Roller coaster ride...

I am letting out one of my secrets.... I have a fear for roller coaster rides... :).. Whenever my friends call me out to Six Flags, I give one excuse or the other and miss the trip. But last Saturday was the D-day and my first roller coaster ride came not in Six Flags but in 605-S on our trip to Artesia to buy things for our Sunday night party. Bharathi who had got her license (2nd attempt) the last Friday rented out a car along with our second Chauffeur, Pramod (the first being Kalyan) and we all motivated her to drive from our place to Artesia.. The beginning of the trip was fine but once she entered the freeway all HELL BROKE LOOSE....Myself and Vijay were teasing Madhu for being extremely tensed and afraid but as a matter of fact I was terrified. The way she changed the lanes, braked and not to forget when she took an exit @ 65mph and moved from the inner most lane to the outer lane almost made my heart skip a beat... In the end we successfully (safely) reached our destination (Thanks to my daily morning prayers) and found out Bharathi herself was very terrified.... After a couple of hours of groceries shopping and dinner, Pramod dropped a bomb by asking Bharathi to drive back again. We were saved from another eventful drive :) by Bharathi who excused herself. On a lighter note I am looking for a trip to Six Flags now... :)

India's tour of New Zealand

India's much anticipated tour of New Zealand starts today. This is one of the much anticipated tour as India has always under performed in NZ especially the last time when they lost the test series 2-0 and the one-day series 2-5. India is expected to perform much better after their stupendous form over their last 1 year under MSD. India is starting their tour with 2 T20 matches followed by 5 ODIs and 3 Tests.

Fixtures:
T20:
Wed 25 Floodlit Match
19:00 local, 06:00 GMT 1st T20I - New Zealand v India
Fri 27 Floodlit Match
19:00 local, 06:00 GMT 2nd T20I - New Zealand v India

ODIS:
Tue 3 Floodlit Match
14:00 local, 01:00 GMT 1st ODI - New Zealand v India
Fri 6 Floodlit Match
14:00 local, 01:00 GMT 2nd ODI - New Zealand v India
Sun 8 Floodlit Match
14:00 local, 01:00 GMT 3rd ODI - New Zealand v India
Wed 11 Floodlit Match
14:00 local, 01:00 GMT 4th ODI - New Zealand v India
Sat 14 Floodlit Match
14:00 local, 01:00 GMT 5th ODI - New Zealand v India

Tests:
Wed 18 - Sun 22
11:00 local, 22:00 GMT 1st Test - New Zealand v India
Thu 26 - Mon 30
10:30 local, 21:30 GMT 2nd Test - New Zealand v India
Fri 3 - Tue 7
10:30 local, 21:30 GMT 3rd Test - New Zealand v India

The matches can be watched live at the following websites:

www.crictime.com
www.orbit.99k.org
www.cric7.com

SATYAM -- The new word for FRAUD

Today morning when I woke up and switched my laptop for the morning
news (Late night news in India), I was shocked to hear about Ramalinga
Raju's admission of fraud. I have lot of my close friends working in
Satyam including my cousin (Vijay) and I was immediately thinking as
to what is going to happen to them. When I called up Vijay, he was
angry at first as to why everybody from the morning are asking him the
same question as to why Raju did that and later he confessed that lot
of people including him are now worried regarding their future. This
couldn't have come at a wrong time when the economy is doing extremely
bad and people are finding it difficult to stick on to their jobs
least find a new one. I am appalled to find as to how a company with
such a big market share and boasting of PWC as their auditors managed
to do this. Raju's infamous quote. "It was like riding a tiger not
knowing how to get off without being eaten," will now be forever
remembered. My heart goes for all the 53000 employees whose future at
this moment hangs in balance because of the mistake done by a single
guy.