Shah Rukh Khan beats up Farah Khan’s husband Shirish Kunder at Sanjay Dutt’s party.

For those who are still not aware of the story here it is.

After the 2008 Salman-Shahrukh royal rumble at Katrina Kaif’s birthday bash, Shah Rukh finds himself in another rumble, though not as exciting as the last one. The gossip lines are on flames with the news that Khan punched Kunder (He is Farah Khan’s Husband. If there is more to him, I don’t know.) at Sanjay Dutt’s party at a lounge bar in the city. Incidentally they were all celebrating the success of Sanjay Dutt in Agneepath. Then came an inebriated Shirish following Shah Rukh Khan around and even entered the bathroom with Khan. An irritated Khan then allegedly pinned Shirish to a sofa and punched and abused him. (Now don’t get your imagination running, he orally abused him.)

According to sources, (read twitter) Sanjay Dutt, who had to intervene and separate the two, also slapped Kunder, for allegedly sending lewd messages to his wife Manyata and for misbehaving with a girl at the party. Mr Kunder have you seen Sanjay Dutt in Agneepath, I guess you have not. My advice; do see the movie before you send another message to Kanchas wife.

Well that is the story….Not as exciting as the last one. But what made this entire thing exciting is the main perpetrator of brawl is Twitter…

Kunder tweeted on October 26 just after the spectacular bust of Ra.One ;

“I just heard a 150 Cr firework fizzle” and keeping on the topic he tweeted again “Taran Adarsh writes the review of a movie. He trends, the movie doesn’t!”

SRK did not like that one bit and was lurking in corner to take that punch at him when he has a chance and Kunder did give him that chance last evening.

But this has set Twitter on wildfire, suddenly all the trending topics changed. Mahatma Gandhi who was trending on his death anniversary was replaced by Sanjay Dutt, SRK and Farah. Later in the evening even Kunder was trending along with Slapgate.

There were some classic tweets on the issue on twitter handles. I compile some of the nicer ones below.

• Gauri Khan’s Husband Beat up FARAH Khan’s Wife !
• This was probably the first ever action scene SRK and Farah Khan did together, without any retakes
• SRK is the new Harvinder Singh and the old Harbhajan Singh
• Expecting a tweet from Sreesanth condoling the #slapgate incident .
• Anna asks innocently, ‘Bus ek hee?’ #SlapGate
• “Thappad se darr nahi lagtaa saab .. Farah Khan se Lagtaa hai”… ~ Shirish Kunder to SRK after #SlapGate incident
• SRK has become the new Slap-maar Khan
• Dear SRK, Why this Kolaveri Kolaveri Kolaveri di? Hahaha!
• Knowing Srk and Farah Khan, they’re saying “Picture abhi baaki hai mere dost !”
• Oh My GOD.. Ra.One Game se Bahar Aa gaya.
• Shanthakumaran Sreesanth. Sharad Pawar. Now, Shirish Kunder. I see a pattern here. In the first name of those who get Shlapped.
• SRK & Sanjay Dutt? Shirish Kunder must have been seeing stars
• SRK thrashing Shirish Kunder is outrageous. Hope he’s booked for attempting to outrage the modesty of a woman
• SRK Slaps Kunder : You can take a guy out of Delhi, but not Delhi out of a guy….
• My name is Khan and I can give one below your Kaan
• I have only one question: does Sunny Deol feel left out?
• When Sanjay Dutt invited Shirish Kunder for his Agneepath ‘success bash’, he probably didn’t do a good job of defining ‘bash’.
• Dear Shirish Kunder, Kha.One Regards, Shah Rukh Khan
• Sreesanth, Sharad Pawar and Shirish Kunder should form a political party and call it ‘Tamaacha Dal
• Its difficult to believe that Shirish Kunder is the product of millions of years of painstaking evolution
• SRK & Sanjay Dutt? Shirish Kunder must have been seeing stars.
• How was the slap?? kunder: raw.one
• Shirish-SRK patch up… to make Ra.One sequel: MaRa.One

In Tendulkar country.

An American writer new to cricket, experiences the first couple of weeks of the World Cup, navigating the madness of a billion fans and chasing the soul of the game.  An exception writer and a great story to see Cricket from the perspective of an outsider. This is a brilliant story……..

What is SOPA and PIPA

There are three kinds of stories in the world. The ones that make you laugh, but these last the least. We forget them as quickly as we read them. Then there are those that make you smile. We pass these on to friends and kin, to spread the smile around. But once in a while, you would come across a story that would make even the most stony-eyes brim with tears. These are the stories that would cling on to your soul and remain there, till the time you close your eyes for one last time. The effect of these stories is exemplified when they are stories of people who live around us and lead lives similar to us. Stories from real life.They make you see world in a new light and force you to think. These stories will lend us an experience so profound that it may alter the way you want to lead the rest of your life.

The Story of Hoyt Pair is one such story that I came across by pure accident but it makes me heavy every time I read it. But it is a story of story of hope, courage and to working real hard for what you believe and most importantly love. I want you to read it, to experience emotional euphoria it brings along with it.

Watch the video and then go on to read the story behind it..

Rick was once asked, if he could give his father one thing, what would it be? Rick responded, “The thing I’d most like is for my dad to sit in the chair and I would push him for once.”

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It was Winchester, Massachusetts, 1962, an unruly umbilical cord wrapped around the neck of an unborn child; chocking him off vital oxygen became the first struggle of life for Rick Hoyt. Against all odds of survival Rick made it to this world. The lack of vital oxygen for those precious moments before birth had left permanent scars on his neonatal brain, rendering him incapable of leading life as we see it.

The doctors told Ricks parents, Dick and Judy Hoyt, that the brain damage is permanent and Rick would be a in a vegetative state for the rest of his life. They recommend that Rick be institutionalized, for there was no hope of recovery and no chance for him to lead a normal life. Dick Hoyt was in no mood to accept the doctor’s prognosis and this started the beginning of Dick and Judy’s quest for Rick’s inclusion in community, sports, education and one day, the workplace.

There was something about Rick’s ability to fight, in the ensuing years he was able to communicate to his parents with his expressive eyes and Dick and Judy did their very best trying to provide him education. Rick was able to learn basic words and alphabets. But with the aim to integrate Rick in to public school system, Dick and Judy had to prove Rick’s intellect and a way for Rick to communicate on his own.

Rick finally received a way to express himself in 1972, thanks to a skilled group of engineers at Tufts University and an interactive computer. This computer consisted of a cursor being used to highlight every letter of the alphabet. Once the letter Rick wanted was highlighted, he was able to select it by just a simple tap with his head against a head piece attached to his wheelchair.

Rick surprised everyone with his first words. Instead of saying, “Hi, Mom,” or “Hi, Dad,” Rick’s first “spoken” words were: “Go, Bruins!” The Boston Bruins were in the Stanley Cup finals that season. It was clear from that moment on, that Rick loved sports and followed the game just like anyone else.

This is not a story of Rick as it sounds until now. It is story of Rick and his dad and it all started In the spring of 1977 about 2 years after Rick started public school one of his classmates was paralyzed in an accident and a five mile benefit run was being organized. That night Rick told his father “Dad, I want to do that”

For Dick, who never ran a mile in length, running with his son in the wheelchair was a challenge. Still, he tried. He agreed to push his son all the five miles; they came next to the last but still managed to finish the race. But what changed Dick’s life forever were a simple set of words that made a whole lot of difference for him

That Night Rick said, “Dad, when I’m running, it feels like I’m not handicapped.”

That sentence marked the beginning of a father son phenomenon, and a beginning of what would become over 1,000 races completed, including marathons, duathlons and triathlons (6 of them being Iron-man competitions). Also adding to their list of achievements, Dick and Rick biked and ran across the U.S. in 1992, completing a full 3,735 miles in 45 days. They are now popularly known as Team Hoyt.

After high school, Rick attended Boston University, and he graduated with a degree in Special Education in 1993. Dick retired in 1995 as a Lt. Colonel from the Air National Guard, after serving his country for 37 years and they have been running marathon after all these years. In 2009 Boston Marathon was officially Team Hoyt’s 1000th race and Dick is 70 in 2011 and they are still running. They continue to tour across the country and address a varied audience to deliver one message Yes! You Can.

This is a story of hope, courage and to work hard for what you believe in.

This is a copy of the speech. This is just amazing.  It is a long read so make time for it and read it when you have time both to read and contemplate. It is one of the finest words that has ever come out of a WALL. This is what makes him the finest ambassador of Indian Cricket.

Thank you for inviting me to deliver the Bradman Oration; the respect and the regard that came with the invitation to speak tonight, is deeply appreciated.

I realise a very distinguished list of gentlemen have preceded me in the ten years that the Bradman Oration has been held. I know that this Oration is held every year to appreciate the life and career of Sir Don Bradman, a great Australian and a great cricketer. I understand that I am supposed to speak about cricket and issues in the game – and I will.

Yet, but first before all else, I must say that I find myself humbled by the venue we find ourselves in. Even though there is neither a pitch in sight, nor stumps or bat and balls, as a cricketer, I feel I stand on very sacred ground tonight. When I was told that I would be speaking at the National War Memorial, I thought of how often and how meaninglessly, the words ‘war’, ‘battle’, ‘fight’ are used to describe cricket matches.

Yes, we cricketers devote the better part of our adult lives to being prepared to perform for our countries, to persist and compete as intensely as we can – and more. This building, however, recognises the men and women who lived out the words – war, battle, fight – for real and then gave it all up for their country, their lives left incomplete, futures extinguished.

The people of both our countries are often told that cricket is the one thing that brings Indians and Australians together. That cricket is our single common denominator.

India’s first Test series as a free country was played against Australia in November 1947, three months after our independence. Yet the histories of our countries are linked together far more deeply than we think and further back in time than 1947.

We share something else other than cricket. Before they played the first Test match against each other, Indians and Australians fought wars together, on the same side. In Gallipoli, where, along with the thousands of Australians, over 1300 Indians also lost their lives. In World War II, there were Indian and Australian soldiers in El Alamein, North Africa, in the Syria-Lebanon campaign, in Burma, in the battle for Singapore.

Before we were competitors, Indians and Australians were comrades. So it is only appropriate that we are here this evening at the Australian War Memorial, where along with celebrating cricket and cricketers, we remember the unknown soldiers of both nations.

My entire child hood I hated Stefan Edberg because he was the arch rival of my all-time tennis favorite; Boris Becker. Head-to-head match stats: Of 35 times  Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg met on the court at  Becker led the table 25-10. Edberg on the other hand won three out of four meetings in the biggest test of Grand Slams. Both of them had won the career Grand Slam titles six times each, with both failing short to win the French Open. Also both the players have won the Australian Open two times each, showing rivalry more precisely in terms of title winnings.

As a kid I followed Becker’s every game. It was time of no Internet and Doordarshan, so the task was not as easy as it is today. I had to hunt for Sportstar or Sportsworld or the international magazines in the local library to keep up with his wins and his ranks. As a  group of friends, we used to compare weekly notes on the Tennis ranking. The hunt was always on for the centerfold of Sportstar which regularly gave away poster of an international star. If Boris was on the centerfold I get to buy the magazine. The four major Grand slams were a family affair, with every one compelled to be behind Boris Becker lest they unveil the wrath of me or my younger brother. The tournament is over for me if Boris is eliminated in early rounds. The guy who defeats him would be my arch rival. So I hated a lot of Tennis Players. Notably among them are Stefan Edberg, Michel Stich, Goran Ivanisevic, Pat cash. There were a lot more whom I care not to remember.

I used to watch every match of Wimbledon and hated the French open because clay was not the best court for my star. In fact he never won the French open. Becker was not the best on the tour. He was simply someone whom I used to adore. There was a charm that I am no longer able to put into words but he was simply someone  I idolized.

I find it humorous now that I did not play Tennis, I had never set foot on a tennis court then and I still play tennis like a 10 year old. I was a cricket buff, I loved the game played the game but there was no one I could idolize. Well Viv Richards, Joel Garner, David Boon, were someone I loved but I did not follow them with the same passion as Boris Becker. In fact I cared very little about them. I have never been able to figure out why Becker evoked that passion in me. I still like him and I still get the same kind of nostalgic happiness to watch his vintage clips on YouTube.

I guess it was the playing style that enamored me the most. Becker’s game was based on a fast and well-placed serve that earned him the nicknames “Boom Boom”, “Der Bomber” and “Baron von Slam”, and great volleying skills at the net. He could supplement his pure serve-and-volley game with brilliant athleticism at the net, which included the diving volley that was considered a trademark of the young German, and which endeared him to his fans. His heavy forehand and return of serve were also very significant factors in his game. It was the serve and volley game that drew me to follow the sport. It is for the same reason I never liked French Open that was played on the  clay courts. The rush of the fast paced serve and pin point volleys made the game interesting and Boris was the best of his times. Over the years with the death of the serve and volley format and return of the power baseline games I lost my interest in the game itself.

But what happed to serve and Volley?

In part, serve-and-volley became a victim of its own success. By the mid-1990s, big-serving attackers—again, see Sampras—were winning points and games in bang-bang fashion, producing complaints of boring, monotonous tennis. The griping had merit: bereft of long rallies, matches between net-rushers lacked both flow and consistent action, reducing a game of ebb, flow and varied geometry to a soccer penalty shootout.

In response, courts were tweaked to make balls bounce slower and higher. Wimbledon, for instance, altered the composition of its grass in 2001, producing a firmer and more durable playing surface. This shifted the balance of power in the direction of baseliners, giving them valuable extra time—think a tenth of a second, which is all they needed—to line up returns and passing shots.

The 2002 Wimbledon final between Lleyton Hewitt and David Nalbandian marked the first time since 1978 that two baseliners met for the tournament title. In a combined 150 opportunities, neither player attempted to serve-and-volley. Not once. This is the current state of Tennis. I cannot recall anyone who can be called a true serve and volley player in the top 25 players. Tennis as I like it has lost its charm. Not to say that it does not have talented players. In fact there are some great players who are playing the game right now.There are even  greater rivalries read Federer and Nadal. But this is not the game i like. The last player I really liked and followed was Pete Samparas and tennis seems to have retired after that.

Tennis I miss you……

ONE of the more memorable slogans to come out of the climate-change talks in Durban over the past few days is: “there is no planet B”. But what if there were? Over the past couple of decades astronomers have logged thousands of so-called “exo-planets”—worlds which orbit stars other than the sun. On December 5th the scientists in charge of Kepler, a space telescope designed to look for such planets, confirmed their instrument’s discovery of its first Earth-like world. It is dubbed, rather unromantically, Kepler 22b.

The existence of this planet, which circles a star 600 light-years away, in the  constellation of Lyra, had previously been suspected. Kepler, which belongs to NASA, America’s space agency, works by observing dips in a star’s brightness as a planet passes in front of it. It flags likely looking reductions as “candidate planets”, of which Kepler 22b was one. But three passes are needed to confirm a planet’s existence, and Kepler 22b has now passed this test. Crucially, it orbits well within its star’s “Goldilocks zone”: neither too close nor too far away for liquid water (and therefore, perhaps, life) to exist on its surface.

It joins two other Earth-like planets—Gliese 581d and HD 85512 b—discovered by another instrument within the past few years. In truth, the term “Earth-like” is a stretch. Kepler 22b has a radius 2.4 times that of Earth, and if it is made from roughly the same stuff its surface gravity will also be about 2.4 times as strong. But NASA’s astronomers remain unsure whether it is predominantly gaseous, liquid or solid.

These three potentially habitable exo-planets may soon be joined by many more. In the two and a half years since its launch, Kepler has spotted 2,326 candidate planets. About 650 others have been discovered by other instruments. That plethora allows astronomers to start drawing conclusions about how common various sorts of planets are. Of Kepler’s haul, 9% seem to be of a similar size to Earth (though not all are in the Goldilocks zone of their star); a further 29% are Super Earths—planets substantially larger than Earth that are nevertheless rocky. Forty-eight of Kepler’s unconfirmed candidates look as if they orbit within their stars’ habitable zones; of those, ten seem to be Earth-sized.Nevertheless, Kepler 22b is the most promising exoplanet yet found. Unlike the others, which skirt the edges of their stars’ Goldilocks zones, Kepler 22b orbits comfortably within its own. NASA’s researchers reckon its surface temperature is about 22°C, compared with 15°C (at least for now) on Earth. Its parent star is similar to the sun, again unlike those of the other two candidates, both of which orbit cooler, dimmer stars. Indeed Gliese 581d’s parent is a red dwarf—the tiniest stellar species. That means its Goldilocks zone is so close to it that the planet may be tidally locked, as the moon is to the Earth. If that were the case, one side of Gliese 581d would be permanently lit (and heated) while the other experienced unending darkness.

The ultimate goal, of course, is to let astronomers make a plausible estimate of the total number of planets in the galaxy, of the number that could conceivably support life, and of the fraction of those that could (at least in theory) sustain human colonists. If only a few of Kepler’s possible Earth-like planets turn out to be real, that third number is likely to be in the millions.

Such knowledge will mark an historic transition, says Chris Lintott, an astronomer at Oxford University who is giving the Kepler team a hand with the data analysis, since the uncertainties around the question of whether life exists elsewhere will cease to be astronomical (how many suitable planets are there?) and become purely biological (how easy is it for life to get going, and how easy is it for it to become intelligent?). Based on the preliminary data, it looks as if there are numerous suitable planets. The science of exobiology may soon cease to be an oxymoron.

Source : The Economist

For eight months now the Indian cricket fan has waited with breathless anticipation for the ultimate cricket icon, Sachin Tendulkar, to score his 100th international hundred. All this while, one man has stayed under the radar, doing what he has done with quiet efficiency for several years now. In this season of hype and noise, of made-for-TV fasts and high-pitched spectacles, Rahul Dravid has reaffirmed one’s faith in old fashioned values of solidity and integrity. The 38-year-old Bangalorean, in the autumn of a glorious cricketing career, has shown that true class doesn’t need a megaphone for self-promotion but only needs an unswerving commitment to one’s profession. In the process, Dravid has provided an inspiration to the silent majority who prefer their heroes to be performers rather than showmen.

To be in the limelight and yet stay out of it can’t be easy and yet Dravid has handled the highs and lows of life with equanimity and perhaps greater dignity than most of his peers. Remember Dravid’s first test in 1996 was also a debut match for Saurav Ganguly. Comrades in the revival of Indian cricket, their attitude to life and the game could have been scarcely more different.

Ganguly was the ‘Prince of Kolkata’, almost born to rule. Dravid, by contrast, carried a rather more prosaic epithet – ‘The Wall’. Ganguly was emotional and excitable, baring his chest to adoring supporters at Lords in a coming of age cricketing moment. Somehow, one can’t imagine Dravid revealing his biceps in public. When Ganguly was dropped, Kolkata came out on the streets. If Dravid were to be dropped, it is doubtful that the traffic would stop on Bangalore’s MG Road. Perhaps, Ganguly’s ebullience made him the better captain, but clearly Dravid’s dedication has ensured longevity.

Of his contemporaries, only Tendulkar stands ahead of him in terms of runs and centuries. Perhaps playing in the Tendulkar era has meant that we have never quite been able to appreciate the full range of Dravid’s skills. The Bradman age saw the emergence of many great batsmen but such was Sir Don’s influence on the game that all others were overshadowed. The Tendulkar phenomenon has had a similar effect. And yet, if Tendulkar is the artist, Dravid has been the artisan, chiselling away at perfecting his craft to the point where he can actually claim to be in the same exalted space as the Mumbai genius.

In some respects, Dravid actually has the edge over the mighty Tendulkar. For example, if you exclude Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, Dravid’s average in overseas series is marginally better than Sachin’s as is his contribution to India’s overseas wins. Quite remarkably, 32 of his 36 test centuries have come in wins or draws, confirming his stature as a true match winner. Add to nearly 13,000 test runs, the small matter of 10,000 ODI runs and 200 plus test catches, and his place as an all time great is assured.

And yet, more than the runs, it’s the character of the man that has stood out. In a long international career, there is only one controversy that one can associate with Dravid: when as stand-in captain against Pakistan in Multan, he declared the Indian innings with Tendulkar batting at 194 not out. For those who see Sachin as a demi-god, the declaration was seen as the ultimate act of apostasy, designed to prevent a living deity from reaching yet another milestone. For Dravid, it was the result of a philosophy that always put team above individual, a mindset that even led him to become a wicket-keeper for a while in the ultimate interests of Indian cricket.

2011 has perhaps best defined the man’s spirit. Dropped from the One Day side, not considered good enough to play in the World Cup, battling with form, it would have been easy for Dravid to opt out. Amidst a slew of talented young batsmen, Dravid could have been forgiven for feeling like an antique item. This was, we were repeatedly told, the era of 20-20 cricket, of heavy bats and big sixes. Technique was seen as a cricketing romantic’s nostalgic yearning; contemporary cricket was all about speed and power. Dravid’s best shot was his forward defence, head right over the ball, a stroke many believed was best left to practise in a coaching manual, not on the cricket field. And yet, it is that very defensive correctness that has seen Dravid succeed in England this year when the young guns around him struggled.

Indeed, this has been the year when Dravid the batsman re-invented himself, not for the first time. In the late 90s, he wasn’t considered good enough for limited overs cricket. Not one to be easily disheartened, he worked at his game to the point where he was the top scorer in the 1999 world cup. This year, he was picked for his first ever 20-20 international, a seemingly desperate move by an Indian cricket selection system that was running out of options. Dravid responded by stroking three consecutive sixes, his way of reminding the Indian cricket fan that a genius in sport will not be chained by format.

It is possible that having answered every challenge, Dravid will seriously consider retirement soon. There are very few cricketing mountains he has left to climb and there will be no doubt a desire to spend more time with a young family. When he does eventually take the final bow, it’s unlikely to be a dramatic announcement. Somehow, theatrics and Rahul Dravid simply don’t go together. He will wish to fade quietly into the sunset, leaving behind memories of a bagful of runs, plenty of catches, but above all, a resoluteness of purpose. In an age of umpteen page three mini-celebrities, Dravid is a page one star to be treasured.

Source:http://tinyurl.com/d36trvj