Israeli strike in Gaza and Assad's downfall

My gut feeling is that Bashar Al Assad is going to fall, fall from being the president of Syria. The reason being the sudden shift of media attention from the conflict in Syria to the Israel- Gaza conflict. Not even a single western news channel has reported anything about what's happening in Syria in the last few days. This comes after the French president has told the world that France will arm the septet artists in Syria.

This lull in the Syrian conflict and the sudden escalation of the Israeli conflict is what the west needed to divert the attention of the whole world from Syria, while it quietly arms the Syrian separatists. We will see an escalation of  Syrian conflict as soon as the Israeli conflict comes to an end.

I feel this will the end of Alawites and Bashar Al Assad, the end of the anti Israeli Syrian regime and probably the installation of Israeli friendly regime in Syria. I might be wrong but I strongly feel that this is a big game played by the big players who have the safety of the state of Israel in their hearts. Let's wait and see how it turns out.

Sachin Tendulkar - Its time to retire, a open letter.

At 39 years of age and two very poor performances in the two test series in the last year , its time Mr Sachin Ramesh tendulkar, stop being selfish and give a chance to the youngsters. You have achieved great things in  cricket and now you are spoiling the good name and the good averages that you have achieved by still continuing to play international cricket, I read your interview today that you still want to play in the England series in November. Which I think is not the right decision, you should have retired just after the last world cup win and everyone would have appreciated your gesture and you would have remained truly great in the eyes of many cricket fans, but you have lost your chance and still disgracefully continuing to play international cricket in spite of poor form.

If you still like playing why don't you retire from international cricket and play for Mumbai or Maharashtra, spare the viewing public more embarrassments.

Indian Players? in English Premier League

I have been a keen follower of football for years, but my interest was just limited to the World Cup matches. But since last few years I have developed an interest in the English Premier League football. It is quite entertaining league, but is always dominated by 3 or 4 big teams who have plenty of money to spend to buy new players and are owned by rich billionaires. Everyone had their favourite teams, with majority supporting the top teams like Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal.

I wanted to support a team with some kind of link to me. I live in a city whose football team was not in the league. So I decided on Blackburn Rovers as it was owned by Indians- the Venkys - the poultry oligarchs.
since Blackburn rovers got relegated in the 2012 season, I cant decide on which team to support.

Recently on my visit to India, I noticed that there was good number people following EPL, they constantly update the results and stuff on their facebook pages. So the premier league clubs have an opportunity to cash in on millions of Indian origin people like me here in UK and also the billion strong population of Indians in India, by just signing an Indian player, either a player from one of the clubs in India or an Indian origin guy from elsewhere.

If this happens there will be boost to the revenues for the club which has an Indian player, its merchandise sales will shoot up in India. the way Indian economy is growing the English Premier League and the Premier League clubs will ignore Indians at their own peril. So grab the opportunity EPL clubs and get yourself out of your debts.

Wrexham to Cardiff - Breakbone Travel

Cardiff is in south wales and Wrexham in north Wales, but to reach wrexham from Cardiff either one has to take the M4 motorway up north through England or take some minor roads again which needs to go through England. I have travelled by both these routes to Wrexham and back several times. But I wanted to take a route which goes mostly in wales if not entirely to connect these two places.

So the travel started on a nice sunny mid September afternoon. started from Wrexham through Oswestry in England on into the hilly Welsh countryside. The roads became narrow, villages far apart, lone farm houses seen scattered here and there and of course where ever you go in Wales you are bound to see sheep, and I did as well on my journey, plenty of sheep. This road was the A483 which took me to Welshpool.

I have to write something about Welshpool, since its such an unusual name WELSH - POOL, apparently this place was called just pool in medieval times, since there was already a town called 'Pool' in England this place was named as Welshpool to differentiate it with the other pool, since it was in Wales and the population was mostly Welsh speakers it was named Welshpool.

Next town to reach on A483 heading south was Newtown, I have some old memories of Newtown, I had visited it once before in 2005 , when i was travelling in train to visit a Friend in Aberystwyth. Also I knew a person from this place who was instrumental in me appearing in "Wales This Week" for few minutes, which is my claim to fame.

Was stuck in the traffic for a bit in Newtown, but once out of Newtown, the drive was just fantastic, I should say one of the best drives I have ever been. The road as I said is just one lane but the views were just amazing. The green Welsh countryside with its thousands of sheep's and the serpentine road which took me up and down the hills and mountains. By this time the weather had changed and it started to rain, typical British weather I thought and moved on till I reached Llandrindod Wells. 

I have been to Llandrindod Wells once before to attend a conference, not much to say about the place apart from that it has few nice 5 star hotels. From there I reached A470 which took me straight down to my destination Cardiff, passing through Brecon, Merthyr Tydfill and Pontypridd. But the interesting bit was when I took a risk and asked the SatNav to show me a quicker route just after leaving Llandrindod Wells. And it did, it took me through narrow country roads with so much tree cover by the road side that hardly any light could get through it, it was worth taking the risk as it took me through very nice sceenaries before letting me join the A470. And of course I know South Wales very well as I have lived here for almost 10 years. So it was a cruise for me to Cardiff from there.

SOME KANNADA SONGS & THEIR MEDICAL INTERPRETATIONS

ತುತ್ತು ಅನ್ನ ತಿನ್ನೋಕೆ, ಬೊಗಸೆ ನೀರು ಕುಡಿಯೋಕೆ(ಜಿಮ್ಮಿ ಗಲ್ಲು) - Anorexia Nervosa

ನಾನೊಬ್ಬ ಕಳ್ಳನು, ನಾನೊಬ್ಬ ಸುಳ್ಳನು, ಬಲು ಮೋಸಗಾರನು(ನಾನೊಬ್ಬ ಕಳ್ಳ) – Kleptomania

ಹೃದಯ ಸಮುದ್ರ ಕಲಕಿ, ಹೊತ್ತಿದೆ ದ್ವೇಷದ ಬೆಂಕಿ(ಅಶ್ವಮೇಧ) – Heart Burn (GORD)

ಹೊಡಿ ಮಗ, ಹೊಡಿ ಮಗ, ಬಿಡಬೇಡ ಅವ್ನ(ಜೋಗಿ) – Psychopathy

ಚಳಿ, ಚಳಿ ತಾಳೆನು ಈ ಚಳಿಯ(ಅಂತ) - Hypothyroidism/Fever

ಆನೆಯ ಮೇಲೆ ಅಂಬಾರಿ ಕಂಡೆ, ಅಂಬಾರಿ ಒಳಗೆ ನಿನನ್ನು ಕಂಡೆ(ಹಾಲು ಜೇನು) – Schizophrenia

ನಿನ್ನ ನನ್ನ ಮನವು ಸೇರಿತು, ನನ್ನ ನಿನ್ನ ಹೃದಯ ಹಾಡಿತು(ಭಾಗ್ಯವಂತುರು) – Depersonalisation Disorder

ನಲಿಯುತಾ ಹೃದಯ ಹಾಡನು ಹಾಡಿದೆ(ಹೃದಯ ಹಾಡಿತು) – Atrial Fibrillation

ಒಂದೇ ಒಂದು ಸಾರಿ, ಕಣ್ಮುಂದೆ ಬಾರೆ(ಮುಂಗಾರು ಮಳೆ) – Tunnel Vision (Glaucoma)

ಹಾವಿನ ದ್ವೇಷ ಹನ್ನೆರಡು ವರುಷ(ನಾಗರ ಹಾವು) - Narcissistic Personality Disorder

ಯಾರಿಗೆ ಬೇಕು ಈ ಲೋಕ(ಸಿಪಾಯಿ) – Major Depressive Episode

ನಾದಮಯ ಈ ಲೋಕವೆಲ್ಲ(ಜೀವನ ಚೈತ್ರ) – Tinnitus

ತಂಗಾಳಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ನಾನು ತೇಲಿ ಬಂದೆ(ಜನುಮ ಜನುಮದ ಅನುಬಂಧ) – Peripheral Neuropathy

ಹೃದಯದಲಿ ಇದೇನಿದು ನದಿ ಒಂದು ಓಡಿದೆ(ಹಾಲು ಜೇನು) – Aortic Regurgitation



 ವಿಕ್ರಂ ಜೀ ಆರೆಳ್ಲ

Why I Support Blackburn Rovers

Football is the most watched sport in the UK, and I am a big cricket fan, But when I moved to UK several years ago in search of greener pastures, I had to start watching premiership football, due to various reasons, firstly there is nothing else for me to do on free weekends and the only sport on TV will be usually football, secondly to keep myself updated with the happenings over the weekend matches, as surely someone will talk about it next day at work and you don't want to be left out of conversation or look stupid.

Right, after you start to follow the premiership football you have to support a team, a team among the 20 odd clubs. Most of the people I knew supported the top clubs like Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea or Arsenal. I had to pick up a team randomly as people kept asking me which team I supported. So it was time for me to choose a team, I tried to find any links or connection I had with the teams. I could find none, neither there was any Indian players in any of the premiership teams. So it was a difficult choice to pick up a random team as your team. Moreover I always support and help the people at the bottom for some strange reason, I did not want to choose from the top four teams.

That season Blackburn Rovers were at the bottom of the premiership table and were at risk of relegation. Its manager was a Welshman called Mark Hughes. Since moving to UK, I have lived in Wales and consider Cardiff as my second home. I was in Cardiff at that time and none of the Welsh football teams had made it to the premiership yet. So I decided that manager was a good enough reason for me to choose Blackburn Rovers as my team. And they did manage to stay in the premiership since and I keep supporting them.

Now that the club is owned by Indians, I have more reasons to support the club. Thanks to the "Venky's India Limited", the poultry company which owns the club and has made my choice the correct one.