Riyaz made a memorable debut as a quizmaster at KC a couple of months back, on the same day as the Hyderabad leg of Brand Equity. The few of us who attended his quiz that day agreed wholeheartedly that his quizzes definitely deserved a bigger audience. And for his next effort last Saturday, Riyaz was not denied the audience he deserved. And boy, it was a memorable quiz!

Unlike his first quiz wherein he showed a slight predilection towards questions on technology, Riyaz chose to be more balanced, selecting topics that are popular with KC junta to quiz them on.

Despite being relatively new to KC, Riyaz showed the poise of a veteran in dealing with a noisy bunch that is KC. Clearly an indication that he finds himself at home and that we should look forward to many more quizzes from Riyaz. Great quiz once again, Riyaz.

Do I need to say more? Download the Quiz.

BTW, I’ve done another quiz at Sree Nidhi Institute of Science & Technology, for the Quiz club there. Pretty enthusiastic crowd there I’d say. If given a chance, I’d like to do quizzes for such audience again.

Almost everyone in India cried with ecstasy, when this man won us an Individual medal for the worlds second largest populous country after a gap of almost 44 years. He turned pro in 1991, after winning Wimbledon Junior title in 1990. 20 years later, he still is a winner. At the age of 37, he is the most successful professional tennis player in India, not to mention his amazing record in Davis cup for India.

While all the glamour of tennis belongs to the singles event, he intelligently changed his priority from singles (any one remember Leander Paes v/s Pete Sampras 6-3, 6-4 at New Port, 1998?) to doubles.  After the initial merry with Mahesh Bhupathi, he had moderate success for sometime. But he is not the giving-up kind. For the last two years, he’s on the winning track again, including his latest at Wimbledon 2010.

Dude, You are the awesomest! Keep on rocking for many more years!

Kerala Govt is going to lose Rs. 214 Crore grant from Indian Govt, allowed for the IT development in Electricity Dept. This is due to the pro-Free software policies of the Kerala Govt. Apparently, as per the report the software (which includes billing process) is impossible to develop in a free software, since many of the required ‘components’ will not work on free software. The report also worries about the inexperience of the company quoted the lowest amount on the tender, can add to the ‘obvious failure possibilities of free software’. It seems that of all states in India, only Kerala is so rigid on using free software for Government projects, and it ridicules the Govt on its stance which might result in the loss of the grant.

While I’m unsure if there’s any propaganda behind this news attack against free software at large, there definitely seems to be some hidden agenda behind this. The news doesn’t quote any expert on the inability of free software to develop such a ‘complex’ solution, or neither it does quote the source which talks about the terms and conditions of the grant. Since it seems that the opinions expressed at the report are of the reporter, we’ll have assume that he is a expert in this area, who have never heard of GNU/Linux, LAMP, Wiki, et al.

I just wonder just what this particular project need more than 91% of the Top 500 super computers, 8 out of 10 reliable hosting solutions,  and the one which powers IBM Sequoia, a 20 petaflop super computer.

Five monkeys were in a room that contained a table in one corner, and a banana hanging from a string in the middle of the room. The monkeys figured out that if they dragged the table to the middle of the room, they could climb up and grab the banana. So they did. As one of the monkeys quickly hopped up and reached for the banana, hidden compartments in the walls suddenly opened, releasing high-pressure cold water that knocked the monkey off the table and drenched the other four monkeys.

They quickly learned that whenever one of them climbed on the table, all of them were soaked with cold water. They realized climbing on top of the table was a bad idea. Unbeknownst to the monkeys, the high-pressure cold water hoses were disconnected and removed.

The next week, one of the five monkeys was removed from the room and replaced by a new monkey. The new monkey saw the table and the banana dangling from the ceiling. Realizing that the banana was there for the taking, the monkey headed for the table. But fearful of being drenched by the high-pressure cold water, the other four monkeys pounced on the newcomer and beat the tar out of him. Every time the new monkey got near the table, the others beat him up. Soon the new monkey no longer went near the table.

By the third week, another of the original five monkeys was replaced by a new monkey. And like the monkey the week before, the newest member of the group tried to get near the table to move it over to the banana. Once again, the others beat up the newest member of the group. Even the first new monkey joined in.

Each successive week, one more of the original monkeys was replaced. The same thing happened every time; when the newest monkey attempted to get near the table, the others joined in to discourage him.

By the sixth week, not a single monkey was left from the original group. Not one remained that had been squirted with cold water. But when the newest monkey headed toward the table and tried to reach the banana, the other four monkeys “trained” him by beating the tar out of him.

If you could ask each monkey why it was beating up the new monkey, each probably would say, “I don’t know, that is just the way we do things around here.”

PS: All copyrights to the original author/site.

Instructions:

• Pictures are only lateral clues to the connect. Most of the pictures do not directly connect with the answer. Normally one picture stands for one entity in the final connect.
• What you see is NOT what you get.
• Please try to explain each picture wrt to the final connect.
• Googling spoils the fun. Think Lateral and make some smart guesses.

1. Connect

• Pic 2 is poster of the movie ‘Seven Samurai’. Rest are obvious, I guess. Pic 7 – model is irrelevant, but might help – for the real nutcracker cases (It’s a Chevrolet Corvette, if that helps) . Pic 3 has to be thought together with Pic 1. Pics (the numbering) are in chronological order.

2. Connect

• The last one is slightly more screwed than others (It’s a character from Howl’s Moving Castle). But if you manage to get the rest, you can safely ignore that.

3. Connect

• In Pic1, Model of the car is important. Pic 5 is Pawan Kalyan. If you do watch SET MAX and UTV Movies, you would’ve seen him plenty.

4. Connect

5. Connect

‘Can we just fast forward 5 days?’

- Riyaz Usman

The wait is almost over.

An awesome World Cup calendar – by Team, Group, Venue and Date.

An Interactive World (Cup) Map – from Washington Post.

The Ultimate Graphics and Data resources guide – from Inspiredm.

And anytime, you want a much simpler schedule or calendar, just Google. Fifa.com provides a simple match schedule, in your time zone, a calendar and a printable pdf (SA Time only, I guess).

Note: I heard Malappuram has virtually turned into Latin America for one month. I’m sad I’m not in Kerala this season.

PS: My friend Ashwin wants N. Korea to win. I can’t agree more. While you’re impatiently waiting for Friday, read about the world cup strategies of many countries, including that of India.

I was using a Titan wrist watch since my college, once the Casio days were over. I thought, I’ll not buy one after this. I keep loosing a lot of stuffs (mostly my spectacles and wallets, the other two indispensable things), but never the wrist watch. Couple of times I forgot them, it came back to me promptly.

Then I got married. Oh, before that – around a month before the wedding, I got a watch as a gift from my organization. Not a bad one. I gave it to my Dad and asked him to give it away to someone he wants to.

Then I got married. I had a kind of wish list for the gifts, but ended up getting 4 wrist watches as gifts, all pretty good ones. A customary one I got from my wife’s cousins (I never gave one to my Bro-in-law, just in case. I offered my sister to take one from my stockpile for him, but she just gave me the looks, you know.), One my friends at work gifted, Two my cousins gifted. Since all of them were gifts, I couldn’t gave it away immediately to anyone in family. Total watch count – 5.

A few months later I won a contest at my grocery home, and the gift was… as you would’ve guessed it by now, a Wrist watch! I checked my B’Day calendar and used it on the immediate next B’Day on the list.

Today, I bought a new phone for my wife from Univercell, and Bingo! They gave me a Reebok watch free with that. Yeah! Bring it on!

Born as Mahindra and Mahindra Allied sports club in 1962, backed by the Mahindra group, this club represents the golder age of Indian football. One of the few strong teams outside the Bengal/Kerala/Goa, they had won almost all coveted football trophies in India – Durand Cup, Harwood League, NFL, Federation Cup, IFA Shield, to name a few. Rechristened as Mahindra United in 2000, the club had a pretty good run in all football leagues since then.

The disbanding of Mahindra United is latest nail in the coffin of Indian football (Remember FC Kochi, Kerala Police, ITI, BSF) . I seriously hope not many clubs will follow this path.

Note that the policeman is on proper uniform and with a big gun. Riyaz is driving home in his RE Bullet.

Riyaz: Yes… can I help you?

PC: License, RC, Pollution and Insurance.

Takes out the wallet and hands over the License and RC. PC after closely inspecting the RC for sometime.

PC: Sir, are you from Income Tax Dept?

Well, it seems that he handed out his PAN Card instead of RC. Damn!

PC: Pollution and Insurance too, Sir.

Riyaz: Before that, can I see an ID, please?

PC: ID, what ID? No ID.

Riyaz: So, how can I make sure that you’re a real police man?

PC: So, you can’t make out that from the uniform?

Riyaz: Well, I myself have acted as police in couple of plays. Very easy to get.

PC: How about the gun then?

Riyaz: Terrorists and Maoists seems to have better guns with them.

PC: So, you’re saying that we’re four terrorists who checks people’s vehicle documents. That guy over there is an SI terrorist.

Riyaz looks around. Oh, there were four of them. All with big guns. Damn, again. Hands over the remaining documents.

Riyaz: So, why do you do this? This checking. I’m sure you’re not a part of regular Traffic loot Dept.

PC: Security Sir. Aren’t you reading papers?

Riyaz: Yes. What security? As usual I find news about ‘Aam Aadmi’ getting killed everywhere, despite your ‘Security’. One of you were killed the day before. It’s quite evident that you can’t stop them with these kind of shows.

PC: “Jeene Do Saab”. I’m also a part of that ‘Aam Aadmi’. What should I do. We are just following orders. BTW, ‘Kitna Mileage deta hoon Saab’?

Riyaz: Yes, do continue your duty please. And ‘they’ will do what they want to. It gives 30. Thanks and Bye.

PC smiles.

PS: Did I mention that this happened on 18th May 2010, on third anniversary of Mecca Masjid Bombing?

*RC – Registration Certificate, RE – Royal Enfield, PAN – Permanent Account Number, SI – Sub Inspector.
** Jeene Do Saab – Let me live, Sir.
** Aam Aadmi – Common Public
*** Kitna Mileage deta hoon Saab – How much is the mileage?

PS: The conversation happened in Hindi/Telugu. Rough translation provided. Try elsewhere at your risk.

Then we started getting more physical into organized sports, And you didn’t had much of a choice then. Football was the de facto national sports of Kerala. To much of our rejoice, Kerala team won the Santosh Trophy in 1992, almost 18 years after their maiden win, and after losing out 4 times in a row in finals. They retained their title in 1993, and the Kerala Football team became our heroes. With the likes of C. V. Pappachan, I. M. Vijayan and V. P. Satyan, that was the golder era of Football in Kerala. Who can forget the lone goal Pappachan scored against Hungary in the 1991 Nehru cup. There were many urban legend stories about these players spread by word of mouth. Pappachan-Vijayan was our own Ro-Ro, and Satyan was our Roberto Carlos.

Almost all of us Malayalees were heartbroken when Vijayan and Satyan decided to play for Mohan Bagan instead of Kerala Police. As kids, we just couldn’t understand why one should go behind just money, ditching their home team. When Kerala lost 1994 Santhosh trophy to Bengal, it was the nail on the coffin for us. Vijayan was almost tagged a traitor. We dreamt about Kerala Police defeating a Mohan Bagan team including Vijayan.

The Seven’s format was very strong in the small towns on Kerala then, especially the Malabar area. Almost all of our evenings were spent on the temporary galleries built on those small grounds. It was just the battle display of your physical stamina, above football skills. The sheer joy and excitement of fast paced football was just enough. Many of these will end up in physical assault, normally between players, viewers, and in some instances referees. One of the major criterion to become a referee for a seven’s tournament, is your sprinting skills, in case of a fight. There used to be more than 500 Sevens Football tournaments organized every summer season.

Sevens tournaments is one of the two things that I miss every summer now – the other being the number of Pooram festivals.

Then came the best thing of my life – 1994 FIFA World Cup USA. There was absolutely no reason not be a fan of Brazil then, even though we were largely unheard of any of the international teams then. There are many images I captured during the event, still afresh. Roberto Baggio’s pony tail, who single handedly carried his team till finals, almost became a national icon – till he missed the penalty on the finals. Andres Escobar, the tragedy of the World Cup. Diego Maradona‘s career end, after failing the drug test. The unbelievable Hristo Stoichkov. Saeed Al-Owairan‘s goal of the World Cup. And of course, best of all, the best player of all times – Romario.

I had been a Brazil loyalist since then. A lot of people like me were outraged since Romario wasn’t considered for 1998 and 2002 World Cup, especially we missed the Ro-Ro attack. Since Romario largely played for South American clubs since then, I never get to see him play again. I still believe Romario not playing again for Brazil was the worst thing happened to Brazilian football. Ever.

While there were good moments to cherish in the three world cups that followed (I fondly remember Nwanko Kanu and Davor Suker), 1994 remains the best World Cup of my life. And FIFA World Cup remains the best sporting event for me.

Yet another World Cup is around the corner. So what’s my color? Yellow, again.