Archive for December, 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR – 2010

December 31st, 2009 by Ravi Matah | Posted in News   Comments Off on HAPPY NEW YEAR – 2010

Year 2009 has just passed into history, and it is a matter of pride that we have had a wonderful year, full of achievements, some minor hiccups here and there notwithstanding.

Year 2009 brought laurels to India when its star music performers were honored with Oscars Awards.

The Indian cricket team too, reached the pinnacle of achieving the top spot in ICC rankings as the number one cricket playing nation in the world.

Our President Mrs Pratibha Patil,  flew in the Sukhoi fighter jet and became the first lady, while being the Head of any country, to have done so. (more…)

NAUCHAMI NARAYAN – N D TIWARI

December 29th, 2009 by Ravi Matah | Posted in Political   Comments Off on NAUCHAMI NARAYAN – N D TIWARI

The handsome, young, flamboyant,energetic, courteous, intelligent, N.D.Tiwari had an ignominious exit from the Raj Bhawan of Hyderabad. These accolades are much less than he actually deserved.

Tiwari had the distinction of being the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh on four occasions and earlier he also had a stint as a legislature of the UP Assembly.The State of Uttar Pradesh had, for decades been the stronghold of the Congress Party.

N.D.Tewari

N.D.TEWARI

Unfortunately, as a fall-out of this, the President, Mrs. Pratibha Patil, cancelled her tour to the Andhra State.

It had become absolutely difficult for Tiwari to face the first women President of India, and also Ms Sonia Gandhi, the President of the Congress Party. (more…)

INDIA SRILANKA 5TH ODI

December 27th, 2009 by Ravi Matah | Posted in Sports   Comments Off on INDIA SRILANKA 5TH ODI

The 5th ODI between India and Sri Lanka had to be abandoned ater 23.3 overs had been bowled and SriLanka had mustered 83 runs for the loss of 5 wickets at the Feroz Shah Kotla ground at Delhi on Sunday.

The Delhi crowd had come to the Stadium to enjoy a cricket-full Sunday but their enjoyment was short lived. Thet were expecting India to win today and were happy to see Thranga back in the pavillion on the first delivery of the day bowled by Zahir Khan. (more…)

INDIA WINS ODI SERIES

December 25th, 2009 by Ravi Matah | Posted in Sports   Comments Off on INDIA WINS ODI SERIES

Sri Lanka skipper Kumar Sangakkara won the toss and elected to bat in the fourth ODI against India played at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata, on Thursday.

A superb catch by Virat Kohli  brought the end of Dilshan as Sri Lanka lost their first wicket for 31 after 8 overs. Jayasuriya also looked in fine nick in his  15 runs before he edged Zaheer in the first slip.

For the Sri Lankan’s, Upul Tharanga hit his seventh ODI century and participated in a 126-run partnership with  Kumar Sangakkara (60) as Sri Lanka posted 315 for six, the highest score at the venue till India overhauled it. (more…)

HAIL TWITTER

December 23rd, 2009 by Ravi Matah | Posted in Life   Comments Off on HAIL TWITTER

‘Twitter’ is a famous and fantastic on-line podium which brings millions of people together on one platform. The main facility here is spontaneous human interaction and ‘freedom’ of speech. You can convey your feelings, pass comments on current events, convey discontent about the goings on around you and which affect you. You can make friends and follow people and lead by example to make others follow you. 

Twitter basically revolves around the principle of followers.  In this social network, if you follow people, they follow you. Its’ reciprocal. Each and every tweet is different, with no language barrier whatsoever. Most of the tweets are in English though very few use their own dialect. The original product name for the service was twttr, inspired by Flickr. 

Twitter

Twitter

I am getting a feeling now that ‘twitter’ is an addiction. Just wondering what these million people used to do just four years ago? Dawn to dusk and well past midnight I find them there only. They can be termed as ‘twittaholics’. Twitter was conceived as an off-shoot from the SMS somewhere in March 2006. People tell each other what they had for breakfast, recommend songs to one another, tell tips about future education and now some of them have started to tell you how to make money online while tweeting.  (more…)

INDIA – SRILANKA 3rd ODI – CUTTACK

December 22nd, 2009 by Ravi Matah | Posted in Sports   Comments Off on INDIA – SRILANKA 3rd ODI – CUTTACK

Tillakaratne Dilshan reached 41 from just 18 balls, and with Tharanga and Kumar Sangakkara continuing the run riot, Sri Lanka were on the path of another massive total after deciding to bat first in Cuttack on Monday.

 But from 165 for 1 after 22.2 overs, they collapsed like nine-pins and were 239 all out. They had lost the remaining nine wickets for 74 runs. Srilanka were 51 for no loss in 4 overs.

The spinners controlled the run riot after the pace bowlers, Ashish Nehra & Co. were slammed to fences and the fielders sent on the leather hunt. It was left to Virender Sehwag, captaining in place of MS Dhoni, to give the team some respite, having Sangakkara stumped for 46, despite Dinesh Karthik initially fumbling to collect the ball.  That success was built on soon after, with Tharanga losing his off stump in Jadeja’s opening over, when he was at 73. (more…)

COPENHAGEN – CLIMATE DEAL

December 19th, 2009 by Ravi Matah | Posted in News   Comments Off on COPENHAGEN – CLIMATE DEAL

After two weeks of negotiations, a breakthrough has finally been achieved on Friday night at the climate talks being held at Copenhagen, when leaders from the U.S., India, Brazil, South Africa and China came to an agreement to combat global warming.

Manmohan Singh

Manmohan Singh

As per press reports, the United States and countries including India and China, have agreed on a deal which was not legally binding for anyone -neither the U.S. nor developing nations like China. For some members of the summit there was a sense of relief on the agreement on few of the agenda items even though some of the issues were left to be decided in the future.

Actually the developed Western countries were not willing to step up the emission cuts therefore India and China were also reluctant to agree to the same.

When Obama arrived in Copenhagen on Friday morning, Ministers and some Heads of State had been up much of the night attempting to craft a workable agreement without success. (more…)

TIGER WOODS – ‘ATHELETE OF THE DECADE’

December 17th, 2009 by Ravi Matah | Posted in Sports   Comments Off on TIGER WOODS – ‘ATHELETE OF THE DECADE’

Tiger Woods was famous for his golf and became infamous for his personal life.

For 10 incomparable years, no one ruled a sport like Woods. He won 64 tournaments, including 12 major championships. Even as a shocking sex scandal changed the way people look at Woods, the records he set could not be ignored.

Woods was selected on Wednesday, as the ‘Athlete of the Decade’ by The Associated Press in a vote that was about his performance on the course.

Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods

Woods, who has not been seen since the car accident, and has issued only statements on his Web site, was not made available to give any comment to the media about the award. Allegations of rampant affairs starting coming out just 10 days after Woods won the Australian Masters.

He had received a $3 million appearance fee in Australia. Woods won more than one-third of all the tournaments he played this decade, an unprecedented rate in golf. Nine of his victories were by at least eight shots. He was No. 1 in the world ranking for all but 32 weeks in the decade. Along with his 12 majors this decade — he has 14 overall, and Woods was runner-up in six other majors. (more…)

INDIA SRILANKA – FIRST ODI

December 15th, 2009 by Ravi Matah | Posted in Sports   Comments Off on INDIA SRILANKA – FIRST ODI

Virender Sehwag struck a whirlwind 102-ball 146 to power India to their highest ever total in one-day cricket, a massive 414 for seven, against Sri Lanka in the first match at Rajkot on Tuesday.  Sachin Tendulkar (69) and M. S. Dhoni (72) also contributed well as India improved upon their previous best total and made 414.  Sehwag was unstoppable after a slow beginning and made a career-best 146  with 17 fours and six in 102 balls.

India started cautiously after being asked to bat first by Lanka with the openers raising only 19 in the first five overs as the ball was swinging a bit. (more…)

COPENHAGEN -INDIA ON CLIMATE CHANGE

December 14th, 2009 by Ravi Matah | Posted in News   Comments Off on COPENHAGEN -INDIA ON CLIMATE CHANGE

The UN Climate Change Summit began in Copenhagen on Monday. There will be two weeks of negotiations between 193 nations to forge a pact to secure the world from calamitous global warming.

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, however,  is under fire from the Opposition that has accused him of selling out India’s stand on climate change and going soft on the West. (more…)