Best Reads: Mist Born

Yes, I sometimes read books too, So dont look too bemused by the title! This blogpost here wont be a review about a book I just read, I am apparently not qualified enough for it! It will just be my experience with Fantasy books and the MistBorn series!
 As said earlier Mist Born series is a fantasy novel series written by Brandon Sanderson, dont feel bad if you didnt know it before. I wouldn't have known about it before if not for that guy! I will come back later about that guy. I used to be a good enough reader during my childhood. Even then Fantasy books have never been my choice, except for maybe some books!
 Mist Born is my fourth fantasy series, If you exclude the 30 pages of Twilight I read! I know, I am not proud of it, at least I had enough sense to stop reading after 30 pages. So it doesn't count, again IT DOESN'T COUNT!!
I started my Fantasy novel reading life with the most famous Fantasy series of all time. HARRY POTTER! When my sister narrated the story of Harry Potter "Little did I know"(Dramatic Irony) that HP is going to be one of my all time favorite books!!
The best thing about Harry Potter is that the series matured with every book. In the first book you get three headed dogs, life size chess board and even a small fire spitting dragon. In the second book you get Basilsk the snake. Earlier books were written like it should amuse an early teenager more, even though others could enjoy the book. And as the series matured in book 5 (Order of the Phoenix) story was told from an annoying middle teenager's point of view and the latter books were pretty much matured books. Harry Potter is the kind of a book which you could say that you grew up with that book.
And it can be easily related with us normal readers. Unlike Lord of the Rings or the other books where the story will happen in a world which is completely alien to us. But Harry Potter was different, even though it was a fantasy book we can actually relate Harry, Ron and Hermione with our lives. There wouldn't be a single HP reader who didn't fantacize about Hogwarts or getting the letter from an Owl.
I started to write about Mist Born and here I am writing about Harry Potter, but seriously I dont think anyone could write about a Fantasy novel without talking about HP.
My second fantasy book was Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan. I have always loved Greek and Roman mythologies and history from my childhood. If someone is writing about those gods in a fantasy series, it is a sin if I didnt read that series. Percy Jackson series is about What if Greek Gods are still living and living in the Empire States of America. It is kind of childish like the "first part of HP series - JK Rowling" ! It is very much similar to HP in characterizations too, Chosen one, one girl and a funny boy will go on adventures! Only differnce is here the girl will fall for the chosen one not to the funny guy. (Which is kind of close to reality) . Nevertheless Percy Jackson is a good fantasy series.
Third series is Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan (yes, that same Percy Jackson Rick). I had just returned from my Egypt trip then, and If Rick has written another book on Egyptian gods, Why miss it? But just read only the first book of that series.
And again THAT BOOK DOESN'T COUNT!!
Which brings us to Mist Born series!
It was a dark time in my reading career, Movies and TV series's have consumed me fully. Well Even now 9 out of 10 times I would choose "How I Met Your Mother" over Mist Born without thinking, 10 th time I would think for a while and will choose How I met Your Mother!!
  And Kantheepan my friend came as the chosen one to save me from that darkness. He is like the biggest Fantasy nut you could ever meet, and he didnt have anyone to talk about the books he read, he didnt have anyone to listen his blabbering about those books. And I was the easy target. He literally forced me to read some of the fantasy novels he read. He started with the Wheel Of Time series (Which contains 14 books). And then he tried to make me read the Mist Born series, But I was strong! I just said only way I am going to know those stories is if they make a movie out of it.
Then he did a shrewd thing and bought the Mist Born book and gifted it to my sister for her graduation. And I didnt have any choice but to read it.

When he gave me the book he said that this book is very similar to Ocean's 11 movie, though I couldnt find any similarities between Ocean's 11 and Mist Born.
Synopsis of the book : A famous thief is recruiting some other thieves to his crew to pull off the biggest heist of all time. He wants to avenge for his wife, He wants to rob the Dark Lord and topple his government.(Come to think of it, it is similar to Ocean's 11) He joins hand with a 16 year old girl Powerful thief to pull off his heist.

You might think the protagonist of the book is that famous thief, but it is that 16 year old girl. Whole story revolves around her. As you all know in all of my previous books had Heroes not Heroines! Not that it is bothering me, but it was different for me. (Believe me, I am no Sexist)
KELSIER, he is that aforementioned famous thief. He is one of the very few light hearted characters of Mist Born. He is a Mist Born (People who have some special powers, read and find out).
VIN, She is the heroine of the book. For the first few hundred pages my take on her was "BITCH". Remember how Harry used to be in The Order of the Phoenix, she was even worse than that. I am not calling her Bitch have nothing to do with me being a sexist (Which I am not). But author himself wanted to make that kind of impression about her early. She never trusts other people, to the extent she will not even drink the drinks mixed by others. One of the main point of the novel is Trust. So her characterization was important to the novel. (See, I am not a sexist) But in the latter part of the novel she was more tolerable.
LORD RULER, he is the villain of the story! Supposedly immortal and the king and the god of Final Empire. There are 2 kinds of people under his reign, Noble men and Skaa. Simply saying Skaa are the slaves of Noble men. Vin and Kelsier are from Skaa and they wanted to topple Lord Ruler and wanted to bring balance between Skaa and Noble Men.
Elend : Noble man, Vin's romantic interest.
So Now that you have basic outline about the story and characters, let me discuss it in detail.
Unlike other fantasy books which target teenagers where you get minimum twists in the tale, in this book Mist Born, you get more than enough twists. Which is what I expect in books (Hey, I am not a teenager anymore!!).
If you are that person who posts those philosophies and life quotes on FB, this novel is for you! Whole novel is full of lovely quotes and phiolsophies. It is a common occurence in all fantasy books and Super Hero movies, you will get life quotes on every other page. But even I would say most of the quotes are actually quotable. Writing is witty and funny on occasions, but it could've been more funnier though.
One thing I dont want is our leadership reading this book, I dont want them to get ideas from Lord Ruler on Skaa oppressions!
Magic system in the Mist Born world is bit complicated compared to the Harry Potters magic system (Where you take a stick and shout some funny words for magic). It was detailed but alien to me. And unlike Harry Potter it doesnt mature with the books, Vin is already 16 and she is matured, which is cool for me.
When I started reading I was skeptical about the book and that might have played a part in me not liking the writing in the first part of the book.But writing drastically improved (or rather I got accustomed to it).
All in all, as I said earlier I was bit skeptical and slow at the beginning of the book, but went through the book real fast at the latter stages. If you can get through the first 50 pages you are in for a treat.

Note to Self : Do not get fooled by Kantheepan again and make a pact to yourself that you will never read Wheel of Time! And Go watch How I Met Your Mother, new season is starting today!!

#London2012

London 2012 Olympics came and went in 19 days. Whole world stopped for 19 days and turned its attention to London. For 19 days Social networks were filled with Olympics updates. Even though the whole country knew that Sri Lanka wont give any hardship to those who maintain the medal tally, we Sri Lankans followed the Olympics. Every one became an expert in a sport they have never seen before 5 minutes.
As I said earlier Twitter went berserk over London 2012!! 
Here are the tweets I chose as the best about London 2012 tweeted by those who I am following!! 

Opening Ceremony 

Opening Ceremony directed by Danny Boyle, Only way to that was getting James Cameron to direct it! This year Olympics had it all, James Bond parachuting with the Queen, Mr Bean , Voldermort and everything else!!


Tweet from the parody account of Prince Charles!
@Charles_HRH

You'd have to be stupid to think that Mother actually jumped out of the helicopter. She was pushed.

Only part the public didnt like about that awesome opening ceremony was its lengthy parade of countries.
@Lord_Voldermort7

They should just start making up fake countries to see if anybody is even paying attention. #OlympicCeremony

Bolt was the captain and the flag bearer for Jamaican Contingent!
@BluesChron
Oi! Usain! SLOW DOWN! The rest of your team is about 200yards behind you!

@sidvee

We're still in E! I could have run around the world by now- Usain Bolt

@shockerhess
You know what really lengthened Olympic Opening Ceremonies? When the Soviet Union broke up... jirre, al daai countries my bru.

@ShitOlympics
Pretty sure Central African Republic is a made up country. #OlympicCeremony

@laurenbrookes92
Oh god how long is this going to take?? The countries I've never heard of are only funny for the first hour..

Even Lord Voldermort himself made an appearence in this Opening Ceremony!! And the announcers had enough nerve to call him by the name!!
@Lord_Voldermort7
You'd think the announcers would know by now to say "you-know-who". The Dark Mark will be appearing any moment now. #Voldermort #Olympics

All in all the Opening ceremony was an out of the world experience and had exceeded imagination!!

@innobystander

This is Rio calling......no Opening Ceremony in 2016, we surrender!!!#london2012

Swimming and Phelps

@SimplySean_

"Michael Phelps is going for only 7 events this time". Lazy bastard.

And for the record Phelps took 9 golds in the last Olympics!!

Phelps have 15 golds and 2 in sliver and Bronze (In all Olympics)!!
@ImSutha

I seriously think Phelps would forget all those gold medals. But those silver and bronze moments will be there for his lifetime. #rare

@ImSutha

3 Golds and 2 Silver for Phelps in this Olympics!! This is by far the worst performance in an Olympics from Phelps!! #WhatALoser

@ImSutha

15 Gold, 2 Silver and 2 Bronze for #Phelps in Olympic History! 9 Gold 4 Silver 8 Bronze for India in Olympic History! India arent that Bad!

Next one is specially for "Percy Jackson" fans, others disregard it!!

@camphalfblood

Michael Phelps is ADHD? Guess that settles it. #sonofposeidon

And this one is for Harry Potter fans, others go and read the book!!
@Lord_Voldemort7

Michael Phelps definitely would've won the second task in the Triwizard Tournament.

@rameshsrivats

#IfMichaelPhelpsWereIndian, he'd never have won a medal. Why? He'd have found it impossible to stay in one lane.

And the funniest one came from the father of Le Clos (South African gold medal winning swimmer) 

@bigbertleclos 

My swimmers created this swimmer - @LeClos_Swim. Where is my bloody medal?

Shooting 

@rameshsrivats

I think, in #Shooting, if a participant smiles between shots, he or she is instantly disqualified.

If you cant understand the next tweet, you can proudly say that you are a good guy!!
And others can you please explain me that tweet, dont understand it!! :D

@rameshsrivats

Standing and shooting. Kneeling and shooting. Lying down and shooting. Is this Olympics, or the making of a Sunny Leone movie?

It would have came in as really shocking for Somalian Pirates!!

@ShitOlympics

Head of the Somali Olympic squad has apologized on behalf of their team, after realising that shooting and sailing are two separate events.

Beach Volleyball

It was a shocking revelation for me also!!
@biobot

Shocked to discover that beach volleyball is also a game played by men.

What's the point in playing Beach Volleyball if you are going to cover your body with thermal clothing!!
 ‏@Lishanw

beach volleyball isnt the same with thermal clothing :(

Badminton 

Niluka of Sri Lanka went down to Indian shuttler Kashyap in the round of 16 !!

 ‏@ImSutha

Last time Kashyap fought against Indians who came to fight for his brother Mugalan!! This time he comes to fight Against SL for Indians!

@_fakeiplplayer

Excessive celebration warning for the Sri Lankan. He did what Virat Kohli does when he makes a regulation stop at Covers.

If not for Saina women's badminton would have looked like a Chinese national badminton trials!
 ‏@rameshsrivats

OLympics Badminton Semis - China, China, China and Saina.

Sania Mirza couldnt get into the Tennis quarter finalsl!!
@BoredCricket

How to tell Saina from Sania - Saina's the one in the quarter finals

Synchronized Swimming 

Synchronized swimming is obviously the most hated sport in Olympics. It is just dancing, only you are doing it in water!!
@ShitOlympics

Synchronized swimming is how to look like you're drowning in the most elegant way.

@ShitOlympics

How on earth is synchronized swimming an Olympic event? Might as well get air guitar in while you're at it...

Obviously North Koreans can do something other than Nuclear bombs too!!

@Sachin94

North Korea has synchronized swimmers..Thought they were all brainwashed fucks #dafaq

Soccer 

Brazil lost to Mexico in an upset Gold medal match. And their Gold less streak continues in Soccer!!

@GayanMW

'BRA' couldn't 'Triumph'. #London2012 #BRAvMEX Football

@Me_ArunR

He who bet for this scoreline at a pub yesterday night will be a billionaire by tomorrow! #London2012

SoccerFinal

Diving

One for Chelsea haters!
@CoyleIan
So Drogba leaves and moves to China. A few weeks later China clean up in the Olympic diving medals. Coincidence?

Hockey

Kudos to New Zeland for doing it with out any help from Sharukh Khan!!
@bowldoubt

Women's Hockey: NZL beat AUS 1-0. Now that's a winning feeling even we have experienced...in Chak de India.

Usain Bolt (Athletics)

@Trendulkar

Usain Bolt runs tomorrow. Do take out 9 secs from your schedule.

Scary and interesting fact next!
@JoshPageee

Usain Bolt runs at 31mph which sounds good, but if he hits a child there's a 40% chance they'll die.

 ‏@ImSutha

Blake is officially the fastest human on earth! Bolt is too fast to be a human, ALIEN!!

He slowed down at the end of all his individual races!
@ImSutha

Why did he slow down, because he can!! You dumbasses #BOLT

Bolt didnt stop with 100 and 200 m races, took a world record gold in relay too. And did some Mo Farah (British athelte who won 2 golds in long distance running) impressions after the victory!!

@Me_ArunR

Perfect to see Bolt doing a Mo there, after finishes his relay finals. I was expecting some pushups too! #London2012

Bolt also got into a quarrel over Baton, he wanted it and officials threatened him if he dont give the baton back his team will get disqualified!
@ImSutha

What officials would've done had BOLT ran away with the baton?? Try and catch him!! good luck with that!! 

Because of this relay race Blake finally got a gold in Olympics. 

@ImSutha

Who thought that Yohan Blake could win an Olympic gold before BOLT's retirement! #London2012

Oscar Pistorius and Natalia Partyka are the most loved athletes of this olympics (barring Phelp, Le Clos and Bolt).
 ‏@AltCricket

Oscar Pistorius has no legs, and he still runs faster than Munaf Patel.

@ShitOlympics

The fast walking competition looks like a race to go to the nearest toilet.

Triathlon

@ShitOlympics

TRIATHLON: Any event that involves taking shoes off quickly deserves to be treated with fear and respect.

Olympics in common

Australians weren't as good as what they used to be.
@BBCSporf

BREAKING: Olympic officials are warning all visitors today about an unknown sound that may be played, the Australian National Anthem. 

@WhatTheFFacts

Olympics committee provide 100,000 condoms to every Olympic village. In Vancouver 2010, 7000 athletes finished them within twelve days.

Ladies excuse me, this is not my tweet!!

@ShitOlympics

Parallel Parking for Women. #RejectedOlympicEvents

 ‏@InnoBystander

lots of the seats empty at the Olympics are journalist seats....must be empty cos they are too busy writing stories about empty seats...

 ‏@ShitOlympics

If only there were gold medals for solving humanitarian crises and banking screw-ups, we might all live in a much happier world.

And China would stop all those interfering and ruining other country affairs!! (I am bit against China, excuse me for that)

I wont say these are the best tweets I saw, but these are the ones I liked!! 


In most people's view London 2012 is the best Olympics so far. Phelps and Bolt had more compettition in their races this time around. Lochte and Le Clos gave some tough fight to Phelps and Blake the beast gave some tough fight to Bolt. Opening ceremony of London 2012 was also better than the China's one (Again the popular view) . Medal tally was more closely fought this time around.


But personally speaking I had more memorable moments in Beijing 2008 Olympics. Bolt celebrating and waving to the audience even before finishing his 100 and 200 m races and finishing with a world record will always be there in mind. And he was a unknown name for all of us before that race and him winning like that was fairy tale-ish. London 2012 also had its moments, but not as good as that Bolt moment. But apart from that London 2012 was also good with closely fought battles. And USA leading the medal tally gave me some extra push in liking this Olympics!  

What is the unluckiest team in SLPL?

I am back,
 I know you all have been waiting for my next blog post for over a month (I am not expecting any comments regarding this opening, so dont) . If you have been waiting for more than a month, you certainly have missed my last blog post, .
   It is not a co-incidence that I came back to blogging on the eve of SLPL. Since the first season of IPL I always wanted to watch the Sri Lankan version of IPL. If watching some International players playing with Indian domestic players could be that interesting then how interesting it could be if we can watch our domestic players play in that kind of a tournament. So I am not going to miss a chance when it comes on my way (Finally).
  SLPL will be played for the first time this year after going through a lot of internal and external problems. Non participation of Indians (Love them or hate them we need them for the financial viability of the tournament) , Non participation of some of the best T20 players ( True to be said apart from Gayle, Afridi and Morkel there aren't lot of famed specialists in this league) , Next to nothing publicity from SLC and they haven't announced tickets for the league yet (Just 3 more days to go). But yet SLPL will be played despite these reasons.

  So I have announced my loyalty to SLPL, but I still need a team to support in SLPL. One might love football and EPL, but you need to support a team to enjoy the game to the fullest (Btw, I support Arsenal). So I am here to choose a team for me to support in SLPL. .
 But a word of warning beforehand, the team I am going to support has always been the "Nearly team". They will always look like they are going to win, but they wont. (Again, I support Arsenal in EPL, RCB in IPL and Sri Lanka in International cricket matches. Enough said).
Before starting it I would like to thank SLC for getting rid of those Alliteration names (Not that the new names are good, but better than those alliteration names)
Points given at the end is strictly based on my liking toward to the Franshise, not about the strength of that particular team.

Basnahira Cricket Dundees 

Dilshan is the captain of the team, though I dont have anything against him (Other than the fact he is a bad leader) him playing fro BCD is not enough reason for me to support the team. Jeevan Mendis and Marlon Samuels are the only players I like who are playing for BCD. And I hate the name of this franchise.  5/10

Kandurata Warriors 

Originally supposed to have Sangakkara as it's captain. My second favorite player,That plays in their favour. But sadly he wont play for them this season (Which is not helping their case). And Kithruwan Withanage from Royal College is playing for them, and I know for a fact he is a great T20 player. So all the more reasons to support them. Albie Morkel and Thisara Perera are also playing for them, 2 of the most feared fast bowling all rounders. And the most important reason to support them is Sanath Jayasuriya will play for them and will captain them. Which makes that he cant commentate for SLPL. Because of Kandurata we can escape from his so called commentary stints. And if you ask me of all teams this one seems to be the strongest of all teams!
And lastly Kandurata Warriors is my 100th follower on Twitter. 9/10

Nagenahira Nagas

Only team who didnt change their name from the start. Rather than the fact that Angelo Mathews is captaining them there arent any reason to support them. My another favourite Kulasekara is also playing for them (Love the way he tries day in day out, and those extravagent inswingers).
And this is one of the few teams for which any Royalists aren't playing for.  6/10

Ruhuna Royals

Malinga is the captain of this team, and As far as my memory serves I think this is the first time Malinga is captaining a professional team. So thats a plus and I love Malinga the bowler, It would be very hard not to support him while he is bowling. One of my other favourite batsman Thirimanne is also playing for them. And most importantly Old captain of Royal College and a batch mate of mine Ramith Rambukwella is also playing for them. And they are also following me on Twitter and they are really active on Twitter too, reply to all the mentions. And what did I miss, ah Afridi is also playing for them. This Franchise has one of the few names which doesn't want to make you tear your hair apart.
8/10

Uthura Rudras

Muralitharan is the Icon player, but he wont captain the team. Seems that we can never see him captaining a team. How can I not support a team Murali is not playing. And Arsenal is the only team I support in which Murali doesnt (Didnt) play! And the team's captain is an old Royalist Jehan Mubarak.
My hometown is Jaffna and this is the team which is representing my place. And that is why they have put Murali as it's iconic player even though he is from Kandy by birth. So some might say I am obligated to support them, but I dont support teams for that kinda reasons. And to boot Except Murali there aren't any tamils in the team too. And Kapugedara is playing for Uthura, So this is the team which comes close to Sri Lankan cricket team!!(Now a days he seems to be a definite starter for Sri Lanka, regardless the form)  8/10

Uva Next

If I am going to choose a team like I choose for other leagues this will be my team. Normally I support the team Chris Gayle plays for. Chris Gayle is my most favorite player in the world (Sanga and Murali coming in close second), how can I not support a team Chris Gayle plays for. And to boot with Chris Gayle Bhanuka Rajapakshe is also playing for Uva Next. Captain of Royal College during our AL batch (Makes him the third Royalist from our batch to play in SLPL after Kithruwan and Ramith).
BREAKING NEWS:  And just after writing this piece I read the news that Chris Gayle will not play for Uva Next in this season. Huge blow not just to Uva Next, but to SLPL itself!
If Gayle had played in this season I would have given the team 10/10. Now it should be content with 9/10.

 Wayamba United

Captained by Mahela the best captain in the International cricket (Strictly my views, and I may have been biased since he is the captain of Sri Lanka). Him being an elegant opener is another plus for them. Abdur Razzak and Kemar Roach are my favourites of their foreign contingent. And Kushal Janith Perera another Royalist is also playing for them. 7.5/10



If Chris Gayle had played in SLPL I would have supported only Uva Next (Despite that stupid name) , Now going to support Kandurata Warriors and Uva Next in SLPL!! 
So that means any of the other 5 teams can win the title in SLPL!!
I want to write more on this article but now I am too upset with that Gayle news, in no position to write anymore!

Two months with the UOM rowing crew

University of Moratuwa won the 29 th annual Inter University regatta beating University of Colombo rowing team by 40-2.

 This is what many (If you haven't read it anywhere, this is one of the many reasons why you should follow me on Twitter) would have read in a Facebook status or in Twitter. But what goes unsaid behind that status is that the amount of hard work that was put behind that victory. 

 I am just a novice in our university rowing crew and have only been training with the crew for a paltry 2 months. So my knowledge about rowing is no better than yours. So I will not be blabbering  about the technical area of our victory (Which I couldn't do even if I wanted to) , But as I see it, our victory was not about being better technically!! But it is about the passion we have for the sport!!

Mora Rowing crew

They Hate Land
Most important thing about the Mora rowing crew is that they hate land. Every second on land is a second wasted for them. They come to practices at morning 5.30 and practice till 11 15 and as though it is not enough they come in the evening also. To think they do this 6 days a week, you will get the vague picture of how much they hate land and love water. Even during practices they rarely spent time on land. They are either in water practicing or in the land doing exercises. For them Land is the place where you do the fitness exercises so you can improve your rowing skills.

They only talk about rowing
I have rarely seen them talking anything but rowing!! Talking about how they can improve their style, their timing, their fitness and some other things (which I am pretty sure also would have been about rowing, I stopped listening after a while). I have to mention Thilina aiyya, he is so important when it comes to talking about rowing. When I came for the practices for the first time I was one of the the two tamil guys in the crew and had some problems in communicating with others. And he is the one who came and talked with me (of course about rowing) and helped me a lot during the practices. He is the classic example for Rowing talk, he talks about rowing as though it is the second best thing to be discovered after bread!

This is Rowing club not the fighting club!!

Even the jokes they say in the dressing room are about rowing. I cant even understand half of those jokes, partly because they say it in Sinhala and partly because it is about rowing. Simply they all are what you call Rowing nerds!!
Even During the Bus ride to our university after winning the regatta 40-2 the first talk they had was about giving that 2 points to the opposition!! They genuinely regretted giving away that 2 points to them thus not being able to white wash them. What kind of victory talk is that, But that is rowing.
All this passion and love is not limited to the seniors of the crew, junior crew members are also equally passionate about the sport.
The main thing you need to know about rowing before joining it is "Rowing Is Hard". They make you to do all kind of fitness exercises available. Our running practices makes you wonder whether you are practicing for the athletics team or rowing team. But these guys from my batch they just don't understand the hardships of rowing. If the coach asked us to do 100 push ups their response would be "what just 100 push ups, I can do 150 and I will do 150". Some might call it 'over enthusiastic' but I prefer the word 'crazy'. But to be fair I am the different one among them.
Maybe that's why we won the Inter Uni Regatta!! Their dedication and commitment to the game.
But the best thing about them is how they motivate the people who are struggling to do the fitness .
The way they shout and cheer us to the end does actually work. Whenever they shout "You can do it Sutharman, Rowing is not for every one, only for the committed and motivated" it does give you the urge and the energy for you to finish. Rowing people maybe the meanest guys in the world when it comes to fitness sessions, They never let you to stop in the middle. But they are also the nicest after those fitness sessions. The way they come and talk with you after those sessions does help you in recovering.

Practicing in the boat is a whole another dilemma. You have to row for one full km without stopping. That's not the hard part. Hard part is when they ask you "Are you tired machan, can you row for another km ??". There is no correct reply for this question. If you say Yes, then you will get some water and some advice. "Rowing is hard machan, If you are tired after rowing 1 km how are you going to do all the races, see other rowers they row at least 12 kms a day, and here you are saying you are tired after rowing for one km.". If you say no then you have to row without any water. It is a no win situation for you. I still dont know how to reply that question.
But as I said earlier these little things are what makes us the champions of water. Technical supremacy is there but the passion they have about rowing is what makes them different from others. I don't know anything about the rowing crew of University of Colombo, But it is very much improbable to have another team which shares this kind of passion to the sport.

One guy in the crew actually said to me that he came to University of Moratuwa just to join the rowing crew. If the team which has a guy like this doesn't deserve to win the regatta, then which team deserves it more!!!

IPL and Fixing

I am still alive!!
   Turns out that all those running sessions I had with my rowing crew helps a lot while letting me escape from the white van threat (Refer to the last post).

I know that I am bit late with this blog post, But there weren't any better time than this to write about IPL (for me). I was too busy with watching IPL during the IPL days, so I didnt want to waste my time on this post during those days. I could've written it after the end of IPL, but I couldnt because  I was so busy with doing nothing (and NOTHING is more important than my 'doing nothing' time). Now I am here tired and bored by doing nothing!! So here comes my blog post about IPL rigging!!

Is IPL fixed or not?? Million dollar question for many of us ardent cricket followers!! Are we being fooled by the BCCI and IPL governing council?? This wont be an investigative piece on this IPL fiasco (I am too lazy to come up with the investigative pieces). But this will comprise of my ideas and the reasoning on this matter.
  We all say IPL is fixed whenever the team we support loses a game. If our favourite team loses a game then we all say we lost because of the fixing. And if our team wins a game we say we won it despite the fixing. So I thought I would discuss the matter in length rationally. My dear friend Kenthira wanted me to write a post on this matter, hence the post and I am dedicating the post to him!!

There is an old saying in Tamil which says "There wont be any smoke without Fire". No one is going to talk about fixing without having their reasons. Let me start with the arguments for why IPL is rigged.

If you look at the past champions thus far you would see a pattern in it. Rajastan Royals came out on top in the first edition of IPL. And who would have thought Rajastan would win the first season with that paltry squad. Rajastan was the clear underdogs in the first season and still won the trophy. And who doesnt like an underdog winning the trophy and it clearly gave IPL some recognition and love from the audience.
And in the second edition the team (Deccan Chargers) which came last in the first edition got the trophy. Another underdog story. Third and forth edition went to Chennai Super Kings (the team to have greatest fan base (You can divide IPL fans into two: CSK lovers and CSK haters, there isnt anything in between)). And in the third season Mumbai Indians played in the final and lost (God knows why Pollard was sent as late as possible into a chase and they want us to believe IPL isnt rigged). Final was held in Mumbai and Mumbai playing the final would definitely have boosted the ticket sales.
And in the fifth season Kolkata Knight Riders won the title and played in the final with Chennai. And I knew from the start of the season that CSK wont win this season!! CSK winning the title for 3 consecutive years is bad for IPL in the long run. Fans of other franchises would lose interest (Eventually same thing will happen to Deccan Chargers fans) in IPL.

So all the winners so far have made IPL more likable! Maybe Co-Incidence or Maybe not!!

Most of all the arguments, Lalit Modi (If you dont know him, What the hell are you doing in an IPL post) himself accepted that he was "arm twisted" in to rigging the 2009 auction so that CSK could buy Flintoff in the auction. He said that he worked a lot to persuade Rajastan Royals to retain Sohail Tanvir so they would not have enough money left in the purse* to buy Andrew Flintoff. No investigations or whatsoever were there on this accusation. For some reason the new administration chose not to probe on that accusation.

Lalit Modi and his famous Pink tie

Those who know about the IPL auction skip this paragraph, this one is for those who still live in the caves. In IPL auctions every franchisee would get a money purse of certain amount and they can spend only the money in their money purse. This was introduced so the rich teams wouldn't get all the players. If in the auction bids went more than that purse all the interested teams would place a bid on the player and the team to bid the highest would get the player. And the bid amount would be undisclosed too. Why it is undisclosed?? No one knows!!

Lalit Modi himself was dethroned from his position for money swindling and other frauds. So does that mean first 3 seasons were rigged, No one knows the answer.

And in the just concluded season, stupidity went into another league. Loads of people are talking that this season had lot more last over finishes than any other season.But if you look at it more closely most of those matches could have been finished much earlier with much ease. But yet those matches were taken to the last over deliberately. No one could argue with that.

Why cant you all believe we genuinely bowl slow fulltosses for the final delivery

Take a scenario, you are playing in a slow pitch and you have to score 6 runs off the last ball to win. What kind of a ball you would ask for in that kind of a situation. Any one would want a slow fulltoss at the knee height and that is the same thing Bravo got in a match against KKR from Bhatia. And he dealt with it in a way it should be dealt. And they want us to believe IPL is not rigged. This is just an example of the tomfooleries happened in this season.
 And there is that playing Ross Taylor again and again, Not playing Morkel in the playoff and playing an unknown spinner in that same playoff. All this happened in the same 'Not rigged' IPL.

 But there are also arguments against the IPL is fixed arguments.
IPL has some of the honest personalities you could find in cricket. Rahul Dravid, Sangakkaara, Murali, Sachin, Clarke to name a few. With them playing in IPL how can you expect it to be fixed. There is no way IPL could make them fraudsters. So if there is any fixing it has to be done without these people's consent. And most of these people are captains of their respective teams, How can you fix a match without the consent of your captain.
And some could argue that fulltoss from Bhatia to Bravo could be a missed yorker (If so, he missed it by a mile and he shouldn't have attempted a yorker at all). And Sehwag justified not playing Morkel and playing Ross Taylor in that playoff match. He said he wanted to increase his team's batting power by including Ross (How you can improve the team's batting by including a player in Ross Taylor's form is beyond my comprehension). These all mistakes could be genuine, We are never gonna know about it.
"Not guilty until proven otherwise" is too a valid argument here.
So whether the IPL is fixed or not is totally your decision. Or you could use my way and use it whenever your team loses a game.

But there comes another big question, Does it even matter if it is rigged??
 Loads of people watch WWE, WWF and Wrestlemania and all other shits knowing that it is fake and just acting!! They watch it for the entertainment factor of the sport. The same thing could be applied for IPL too.

We all can be sure at least this part of IPL is not rigged!!
This is enough for me to watch IPL!!

If the people want to watch real cricket they could have watched it in the WI vs Australia test series! IPL is not a place for them and it is there for us to be entertained. No one wants to watch those matches where a team completely dominates the other team. People want to watch close matches, last over finishes and all. IPL is like a festival for the audience, where you can forget all other things and get immersed in the fun. So in short IPL is for fun and not for cricket.

If IPL is Beer, Cricket is the alcohol in it. Only 5%.

This tweet I saw says it all in a few words. Alcohol maybe just  5%, But we still drink Beer ( Amma I am just kidding I dont drink Beer, I prefer Vodka, Kidding again).

IPL is not for the purists, But fortunately I am not a Purist.

I am not going to write this blog post!!

I am not going to write this blog post!!

I want to write this article very badly. But as I said in my earlier posts, wanting to do something is not enough at all.

"I hope you dont end up making us protest for you when they abduct you in a white van"

My friend sent me this message as soon as I started this blog. That is what a good friend would send to a friend, rather than encouraging me to write ' Blogs which may make you to be abducted in a white van'.
 To keep the word I gave to him, I am not going to write this blog post!!

I want to write a blog explaining to my dear Sinhala brothers, Why in the first place tamils started protesting against the oppression (which most of them dont know a thing about (or dont want to learn about)). Why some tamil youngsters would risk their lives, rather than living a safe and normal life. I want to write a blog explaining how does it feel to see all the happenings from the other side.
 But again Wanting to do something is not enough at all. Maybe I dont have enough balls to write about it!! I would rather write about cricket and civil engineering and lead a normal life. So I am not going to write this blog post.

"Some people might have died in the final battle, but because of that we are travelling on buses without the fear of bus bombs and all"

This is not my own statement which I posted in a sarcastic manner. This is an actual comment a Sinhala brother posted in Facebook. I want to ask him whether by his logic Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing could be justified and Whether Killing some people to safeguard other people is considered OK by a civilized community. And I want to ask him whether killing people could be the answer for the killing of people. But I am scared to death (mostly I am scared of a white van). So I am not going to write this blog post.

I want to write about .....
                  *Honk*  *Honk*  Wait a second, Some one is honking on the gate, I will continue after attending it.


Sorry guys!! There is a white van parked outside my house, I have to jump over the back wall and run for my life. I will meet you guys later, providing that I would live long for that.

So I am not going to write this blog post!!

The story of a Budding Civil Engineer.

Why I am going to follow Civil engineering in University of Moratuwa?
  Of course, that is the highest course I could get into with the marks I got (Of course, Could have done electrical engineering ). So frankly speaking, I didnt choose civil engineering, our university chose it for me.
 But even If I had got better results for the exam, I wouldve chosen civil engineering over any other engineering ( You may think that I am saying this because I didnt get into anyother departments, in which case your thought is wrong) . Even from the days when I was doing my A/L s becoming a civil engineer has been my decision.

  Main reason for that was, Of course my family. My father and my sister, both are civil engineers. So it is safe to say that civil engineering runs in my blood (Never misses a chance to show off!!). So both of them always talk very highly about civil engineering at home (Note the word 'So'). So from my childhood itself, civil engineering has left a deep imprint in my mind.

  As I said earlier my father is also a civil engineer, and in the early part of his career he used to work a lot in the hill country. So when we used to go to the hill country he would show some of the roads and bridges and would say I am the one who built this bridge or I am the one who constructed this road.
 Once Myself and 2 of my friends were going to the Randenigela in my father's car. My father showed the road we were travelling on and said that he is the one who constructed that road (And we are still using that road after 25 years, Is it because my father did a great job with the road or is it because our government doesnt want to waste their money on stupid things like roads) . And I gave that "Dudes you guys are travelling on the road my father constructed, Without this road you guys would have to hike your way to Randenigela" look to my friends.
 Being able to say that I am the one who built that building or I am the one who built that bridge to your children or your grand children is priceless. You dont get those priceless moments in those other departments ( Just imagine you saying the following to your children, You know that company X (Actually you dont know that company, It is a stupid company from US), the software they use for billing was developed by me (Just listen to it and you will see how crappy that was)).
 My sister said me that her professor once said to her class "If you wanna be rich do Electronics, but if you wanna be super rich do Civil. (Of course, He said that because he is a civil engineering professor). But still in our country most of the rich people attained their position through Civil engineering.

I may get more salary as a software engineer than what I would get as a civil engineer. Money does not bring happiness, But make sure you earn sufficient money before talking shit like that. Money is an important factor for happiness. But at the same time Money is not 'the' factor of happiness.

I cant work sitting in front of a computer for 30 years writing some stupid codes ( I prefer when someone else does it for me). I love travelling to new places, I love socializing with new people and I hate coding. I accept that I have studied only the basics of programming in my first semester and the first impression it left on me isn't that great. I am not saying that being a programmer is a bad career, only it is just not for me.

So I wanted to become a civil engineer. And my father and sister didnt have any problem with that. But my mother wanted me to be an electronic engineer ( I can hear you people laughing, reading this). Like all mothers, my mother also wanted me to do the course in most demand. And like all the other mothers she tends to overestimate her son. And isn't that what mothers are supposed to do, overestimating their children and not thinking rationally.
But I always knew that i wont be in that situation where I have to convince her about Civil engineering!! (If you dont get this, read further).

So I wanted to become a civil engineer.
  But there is a saying in english
     " You dont get what you want,
          But what you deserve"
This is originally a saying about relationships ( Actually I dont want this quote to be applied to my relationship life ( I want what I want, I dont want what I deserve) ) , But it could be applied here also.

In UOM, wanting to do a course itself is not enough to do that course. They would held an examafter the first semester, and they would divide you based on your performance. So wanting to do civil engineering is not enough, You have to get the marks also. You have to get more marks for the course in most demand (which in our case is Electronic engineering) . Electronic engineering always comes first in demand with Computer, Electrical, Civil engineering to follow. (This is the reason Why I dont have to convince my amma).

And with the marks I got Electrical engineering is the highest course I could get into.
Why I didnt get enough marks : I am intelligent enough but I didn't study hard (As though you guys stopped me while studying) will be my reason ( Isn't that the reason, every one says after not doing well in an exam, this way we could justify the marks without compromising our intelligence level. Why is it so hard to admit that we are not good enough) >

Now you could see why I waited this long to publish this article. I was waiting for them to release the results, So I can be sure about the course. ;) ;)

This is the story how a budding Civil engineer became a budding Civil engineer.