(Thanks Rahul for this piece) This Guy From India Bowls/Spins Exactly Like The Legendary Sri Lankan Off Spinner, Muralitharan, Forces Batsmen To Dance!!

Since its inception in the late 80s, the game of Cricket has garnered a tremendous fan following. For countries like ours and Pakistan, it has taken a form of a Religion, with the rabid fans treating their favorite cricketers as Gods! Legends like Sachin, Warne, Lara and numerous others have carved their names in the history books as the absolute best.

But there’s one another name that needs to be mentioned while debating on who’s the very best. His name? 

Muttiah Muralitharan.

Murali bagged more than a thousand wickets in International Cricket over the course of 2 decades, and there’s doubt that anyone will ever be able to break his incredible record of 800 wickets in Test Cricket. Murali was surrounded by controversy throughout his legendary career, courtesy his unique bowling action, which was deemed by some as a ‘chuck’, but eventually he was given a green flag by the ICC after performing several tests on his action.

His unique bowling action was the result of a defective arm and allowed him to bowl lethal spins, earning the title of “The Magician”! His action is something which no one will be able to mimic.

Those were my thoughts before I stumbled upon this Youtube video. The video features a guy in his mid 20’s, practicing in the nets. The guy is bowling exactly like the man himself, Murali! But wait, he’s not only bowling like Murali, he’s also being able to deliver lethal off spinners, forcing the batsmen to dance uncomfortably on the pitch on a couple occasions!

Is this the 2^nd coming of Murali? Watch and decide for yourself.

Superhuman Speed Reading Experiment @ 7.78 words/second !!

Hungry Skinny Kitten Gives Zero Fucks - Too Cute

Blast From The Past: Aadamkhor Hatyara Comic Review

24th April2002
10.30 P.M.

I picked up a random comic from the stack I had purchased from a roadside vendor in the afternoon. Turned out to be a THS (Thrill Horror Suspense) comic, named “Aadamkhor Hatyara”. A perfect comic to read at this hour, I thought.
The cover boasted an ugly looking psycho killer about to kill a girl, with an axe stuck on his head, blood dripping profusely- the horror fanatic in me got a fangasm at that very sight! I finished it in 20 minutes.

I couldn’t sleep that night.

Aadamkhor Hatyara is one of the greatest horror comics produced in the history of Indian comics, in my opinion! And that’s coming from someone who has embraced this genre with open arms since his childhood, devouring all the horror movies, comics and games he could get his hands on!

The story is set in an old house, far away from the city’s hullabaloo, just beside a super creepy looking lake in a dark forest. The daughter of a renowned scientist decides to spend her vacation in that house with her friends, years after her scientist dad was mysteriously murdered in that very house. Little do they know that they are not the only people there. A raving mad cannibal is lurking around, aiming to quench his thirst for blood at the expense of the innocent gang of teens.

The story never loses it’s pace and every single panel on every page amounts to something. The beautifully  gruesome artwork perfectly compliments the brilliantly written story which is capable of inducing goosebumps to even the most fearless comic fan. The biggest USP of the comic is the twist at the end, which leaves the reader with a jolt of several emotions at once, and leaves them with a sense of sadness, even though the story has the most logical and satisfying end one could think of. The story doesn’t come to its fitting end before giving us the ever crucial life lesson- Don’t be quick to judge someone. Maybe there’s an ugly past behind them that has made them what they are.

I had bought this gem for Rs. 5, and it warrants several times more thrill, horror and suspense than today’s poorly written comic books and cringe inducing horror TV serials.
Aadamkhor Hatyara was published by Raj comics in the 90’s, a time period still considered by many as the Golden Era of Indian comics.

Looking at this comic book, it’s hard to argue with that statement.

Chetan Varma's TechChallenger: Yonder Opportunities, Students

2012

Mr. Chetan Varma had recently passed out from NYSS, Nagpur and unlike most of his batchmates, immediately started laying down plans to start his own company. And before year end, he successfully established Orange Snipers Infotech Pvt. Ltd., along with some of his like minded friends. Today, the company is still going strong and has even acquired a website which deals with online services.

A week back, I had the privilege to visit his office. It was refreshing to see his calm and composed behaviour while addressing his employees. I had a long talk with him about his plans regarding his company's future and his other ventures. What I could gather from that lengthy (but interesting to say the least) talk was that the guy had a clear vision and a genuine passion towards working to achieve his goals.

TechChallenger was his dream project since the day he became a graduate. It had to take a backseat to Orange Snipers and some of his other ventures that helped him establish his own identity in the confines of Nagpur's IT industry. Basically, TechChallenger is a forum which he has designed over the course of the past few months. The website is yet to be made public but it's only a matter of days as to when it'll happen.

Chetan's vision is to build India's largest online community of techies, ranging from students, teachers, IT professionals and anyone else who could benefit from such a forum. He wants to bring the students and faculties of Indian institutes on a single platform where they can post queries, share opinions and engage in constructive discussion with fellow students and faculties. Plus, students and faculties can create original blogs and share on the forums, ultimately benefiting students in more ways than one.

"It’ll mostly help the shy and introvert types, who are reluctant to approach the faculties or even colleauges when in doubt. Continuous interaction may help them overcome their shyness." This statement from him cleared all the remaining queries that I had in mind as to what he really wanted. It started becoming pretty clear that he was genuinely thinking about the students' welfare alongside building his own brand.

Currently, Chetan is looking to acquire a piece of land in MIHAN, to establish a setup which would act as a central system for handling TechChallenger's day to day operations. After conversing with him for over 2 straight hours, I'm pretty sure that he'll bag the much needed piece of land. And looking at the current state of things and the progress he's been making, the day doesn't seem far away when TechChallenger will take the Indian academic community by storm and become the one stop spot to give and gain knowledge, for students and teachers alike.

We wish him the very best!

MIHAN- 80 years in the making

1936 
India was still 11 years shy of her much anticipated independence. The Britishers were facing the wrath of a hostile nation whose people couldn't bear being treated like animals in their own country by some foreign entity. But this entire scenario aside, the outsiders were drawing out several plans and ideas towards the development of India. One of those ideas was a fully functional and sophisticated Airport, meant for both civilian and Army aircrafts, which would also be a fully equipped service centre for these heavy duty planes. 

Then came World War 2. 
The plans had to be put in the back burner. 

The war lasted 6 long years, ending with a casualty list of 60 million, a whopping 3% of the total population of the Earth in 1939, which was estimated to be 2 billion. To make matters worse, the struggle for independence in India was getting the best of the authorities and it was becoming almost impossible to continue ruling the nation without facing backlash on a large scale. 

Thus, even though the Britishers were an integral part of the Allied forces who defeated Germany and ended World War 2, they were forced to leave India just 2 years later in 1947. Thus, "the plan" again took the back burner and this time for a better part of the 20th century! 

Nagpur, which was formed in 1703, and was the centre of the country, was the central hub of the mail delivery system for several years 
(1949 to 1973 to be precise). At exactly 12 midnight, 4 planes from Delhi, Madras, Bombay and Calcutta used to land at the airport, exchange mails, and head towards their respective cities. It used to be a sight to behold for the commoners of the city. 

During the early years of the 21st century, those long lost plans were taken out of the dark, dingy and dusty corners of rotting almirahs and thus the Multi-modal International Cargo Hub and Airport at Nagpur (MIHAN) came into being. It was going to be a 2 part project- An International cargo hub and a vast residential area of 40.25 km square. It was financed by several Indian banks with a loan amount of 3000 million Rupees. The project was expected to add 12 million to the population of the city by direct and indirect employment. But factors like the recession, problems in acquisition of land, and a bunch of scams by some private parties put a brake on the project and a decade has passed since then. 

But now, as the new CM Devendra Fadnavis and Union minister Nitin Gadkari have made MIHAN the priority of the government, there's a ray of hope building and if this promise by these two renowned men comes to fruition, this will be a breakthrough event in the rich history of our nation and will determine and define its future. It'll reduce employment in central india to a respectable level and with the recent inclusion of institutes like IIM and AIIMS, it won't be long before Nagpur gets to enjoy a strong presence alongside the NYs and Delhis and Tokyos of the world.

Reduced Logic and Increased Prices: The present state of Indian Comics

After reading some Sarvnayak Vistaar reviews, I can't help but think that RC is insulting their fans' intelligence on a whole new level. I mean 10 kharabs?? Really?? Also the fact that the writers don't think even a bit before massacring logic while penning down points like an AC in a convict's cell, explains a lot about what they assume is the level of intelligence of us fans.

I'm a fan since 1998, and am currently 24 years old. I'm pretty sure that when this Sarvnayak series ends completely  ( Still leaving a whole lot of questions unanswered- We're looking at you NAGAYAN) , many of us will have been married and some will even have little kids, who'll someday ask us to give them "those picture stories" that we read. Then you'll give them this series ( Come on you won't give them the new series of Bankelal without Bedi, which can kill the logic building cells of a growing and healthy child in an instant) , and they will read it for some 20 minutes.
Game over!
Daddy! I want a PS 5 ( Or whatever the hell XBOX comes up with) !! Please don't  make me read these things....

When I was a kid, my parents bought 2 Chacha Chaudhary comics (16/- ) for me and thus started the fandom and I never looked back. But I really feel for the next generation as they'll have to buy a complete hardcover set of both Sarvnayak and the Vistaar series for 2500/- with some free stickers thrown in to appease them, otherwise they won't be able to understand what the hell is going on in the story.
Gone are the days when a single 32 page comic used to present a complete and entertaining story without making us fans scratch our heads like we do today after reading a 40/- Bankelal story or a 60/- Vistaar story which is just a tiny part of a legendary saga which seems to have no end and whose each comic, instead of clearing previous doubts, leaves us with a dozen more questions left unanswered.

Comics were never meant to leave us in doubts. What are our college books for?