One More To Go!

12-0 we are. 13-0 we want to be. Ohio State beat Michigan in a tough battle tonight 42-39 and entered the BCS Title Game. Props to Michigan for such a close and thrilling game. This one is for the ages. OSU piled on 503 yards on the #1 Defense in the nation, and Michigan put on 39 points on the #1 Scoring Defense in the nation. Tressel goes 5-1 on Carr - on track for a 10-2 record, exactly opposite to Cooper.

Highlights courtesy ESPN. Download here.

My 5 cents on the experience tonight:

1. Troy Smith is a great orator - yes you got that right. He is a great QB for sure, but listening to him talk in the post-game conference shows that he has a sound head on his shoulders. And the team (and the fans) love him. "I was downstairs [in the locker room] with my teammates and the overall feeling is unparalleled," said Troy. "You wouldn't be able to understand it unless you ran the gasses that we ran, ran the hills that we've ran, pushed the sleds that we've pushed. When that heat and that sun is beating down your back in the summer ... I love every single one of my teammates with the deepest passion you can probably have for another person."

2. The field turf was a problem. There were many players slipping all over the place. Although its same for both teams, it seemed as if Michigan was affected more times than us. You might see that as an excuse coming from the losing team.

3. Beanie Wells will win the Heisman in 2009.


I'm putting together some photos of the game obtained from various websites.



















The Buckeyes are truly number 1. See you all in Glendale. Go Bucks!

Beat Michigan!

The One thing George Bush got right!



This is Beat Michigan Week. Yes, we are crazy here and name this week as "Beat Michigan Week". Hell, we postpone election counts if we have to for the game. Who needs government if we have football? The world stops for us this Saturday, and we can't really get much done during this week anyhow. Check this out and see for yourself how much and why Michigan Sucks and its the duty of every sane human being to hate them.

All that talk about the great Michigan defense is now fully understood, as shown below. Oooo....we are all so scared in here. Is that what it was all about?



You have to be excited about The Game - even the kids in Iraq know its time to cheer for the Buckeyes!



Go Buckeyes, Champions Bleed Scarlet and Gray!

Election Thoughts

I already miss them. No, not the hollow speeches by them politicians, but all the negative political ads on TV. Sherrod Brown let us down (he won Ohio though), We'll not be shammed by Bob Shamansky, Pryce - Part of the Problem,Mike DeWine stop whining, and so on. I had a chance to be at a meeting where Deborah Pryce (R-house) and then Governor Bob Taft were speaking. I was not impressed by their oratory skills - I feel Jim Tressel and Troy Smith are much better. I'm not trying to make a political statement here, but looking at the negative ads on winner Sherrod Brown below makes me think - if this guy won, how bad must've been the one who lost!








Anyhow, my friend Jared sitting next to me simply said "Taft is corrupt". Now wait a minute. I've heard that one before on the street. So, is it true that most people know that and even then this dude is the Governor? And there's nothing that can be done about this in the most democratic and free country of the world? You can get away with things like that in Brazil, East Europe and Asia - but USA? And more so, Ohio? I can only hope Jared is wrong.

Here's how the election really affects people in the Midwest. The folks at MZone have simply nailed it.



Go Bucks!

Buckeyes are ready for Michigan

Ohio State rolled over Northwestern 54-10 for a win. OSU and scUM (read scum, actually University of Michigan, or TSUN: The State Up North) are both 11-0 and ready for the biggest showdown between the two with the biggest implications ever. Given that both teams have a number of graduating senior starters, it might be a while since we see such a matchup of unbeatens again.

Highlights thanks to EPSN - College football lives here!



Beat Michigan!

Punjabi Music = Nirvana

Its true. Good punjabi music is what Buddha needed for achieving Nirvana. Just that he was around at a time when Gurdass Mann wasn't yet born. My favorite singer, Gurdass Mann has emitimized punjabi music for decades now. He was immensely popular even in the 1980's when there was

-only Doordarshan and a daily 3 hour dose of Jallandhar TV,
-no one had heard or even dreamed of cable TV,
-colored TV sets were a luxury,
-to be true even B&W TV was a luxury,
-Texla was the leading TV production in North India.

Gurdas Mann is the face of serious Punjabi Music and will be for a long time. He has kept up with the times and his music and videos show that masterfully. 'Pind dian gallian' (Streets of the Village) is one of my favorite songs and has been rendered beautifully in the video, where Gurdass plays the role a someone who moved out of his village to be successful in the big city life and on visiting his village remembers his life as a kid growing up. Even someone like me, who never lived in a village, but just visited my parents' village every summer vacation, can fully relate to the feeling. Its true that many people get misty eyes watching the video, and especially when Gurdas Mann performs the song live on stage. Enjoy!




As a bonus, here's a video of another masterful live performance of the song 'Challa' by Mann. Translated in English the lyrics would mean rubbish, but the way they relate to lifestyle, tradition and rich culture of Punjabi music can only be appreciated by a precious and lucky few. Here's the lyrics of the song (in English script)


Ho jaavo ni koi mod liyavo,

oh gaya mere naal lad ke,

Oh allah kare je aa jaave sohna,

devan jaan kadma vich dhar ke.



ho Challa beri oye buhe, ke vatan mahi da oor e,

ve jaana pehle poor e, ve gall sun challeya chora,

Ve kahda laya ee jhora.



ho challa khooh te dhariye, ve gallan mooh te kariye,

ve sacche rabb ton dariye, ve gall sun challeya dhola,

Ve rabb ton kahda ee ohla.



ho challa kaaliyan mirchan, ve mohra pee ke marsaan,

ve sire tere chdsan, ve gall sun challeya dhola,

ve saad ke keeta ee kola.



ho challa kann diyan dandian, ve saare pind vich bhandian,

ve gallan chajj paa chandian, ve gall sun challeya dhola,

ve saad ke keeta ee kola.



ho challa nau nau theve, ve puttar mithde meve,

ve allah sabh nu deve, ve gall sun challeya kanvaan,

ve manvaan thandiyan chaanvan.





Hats off to this true master of Punjabi music!

Ekta Mein Shakti

This is the first time I am seeing this in color. Yeah, thats right. I believe I was 5 when this cartoon/clip/animated movie used to play on the good old Doordarshan just before the evening news at 8:30. My sister and I remembered the words by heart, used to sing along, maybe even act it out. I surprisingly still remember most of the words and the act.



Sheer brilliance on the part of the producers for using children and comics and innocence to teach a very important fact of life, especially true in a multi-cultural place like India - Unity in Diversity (Ekta Mein Shakti). I'm gonna dig up some more clips from that era and put'em here. Ahh....those wonderful days.

Troy Smith for Heisman

You have to admit. No, I'm not gonna be a homer and say that "Troy Smith is the best - he must get the Heisman". Don't get me wrong - he is awfully good. But you have to admit that he simply doesn't have the numbers that other Heisman winning QB's have had in the recent past. Does it matter? I can only hope not - coz as the video below shows, if you have the touchdowns you don't need just 'yards'.



The pundit has Troy as his frontrunner for Heisman, but complains about his poorer numbers than Brady Quinn. The Ozone put together a detailed and very fair article on why Troy is better. That is the reality. Go Bucks! Troy Smith for Heisman!

The Daily Show

In case you didn't know, the Daily Show with Jon Stewart was on campus at
The Ohio State University for a week. Here's a clip.
And yeah, Michigan sucks.

I hate blogging?

I used to hate blogging...the whole concept of it...I hated all blog sites...I hated all people with blogs...even the word blog used to send nasty action potentials all over my spinal cord to spread to each and ever corner of my flesh.....and here I am, starting my own blog, for no one else but to keep myself in pace with technology...I had lately been feeling like the Steam Engine corporations of the late 1800's, my attitude and actions mimicking their attempts to keep Internal Combustion Engine technology out of production...but no, change is here. For good or bad, I don't know - but I know its here to stay.