10 memories of 2013

Yes, finally managed to write something and stopped recycling my older blogs to increase the views count. 2013, has been one of the great years - saw my little one take her first step, speak her first decipherable word...and the endless list. For me, i went back to weight i had 5 years ago . Here noting down the top 10 memories of  2013.

1.) Cycling - I had this latent wish of riding a bicycle since the last 10 years. And it became a reality this year. And i ensured my cycle does not become an added furniture by cycling regularly. Nowadays, i cycle everyday to office and take weekend longer trips......

2.) My Walking - My pedometer tell mes that i have walked more than 700 Km this year !!!

3.) www.Techsambad.com - I had this longing to start a professional blogging site of my own. I have made a small start - hopefully i ll nurture it to reach greater heights.

4.) Nepal Trip - Had a great vacation trip at scenic beautiful country of Nepal. Fulfilled one of my long cherished dream of Para-sailing.

5.) Mountain Trekking @ Shimla : Trekked the scenic mountains near Shimla

6.) Annysa first trip to zoo: Took my little one to her first zoo experience at the very own "Nandankanan" where i also started my first "animal" sighting....

7.) The first little steps of my little one : My little one took her first step this year and by the year end, i was cheering her as she participated in a "running race".

8.) Morning Ritual at Haridwar - The calmness and serenity experienced far from the maddening crowd of the city.

9.) Watching Rahul Dravid play live at the stadium for the last time. He scored 50 and was adjudged the man of the match.

10.) Annysa's first birthday : Great occasion where everyone shared their love and blessings to my little one.

Three things that Rajasthan Royals need to do to do well

Picture Courtesy: ESPNCRICINFO.COM

The match against Delhi Daredevils must have been a eye opener for the Rajasthan Royals. Being an ardent fan, i was surprised to see a below par performance from Rajastan Royals. In this match, Delhi had won 21 overs out of 40 and still managed to grab defeat from the jaws of victory. The late brilliance in the field by Hodge ( a splendid Catch and a direct Hit) to remove the set batsmen proved fatal for Delhi and they lost their way in the final over. Here are some recommendations for Rajasthan Royals for them to do better in this IPL season. I had a written a similar blog for Royal Challengers. Now doing this for another Royal.

Improve the bowling:
For me the team with greater bowling prowess will do well in this league. Rajasthan was plagued with Star bowlers which other teams boast off. In order to maximise their existing pool, these are some of the recommendation:

• Sreeshant spell was good. Baring that, nothing was special.Shreeshant should be saved for the last 4 over spell. 
• Badree bowled good 70 % of the time, the rest 30% did all the damage. He should be used in the start and middle overs. With Watson in for the next match, he might loose his place in the side. Badree can be replaced with an  local Indian spinner reserve.
• Siddhartha Trivedi was good and should be used in the middle overs. ( between 7th - 14th over).
• Rahul Shukla was a nervous debutant and should be persisted. He should open with Shreeshant and finish up his quota at a single go.
• Cooper was good in the death overs and should be conitnued in the same manner like this match.

Recommendation for the next match: With Shane Watson joining the team and his bowling under question, the existing bowling unit should be persisted. They should use the off cutters of Menaria and slow bowling of Binny more frequently.

Improve the death over batting:
Its early days, but Rajasthan Royals looked highly unprepared to tackle the death overs. Umesh Yadav bowling flustered the batting greats like Dravid and Hodge. More homework is required on the opposition prowess and bowling strategy to tackle the final overs. With Watson joining in, he should open with Rahane and Hodge should come second down. This will expose Hodge to more bowling and in turn prepare him for the death overs. Dravid seemed to be tired towards the end. Would recommend him dropping his batting position to the final overs to be better prepared physically to tackle the bowling. Dravid seems injured, which can be a blessing in disguise as it can give a good chance to the talented Menaria to prove himself in the first down slot  rather languishing in the tails.

More inspired captaincy:
When the Delhi Daredevils were blazing along, Rajasthan players had almost given up. Had it not been the momentary brilliance of Hodge on the field, Rajasthan royals would have definitely been on the loosing end. Hopefully, things will improve as tournament progresses. Opponents have become stronger and it will require an inspired performance on the field by this talent team to prove their mettle and captaincy can play a big role in that.

My Team for tomorrow and the rest of the league for key matches ( in batting order): Rahane, Watson, Menaria, Hodge, Binny, Dravid, Perera, Shukla, Trivedi, any local offspineer and Sreeshant.

Perils of having a perfect email address

Having friends in right places help. It helped to get a nice email ID. I was an proud owner of email id where i had to share my first name alone and not append any redundant information like some random number or waist size or birthday year or birthday date or your profession or your spouse name and the endless list.

I used to flaunt it. Everyone was amused when i shared my coveted ID. I was filled with pride and honor when anyone ( mostly it was everyone) asked about how i managed to get the ID. I started cooking stories which ranged from telling them winning a tough contest to being the first one to register in the site before it became a huge hit. I was basking in all glory. But as they say, there is an expiry date to all the things including the pride and comfort of having a nice email ID.

One fine day, i got a mail from a lady. She had written about her feelings for certain Subhankar and had marked the mail to all the possible mail ID possible in the world which contained the word of her beloved one. I thought it was an aberration. But i was wrong. It was just the tip of the iceberg.

Next in line, there was a deluge of emails from service providers to certain Subhankar who has evaded paying his bills. As these were automated, the provider did not heed to my request to verify the email ID. I continued marking those as spams but service provider found ingenuous ways to hit my inbox. Slowly the quantum of those email increased as the concerned person was a serial offender and had duped most of the companies. Still it constituted 10% of my inbox quantity. Regular cleansing was not possible and i learnt to live with it. With great power comes great responsibility - and i was responsible for the great power i had with the simplified mail ID.

With growing internet adoption and more subhankar having accessing the net, my email ID slowly became the convenient secondary email address. In some cases, their lack of proper english ended up registering my email address as well. Now proactive customer service meant the companies sending their updates to all the registered email ID. Some of the notable consequences are:
1.) Some people requesting to buy my non existent vacuum cleaner at olx and even rebuking me for not posting the picture in OLX.
2.) Some salaries Mismanagement at the vendor side blaming me for all the rampant corruption practice.
3.) Request to start the "Save the tiger" campaign at Sunderbans.
4.) Request to share my photo to an matrimonial site - My wife will be so happy !!!

Slowly and steadily, all these emails have eaten up my mailbox. Finding my emails is like searching a needle in the haystack. You can understand the pain as i immediately wrote this piece after seeing over 10k unread mails in my personal email ID. Next time if i don't share my email address and ask you to join my social network, hopefully you can empathize with me.

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