7     0     0
Yasir Hameed         56      4,260   47.61%      76.07      116          1     37.04     9     0     0
JV Coney             80      4,236   44.24%      52.95      178         19     26.64     1     0     0
Shahriar Nafees      64      4,207   46.97%      65.73      134          5     32.61     7     0     0
Mohsin Khan          75      4,190   44.80%      55.87      132          5     32.99     4     1     0
DL Vettori          162      4,151   47.24%      25.62      226         40     22.32     2     0     0
CH Lloyd             69      4,118   48.01%      59.68      145         16     31.92     4     0     0
KJ Hughes            88      4,114   47.84%      46.75      131          6     32.91    11     0     0
IT Botham           106      4,029   52.44%      38.01      167         14     26.33     3     0     0
OA Shah              66      3,979   46.09%      60.29      130          6     32.09     5     0     0
BJ Haddin            64      3,917   47.92%      61.20      104          6     39.97     7     0     0
A Bagai              51      3,906   41.68%      76.59      144          8     28.72     6     1     0
Imran Nazir          79      3,878   48.87%      49.09      140          2     28.10     5     0     0
RL Powell           100      3,877   53.78%      38.77      141         15     30.77     2     0     0
MW Goodwin           70      3,874   46.93%      55.34      126          3     31.50     5     0     0
V Sibanda            82      3,795   45.22%      46.28      155          2     24.80     6     0     0
ND McKenzie          55      3,793   44.50%      68.96      112         10     37.19     7     1     0
JP Duminy            59      3,764   45.86%      63.80      103         15     42.77     5     1     0
DA Gunawardene       61      3,746   45.60%      61.41      109          1     34.69     5     0     0
CB Wishart           82      3,742   45.94%      45.63      130          8     30.67     7     0     0
Aftab Ahmed          85      3,724   52.47%      43.81      142          6     27.38     3     0     0
EJG Morgan           55      3,664   49.07%      66.62      114         11     35.57     4     0     0
IA Healy            120      3,661   48.18%      30.51      212         32     20.34     0     0     0
BA Young             73      3,595   46.40%      49.25      149          5     24.97     1     0     0
SC Williams          55      3,578   44.33%      65.05       95          6     40.20     6     1     0
CL White             59      3,568   49.50%      60.47       99         12     41.01     6     0     0
NC Johnson           48      3,533   47.52%      73.60      121          2     29.69     3     0     0
Rashid Latif        117      3,523   48.51%      30.11      192         28     21.48     1     0     0
RJ Hadlee            98      3,505   49.96%      35.77      190         14     19.91     1     0     0
DD Ebrahim           76      3,500   41.23%      46.05      170          4     21.08     5     0     0
UDU Chandana        111      3,495   46.55%      31.49      176         14     21.57     3     0     0
RS Morton            51      3,492   43.50%      68.47      109          6     33.90     7     0     0
Saleem Elahi         47      3,479   45.39%      74.02       99          4     36.62     6     1     0
HA Gomes             64      3,469   40.79%      54.20      101         17     41.30     6     0     0
JJ Crowe             71      3,382   44.88%      47.63      141         12     26.22     1     0     0
DJ Bravo             87      3,371   50.88%      38.75      144         14     25.93     1     0     0
Azhar Mahmood       110      3,367   45.17%      30.61      178         27     22.30     0     0     0
RL Dias              55      3,319   47.39%      60.35      108          5     32.22     3     0     0
HJH Marshall         62      3,313   43.89%      53.44      115          9     31.25     6     0     0
Mushfiqur Rahim      74      3,284   44.28%      44.38      130         12     27.83     4     0     0
GM Turner            40      3,266   48.93%      81.65       90          6     38.88     5     0     0
Shoaib Mohammad      58      3,233   39.25%      55.74      121          5     27.87     5     0     0
Javed Omar           59      3,231   40.61%      54.76      142          3     23.24     3     0     0
LRD Mendis           74      3,211   47.56%      43.39      154          9     22.14     2     0     0
Misbah-ul-Haq        52      3,158   49.21%      60.73       98         10     35.89     5     0     0
CO Obuya             71      3,131   47.56%      44.10      136          8     24.46     3     0     0
PN Kirsten           40      3,126   41.36%      78.15       84          6     40.08     4     0     0
LPC Silva            54      3,086   46.57%      57.15      114          7     28.84     4     0     0
SM Katich            40      3,078   39.60%      76.95       84          5     38.96     6     0     0
RD Shah              55      3,078   48.93%      55.96      118          1     26.31     4     0     0
MO Odumbe            59      3,062   46.02%      51.90      108          5     29.73     6     0     0
CK Kapugedera        69      3,038   46.84%      44.03      104          6     31.00     3     0     0
NR Mongia            96      3,032   41.95%      31.58      158         30     23.69     2     0     0
WTS Porterfield      44      3,013   45.50%      68.48      100          3     31.06     5     1     0
DL Houghton          60      2,978   51.38%      49.63      119          3     25.67     4     0     0
MS Sinclair          50      2,916   44.72%      58.32      102          5     30.06     4     0     0
N Boje               69      2,916   48.35%      42.26      102         19     35.13     3     0     0
Raqibul Hasan        47      2,909   42.32%      61.89       94          6     33.06     4     0     0
PG Fulton            46      2,907   45.89%      63.20       92          5     33.41     3     0     0
GP Howarth           65      2,884   47.99%      44.37      114          5     26.46     3     0     0
MA Ouma              64      2,874   44.15%      44.91      122          2     23.95     2     0     0
B Zuiderent          52      2,828   38.19%      54.38       94         10     33.67     6     0     0
IK Pathan            78      2,817   48.56%      36.12      118         17     27.89     3     0     0
CJ Chibhabha         56      2,790   41.90%      49.82      104          0     26.83     4     0     0
Mohammad Hafeez      58      2,788   44.62%      48.07      107          1     26.30     2     0     0
JM Kemp              60      2,783   49.26%      46.38       97         16     34.36     4     0     0
Asif Mujtaba         55      2,758   38.72%      50.15      112         15     28.43     3     0     0
JR Hopes             61      2,750   48.22%      45.08      107          7     27.50     1     0     0
HDPK Dharmasena      87      2,748   44.47%      31.59      134         29     26.17     1     0     0
KJ O'Brien           45      2,713   48.88%      60.29       87          8     34.34     4     1     0
D Mongia             51      2,686   45.79%      52.67       94          6     30.52     3     0     0
DO Obuya             66      2,677   47.44%      40.56      118          2     23.08     2     0     0
SG Law               51      2,666   46.40%      52.27       85          5     33.33     7     0     0
AB Agarkar          113      2,644   48.00%      23.40      171         24     17.99     1     0     0
RS Bopara            50      2,570   44.36%      51.40      103          6     26.49     1     0     0
HS Modi              56      2,567   43.20%      45.84      136          7     19.90     3     0     0
VS Solanki           46      2,502   43.84%      54.39       82          4     32.08     4     1     0
TM Moody             64      2,495   48.54%      38.98       99         11     28.35     5     0     0
Basit Ali            43      2,476   51.09%      57.58       80          6     33.46     4     0     0
MJ Prior             50      2,471   43.14%      49.42       83          8     32.95     2     0     0
Mahmudullah          51      2,452   43.68%      48.08       97         14     29.54     2     0     0
PA Strang            73      2,445   44.58%      33.49      132         23     22.43     0     0     0
RG Sharma            51      2,444   47.26%      47.92       90         10     30.55     4     0     0
Rajin Saleh          43      2,423   41.48%      56.35       89          1     27.53     3     0     0
RW Marsh             76      2,423   50.56%      31.88      129         14     21.07     0     0     0
DW Randall           45      2,385   44.74%      53.00       85          5     29.81     3     0     0
A Kumble            134      2,365   38.18%      17.65      208         31     13.36     0     0     0
Mohammad Rafique    104      2,357   50.49%      22.66      149         13     17.33     2     0     0
DSBP Kuruppu         52      2,326   43.94%      44.73      101          1     23.26     0     0     0
SP O'Donnell         64      2,320   53.53%      36.25      100         14     26.98     4     0     0
Harbhajan Singh     110      2,280   46.45%      20.73      168         21     15.51     0     0     0
KD Karthik           44      2,277   44.27%      51.75       71          6     35.03     3     0     0
Alok Kapali          62      2,277   51.38%      36.73      122          2     18.98     2     0     0
P Utseya             95      2,248   43.24%      23.66      157         19     16.29     1     0     0
MJ Horne             48      2,228   43.99%      46.42       86          0     25.91     1     0     0
SC Williams          44      2,198   49.50%      49.95       88          7     27.14     3     0     0
Junaid Siddique      44      2,196   45.54%      49.91       75          0     29.28     3     0     0
JK Kamande           67      2,182   47.11%      32.57      132          6     17.32     0     0     0
Akram Khan           44      2,166   45.06%      49.23       96          3     23.29     2     0     0
SK Warne            106      2,154   47.17%      20.32      136         28     19.94     1     0     0
SA Thomson           52      2,127   45.32%      40.90       86         10     27.99     5     0     0
RS Madugalle         56      2,111   45.00%      37.70      100          5     22.22     0     0     0
D Ramdin             62      2,101   42.79%      33.89      111         14     21.66     0     0     0
Waqar Younis        139      2,092   46.32%      15.05      192         33     13.16     0     0     0
Mashrafe Mortaza     90      2,089   55.67%      23.21      135         11     16.85     0     0     0
Saqlain Mushtaq      98      2,085   34.10%      21.28      144         28     17.97     0     0     0
MJ Slater            42      2,054   48.05%      48.90       66          1     31.60     3     0     0
SM Patil             42      2,045   49.14%      48.69       75          1     27.64     4     0     0
RS Kalpage           69      2,039   41.39%      29.55      105         25     25.49     2     0     0
AJ Hall              56      2,035   44.47%      36.34       79         11     29.93     3     0     0
GM Ritchie           42      2,031   47.22%      48.36       81          7     27.45     1     0     0
MA Vermeulen         43      2,022   42.93%      47.02       86          3     24.36     4     0     0
JR Ratnayeke         69      2,018   40.83%      29.25      114         12     19.78     1     0     0
IDS Smith            77      2,008   52.54%      26.08      120         16     19.31     1     0     0
Yashpal Sharma       40      1,995   44.26%      49.88       77          9     29.34     0     0     0
NJ O'Brien           40      1,994   46.34%      49.85       76          3     27.32     0     0     0
Khaled Mahmud        72      1,990   49.80%      27.64      122          1     16.45     1     0     0
MD Marshall          83      1,971   48.45%      23.75      138         18     16.43     1     0     0
B Lee                91      1,964   44.35%      21.58      126         36     21.82     1     0     0
MF Maharoof          64      1,964   50.10%      30.69      101         16     23.11     0     0     0
NFI McCallum         40      1,962   49.80%      49.05       69          6     31.14     3     0     0
DJ Richardson        77      1,921   45.18%      24.95      129         28     19.02     0     0     0
BM McMillan          52      1,887   44.57%      36.29      101         13     21.44     0     0     0
RA Harper            73      1,841   46.44%      25.22      117         16     18.23     0     0     0
CM Spearman          50      1,839   50.90%      36.78       72          0     25.54     4     0     0
J Srinath           121      1,819   48.54%      15.03      167         21     12.46     0     0     0
KD Mills             72      1,803   44.93%      25.04      111         16     18.98     0     0     0
JEC Franklin         54      1,796   39.42%      33.26       85         19     27.21     0     0     0
GO Jones             41      1,743   46.76%      42.51       73          8     26.82     4     0     0
Saleem Yousuf        62      1,719   44.68%      27.73       90         20     24.56     0     0     0
DR Smith             61      1,682   54.99%      27.57       94          4     18.69     1     0     0
Wasim Raja           45      1,682   46.49%      37.38       81         10     23.69     0     0     0
WB Phillips          41      1,662   51.26%      40.54       67          5     26.81     2     0     0
GB Hogg              65      1,641   48.14%      25.25      107         32     21.88     0     0     0
BL Cairns            65      1,573   62.75%      24.20       91          6     18.51     0     0     0
Sunil Dhaniram       41      1,542   59.34%      37.61       80          4     20.29     1     0     0
CEL Ambrose          96      1,541   41.47%      16.05      149         23     12.23     0     0     0
CN Evans             47      1,497   51.04%      31.85       67          5     24.15     2     0     0
MA Ealham            45      1,496   47.86%      33.24       77          4     20.49     0     0     0
DJ Nash              53      1,490   41.88%      28.11       87         12     19.87     0     0     0
GRJ Matthews         50      1,442   42.93%      28.84       83         11     20.03     1     0     0
PAJ DeFreitas        66      1,437   48.02%      21.77      108         21     16.52     0     0     0
Z Khan               86      1,431   47.52%      16.64      119         24     15.06     0     0     0
IJ Harvey            51      1,429   50.03%      28.02       71         12     24.22     0     0     0
GR Larsen            70      1,419   44.33%      20.27      106         25     17.52     0     0     0
M Muralitharan      159      1,414   47.17%       8.89      177         33      9.82     0     0     0
Manzoor Elahi        46      1,407   52.67%      30.59       72         14     24.26     0     0     0
RMH Binny            49      1,381   45.55%      28.18       69          9     23.02     1     0     0
DA Marillier         41      1,353   49.67%      33.00       76          3     18.53     1     0     0
AO Suji              46      1,343   37.68%      29.20       73          3     19.19     1     0     0
Abdul Qadir          68      1,332   48.12%      19.59      104         23     16.44     0     0     0
PL Symcox            54      1,326   52.34%      24.56       71         10     21.74     1     0     0
D Gough              87      1,321   46.10%      15.18      128         31     13.62     0     0     0
DN Patel             63      1,303   47.81%      20.68       94         10     15.51     1     0     0
Abdur Razzak         70      1,287   43.75%      18.39      105         21     15.32     0     0     0
Naved-ul-Hasan       51      1,281   40.91%      25.12       74         14     21.35     0     0     0
RJ Ratnayake         55      1,264   48.42%      22.98       76         16     21.07     0     0     0
PR Reiffel           57      1,233   40.79%      21.63       89         19     17.61     1     0     0
KS More              65      1,196   47.07%      18.40       94         17     15.53     0     0     0
KMDN Kulasekara      51      1,195   39.75%      23.43       86         17     17.32     0     0     0
MC Snedden           54      1,190   44.96%      22.04       88         21     17.76     0     0     0
C White              41      1,157   49.09%      28.22       61          4     20.30     1     0     0
Tushar Imran         40      1,156   49.65%      28.90       69          0     16.75     0     0     0
JG Bracewell         43      1,148   44.60%      26.70       69         12     20.14     0     0     0
AM Blignaut          41      1,140   54.91%      27.80       61          7     21.11     1     0     0
SB Joshi             45      1,107   52.76%      24.60       64         11     20.89     1     0     0
PL Taylor            47      1,092   40.02%      23.23       85         23     17.61     1     0     0
DP Viljoen           43      1,080   47.41%      25.12       59          7     20.77     1     0     0
GB Brent             54      1,054   38.71%      19.52       84         11     14.44     1     0     0
JE Emburey           45      1,038   48.27%      23.07       73         11     16.74     0     0     0
Mushtaq Ahmed        76      1,004   39.74%      13.21       98         22     13.21     0     0     0
PJ Ongondo           60        971   39.65%      16.18       76         11     14.94     0     0     0
MG Johnson           47        968   51.65%      20.60       75         16     16.41     0     0     0
AC Cummins           49        968   50.21%      19.76       71         10     15.87     0     0     0
IR Bishop            44        963   42.06%      21.89       66         13     18.17     0     0     0
ALF de Mel           41        931   50.05%      22.71       57          8     19.00     0     0     0
N Odhiambo           42        919   46.25%      21.88       57          6     18.02     0     0     0
GF Lawson            52        908   41.63%      17.46       77         17     15.13     0     0     0
Shoaib Akhtar        77        892   40.13%      11.58       95         17     11.44     0     0     0
SCJ Broad            43        890   41.80%      20.70       63         10     16.79     0     0     0
CC Lewis             40        885   42.26%      22.13       51         13     23.29     0     0     0
Mohammad Sami        46        849   36.98%      18.46       61         12     17.33     0     0     0
CJ McDermott         78        812   53.20%      10.41       95         15     10.15     0     0     0
RW Price             47        765   40.78%      16.28       62         10     14.71     0     0     0
Tapash Baisya        41        738   45.53%      18.00       61          9     14.19     0     0     0
GP Wickramasinghe    64        719   47.84%      11.23       81         19     11.60     0     0     0
DNT Zoysa            47        713   48.11%      15.17       65         16     14.55     0     0     0
EA Brandes           41        703   57.47%      17.15       60          9     13.78     0     0     0
MA Holding           42        696   40.52%      16.57       49         10     17.85     1     0     0
CA Walsh             79        694   46.25%       8.78       89         20     10.06     0     0     0
SE Bond              40        690   42.32%      17.25       53         13     17.25     0     0     0
MA Suji              52        673   36.70%      12.94       67         17     13.46     0     0     0
DR Tuffey            52        659   44.76%      12.67       59         13     14.33     0     0     0
CRD Fernando         57        640   37.34%      11.23       75         18     11.23     0     0     0
WKM Benjamin         52        635   46.93%      12.21       66         11     11.55     0     0     0
Aaqib Javed          51        616   43.34%      12.08       68         20     12.83     0     0     0
J Garner             41        595   40.17%      14.51       52          9     13.84     0     0     0
M Dillon             51        591   38.41%      11.59       66         15     11.59     0     0     0
BKV Prasad           63        552   40.04%       8.76       71         12      9.36     0     0     0
DK Morrison          43        531   32.20%      12.35       53         11     12.64     0     0     0
M Ntini              46        526   37.83%      11.43       50         14     14.61     0     0     0
JM Anderson          56        494   32.19%       8.82       60          9      9.69     0     0     0
C Pringle            41        445   43.37%      10.85       45         16     15.34     0     0     0
EJ Chatfield         48        417   28.30%       8.69       50         16     12.26     0     0     0
GD McGrath           67        403   28.54%       6.01       70         23      8.57     0     0     0
A Nehra              40        323   40.56%       8.08       48         11      8.73     0     0     0

India lost comprehensively to South Africa in First Test at Centurion by an innings and 25 runs. The highlights of the match was the most feared opening bowling pair in the world Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel demolishing the famous Indian opening pair Virendar Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, Kallis' first test double ton (201 not out), De Villeirs' fastest test ton as South African (in 75 balls), Amla's another test century (140) and Tendulkar's 50th Test Ton in third innings (111 not our) that took the same to fifth day. One interesting (?!) discussion arouse from the post-match press conference here - http://www.espncricinfo.com/south-africa-v-india-2010/content/story/493570.html

I attended my traffic ticket class in Fremont Holiday Express Inn last weekend. Our instructor is Craig Covtler of Improv Traffic School / Comedy Class is an actor, stand up comedian and musician as well!

I and Ammu started shopping for Rasel's Engagement and Wedding. Rasel's future bride Toma is a doctor and as far as we saw the picture, she looks good from a good family background. The engagement will be done in 21st January when Ammu reached Dhaka at 16th. I, Shusmita, Ahyan and Suhaila will go to New York taking Ammu so that Ammu can go to Bangladesh with Paul who is also going with his wife and daughter at 15h January. So I changed my Ammu's Emirates ticket from San Francisco 9th January to New York 15th January. We will go to New York at 11th January in Delta and come back 16th January in JetBlue. In the meantime, I and Shusmita got our H1/H4 extension approved. I picked Suhail's birth certificate and also recieved her SSN. So my next assignment after sending Ammu to Dhaka with Paul from New York will be to find someone with whom Shusmita and the kids can go to Dhaka at March. After that I will go to Canada, get my US Visa stamped there and then go to Bangladesh in April. Rasel's Wedding and Bouvat is scheduled for 21st and 23rd April respectively. Hope everything works out well.

My Daughter Suhaila Is Born

2010-11-26T02:00:00.000-08:00

By the grace of almighty, my daughter Suhaila Zaman was born 18th Nov, 2010 (Thursday) at Washington Hospital, Fremont, California, USA at 1:25 PM. It was a normal delivery and both the Mom and baby are doing well now although the baby got a routine jondis after discharging from Hospital at the 3rd day.The bay was 7 pounds and 8 ounces, 19 inches at birth.

Name: Suhaila Zaman

Father's Name: Ashik Uzzaman

Mother's Name: Shusmita Haque

Date of Birth: 18 Nov, 2010

Birth Time: 1:25 PM

Birth Place: Washington Hospital, Fremont, California, USA

Weight During Birth: 7 lb 8 oz

Lenght During Birth: 19" or 48 cm

Blood Group:

Shusmita's Doctor: Dr. Shakira Karipineni

Suhaila's Pediatrician: Dr. Veena Puri

Suhaila's Web Album: http://picasaweb.google.com/ashikuzzaman/SuhailaSAlbum#

Suhaila's Blog: http://suhailazaman.blogspot.com

Shusmita has been thinking to give the name Joyita to our daughter. The great the name seems, it's not a very muslim sounding name and hence I was not in favor of it. Instead I was favoring the name Sumayra which Shusmita didn't like anyway. Ahyan used to call his little sister Lilly for no reason (or may be Lilly came for Little somehow?!). Then Shusmita thought of Swaibah after searching for good muslim baby girl names. Very late in the game, we came to know that the meaning of Swaibah is not useful - it means small branches of tree. So we again started looking for name and Shusmita found Maymuna, wife of Prophet (SAWS). However, Abbu told me that there was a character in this name Prophet's time who gave hard time to our prophet. So as he insisted we also skipped this name. Then I started looking at the names of Sahabiyats of Islam and figured out the name Suhaila which is derived from Suhaila Bint-e Masood. Suhaila is an Indian word the meaning of which is Moonshine i.e. Jochna or Chader Alo in Bengali. Also there is an Arabic word Suhaila which refers to the second brightest star in the sky. While we already finalized this name, we got a late suggestion from my in-laws for the name Humayra. But we sticked to Suhaila anyway. Now my mom decided to keep a short and easily pronounceable nick name instead of calling Suha or Ila which I thought we might be using at home. A long exercise with name!

Abbu left for Dhaka at 22nd afternoon and reached there at 24th Nov in Emirates. Abbu's flight from Dubai to Dhaka couldn't land on time due to heavy fogs. As a result the plain circled in the sky for 1 hour 50 minutes and at one time started for Kolkata to land before was called back.

I took 2 weeks of paternity leave from office and along with Ammu are in a good shape to handle the early days now when Shusmita is not much mobile. Today we mini-celebrated 1 week of birth of Suhaila; or should I say Suhaila's first birth-week?

Russell Peters Show and Eid Ul Adha

2010-11-25T09:44:00.000-08:00

Finally, I got a hold of Russell Peters. I, Shusmita and Ahyan attended his comedy show at HP Pavillion San Jose 14th November. Abbu Ammu took care of Ahyan during that time. Shusmita at her current situation attending this show itself was a comedy. And what to tell about Russell, he is a born joker. Most of his jokes are actually about different types of people from different countries, cultures and backgrounds. We thoroughly enjoyed it. Last time when he came to bay area couple of years back, I couldn't manager time and ticket to attend it. So this time I was adament to see the show.

This time Eid Ul Adha was celebrated in 2 different days 16th and 17th Nov. As Abbu Ammu is here, this is the first time I did Qurbani here in USA. Sayeem, Shahriar, Ezaz and I ordered Khashi for Qurbani in Bangla Bazar Sunnyvale. Abbu and Shahriar went to pick up the meat 17th evening as I was preparing to take Shusmita hospital for delivery.

We celebrated Eid at 16th Nov because our Qurbani was done that day by Bangla Bazar people. I took Abbu and Ahyan to MCA jamat. In the meantime we went to different restaurants in the nearby places as well as Sunday Farmers market regularly. I have been having nice time with my family after a long time.

Abbu Ammu Reached Safely In USA

2010-11-09T17:57:00.000-08:00

Abbu Ammu reached San Francisco Airport at 31st October by Emirates via Dubai. I picked them from airport taking a rental Van as it was a working day (Monday). Unfortunately out of the 4 luggages and a few carry on bags, one luggage which was full of different foods Ammu brought for us, got missing. Abbu brought the claim number and we got the bag back in 2 days. But by that time some excellent food got damaged including my favorite Mera Pitha (a kind of local cake).

Ahyan is enjoying his time with Dada Bhai and Dida now. We are relieved as now it will be easier for us to handle the upcoming situation.

I am eating different kinds of foods that Ammu brought. Pakkon pitha, Premium sweets shondesh, Yousuf bakery chanachur.

We had an issue with our land in Uttara and hence Abbu has to go back to Dhaka 22nd November. Abbu will be back again end of January. Ammu will be here during this time to support us. This time I am planning to arrange Qurbani of a Goat at Bangla Bazar. Sayeem, Shahriar and Ezaz are also doing the same there.

We had an interesting Diwali party at office yesterday where our CIO Kirsten wore an Indian Sari to surprise us.

Bangladesh's National Dish Now-a-days

2010-11-07T08:39:00.000-08:00

This is after making a Bangla-wash of New Zealand in Dhaka recently by 4-0 in the ODI series.
Courtesy: HoldingWilley Web Site

Shusmita's Baby Shower & More

2010-10-31T00:46:00.000-07:00

All our friends arranged a surprised baby shower for Shusmita in 3rd October at Shahriar's house. We were able to keep her confused with the date to make it a real surprise for her.

We also arranged a small birthday party of Ahyan as he turned 4 years this October 12th. We did catering from Sala Thai.

Last weekend I, Shusmita and Ahyan went to Monterey. I took a day off in Friday from office and made it a 3 day quick vacation. We took a ocean view room in Monterey Best Western Beach Resort. The sea beach is just in front of the room and hence we were hearing the roar of the ocean if we opened the window or door. We roamed around the local restaurants and shops and also went to Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Bangladesh defeated new zealand 4-0 in the ODI series and India defeated Australia 2-0 in the Test series. Everything happened above my best expectation. Shakib highest run scorer in the series and also bowled superb. For India, Tendulkar had a double century and was man of the series.

Anand was runner up in Bilbao Cat 22 Super GM tournament (Kramnik champion) and also runner up in Nanjing cat 21 Super GM tournament (Carlsen champion).

Fufu & My Cousines Visit To US

2010-10-24T22:35:00.000-07:00

Last few months I was to busy to be able to update my blog with what's happening in life. So now I will try to give a quick summary.

Just after my Mount Whitney and Death Valley trip, we attended rodeo show in afternoon, dinner at sultan's kebab and visit to Alameda country fair in Pleasanton with Ezaz and Wali Bhai's families. Shusmita had her ultra sonograph done and we came to know that Ahyan is going to have a baby sister this November!

Fufu, Rumi Apa, Ripa, Iram and Iqra visited us. They landed in New York at 1st July from Dhaka. Fufu, Rumi Apa, Iram went to Canada from there while Ripa and Iqra came to my house. The first weekend I took them to Santa Cruz Beach and Shankar Ehsan Loy's concert in Oracle Arena. They enjoyed both thoroughly. The next weekend we went to Six Flags of Vallejo.

Fufu, Rumi Apa and Iram came to our house via Vancouver after a month. I started with showing them Golden Gate Bridge, World's Crookedest St at Lombard street San Francisco, Fisherman's Wharf. We had dinner at Nick's Lighthouse. One weekday I participated in a Salesforce.com IT volunteering event in SFO Zoo and took fufu, ripa, rumi apa, iram, iqra as well to show the zoo. The next weekend we covered Six Flags at Saturday and Yosemite Sunday. Finally I overcame the challenge of Roller Coaster with Iram! All of them liked highway one, pfeiffer beach, big sur very much. I took my aunt and cousins to gilroy outlets, napa outlets and great america mall outlets.

As it was the month of Ramadan, we attended several Iftari invitations and invited all our friends for breakfast in our house at Eid day. Roaming around kodak theater, LA with Fufu, Rumi apa and Iram. Yesterday we reached Las Vegas just before night. Fufu, Rumi Apa & Iram all liked it. I got a surprise call from my University friends - Faisal, Russell, Alam, Kishore, Leena Apa, Shopon, Shumon - I was so happy to hear them! We saw hoover dam on the way to grand canyon from las vegas. And yah, fufu liked grand canyon very much! From grand canyon/williams to home/fremont it took 12 and half hours, 720 miles of drive. Whole LA/Las Vegas/Grand Canyon trip was 1875 miles drive (6 days) that I managed comfortably. We attended flop concert of A R Rehman at Oracle Arena,Oakland last night with friends & family. It was too short and commercial. Disappointing. I purchased an iPhone 4 for Rizvi (my youngest brother) and an iPad (32 GB) for Rasel (my younger brother) and sent it for them with Fufu.

Amongst the downside, I got a speeding ticket and lost my iPad in FedEx while sending documents to my parents for their visa.

Good news is that my I-140 got approved and now my lawyer applied for our H1/H4 extensions. To my great relief, Abbu Ammu got 5 years of multiple entry visa for USA. They will be coming to help us out this first November. I also started investing a small amount in Rasel's stock trading house in Gulshan to get an idea and involvement with Dhaka Stock Exchange Market.

Nitol and Shoma moved to Atlanta. He had his daughter born there couple of months back. They named her Muntaha Rahman. Nitol will be joining a new job there soon.

I finished several books in last few months including Kalo Jadukor by Humayun Ahmed, Foundation Series of Isaac Asimov except the last book which I am reading now Foundation & Earth. I also participated in the JP Morgan Run Race from office in Embarcadero with thousands of people. I finished he 3.5 miles run in about 48 minutes this year. I attended Philips ecare get together dinner at Sunnyvale Shalimar. Imtiyaz, Franca, Dan, David, Shammack. Good old time talk.

Shusmita, Ahyan, Nody and I watched 'kings of devon' at San Jose in a weekend which was based on Bangladeshi gangsters of chicago yesterday. I purchased another iPhone 4 - this time for myself. Ahyan and Safwan started going to Sunday Islamic school recently.

Sovietovoski Koutukov - সোভিয়েটভস্কি কৌতুকভ

2010-10-01T15:18:00.001-07:00

I was reading সোভিয়েটভস্কি কৌতুকভ last night and thought to share a few with you the intellectual jokes during the hard reigns of former Soveit Union in the time span of 1917 to 1991 until its fall. While this is the bengali transaltion of the original jokes, the author tried to keep the taste as much intact as possible even providing background of some the jokes for better understanding of the context. A few ones below from the question answers radio show of Armenia radio, Yerevan.

প্রশ্ন: হিটলার আত্য়হটত্যা করেছেন কেনো?
উত্তর: গ্যাস এর বিল দেখে

প্রশ্ন: সোভিয়েত স্টাইল এ নির্বাচন শুরু হয় কোবে থেকে?
উত্তর: যেদিন ইসসর ইভ কে সৃষ্টি করে আদম কে বলেন, স্ত্রী বেছে নাও

প্রশ্ন: কূত্‌সিট কিন্ত বিশশস্তো স্ত্রী আর সুন্দরী কিন্ত অবিশশস্তো স্ত্রী - কোনটি ভালো?
উত্তর: একা একা বিস্ঠা খাবার চেয়ে সবাই মিলে মিষ্টি খাওআ ভালো

প্রশ্ন: পাঊনড, ডলার আর রুবলের অন্তর্জ়াতিক বিনিময় হার কতো?
উত্তর: এক পাঊনড রুবলের দাম এক ডলার

প্রশ্ন: কোনো মেয়ে কী কোনো পুরুষ কে লাখপতি বানাতে পারে?
উত্তর: পারে| যদি পুরুষটি হয় কোটি পতি.

প্রশ্ন: ১৯৬৪ সাল কেমন যাবে?
উত্তর: মাঝারি রকম| ১৯৬৩ সালের চেয়ে খারাপ কিন্ত ১৯৬৫ সালের চেয়ে ভালো|

Death Valley Trip

2010-08-07T20:04:00.000-07:00

Although Tanjeem, Shahriar and I were tired after the strenuous dayhike in mount Whitney, we knew we have only one day left before going back home. So we had no option but to start early in the morning for Death Valley next morning. While I was perfectly ready for it, I found Shahriar catching fever at night resulting from the hike and Tanjeem was too tired to wake up so early in the morning. He was ready to go with us if we would start at 8/9 AM. But finally at 5:30 next morning I found Shahriar fresh from the rest overnight and hence we decided to start for Death Valley right away. We had our breakfast in hotel at 6 am and started at 6:30 am. Death valley was 104 miles from Lone Pine city and we stopped in many Vista Points during the drive. We saw many different kinds of rock formations, sandy deserts, interesting trees, scenic roads.

We stopped at Death Valley Museum for information and some souvenirs. It was 190 feet below sea level and full of interesting staffs like a sample rock which is estimated to be 2 billions years old. Nice little place in the middle of the desert.

After driving another 15 minutes we reached Badwater which is the lowest point of North America. It is 282 feet below sea level! The temperature was 120 degree Fahrenheit. I thought I could stay an hour or so in this hot temperature without trouble. Incidentally within 24 hours of time we have went 12000 plus feet above sea level as well as 282 feet below sea level. Isn't it amazing!

We reached back hotel around noon and found Tanjeem watching Germany vs Uruguey 3rd place deciding match of Fifa world cup football 2010. We all had lunch in our room and then started driving back to Fremont via Yosemite. I reached around 8:30 at night and joined Shusmita, Nitol, Shoma and Ahyan in Oracle Arena in Oakland at the Atif Islam concert. I was late so only could catch up last 4 songs. Nevertheless, Aadat was one of those songs and I found it was worth the ticket.

First Attempt to Summit Mount Whitney through Dayhike - Success & Failure Story

2010-07-19T05:22:00.000-07:00

I, Shahriar and Tanjeem went upto a little over twelve thousand feet (trail camp) of Mount Whitney this 9^th July Friday. Despite failing in our attempt to summit, we learnt a lot about mountains and mountaineering in general during this day hike. I loved it!

Shahriar processed all the paper works as team lead in early February this year to apply for 4 passes but finally we 3 friends went there. We picked up the passes one day before the hike from Lone Pine city and went for a practice hike that day. We hiked upto 9800 feet at Lone Pine lake in about 2 hours 20 minutes. This was the last point until which we could have gone without a hiking permit (remember that our hike permit was for next day). This practice helped us making an assessment on where we were physically and team-wise in terms of preparation for the summit. Unfortunately we found that we were under-prepared for this big hike and were not in best of our shape. For example, Tanjeem had a broken sleep cycle last few days due to his office works and some practice hikes very early in the morning. Shahriar although participated in several soccer matches along with the regular weekend soccer, he did as less practice hikes as the other two of us. I, on the contrary, was the least prepared as I found I haven’t even brought the extra food (cake, cookies) and clothes. Shahriar and Tanjeem had extra energy bars, cookies but those don’t go well with me in terms of taste. But still I was full of hope (false hope !?) that we would be able to make it the next day till the peak.

Tanjeem is working in Sillicon Valley as a Hardware Design Engineer. He is another of my friends who are from 1994 HSC batch. He was earlier in Mirzapur Cadet College and Kharagpur IIT. He is consistent in pace in our local hikes from Bay Area Bangladeshi Hikers Group, plays soccer and has done a double trip of Mission Peak hike in 7 hours with Shahriar a few weeks earlier.

Shahriar is working in Cadence as Senior Member of Technical Staff and is the most fit amongst us for physical activities. He plays soccer every weekend and looks for opportunities to stay active. He was also with me in our last year’s hike of Half Dome of Yosemite. He reads about mountaineering, visits REI regularly and follows sites like RMI to stay up-to-date with good hiking and climbing gears as well as latest mountaineering events around the world. This helps me a lot as I often can’t make time to go through this and hence just check what he is with now, and if I like I make a shortcut of picking the same gears.

I am a software engineer by profession and relatively a new hiker by passion since last year . I was never into physical activities in my life. I have a very weird food habit and timetable that makes me think that I am not the right person for physical activities anyway. However, I have a few advantages like I can stay without food and water for a long period of time. I don’t sweat easily and can ignore pains so that it doesn’t stop me from my regular works or activities. So those of you who think you have physical limitations that you can't get interested on mountaineering, I have a good news for you – you can become a good mountaineer as long as you can grow the passion for it and you are ready to work out on your body. Please remember the best way to see and feel the nature is not by taking some pictures from Vista Points, it's by loosing yourself inside nature - hiking, backpacking.

Our hotel in Comfort Inn at Lone Pine city was at 4400 feet above sea level. This relatively higher altitude may sometimes cause indiscipline in food habit and sleep cycle if you are from a sea level or flat land place like we are from San Francisco Bay Area (or from the flat Island Bangladesh near the Bay of Bengal of South Asia). We went to bed early that night to get a good sleep before our early morning hike next day. Tanjeem and Shahriar couldn’t sleep due to the tension or altitude and woke up early after the midnight. I, as usual, slept easily without interference for 6 hours.

We woke up from bed few minutes after 2 AM, took a little time to get prepared and have breakfast. By the time we started the hike at Whitney trail (8360 feet above sea level) it was 3:45 AM. We took too much weight, mainly water and Gatorade, compared to what we needed. Shahriar took 37 pounds, I took 33 pounds and Tanjeem took 25 pounds weight. Initially, Tanjeem was slower than us, as in the dark trail he felt the constant headache due to high altitude or sleeplessness. But we all thanked the trekking polls that we were using; otherwise we would have slipped often in the trail resulting in injuries. After the sunrise Tanjeem was matching our pace and we thought we started going faster despite some frequent breaks we took. However, we noticed after a while that some other people were crossing us coming from behind. That’s when we realized that we had been going on a too slow pace to reach the peak of Mount Whitney on time. But we still kept pushing ourselves forward. Tanjeem told us that he wanted to go till the Trail camp from where he could have a quick look at the famous 99 switchbacks and return from there. Shahriar and I were still dreaming of reaching the summit that day. Shahriar and Tanjeem were eating energy bars as and when they got tired. But due to my weird food habit, after some Gatorade and breads with nuteela, I stopped eating. This was a serious mistake, as I didn’t get enough food intakes to recharge myself when I was getting tired. Now I believe that it was also a side effect of high altitude – loosing my appetite. So after crossing 12000 feet, I got so tired that I started taking break every few minutes. But by that time Shahriar and I already could calculate our pace and decide that we were giving up for the summit push. A little earlier than that time Tanjeem tried out a steroid food bar as an experiment as he was approaching his physical limit to continue any more. He felt better energy than us after that and went ahead of us till the trail camp at more than 12000 feet above sea level. After crossing 2 snowfields just before the trail camp I told Shahriar that I needed a longer break then, so he could go ahead if he wanted. He was also exhausted but was regaining energy as and when eating snickers, energy bars for calorie intakes. But he decided not to go further as anyway we were nowhere near a summit push. I could realize by then that it was not the heavy weight I was carrying but the combination of high altitude with that heavy weight that took my energy and appetite for food. As I was not eating food or energy bars, I was not regaining energy like the other two. This is why mountaineers talk about acclimatization again and again. Tanjeem was anyway returning back and when he heard that we have decided to go back too, we all turned back from the place trail camp after the Consultation lake. During our descend that started at 11:10AM, we sat down near Mirror Lake for lunch break when we even prepared tea. On the way back, Shahriar slipped once and cut his hand. But he was carrying first aid, so he could cover the cut with a band aid and didn’t complain about the pain. Although Tanjeem bumped into the rocks several times, he didn’t fell down. I was careful enough not to fall down or hot the rock. My target was to go back to Whitney Portal with whatever energy I have left in me so that I don’t have to eat the bad tasty energy bars. I was successful as I only drank water and a little nuts that Shusmita gave during the whole descend. We reached back to Whitney portal at 5 AM with 18 pounds weight apiece in the bag. We had a nice evening meal in Whitney Portal store where we socialized with other hikers. I got energized again after the meal as I didn't eat anything last 4/5 hours except drinking water. Shahriar got fever at night but was ok next morning. Tanjeem was tired so told not to call him before 8/9 next morning. I and Tanjeem forgot to bring cameras, so Shahria's camera was the only one. I carried it most of the time in my neck but we made sure all of us are in the pictures.

We learnt what high altitude means and what happens if we are under-prepared for a big challenge and how important teamwork is. We will use this experience for our future expeditions. But I knew very well about my passion for the mountains. My respect for Mount Whitney has increased several times. I am not going to under-estimate any other mountains; especially the day hikes in future. So in all sense, this trip is a story of our success and failure, success for how far we went high within a day and came back safe; and failure because we couldn't make it to the top. I will attempt it again ext year, but this time with proper planning and preparation InshaAllah.

Here is a good summary of our trip from Shahriar's facebook photo album - http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=467276&id=775925174

Unfortunately Whitney day hike summit wasn't successful, but it was a  great experience for all of us as we gained good knowledge and  experience about high altitude hike/climb. This mission will help us in  the future missions :).  InshAllah I will be back for Whitney mission  again on 2011.

Few reasons, that we couldn't summit:

1. Very  less practice before the Whitney hike

2. Less team work

3. High  altitude that made us tired in very short time

4. Back pack was too  heavy, we carried too  much water! We should purify water in future as  there were sources of water in many places throughout the trail

5.  Because of #1-4, we took much time to reach trail camp (around 3 hours)  which made the day hike not possible. But if we could have stayed 1  night in the trail (one night camping), we could have reached the  summit!

Back pack weights: 

Shahriar: 37 lbs

Ashik: 33 lbs

Tanjeem:  25 lbs

Here's the trip report:

Got up from Bed: 2.00 AM

Breakfast:  2.40 AM

Lone Pine-> Whitney Portal took around 30 minutes (13  mile drive)...

1. Whitney Portal 8360 feet 3.45 AM 0.00 Miles

2.  Lone Pine lake 9960 feet 6.03 AM 2.8 Miles

3. Outpost Camp 10360  feet 7.00 AM 3.8 Miles

4. Mirror lake 14 sb 10640 feet 7.30 AM 4.3  Miles 

5. Mirror Lake 7.37 AM (lost around 20 minutes as we lost the  trail) 4.8 Miles

6. Trail side Meadow 11395 feet 9.15 AM 5.3 Miles

7.  Trail Camp 12039 feet 10.50 AM 6.3 Miles

Returned to the Whitney  Portal @5.15 PM (6.3 Miles)

Location: Mount Whitney Trail, CA

I will write a separate entry on our Death Valley report the day after this hike shortly.

On the way to Mount Whitney Day 1 & 2

2010-07-08T08:13:00.000-07:00

Finally we are on our way to Mount Whitney. Yesterday I woke up a little earlier than 6 and finished some packing and grocery shopping for home. By the time Shahriar came to pick me in his Honda CRV it was around 8 AM. We picked Tanjeem from San Jose and drove towards Yosemite. We wanted to take the scenic Yosemite / Tioga Pass route to go the Lone Pine city instead of the boring I-5 route through Bakersfield. Tanjeem was under pressure in office works and couldn't sleep well last few days due to some practice hike disturbing his sleep cycle. So we started little late compared to what we were thinking initially (4/5 AM).

We enjoyed the beautiful trees. roads, mountains and rock formations while passing through Yosemite / Tioga pass road. One thing that struck us much was seeing some people live in rock climbing. we couldn't anticipate how that was feasible for the people in the above video to take that trail (in fact no trail, it's solid rock) and make their foot steps on that one by one approaching to the top.

On the way, Tanjeem fell a little ill but once he took some medicine from a pharmacy and had a sleep in the car, he started feeling better. It will be crucial for him to recover by today as I see him already better last evening after we reached hotel. Tanjeem was in room 204 while I and Shahriar at room 210. We had our late lunch come early dinner with Shahriar's Khichuri, Shusmita's egg curry and chicken but decided to keep Tanjeem's Tuna Kabab for tomorrow and the rest of the days.

Before coming to hotel we spent some time in Whitney Portal Store which is 11 miles from the Lone Pine city and at the very point from where the Mount Whitney trail starts at 8365 feet above sea level. We could feel the historic and legendary touch in the surrounding environment. I purchased a map from there as a backup although Shahriar has printed out the whitney trail map from office. The cell coverage is available to some extent in Lone Pice city and our hotel but not in Whitney Portal Store. But still if sometimes the coverage gets available somewhere in the Whitney Trail our tomorrow's hike, you can follow me at Google Latitude with ashikuzzaman@gmail.com . We asked about the current condition of the trail to a few people who just came down. They old there are couple of snowfields, otherwise the trail is mostly in good condition in terms of snows. People have gone without Ice Axe and Crampons as well. This made us feel better and more confident.

I talked to Shusmita when I got mobile network coming back to the hotel. My three-and-hafl years old son Ahyan said that he wanted to go to Hiking and proposed her to pick me from Mount Whitney. Somehow he was able to associate Mount Whitney with Hiking although we never said him if there is any relationship between these 2. We slept around 10 last night. This morning I woke up at 6:30 AM and Shahriar joined me in the complementary breakfast of the comfort inn hotel. I liked the waffle and also had boiled egg, butter, orange juice, milk and coffee. Tanjeem came a little later although he was the first to wake up at 6 AM.

We will be heading towards Mount Whitney for a practice hike now after picking the permit from Lone Pine forest office that opens at 8 AM. We plan to come back early at hotel have lunch/supper early and then sleep as early as possible so that we can start the actual hike very early in the morning tomorrow. I want to be on trail right at 4 AM in the morning which will mean I will need to wake up at 3 AM. But I have to see how Tanjeem and Shahriar are feeling about waking up so early in the morning. Specially Tanjeem has had a bad sleeping cycle last few days (except last night) and hence he might not be in a good shape for such an early rise. Let's see how we go.

Group Trip In Big Sur & My Birthday

2010-07-06T19:56:00.000-07:00

As Fourth of July long weekend was approaching, Shusmita wanted to travel to a nearby place and stay overnight to relax a bit from the city crowd. So Monterey/Carmel area on scenic Highway One or Napa Valley came to our mind immediately. I sent an email to my close friends/families here in Bay Area at 3^rd week of June asking if anyone else was interested to join us. In a lunch party of Hasinur’s house where we watched Brazil’s win over Chili in Fifa world cup 2010 South Africa, we found many of them there are interested for a group outing. So I, Sumit Bhai & Wali Bhai started searching for good places and hotels in Big Sur as this was what all the group members thought the right place for an overnight stay in the nature. We booked 3 suites in Big Sur Lodge one of which had an attached kitchen.

We started for Monterey from Wali Bhai’s house a little after 8 o’clock in the morning of 4^th July. There were 8 cars in total 2 of which joined us a little later on the way. First we went to 17 miles drive where there were some good beaches and vista points. It was windy and I thanked Shusmita for bringing extra jackets. We stopped over Bird Rock and Spanish Bay. As is the case for most of the SF bay area beaches, the water was cold. But that didn’t stop from some of us going down the water and playing with the sand. The kids were happy too.

Our next stop was in Carmel by the sea in a seafood restaurant. We enjoyed the lunch there in a slow manner although we had to walk a bit because of the distance between parking spot and the restaurant. We headed towards Pfeiffer Beach from there but that beach was temporarily closed for 2 hours due to heavy crowd leaving no parking spot available. So we went back to Big Sur Lodge and started settling on the rooms. It was not easy to maintain 8 cars aligned and follow each other in sync but we made it.

We were 15 adults, 4 kids and 2 infants in the group. Let me do the name count here – Ashik, Shumita & Ahyan; Sumit Bhai, Shumi Bhabi & Ayana; Wali Bhai, Asha Bhabi & Omera; Shahriar, Sachi & Safwan; Ezaz, Shaki & Mahi; Nitol & Shoma; Hasinur, Sigma & Nuryeen; Ahmed Amin (the only bachelor guy). We allocated room 17 for the guys, room 19 for the girls and room 59 for Hasinur and Nitol’s families.

Shahriar prepared an excellent puffed rice, chanachur combination with tomato, oil, onion & what what I can’t even recognize. But what I recognize is that by night I finished 5 plates of that mix! J For kids we brought some food from outside but looked like people are not that much enthusiast about those foods and instead preferred banana, nuteela and bread that we brought from Fremont.

We had a grand adda in room 17 till late night. We played Antakhshari dividing the group into 2 teams – Ladies & Gents. The competition end in a stalemate as none of us could defeat the other group although to tell you frankly, the ladies would have defeated us unless we would do some trick to modify couple of songs that didn’t start with the correct words. Or may be the ladies did the same trick against us who knows. The gathering was put to hold after 2 solo performances by Shahriar & Sachi. Sachi was the lyricist, musician and singer of her song and this made me think we have so many talents around us in this group.

We guys sat down in a guys-only chat later in the night where we started re-discovering ourselves from the time when we were back in Bangladesh. While some of us slept after the free-floating adda Shahriar, Ezaz, Wali Bhai & Sumit Bhai had energy left in them to still play 29 for half an hour after that chat.

In the morning, all I know is that Shahriar & Ezaz families went to Pfeiffer beach to see sun rise before others even woke up from bed. I found Shusmita a bit ill, as the trip had taken its toll on her. The fever/cold that Ahyan had couple of days earlier, got hold of her and me. Or may be it was just due to the weather change. We checked out of hotel a little earlier than noon and went to Pfeiffer beach again. This time I, Shahriar and Amin did a little bit of rock climbing there in the left side of the beach. I was very close to the top but decided to stop when I started slipping as after 2 days I have a very important mission to finish and it’s not good time to get injured at this point of time. Shusmita liked the place – a small but beautiful beach with high & colorful waves and told she wants to come back here when the weather will be warm in near future.

We drove back to Monterey to have our lunch at Maha’s Lebanese Restaurant. The food was very disappointing there. I, Shusmita, Ahyan & Amin sat down in a local coffee shop for an hour while the rest of the group went back to Fremont. Needless to say, at night when we came back we were exhausted after crossing all the long weekend traffic & trying to cope up with the runny nose and headaches. It was a great trip considering such a big group could stick together for 2 days.

First July was my birthday and hence when I came back home from office, I found Shusmita arranged a surprise birthday party for me. Last night Shoma and Nitol also came with a cake around midnight and I was surprised even if sleepy. But today I started getting some hints even before coming home. Every year I say Shusmita that I am aging enough not to celebrate birthday with bells & whistles but still she does something every year. And you guess what, I don’t even take a leave from office or allow myself anything special in my birthdays. But this birthday was fun compared to other years. I started the day with a practice hike of Mission Peak with Shahriar for couple of hours early in the morning at 5 AM. By the time I came back from hiking and having coffee, Ahyan and Shusmita were still sleeping, so I could prepare Ahyan for school and drop him on time.

My Aunt (Fufu), my 2 cousin sisters (Rumi Apa & Ripa), their sons (Iram & Siyam) and brother-in-law (Touhid Bhai) came to New York the same day. Ripa and Siyam will come to my house 11^th of July and the others will go to Toronto. But they will also come later in the August in my house. So I had to be on the phone for long time last few days.

Finally the day has come to start for hiking Mount Whitney. Should I say it hiking or climbing? Looking at the snow level in pictures posted in forums by people who recently went to Mount Whitney, it may be either of the two. This time we are under-prepared compared to our Yosemite Half Dome hiking last year. I have recently purchased trekking poles from REI that I have never used in my life. However, I am still positive to go till the summit and I hope Shahriar & Tanjeem are too. We decided to start at 6 AM in the morning tomorrow and come back Saturday night (10^th July) staying 3 nights at Comfort Inn of Lone Pine. Our hiking permit is for 4 persons at 9^th July and as Sayeem couldn’t join us, it will be 3 of us. Shusmita has cooked some food for us and I know Shahriar & Tanjeem are also bringing some foods for the next 4 days.