(Pictures courtesy: Indiatimes)

In the month of March, when I posted this the entire nation was shell shocked. A nation of avid cricket lovers, just could not believe that their team had been knocked out of the World Cup (the 50 over version).

Cut to six months later and the entire country has long forgotten that day. For today we are back in the finals of the Twenty20 World Cup. The interest in Cricket is back among the masses. People are beginning to realize how much they always wanted to watch the fast food version of the game, how much or how little they knew about it (India had played only 1 Twenty20 game before this world cup). Come tomorrow, this Team will be battling it out for the finals of the inaugural edition of this cup. It’s going to be a mother of all battles, since they play the finals against Pakistan. A World Cup final between India and Pakistan is a mouthwatering prospect and I really can’t think of any fast food items which can come even close to the taste of this. 

Pakistan have been outstanding in this tournament. They have not lost a single match (the match against India was tied) in this tournament yet and it remains to be seen if they can keep an unbeaten record.

So anyway’s, from my last post till today, a period of six months has flown by, and if there was a resurgence required for me to resume my blogging, this was it. People complained that they were tired of seeing the sulky faces on my blog, which reminded them again and again of the bad days. Since then things have changed. India is firing again and what remains to be seen is what transpires in the mother of all battles between the two arch-rivals, tomorrow.

Whatever be the result, India is back to its winning ways, and so am I to my blogging ways.

(Pictures courtesy : Indiatimes)

It was the game the entire country was looking forward to. At 1900 Hrs Indian Standard Time, the so called Men in Blue marched into the cricket ground in an all important game against their neighbors and arch rivals in the recent past, the Sri Lankans. Like everyone else in the country, I was also quite excited by the thought of a win and the country making it to the Super 8s or the next level of the tournament. However just like the pictures above the specters of losses in important games came back to haunt us and destroy the dreams of 1.1 billion people. This is India’s worst performance ever in any world cup, two huge losses in a space of 1 week is a little more that what an ever optimistic cricket fan can digest.

What is funny is I am still unable to digest the fact that India is out of the cup. Since morning yesterday I could sense an air of optimism and confidence in all the people around me. Everyone was fairly confident that the Indian team will snatch victory and see themselves through to the next round.

When I left office at 2230 hrs, I asked our guard Satyendra if he thought India will win. Sri Lanka were batting at that time and sort of struggling, so he replied yes India will definitely win, but quickly added, “Even if we win this match so what, to win the world cup you have to win every match hence, and I don’t think our team has it in them to go all the way so it hardly matters”. How quickly perceptions had changed in a matter of two weeks. I echoed Satyendra’s feelings too, but still prayed to let India win this one match and then the Indian team will come into their own.

Sri Lanka set India a target of 255 to win, 255 in 50 overs for a  batting line up which boasted of a combined experience of more that 1000 matches should have been attainable. But that was not to be. Wickets fell in a heap, to careless shots. The bowlers gained in confidence, but the hopes of an Indian victory were still there. The mind and heart were just unable to accept the fact of an Indian loss. At 112 for 6, when Dhoni fell all hopes were shattered. No one could rescue us now. It was nearing 0200 hrs and I thought I will retire to my room and give my tired and dejected neurons some rest. A tear rolled down my eye as I closed my eyes. The TV outside was still blaring, but the sound was getting fainter. It was getting drowsy and quiet until I fell asleep and so did India’s chances in the World Cup. 

The world cup fever has started to grip each and every living being on this Planet.

16 nations, in a saga lasting over 47 days, how exciting and gripping.

So we present to you an avenue to pour your thoughts, share your feelings, blog about those high’s when your country triumphs, lows when you miss the match by a whisker, exciting moments, player versus player, Opinion polls, scores and news, in a one of its kind home of cricket on the web, Letscricket.com (http://www.letscricket.com)

With exclusive themes to support the country you support in this World Cup (Don’t go on the theme of my user page, I still support India )

Whether you are in Port of Spain, Johannesburg, London, Islamabad, Mumbai, Dhaka, Colombo, Sydney, Auckland or any where else in the world, come join LetsCricket.

We’ve built it for the WORLD CUP, We’ve built it for CRICKET, We’ve built it for YOU.

In the days in which you will Walk Cricket, Talk Cricket and Sleep Cricket…Lets do a little more..Lets Cricket.

Speaking of the Cricket World Cup, my heart goes out to the kids appearing for their board exams. For some reason it seems that the ICC and the CBSE are always at loggerheads with each other. It happened in 1996 when I was appearing for my boards. So I was fortunate to have passed .

March is probably the worst time for having a major Cricket tournament, leave alone the World Cup, since all school kids are having their exams. So for all you reeling under the pressure of school and board exams, don’t worry, be sure to catch some exclusive content on LetsCricket.com. If the timing of the world cup perturbs you too, create a group and provide enough momentum so that next time we can persuade the ICC to have the world cup in May-June (that’s when you have your Summer Holidays).

Oh yes, 2.0 is a fashionable suffix these days, thanks to the conundrum brought about by Web 2.0.

We completed two years on the 7th February 2007 (Read here and here). Like last year, this year too we had specially designed T-Shirts to mark the occasion. The design principle we followed in designing the T-shirts last year and this year was to include a suttle indication of Tekriti’s age.

So last year (when we were 1 year old) the T-shirt said “…our first step to success”.

Now that we are two years old, it had to have two as an indication. What better way then to embrace 2.0, a concept which is so close to the way of life at Tekriti. We put our heads together and here is what we came up with.

The front of the T-shirt gives it away, and the back of the T-Shirt in true Web 2.0 style shows a tag soup conisting of the names of all the Teknokrats who form Tekriti.

Once again thanks to Seema for her help and the efforts in getting the Tees made. So if you still don’t have enough reasons to work at Tekriti, here’s another one, designer wear.

Year three has started we’ll make every day, every hour, every minute and every second count. Time flies..time flies when you are having fun.

I have been wanting to post this since a long time. I’d like to introduce a great new blog (well not really new, but a month and a half in the making), it’s called Delhi Planet. Delhi Planet is where my brother Kris has been blogging and his posts are really interesting, more specifically don’t miss the weekend trivia which he would be posting hence.

There was a certain passion associated with blogging, which I carried previously. However of late I have kind of lost that passion, and have decided to blog only when I come across something really worth talking about, or making known to the masses. But then, to have a successful blog you need that passion, to go back time and again and put your thoughts down. The passion needs to be a communicable. It should get you to go back time and again to that very blog which you so enjoy reading. To go back time and again and not find an update is disappointing to say the least.

This and many more rules form the said and the unsaid rules about blogging. So while I would like to thank all those people who regularly visit this blog with the hope to see something fresh, I am happy to say that the passion for blogging is running in the family and it’s good to see it being carried forward with Delhi Planet. Go subscribe to it and enjoy the passion being carried forward.

Also keep coming back to this blog aswell to experience the droplets of passion which you have graciously experienced before and appreciated it aswell.

What happens when you put the chiefs of Flickr, YouTube, Microsoft, Nike on the same panel discussing Web 2.0 and it’s impact. This was an interesting discussion which happened at the World Economic Forum in Davos on the 27th of Jan. 

If you watch closely there might be few business ideas in the fray. Bill Gates talking about how important 3-D is to the entire software gamut is interesting, along with the concept of micropayments. Interestingly both these concepts are a part of the Xbox 360.

When I saw the list of participants from India I realized that a summit like the World Economic Forum needs more fresh entrepreneurs. The people attending the conference are those who have been attending the conference for the past several years, so I hope next year’s summit has some fresh Indian Entrepreneurs making their mark at the summit. Ah..dreams, but that’s all I have and that’s all I do as an Entrepreneur myself, dream and dream big.

ITVidya in association with Canaan Partners VC Alok Mittal is organizing an IdeaCamp (another one of the those fancy unconferences taking its name from BarCamp). The theme is going to be around business models which would offer services costing $100 or so, to a million users.

This concept has originally been talked about on Venturewoods, and it gained a fair bit of traction there (judging by the number of comments and discussion which the post got), so it would be interesting to find out how the discussion continues when the thinkers and entrepreneurs working or aspiring to work on such ideas meet face to face.

So if you find the above concept interesting and want to join in on this unconference head to DT Mega Mall, DLF Phase I, Gurgaon on Friday the 12th of Jan 2007, at 2 PM and catch all the brainstorming.

With Alok at the chair, it should be an interesting discussion and maybe some really valuable insights into this concept.

Update: Due to a huge number of registrations the venue had to be shifted to the Auditorium of

I.I.L.M Institute for Higher Education
Plot 69-71, Sector 53,
Near DLF Golf Course,
Gurgaon - 122003 (NCR-Delhi)

For any queries call Ajay on 098200 20753

At the outset here’s wishing you a Merry Christmas from all at Tekriti Software. The card above serves two purposes, it’s a Christmas Card from Tekriti and it also doubled up as an invitation to the Christmas party we had at work on the 21st. The above card is the brainchild of the cultural and the design team coming together.

As you can guess we had quite an event on Thursday the 21st, with everyone dressed in some shade of red. Since no Xmas party is complete without the appearance of Santa, we even had Gurpreet dressing up as Santa. Unlike last years party where Gaurav played Santa and everyone was very well behaved and even got to pose for pictures with Santa, this year, poor ol’ Santa got mobbed and his bag of goodies (or Chocolates) was almost ransacked, such was the exuberance and excitement.  When the sharing spirit reigned everyone got a gift, which were all neatly laid out under the decorated Christmas tree.

Saad then got all the Teknokrats shaking a leg on the dance floor as he belted out one great hit after another on his computer based turntable.

Christmas, a long weekend, festivities, gifts, sharing, confectionery, hope you get it all in this season of festivities.

The current cricket test match between India and South Africa is turning out to be one heck of a contest. It’s a complete turnaround in India’s performance and fortunes after the lackluster performance in the one dayers.

Today (or rather the third day of the first test match) was particularly interesting because of one major incident.

Andre Nel has this strange habit of going up and talking to the batsman, that too in a rather queer and obtrusive fashion, after every delivery. He has made this into such an ugly habit that the commentators actually talked about him being a disgrace to cricket.

The Indian cricket team too has such a character, who is not really that obtrusive, but certainly does something similar. Well now what happens when the two come face to face, with one Mr. Andre Nel bowling to Mr. S Sreesanth.

If you missed out the action on this check out the video below and relive the funny moment.

So if you are wondering whatever happened to Jhoom! nights after my last post, well clearly you have not been catching all the action on Jhoom!. The first Jhoom! night which was held on the 30th of November (the one on 23rd November was cancelled) was a big hit. Super Models, Miss India’s, DJs, VJs, Actresses all showed up and everyone had a blast.

Saurav Chopra has more details and pictures on his Jhoom! blog. 

Now if you are wondering how can you also get invites to this exclusive event, I only have one answer, Join Jhoom!. 

If you ask me when will these events make their splash in New Delhi, I still have just one answer , Join Jhoom! and pop the question to Saurav. 

Disclaimer: Tekriti Software is involved in the development of Jhoom!.