Archive for August, 2008

Video – Abhinav Bindra’s Gold

Published on August 11, 2008 in miscellaneous. 4 Comments

Watch Abhinav Bindra win the gold for India in the 10 meter air rifle event at the Olympics. The video is more than an hour long, fast forward to the 25th minute to see the last round and fast forward to the 47th minute to see the awards ceremony. Towards the end is the playing of the Indian national anthem and I do hope that the anthem is played a few times more during these games.

I am both happy and sad at him winning the gold medal. Happy because a medal is a medal, especially a gold in an individual event and a first for India at the Olympics. Sad because the second most populous country in the world produces just a handful of athletes who can compete at the international level. I was joyous when I came to know about the gold at work, and almost went bouncing to my American co-workers giving them the news but half a second later I realized how odd it would look to them when they have athletes who have won 3 golds in the 3 events they have participated in till now and aim to win 7 more.

In other news my roommate Pratheep says that the Left parties in Kerala and West Bengal have given a call for a bandh tomorrow. They allege that it was a conspiracy by the Congress and BJP against China and that’s the reason the Chinese shooter Zhu Qinan came second in this event behind Abhinav ;-)

Surprising myself

Published on August 6, 2008 in meta and silliness. 3 Comments

I like surprising people. In a good way that is. I like calling them out of the blue, dropping them an email when they are least expecting it or doing something totally unanticipated.

Right now it is 3:00 AM for me and I had to get up to answer nature’s call. And I decided to surprise myself, take myself by shock and do something I have not been able to bring myself to do when fully awake – I decided to blog and so this post :-)

Did I tell you that my body is extra efficient at preserving water – as if I am perpetually stranded in the desert? Did I tell you that I love sipping water all the time – just plain cool water? Combine both of these, especially in a relatively cold country like the US, and you know why I have to go to the loo a zillion and 23 times in a day.

Back to sleep!