Sachin and the agony of being a Genius -ajithkumar

“This little prick's gonna get more runs than you, AB” said Merv Hughes to Allan Border. This happened when Border was only few runs short of 10,000 and sachin was in his teens. You can dissect this statement in two different ways.
1) Merv Hughes is an extraordinary visionary
2) The genius of Sachin was very evident.
I believe in the latter.
If a teenage kid, can provoke the most feared and arrogant bowler of Australia to say this, then the kid obviously is not just a prodigy. What prompted Hughes to do a Nostradamus is not the stats of sachin, (as sachin has not achieved anything significant in that series) but the genius of sachin who reveled in a plane that was not accessed by other ordinary (even good) sportsmen. When wickets around him fell like 9 pins, he scored a ton at Perth at its best and against a feared attack. Standing on his toes and driving the ball past square with ease.
So let us use the word Genius to represent Sachin, as I returned empty handed after searching a thesaurus for a suitable adjective for this greatest sportsman ever. Not everyone can understand a genius, even those who understands it cannot be able appreciate it will enough. For Ordinary people to understand a genius, they need the aid of numbers. Stats just serve those numbers to ordinary people to try to understand a genius. Numbers don’t matter for great sporting men, like Bradman, Warne, Mc Grath, riche benaud, Richards, lara and co. The statements like “Sachin is a genius, I m a mere mortal” by Lara and “I have seen God and he bats at number 4 for India” by Hayden stands as a testimony to this. These people never went through the cricinfo stats or the icc ranking to come to such a conclusion. They said those things, because they had the first hand experience of witnessing a true genius in action from close quarters. Genius can never be evaluated in terms of runs scored (even if it is evaluated in terms of runs scored Sachin is miles ahead of the rest). There were times when he won matches for India single handedly playing against 20 odd men (11 from the opposition and the rest are agents of bookies who play in his own team). That is genius.
The ultimate testament of a bookie who said “Matches cannot be fixed until sachin gets out”, only a genius beyond compare can do this. You don’t expect a shoiab akthar to clap hands when a batsman hit him for a boundary, only a genius can provoke such an arrogant person to make a gesture of that kind. Australian crowds are very Hostlie, Harbajan knows it better than anyone. To get a standing ovation every time he walks in and gets out is something beyond comparison. Only a genius can mesmerize such crowds.
For Agassi, Sampras walked on water, and for Shane “Sachin created nightmares”. For anyone it hurts their ego when they fail out miserably to an opponent, it will be worse for a world class performer. If sachin has created nightmares for the world’s best spinner of all time, then do you needs stats to quantify is genius? This goes on and on and on... Not just with his batting, how often have we seen him completely foxing a batsman with his off spins, leg breaks, googlys, inswingers and outswingers. How many bowlers can do that at international level? He has won MOMs for his bowling alone. The last ball of the day and moin khan batting, and he is completely foxed by a googly.
How often in his career have we seen him cramping up and yet not taking a runner? He says “I decide on the run even before I hit the ball, and only I know how hardly or softly have I hit it. It takes a runner two seconds more to decide on whether to run or not.” You call that as genius, when people want a runner after getting in to 90s to maximize their personal record here is a guy who don’t want a runner even if he is severely cramping.
“One point in which many otherwise excellent cricketers fail is in the matter of judging runs,” wrote Ranjitsinjhi. Sachin too has be run out on a few occasions, most probably because of his partner in the form of azhar, kambli, jadeja and laxman and sometimes because of exceptional fielding effort. His genius in judging single is incomparable, and mostly unnoticed. In a match against West Indies, he hit a ball straight to chanderpaul and ran two without even thinking, chanderpaul took the ball and threw it underarms as he has problems in throwing the ball. Such is his mind, there lies the genius. 3:59 am (3 hours ago) ajith kumar We all know about Harsha Bogle’s narration of the dressing room incident of world cup 2003, only a genius can think like that. Normal sportsmen will be controlled by the match environment, whereas a genius will control the match environment. Be it the sandstorm knock, the Rawalpindi knock, the Ahmadabad knock, the Chennai test match knock, or the 96 world cup semi finals, or the 96 worldcup match against Australia there are numerous other incidents, the latest being the 175. From improbable position he will take India towards victory single handedly. Once he gets out, the whole team plays with unmatched team spirit and work together in handing over the victory to the opposition.
Amir khan told his experience of watching the IPL matches sitting next to sachin, and how every time sachin predicted what the next ball is going to be (a bouncer, or good length or a Yorker). No mortal can do this, it takes more than a genius to figure out what the bowler is thinking every time when he runs in.
It takes more than a sane mind to completely understand the greatness of this little man. If I cannot stand mediocrity, then imagine how much of agony sachin would have went through by playing with 10 other jokers (though things have changed now, he now plays with 10 other high fashioned dudes instead of jokers). The pressure of one billion souls pleading him to perform everytime is insignificant in front of the mental agony that he is going through every time when all his good work is spoiled by mediocre stupids. Then again he has learnt to live with it, and I have learned to just enjoy Sachin. What is unacceptable though is the way Indians react to his performances. They just take it for granted, just imagine a situation. If dhoni had played an innings similar to the 163 of sachin against kiwis, then that innings will be spoken about for years. Till date Dravid’s Adelaide, Lakshman’s Kolkatta, and ganguly’s Brisbane knock is spoken about, but nothing of that is spoken about sachin, as we take him for granted. His perth knock, his 169 against south Africa, his Bloemfontein 155, his Sydney 241, his Chennai 100, his Chennai 155, his first century to save the match and almost 50 percent of his one day knocks. The problem with people is when they get things in abundance; they tend to ignore the value of it. Just compare the three 100s that he scored this year, all with a different approach, can you name one innings of others which is as complete as these three? And this is just this year. Think about his 42 other centuries!!
If I was forced to choose between India winning the match by poor batting display and India losing but sachin scoring a classy century, I would opt for the latter. I am happy if India wins, and will feel bad if India loses. But “A thing of beauty is a joy forever”, whenever I feel down and out, I go to youtube and watch some of the best innings of sachin (there is no shortage for this stuff) I can recharge my batteries and go on. I get an Orgasmic pleasure when I see sachin driving the ball through the covers, there is no better sight in the world. It is the same with many, and there is nothing to be ashamed of this. I am no less patriotic than others. Winning and losing is irrelevant in a sport, it is the way the game is played that matters. Sachin’s 175 did not make any difference to the result of the match. Had he got out for zero the result would have been the same. What his innings has added to this match is, this match will be right in the top 5 best odis ever. Instead of being one of the thousands of one sided contests, this match will be remembered as one of the best odis ever. In reality, that knock had made hell a lot of difference on larger picture than that one point added to australia’s icc ratings. When this format of the game is dying, only a genius can revive it, and rightly a genius revived the life of ODIs.
But even after saying all these, a person today cannot understand the significance of Bradman if not for the numbers. There is a saying that records are meant to be broken, but I feel the other way round. Some records are not meant to be broken, one such is the average of Bradman and another one is the odi exploits of sachin. It is ok if people don’t acknowledge his genius and go just by number, but the thing that irritates me is, they don’t even go by numbers and give some baseless assumptions as universal truth.
There are various accusations on sachin like:1) He is not a match winner. (He has got 60 MOM awards, way above than his nearest rival and no contemporary cricketer is close to that).
2) People say that If he hits a century then India loses (In all he scored 32 centuries which resulted in india’s victory which is much more than the total number of centuries scored by his nearest rival)
3) People say he performs only in league matches and not in important matches or finals (He is the only batsman to hit 6 centuries in finals, and has the highest average in the finals (50 plus)) 4:18 am (2½ hours ago) ajith kumar 4) People say that he wins only those matches which don’t have any pressure, but fails to take India home on pressure situation (This is another crap, as until sachin is playing the match is safe and there is no pressure, no one can say that getting 19 runs from 18 balls with 4 wickets in hand and sachin is playing along with a recognized batsman as a pressure situation)
5) Some say that he is not a good finisher (I just want to understand what people mean by finisher, I just request these people to tell one name of an opener who can be called as a good finisher, leave alone openers even name a number three batsman who can be called as a finisher?)
6) He performs against weak oppositions only (just 5 short of 3000 runs against the all mightly Australians at an average of nearly 47)
7) There is no need to discuss about the centuries and other stuff at all. There is no competition at all.
It was when Ian Bell got a permanent slot in England’s batting order; the commentators were heaping praises on him for scoring 1800 international runs so quickly and are telling that this guy has grabbed a permanent place in the team. But people forget that Sachin has score more than 1800 boundaries. Even by recent form, he is way ahead of others, but we still see those sachin haters trying to find some reasons to blame him and asks for his sacking.

Vidyarambam

'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

DIL SE

 

Zere Zoes the Zoo-Zoos !

‘ZooZoos’ are the talk of the town nowaday's with the advent of fiery competition in the commercial side of the IPL much bigger than the competition between the IPL teams.
After the ‘Happy to Help’ series during the first season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), this season,Vodafone has given birth to the Zoozoo: a special character created specifically to convey a value added service offering in each of the newly released commercials.
A little find them akin to aliens; others insist they are animated characters,similar to Pingu cartoons while a third bunch doesn’t quite know what to make of it. Nevertheless, we have all been amicable with these white, weird creatures with giant heads as they invade our TV screens.

Prakash Varma, ad filmmaker, Nirvana Films, has directed the commercials, and reveals that the Zoozoos were a big challenge to create. The practical aspects of how they will move, talk, gesticulate and emote were very important. Essentially, costume design and artwork were crucial elements.
For those of you who are a little bit sceptical : No, they aren’t animated characters. They are human beings who were made to wear body suits. “The design of the characters is such that one gets fooled into thinking it is animation,” explains Prakash Verma, which was indeed the very illusion that had to be created. “In a sense, it is ‘live’ animation!” he quips, referring to the fact that it was all shot live.

behind the scenes..

The production team divided the outfit into two parts: the body and the head. The body part of the outfit was stuffed with foam in some places, while the head was attached separately. To make it look bigger than a human head, a harder material called Perspex was used, which in turn was stuffed with foam (with scope for ventilation).

Cinematically, the ‘size’ was a trick: the creatures look smaller than they actually are on screen, to portray a different world of sorts. For this, the speed of shooting was altered: Nirvana shot it in a high-speed format to make them look the size that they do.
Furthermore, simple sets/backdrops were created and spray painted with neutral Greys – a colour of choice so that attention isn’t diverted from the main characters. For a supposedly ‘outdoor’ shot, even the shadow of a Zoozoo was kept ‘live’ and not done in post production: it was painted in a darker shade of grey on the ground. An even lighting was maintained throughout.
There was virtually no post production work done.

After the famous pug, O&M has now created a new set of characters called ‘ZooZoos’ for the latest Vodafone campaign. What’s interesting is that there are some 25 such commercials planned under this campaign, 10 of which are already on air. The aim is to release approximately one ad a day, to sustain interest till the end of the IPL.

Ironically, nowhere in the communication does the Zoozoo name pop up, but Rao doesn’t feel that’s much of a problem: it wasn’t a task to popularise the name in the first place.For instance, the Phone Backup ad (the first in the series) has several Zoozoos lined up to have their faces photocopied through a photocopier, while a tetris towards the end (the messenger in all the ads) announces how Vodafone allows for creating a phonebook backup.

Zoozoos: entering the digital world

In the digital space, Zoozoos are currently featured on a specially created microsite – here, one can partake in quizzes and contests, including the ‘What kind of Zoozoo are you?’ quiz. Each Zoozoo has a unique set of characteristics and traits allotted to it. The microsite also allows for goodies to be downloaded (including wallpapers, screensavers and ringtones), and offers details on the IPL. With a specially created YouTube channel on the site, the TVCs are provided there for people to watch and share.

Apart from the microsite, a Zoozoo fan page has been created on facebook, which has more than 5,600 members. Fans have access to special tag-me images, Zoozoo sounds (such as Zoozoo laughter and music tracks) and ad previews. People are also following Zoozoos on Twitter and get updates whenever new commercials go on air.

Zoozoo ads are fast becoming popular on YouTube, and on certain days, claims Nagpal of Vodafone, some of the videos even managed to figure among the most watched lot on the site.The team behind the Vodafone-Zoozoo work includes Rao, along with Kiran Anthony, Elizabeth Dias, Rajesh Mani, Mehul Patil, Kumar Subramaniam, Kapil Arora, Debaleena Ghosh and Desmond Fernandes.

Zo, what do zoo think?

Some feel that the Zoozoos could well become a part of the brand story, instead of just being used for this VAS oriented campaign. But this comes with a warning tag: one has to be careful about letting the Zoozoos become bigger than the brand or the message. “Vodafone shouldn’t get stuck with a format,” says Jacob of White Canvas. “They did suffer this to a certain extent with the pug.”

Hummer show!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Test Drive Of Audi Quattro

Hypothesis Of Diwali!!

A young second generation Indian in the US was asked by his mother to explain the significance of "Diwali" to his younger brother, this is how he went about it...


"So, like this dude had, like, a big cool kingdom and people liked him. But, like, his step-mom, or something, was kind of a bitch, and she forced her husband to, like, send this cool-dude, he was Ram, to some national forest or something... Since he was going, for like, something like more than 10 years or so... he decided to get his wife and his bro along... you know...so that they could all chill out together. But Dude, the forest was reeeeal scary... really man...they had monkeys and devils like that. But this dude, Ram, kicked with darts and bows and arrows... so it was fine.
But then some bad gangsta boys, some jerk called Ravan, picks up his babe (Sita) and lures her away to his hood. And boy, was our man, and also his bro, Laxman, angrily left... all the gods were with him... So anyways, you don't mess with gods. So, Ram, and his bro get an army of monkeys... Dude, don't ask me how they trained the damn monkeys... just go along with me, ok...
So, Ram, Lax and their monkeys killed gangsta in his own hood... Anyways, by this time, their time's up in the forest... and anyways... it gets kinda boring, you know... no TV or malls like that. So, they decided to hitch a ride back home... and when the people realize that our dude, his bro and the wife are back home... they thought, well, you know, at least they deserve something nice... and they didn't have any bars or clubs in those days... so they couldn't take them out for a drink, so they, like, decided to smoke and njoi... and since they also had some lamps, they lit the lamps also...so it was pretty cooool... you know with all those fireworks.... Really, they even had some local band play along with the fireworks... and you know, what, dude, that was the very first, no kidding.., that was the very first music-synchronized fireworks... you know, like the 4th of July stuff, but just, more cooler and stuff, you know. And, so dude, that was how, like, this festival started."

Self Confidence is the best medicine to boost you....

A business executive was deep in debt and could see no way out. Creditors were closing in on him. Suppliers were demanding payment. He sat on the park bench, head in hands, wondering if anything could save his company from bankruptcy.

Suddenly an old man appeared before him. "I can see that something is troubling you," he said. After listening to the executive's woes, the old man said, "I believe I can help you."

He asked the man his name, wrote out a check, and pushed it into his hand saying, "Take this money. Meet me here exactly one year from today, and you can pay me back at that time." Then he turned and disappeared as quickly as he had come.

The business executive saw in his hand a check for $500,000, signed by John D. Rockefeller, then one of the richest men in the world!

"I can erase my money worries in an instant!" he realized. But instead, the executive decided to put the uncashed check in his safe. Just knowing it was there might give him the strength to work out a way to save his business, he thought.

With renewed optimism, he negotiated better deals and extended terms of payment. He closed several big sales. Within a few months, he was out of debt and making money once again.

Exactly one year later, he returned to the park with the uncashed check. At the agreed-upon time, the old man appeared. But just as the executive was about to hand back the check and share his success story, a nurse came running up and grabbed the old man.

"I'm so glad I caught him!" she cried. "I hope he hasn't been bothering you. He's always escaping from the rest home and telling people he's John D.Rockefeller."

And she led the old man away by the arm. The astonished executive just stood there, stunned. All year long he'd been wheeling and dealing, buying and selling, convinced he had half a million dollars behind him.

Suddenly, he realized that it wasn't the money, real or imagined, that had turned his life around. It was his newfound self-confidence that gave him the power to achieve anything he went after.

Moral - Come what may, never ever lose self confidence

The Legal Age of a Superstar

AR Rahman, 43, is not a composer.
He is a way of life. A method of expression. A celebration in human form.
His travails are famous. His experiments worshipped.
He has whatever it takes to make Vince Vaughn jig to Kuru Kuru Kangalilae in chaste Tamil.
And that, in a true blooded Hollywood rom-com.
He is a superstar.

Sachin Tendulkar, 35, is not a cricketer. Not to many billions.
He is an entity whose faculties are believed to transcend the recorded realms of human capacity.
He is a power brand whose boyish smile alone can unite a nation. Even India.
He is the average agnostic’s answer to Jesus Christ.
He is a superstar.

Cristiano Ronaldo, 24, is Portugal’s best export since cashew nut.
It is said that with the nickel he jumped places of work, entire Canada could buy big Macs.
And they didn’t mean the burger.
He is a superstar.

Emma Watson, 19, has BoyDestiny write and sing a song in her adoration.
While just two months into teens, she was tenth in The Hottest Female Stars list of that year.
She owns one of the world’s most famous panties.
She is a superstar.

Katelyn Tran, 14, the youngest finalist in the Greenfield Philadelphia Orchestra Competition, is hailed to be a revelation with the piano.
She is a superstar.

Mauricio Cesar Baldivieso, 12, is South America’s youngest first division soccer player. His introduction sparked the coach’s resignation.
Nevertheless, he is a superstar.




Megan Fox, 22. Keeps websites busy.
Sreelakshmi Suresh, 11. Makes those websites. Twice daily.

Colbie Caillat, 24. Ana Ivanovic, 21. Juan Martín del Potro, 20. Hayden Panettiere, 19. Gael Kakuta, 18. Dakota Fanning, 16.

All superstars

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Our protagonist, 23. MBA student.
Confused. Jealous. Cynical. Miserable. Et al.
Currently wondering what went permanently wrong.
Does nothing worth mention for a living. Or existing.
He is a superstar. NOT.




From a very early age, he was fascinated by superstars and their never-never land.

Like Simon Pegg called it, the ‘other’ side of the door. It seemed like a TFT screen with a billion colors, running an incessant stream of fairytale ingredients. Glitter. Laughter. Flashlights. Tuxes. Gowns. Swarovski. Black limos. Bubbly. Gossip. Wild fans. Gracious waves. Autographs.

What a world.


He wanted it. Have that door opened up for him by black-suited white-gloved men. To bask in whatever was at the other side. He was sure he’d love it.

At 10, there was time. He had no idea what to do. Still encouragingly, all superstars he knew were older.

Destiny knows its way.




He thought he was biding his time in school and college. Just minor gas stops before a Vegas worthy bang.

Days passed. Biding continued. Though by now, the actresses he drooled over didn’t look a lot older than his college mates.

Something wrong Houston?

Hell no, just adjusting the coordinates. We’re on course. Don’t fret yet.




He grew older. And the newsmakers grew younger.
Microcontrollers. Girlfriend1. Dumping1. No sign of door.
DotNet. Work. Salary. Girlfriend2. Dumping2. Nothing happened.

By now, many of his idols were half a decade younger.
Earning trillion times than he will ever. Enjoying high life.
Post grad. Economics. No stardom to be seen in miles.

Something seriously amiss.




He sat down and thought.
Fate is not my new girlfriend’s old boyfriend, to owe me a favor.
So I’ll go on my own. Find that fuckin’ door.


Introspection.


Make a list of superstars. Find their claims to the door. And weigh your options.

First striking fact: Most are girls. Not a viable option now. Too late. Cross.(X)

Second, most are in showbiz. Easiest way in.
But good looks? (X)
Histrionics? (X)
Any godfather, like for Uday Chopra, Tusshar Kapoor? (X)
Sorry then. Better luck next…. life.

Damn. Even Kim Kardashian’s sex tape is called Kim-K-Superstar.
Hey, but how about that?
No way. Not even your cupboard keyhole would come to bed with you. Particularly in record mode.




Problem: Plain Unattractive.

Cure: Protein powder. Teeth braces.

Result: Very soon old pal Jobin cries, “Man, you look more awful than ever. If that’s possible”.


---------------------------------------------------------



Okay now, but doesn’t Franck Ribery look worse? He hopes.
So the answer to stardom is football? Hurray.
Get on the turf and kick some balls. Now!
Dribbles, step overs, back heels, all work well. Until play begins.
But how does Messi do it so easy?

“He creates the space, you darn idiot”, says Suresh.
Creates space? What is he, Isaac Newton?




Seriously dude, now’s not the time to enter sports or showbiz.
You’re too old.
Heck I know. So what do I do? I just wanna become a damn star.
So find some place where you’re still young. We mean like old boy games.
Politics, Journalism, Sensory Robotics, Capital scams, Serial rapes…




Or wait, how about Direction? Movie making? They take oldies, you know.
Hell yeah, that’s true! He pondered.

Florent Malouda, 29 is labeled an ‘ageing’ left winger, while Christopher Nolan, 37 and Farhan Akhtar, 35 are ‘young’ directors with ‘fresh' blood.
Zinedine Zidane, who’s only as old as Nolan, is considered extinct.
Ayan Mukherji, 24 and Géla Babluani are just anomalies.

Perfect.




Only that you don’t look like one.

Pray why?

Well, in a nutshell, you are like a character that would most likely be played by Jason Biggs in a B-Grader. Unnecessarily sweet, nauseatingly diplomatic, delivers lines that make you throw up on popcorn, everyone thinks you are gay, and the other hero ends up with the girl you fancy.

Wow, that was a nutshell?


Directors have personality. Not sugar balls.



So, what do I do?

Show the maturity of a sperm, says his mom.
You are such a kid, and that’s why she left you, says a good friend (who prefers not to be named).


I’m on it folks.



Problem: Lack of Maturity

Cure: Look around. Learn from people who are mature.
Like Anurag Pillai. Or Manmohan Singh.
So no more smiling. Brooding will be looked upon as thinking.
Two weeks on strict regime.


Result: classmate Kris comes over. Takes a deep look at him. Says the following.

“Hey, we’re doing a movie spoof. Ghajini’s hero is the lead role. And you are,

Short- Check
Not fat- Check
Looks dumb and doesn’t talk in buckets- Check
Adept in Brooding, frowning- Check”




Slam dunk bro. You’re our hero.
Thanks, But they say I’m too old to start acting.
Whoever asked you to act? Just be yourself. We’ll do the rest.


And so, for one day, our protagonist becomes a 23 yr old star.
No limo. No interviews. No Armani. But a star nevertheless.
He gets the taste. It’s good.




And so, he is proposing a new bill.

The Legal age of a superstar.

“No person under the age of 20 should be permitted to perform any activities of special mention, involving considerable talent, and in the unforeseen event that such an act is performed, all efforts should be made to keep it discreet until legal age is reached”




He will meanwhile wait to hit 40 (and look like 30) to direct his first movie.
Until then, Sigh!

Intel Shows How A CPU Is Made

Sand. Made up of 25 percent silicon, is, after oxygen, the second most abundant chemical element that's in the earth's crust. Sand, especially quartz, has high percentages of silicon in the form of silicon dioxide (SiO2) and is the base ingredient for semiconductor manufacturing. After procuring raw sand and separating the silicon, the excess material is disposed of and the silicon is purified in multiple steps to finally reach semiconductor manufacturing quality which is called electronic grade silicon. The resulting purity is so great that electronic grade silicon may only have one alien atom for every one billion silicon atoms. After the purification process, the silicon enters the melting phase. In this picture you can see how one big crystal is grown from the purified silicon melt. The resulting mono-crystal is called an ingot. A mono-crystal ingot is produced from electronic grade silicon. One ingot weighs approximately 100 kilograms (or 220 pounds) and has a silicon purity of 99.9999 percent. The ingot is then moved onto the slicing phase where individual silicon discs, called wafers, are sliced thin. Some ingots can stand higher than five feet. Several different diameters of ingots exist depending on the required wafer size. Today, CPUs are commonly made on 300 mm wafers. Once cut, the wafers are polished until they have flawless, mirror-smooth surfaces. Intel doesn't produce its own ingots and wafers, and instead purchases manufacturing-ready wafers from third-party companies. Intel’s advanced 45 nm High-K/Metal Gate process uses wafers with a diameter of 300 mm (or 12-inches). When Intel first began making chips, it printed circuits on 50 mm (2-inches) wafers. These days, Intel uses 300 mm wafers, resulting in decreased costs per chip. The blue liquid, depicted above, is a photo resist finish similar to those used in film for photography. The wafer spins during this step to allow an evenly-distributed coating that's smooth and also very thin. At this stage, the photo-resistant finish is exposed to ultra violet (UV) light. The chemical reaction triggered by the UV light is similar to what happens to film material in a camera the moment you press the shutter button. Areas of the resist on the wafer that have been exposed to UV light will become soluble. The exposure is done using masks that act like stencils. When used with UV light, masks create the various circuit patterns. The building of a CPU essentially repeats this process over and over until multiple layers are stacked on top of each other. A lens (middle) reduces the mask's image to a small focal point. The resulting "print" on the wafer is typically four times smaller, linearly, than the mask's pattern. In the picture we have a representation of what a single transistor would appear like if we could see it with the naked eye. A transistor acts as a switch, controlling the flow of electrical current in a computer chip. Intel researchers have developed transistors so small that they claim roughly 30 million of them could fit on the head of a pin.. After being exposed to UV light, the exposed blue photo resist areas are completely dissolved by a solvent. This reveals a pattern of photo resist made by the mask. The beginnings of transistors, interconnects, and other electrical contacts begin to grow from this point. The photo resist layer protects wafer material that should not be etched away. Areas that were exposed will be etched away with chemicals. After the etching, the photo resist is removed and the desired shape becomes visible. More photo resist (blue) is applied and then re-exposed to UV light. Exposed photo resist is then washed off again before the next step, which is called ion doping. This is the step where ion particles are exposed to the wafer, allowing the silicon to change its chemical properties in a way that allows the CPU to control the flow of electricity.. Through a process called ion implantation (one form of a process called doping) the exposed areas of the silicon wafer are bombarded with ions. Ions are implanted in the silicon wafer to alter the way silicon in these areas conduct electricity.. Ions are propelled onto the surface of the wafer at very high velocities. An electrical field accelerates the ions to a speed of over 300,000 km/hour (roughly 185,000 mph) After the ion implantation, the photo resist will be removed and the material that should have been doped (green) now has alien atoms implanted. This transistor is close to being finished. Three holes have been etched into the insulation layer (magenta color) above the transistor. These three holes will be filled with copper, which will make up the connections to other transistors. The wafers are put into a copper sulphate solution at this stage. Copper ions are deposited onto the transistor through a process called electroplating. The copper ions travel from the positive terminal (anode) to the negative terminal (cathode) which is represented by the wafer. The copper ions settle as a thin layer on the wafer surface. The excess material is polished off leaving a very thin layer of copper. Multiple metal layers are created to interconnects (think wires) in between the various transistors. How these connections have to be “wired” is determined by the architecture and design teams that develop the functionality of the respective processor (for example, Intel’s Core i7 processor). While computer chips look extremely flat, they may actually have over 20 layers to form complex circuitry. If you look at a magnified view of a chip, you will see an intricate network of circuit lines and transistors that look like a futuristic, multi-layered highway system. This fraction of a ready wafer is being put through a first functionality test.. In this stage test patterns are fed into every single chip and the response from the chip monitored and compared to "the right answer." After tests determine that the wafer has a good yield of functioning processor units, the wafer is cut into pieces (called dies). The dies that responded with the right answer to the test pattern will be put forward for the next step (packaging). Bad dies are discarded. Several years ago, Intel made key chains out of bad CPU dies. This is an individual die, which has been cut out in the previous step (slicing). The die shown here is a die of an Intel Core i7 processor. The substrate, the die, and the heatspreader are put together to form a completed processor. The green substrate builds the electrical and mechanical interface for the processor to interact with the rest of the PC system. The silver heatspreader is a thermal interface where a cooling solution will be applied. This will keep the processor cool during operation. A microprocessor is the most complex manufactured product on earth. In fact, it takes hundreds of steps and only the most important ones have been visualized in this picture story. During this final test the processors will be tested for their key characteristics (among the tested characteristics are power dissipation and maximum frequency). Based on the test result of class testing processors with the same capabilities are put into the same transporting trays. This process is called "binning". Binning determines the maximum operating frequency of a processor, and batches are divided and sold according to stable specifications. The manufactured and tested processors (again Intel Core i7 processor is shown here) either go to system manufacturers in trays or into retail stores in a box. Many thanks to Intel for supplying the text and photos in this picture story. or full size images of this entire process.