India's first ever Olympic Gold Medal by an individual

Olympics has started!!! I missed watching the inaugural ceremony on August 8 as I went on a weekend outing to Orange County, and the weekend went awesome. More on that later to give priority to what you are going to read next.

The day this day - August 10, 2008, is a golden day, bringing a golden news for India - a Gold medal by Abhinav Bindra in the 10 m Air Rifle shooting.

This is a historic moment for us, Indians, for winning the first ever ever individual Gold medal in Olympics. (The last time India won a gold medal was at the Moscow Olympics in 1980 in men's field hockey) I am happy today, more happy than I would have been during India's victory of 1983 cricket World cup, a time when I wasn't born. For a country with the population of a billion, winning a first ever gold medal calls for a billion celebration. If you are kind who asks whats the big deal, see coutries like USA, Russia, and China; or isn't it embarrasing to call (y)our first ever gold medal, sorry I am in no position to agree or argue and reason out our factilities, infrastructure, coaching, how we should improve etc. I am in khushi mode now, so lets/ let me celebrate :-)

And don't forget to watch the video in youtube or in any one of the scores of news videos.

News, Books, Trivia, Movies, Lessons learnt and More..

Its been almost 2 weeks from my last post and Satyam has been pushing me to update this blog. I dont have any specific subject this time, so I am going make kinda mixture as the title of this post goes...

News
The hottest debate now: Should Afzal be hanged? Should he be pardoned from the death execution penalty and be given clemency? Check out more here, if you havent followed the news of late. BJP stauchly opposes seeking Presedential pardon for him.

Shashi Tharoor is out of the race for the coveted post of UN Secretary General after US said a NO. South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki Moon, is seen as the possible occupant and favorite among the Security Council Members' for the hot seat. Despite getting 10 votes (9 is the threshold in the straw poll) from the 15 members of Security council, Tharoor made the wise decision of quitting the fray, giving way to Mr. Moon. Still, pats to you Sir for making to almost the finals of the race. We are proud of you.

Something this kind was ever unheard before -- India and Pakistan have joined hands together to set up a Joint Anti Terrorism institutional Mechanism. Stockholm syndrome kya? More here.

Books
Talking about Pakistan, I just remember that Pervez Musharaf has come up with a memoir called In the Line of Fire. From what I read on its review and postmosterm of the book, it seems to be an amazing piece of FICTION spun with real life characters. Disclaimers may perhaps be like this: " Resemblance to any characters living or dead may be purely coincidental." Musharaff has been described as a chronic liar. Google and find more abt it.

Trivia
Akira Haraguchi makes a world record by reciting the value of pi's decimal value to 100000 places from memory. The news here.

Megalomania: Anousheh Ansari, goes on her expedition to Space, reportedly the world's most expensive affair in paid tourism! More on her in Wikipedia. Dont miss checking her space blog

Movies and Lessons learnt
Did see only a tamil movie which goes by the name KD. It was hopeless and so am not putting any space or point for its 5 point review. There is actually no point in watching it. Ranju and me had to suffer while coming back from the movie, we got drenched heavily in the rain. Still to recover from the trauma caused by the movie and the side effects. Learnt a lesson for the n+1th time that dont watch without any preview or opinion. It was a blind selection for which we had to pay and suffer. Didnt see BOSS as I got bad exit review from my roomies. Thank god, saved 100 bucks in that way. Btw, heard excellent reviews about Nagesh Kukunoor's DOR, which is next on my mission. Shall see it next weekend when I'd be back to good health and goodwill.