Batting Collape Styles

One of the most interesting aspect of the gentleman's game are "Batting collapses". Technically speaking, a batting collapse refers to a phenomenon where the batting team fails to post a decent total on the board, thus gifting the match to the chasing team (except if they also follow suit). What's even more interesting is that most teams in international cricket have their own style of batting collapse. Being an avid follower of the game, I stick my neck out and try to summarize some of these styles. So here goes:

1. Australia: The openers fall after 2 overs of blitzkrieg. The middle order contributes little. But the tail wags big time (Brett Lee, Brad Hogg, Mitchell Johnson and party), and they manage to reach 210-220.

2. India: The top and the middle order fails completely (its something like 80/5). Dhoni starts batting as if it is a test match (which he does anyhow). Someone from the tail gives good support (blocks lots of balls), and the total reaches 150-160. Then Harbhajan says in the lunch time interview that it is a competitive total.

3. New Zealand: Its not a collapse really. They fight till death, scamper for a lot of singles and twos, and post a score above 200.

4. Pakistan: All the batsmen commit harakiri and get themselves out (okay...run out). The tail also contributes little, and they finish around 130-140. But their bowlers blow away the opposition, and Pakistan wins the match.

5. West Indies: Nothing much to say here. The extras contribute the most to the total.

6. England: Openers put up a good stand. But that's the only good thing about their innings. And their tail starts a bit early. Do they have a tail? A middle order? God knows!!

7. South Africa: Similar to New Zealand. And when their turn to field comes, some pretty ordinary bowling looks like world-class because of their electrifying fielding. Not on Indian grounds though (who would want to get injured while trying to save a couple of runs?).

8. Bangladesh: The very promising opening batsmen get out cheaply. The talented middle order is blown away (unluckily, if I may add). And one of the bowlers (Mashrafe Murtaza) shows that there are no devils in the pitch by hitting 3-4 sixes.

9. Sri Lanka: Jayasuriya is out in the first over. The only other thing to note is Sangakkara's stroke play. But remember, Jayasuriya is out!!

Learn From A Toddler

While most people confuse the word "toddler" with "infant" or a "young kid", there is a difference. According to The Free Dictionary, "toddle" refers to the act of walking in "short, unsteady steps". A "toddler", is hence someone whose gait is characterized by short, unsteady steps. But invariably, we use this term for small kids who are learning to walk, and I will stick with that for the time being. This brings me to the main idea behind this post: "Learn from a toddler". If one were to ask an adult as to what he/she can learn from a toddler, the answer would surely be something on the lines of: "Being continually happy, and sharing that joy with others". But there is another very crucial aspect of a toddler's personality which one can learn from.  It is "the ability to keep on trying, relentlessly and without disappointment, even if the thing you are trying to accomplish is the only one you are doing right now." This clearly needs some elaboration.

A small kid learning to walk really has a few things on his/her plate: 1. Eat 2. Sleep 3. Learn to respond to stimuli from people around, and finally, 4. Learn to walk. Moreover, he/she is being helped all the way by his parents in all of these tasks.  He/she falls time and again in attempting to walk (which is THE THING he/she tries to do throughout the day), but still has the determination to wipe off the dust, get up and try again. Imagine this happening to an adult. You are working on an assignment for the past 1 month, and that is the only thing you have been trying to do. But success has eluded you till now. Does this mean that you become disappointed, and question your own ability? In such a scenario, one must learn from the toddler, and get up and try again!!

"Five Minutes"

Out of the three courses I am attending at USC in my first semester, two are DEN courses. (FYI: DEN stands for Distance Education Network, which means that the lectures of these select courses are also web-casted to off-campus working professionals enrolled in the program.) In a lecture of one of these courses (EE562a: Random Processes in Engineering), a very amusing incident happened. Prof. Scholtz was completely into his teaching flow, explaining every concept with finesse, and likewise, we were also completely absorbed in the lecture. But suddenly, we heard someone say "Five Minutes". It was the guy in the DEN control room, who usually declares when the lecture is about to conclude. I looked at my watch, and saw that we were only 30 minutes into the lecture!! Prof. Scholtz inquired, "Excuse me?". And to everybody's amusement, the control room guy again reiterated his call, "Five Minutes!!". We could not help ourselves from breaking into laughter, and Prof. Scholtz also joined in. Soon, the guy in the control room realized his mistake, and said sorry. At the end of lecture, when he announced the (correct) conclusion of the lecture along with the date, Prof. Scholtz could not hold himself back from having fun, and said: "You got the date right, did you?", which was followed by another round of laughter in the lecture room.

Ordinary People...Extraordinary Strength

During one of my recent Youtube excursions, I stumbled upon a gem of a video. This post is dedicated to the video, and its subject: Paul Potts. If you have not seen it, have a look:



Paul Potts was the winner of the 2007 series of ITV's Britain's Got Talent. But what is more extraordinary is his story behind the success. Potts was raised in Fishponds, Bristol, by his father Roland, a bus driver, and mother, Yvonne, a supermarket cashier. On growing up, he started working as a cellphone agent. But his adult life was ridden with injuries and physical trauma. Potts suffered from an adrenal tumor which the doctors had discovered during his illness from a burst appendix. He broke his collarbone and suffered whiplash in a bicycle accident in 2003, which prevented him from pursuing opera as a career or as a vocation. The mishap and financial difficulties that followed led him to enter Britain's Got Talent despite not having sung for four years.

Paul's life until his memorable performance was far from a fairytale. But in spite of all the hardships, both accidental and chance, he did not loose faith in himself and his natural talent, and eventually emerged a winner. This shows that in this world, successful people deserve praise. But ordinary people, who succeed without any means to achieve their dreams, are the real heroes. In short, life is not about extraordinary people with extraordinary accomplishments. Its all about ordinary people with extraordinary strength and their insurmountable will to accomplish their dreams.

The Experimentalist "vs." The Theoretician: My Views

Today I attended a talk organized by the EE department at USC, titled "Challenges of a Theoretician/Experimentalist". The speakers were renowned Profs. Todd Brun and Robert Hellwarth, both from USC's EE department. When I received the email for this talk, the topic struck a cord with me, since it was one I had been thinking over for some time now.

I was always fascinated by theoreticians, and the EE department at my undergraduate university, IIT-Delhi, was fortunate to have a few of them on its faculty. Even IBM India Research Lab has a CS theory group, which is amazing for an industrial institution. There is something which makes theoreticians special - not the crazy "hand-waving" or the reclusive nature, but the ability to conduct "thought experiments", and draw valuable conclusion based on them. The most famous example was Albert Einstein, who thought about chasing a beam of light, and this "experiment" led to the Theory of Special Relativity. I recall how a brilliant organic chemistry teacher at IIT-Delhi encouraged us to think of ourselves as the carbon tetrahedron, in order to understand the R-S nomenclature. Although as simple as they may sound, thought experiments are extremely difficult to even formulate, leave alone conduct. And to do both successfully, in my opinion, needs not only an in-depth understanding of the problem, but also an extremely gifted mind. Experimentalists, on the other hand, might not seem so intriguing, but they do an equally important job - try to work in the real-world setting. No technology can exist only on paper, and needs to be translated into something tangible, which will work in the real environment, not a simulated one. This is what experimentalists do.

What is amusing to see, is the constant fight between these two communities. Theoreticians laugh at the enormous time which an experimentalist spends setting up his/her apparatus, while the latter ridicule the fact that the former's ideas exist in the form of highly constrained mathematical equations. And strangely enough, members from both these communities are in a race to enroll more members, and even poach members from the other camp!! I recall how one theoretician friend of mine tried hard to dissuade me from taking an data-driven project (this does not imply that I am from the experimentalists' camp). All jokes apart, both experimentalists and theoreticians have their important roles to play in the development of science and technology.

Wet Burrito

This post is for my friend Deepak Misra, who encouraged me to be a more regular blogger.

One of the biggest pleasures of being in a multi-cultural city like Los Angeles is the wide spectrum of cuisines one can experience: Mexican, Chinese, Mongolian, Taiwanese, Italian, American (of course!!) and not the least...Indian. Being a student of USC means that one has access to restaurants serving all of these cuisines, practically 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Having tried dishes from American, Italian and Chinese cuisine in India, I have been trying to experience the unexplored ones. First on my list was Mexican food, primarily because of the overwhelming number of Mexican restaurants in LA. And interestingly, I happened to experience it at our research group meeting at USC. I was served a "burrito", which in simple terms, is like an Indian chapati/roti (bread) stuffed with vegetables, beans, meat, sauce etc., and made into a roll. At first sight, I was very skeptical that 1 burrito would suffice for my lunch, considering the fact that I normally have a very light breakfast (time constraints of a graduate student...maybe this would be a good topic for another post). But boy...I was wrong, and that too by a mile!! I had trouble finishing that 1 burrito, and was amazed at the hunger-killing power of this seemingly docile "roti roll".

I had instantly become a fan, and could not hold myself from digging again into this Mexican delight. The very next day, I rushed to the "Baja Fresh" outlet in "The Lot" (one of the newly open eateries on campus) and bought a vegetable burrito. I was feeling like a kid who had been gifted with his favorite superhero's toy on his birthday, and could not resist the excitement of the first bite. And then...the unexpected happened!! Brown bean sauce poured from the attacked end of the burrito...onto the aluminium foil which was (thankfully) on the table. I was shell-shocked for a few seconds...how in the world could a burrito have curry in it? Isn't it meant to be like a sandwich, with only a limited spattering of sauce. Then my mind swung back to the lab meeting, where I had first eaten this Mexican delight-turned-monster. One member had commented that he had been given a "wet burrito", and had rushed to take fork and knife from the cupboard. That was it...my burrito was wet!! Escaping from the weird looks of the Chinese student sitting opposite to me on the table, I rushed to grab my weapons to tackle not only what lay on the table, but also my shattered ego.

USC vs OSU: My First Home Game Experience (not really...)

On 13th September 2008, the Trojans (USC) played the Buckeyes (OSU) in a football match, and it happened to be the first home match during my Ph.D. at USC. Unfortunately, I did not have the ticket to see the match at the LA Coliseum (which is the home turf for the Trojans), but still I was on campus to experience the atmosphere. It was ELECTRIFYING!! I have never been to an India-Pakistan or an India-Australia cricket match, but I doubt if the enthusiasm among the fans would have matched what I saw. Everyone was wearing the USC colors, the world renowned Trojan marching band was performing, and everyone was flashing the "Fight On!!" symbol. It was a carnival atmosphere, and everyone, from current students (undergrad and grad) to alumni were a part of it. Tommy Trojan (USC's symbol/mascot) was atop a stage, cheering up scores of Trojans with his war-routine, admist loud drumbeats. It was like a country going to war - not just the soldiers, but the entire country!! It reminded me of what I had heard all along - USC is not just a university, its the 'Trojan Family".

Unable to control the enthusiasm, I decided to track my first (yes...my first) American football game online. And USC WON 35-3!! I expected a huge party after this result, but somehow missed it (I was at the wrong place: my home :(). All in all, it was a memorable experience.

PS: I did the "cardinal" sin of bringing my bike to campus, and had a tough time wading through the sea of Trojans :).