This blog is widely read and is giving fun to lot of people. It is also helping Kolkatta Knight Riders to stay in the news all the time (which they were anyway doing!). There has been lot of speculation about who the writer might be. Even I have my opinion on that! Well, to go a little further I am also trying to guess what might be the future steps taken by this famous anonymous writer!

I am sure that nobody will have doubt about the calibre of FIP. He has great talent for writing. Taking this into consideration I can shortlist only 2 possibilities –>

1. A journalist who has cricketing connections. He might know few people in the KKR team and he might very well be in South Africa covering the cricket matches.

2. Aakash Chopra! - I guess he is favorite guess of everyone. There are obvious reasons for it and even for me he remains the favorite guess.

Few points on why it can be Aakash Chopra–>

1. He was part of the KKR team in South Africa. So obviously he will have good inside information when he was with the team and he can get lot of gossips from team members even when he is no longer part of the team.

2. He was sent back to India along with another cricketer Sanjay Bangar. And rumors had it strong that KKR management caught the Fake IPL player. This rumor might very well be true.

3. If somebody observes the FIP’s blog, one can notice that FIP is more active after Aakash Chopra was sent back to India. So it’s pretty much possible that Aakash Chopra has now got no fears of getting got (if he has already been caught!) & since he is back in India now he can write as much as he wants to!

4. Aakash Chopra has already published a book called Beyond the Blues: A First-Class Season Like No Other Here is a review of it –> linky 

5. I also read in internet that Aakash Chopra has already started his efforts of becoming a columnist. He apparently is also very active in Social Networking sites and also has a blog of his own (I couldn’t find a link to it).

6. In his blog FIP refers to Aakash Chopra using nickname Shakespeare. One reason I can think why he is using this nickname is because Shakespeare is of course a famous writer and Aakash Chopra is the famous writer of FIP blog!

I think these reasons should be enough for now. Now for the more interesting part. If it is really Aakash Chopra behind the FIP blog, What are his next likely steps? (which I think he should or would do).

First of all he will reveal to the world that he is indeed Aakash Chopra. This would I think probably finish his career as a cricket player. He is 31 year old now, hasn’t been able to establish himself in the Indian team or in the IPL team. So, he wouldn’t be too sad to quit this profession as he can’t see bright future in it. Let’s see what all series of events this can lead to. First of all it will create lot of sensation and it will bring Aakash Chopra to the limelight. If dil** aka SRK and his company gets behind him and try to sue him or destroy him in any way, they will only ensure that Aakash Chopra becomes more famous and stays more in the news. Since all these events happened in South Africa how much legal challenge SRK’s case will pose on Aakash Chopra is also something which needs to be seen. And anyway what maximum damage can SRK do to Aakash Chopra, at max he can get back all the money he has paid to Aakash Chopra as salary. 

We all know that FIP is a very good writer, has already got a big fan following for his writings. And of course IPL is already a multi-billion dollar global brand. If it indeed turns out that it is Aakash Chopra who is FIP, he is sure to win a lucrative deal with an established publisher for his next book which can be on the inside story of IPL. That will very well compensate for whatever loss he is going to face by quitting his career as a cricket player. Also with his new found fame coupled with his excellent writing skills he is sure to become an established cricket columnist of news papers and magazines. He might even make an entry into a new career as a commentator and I am sure he has talent for it.

Let me put a stop to my imagination now and let’s see what FIP player is going to do next whether he is Aakash Chopra or not. In any case he has lot to gain by revealing his identity to the public.

One should read this section in the article in Wikipedia: The mechanics of U.S. Government debt Even though US debt has been increasing dramatically, the inflation in US (and the dollar value) has been under control mainly because China has been willing to accumulate dollar denominated assets. But if ever China decides to make a change in their policy and start moving out of their dollar assets dollar can easily crash. This fact is very much explained in this section. If you get a chance read the entire article on US Public Debt (in the link above).

By the way, everybody knows that China and US have huge ideological differences. If ever China and US get involved in a military conflict China can easily destroy dollar value which in turn would bring lot of huge economic problems to the world including China and of course US. China is becoming stronger every day and their military power is increasing. The question really is when will China start using its military in a big way to become a super power like US. When that day comes the world is sure to go though a major change and that will eventually lead to change in the value of US Dollar.

Also one should read this section: Long-term risks to financial health of federal government The expenditure of US govt (for expenses like Social Security, Medicare, interest) etc has been increasing at a faster pace than their revenue generation. Lot of Economists believe that this situation if unchecked can lead to bankruptcy of US Govt similar to the Russian Financial Crisis of 1998.

Another interesting article is on Seigniorage where Govt can make profit out of printing money. US Govt has been practicing Seigniorage and this puts lot of downward pressure on US dollar value.

I stayed on the western side of the Hudson river and Manhattan is
on the eastern side of the river. My apartment had a beautiful
Manhattan view. There are beautiful running/walking/cycling tracks on
either sides of the Hudson river. I used to practice for my Marathon
by running everyday on the track which is on the western side of
Hudson which would always give a great view of the Manhattan. And
many times I used to run in the night & Manhattan looks straight
out of dream when you would look at it from the western bank during
night.

On a beautiful summer night in July 2007 I looked out of my room
window at Manhattan and saw that the clouds and the moonlight had
given a stunning look to Manhattan. Me and my roomie Chendur set out
for a photography session on the river bank and what transpired is
here for you to see!

Click
here for the full album on Picasa

Here is the slideshow

This is how the case started.

1. 14 Year old Arushi is found murdered in her bedroom in Noida.

2. Body was found in the morning. Parents say that they were in the next room but did not hear any screams in the night, so they were unaware.

3. Father of Arushi, Dr.Talwar says that he had taken sleeping pills and also had a few drinks in the night, so he was fast asleep.

4. The domestic help Hemraj is missing, he is nowhere to be seen.

Now the needle of suspicion is pointing on Hemraj and police begins searching for Hemraj. Meanwhile, Noida police never takes proper forensic information from the murder location like finger prints, blood stain samples. They don’t even lock the room so that evidence is not destroyed. They just assume Hemraj is the murderer and start looking for him.

After 2 days it turns out that the dead body of Hemraj is lying on the terrace of Dr. Talwar’s house. Now the Noida police is stumped. They don’t know what they can do. Now it’s all a puzzle. Noida police starts building a theory which can explain the murder. They seize Dr. Talwars computer and send it for forensic examination.

Here is how the theory of Noida police goes (which is really very circumstantial, just the way Andy is convicted in Shawshank Redemption).

Theory of Noida police: Dr. Talwar and his daughter Arushi had a very bad relationship and Arushi was a ‘bad charactered girl’. Dr. Talwar comes home on the fateful night and finds Hemraj and Arushi in a compromising position and gets very angry. He then takes Hemraj to terrace and murders him. Later he comes back down, takes a few drinks and proceeds to his daughter’s room where she is sleeping and murders her. Later he calls the police in the morning and tells them that Hemraj has murdered his daughter. His plan is to put the blame on Hemraj and then to dispose off his body in a way that it is never found so that the case is never solved. Noida police also says that there is one more reason for this murder. Dr. Talwar had an affair with family friend Mrs. Durani and Arushi had objected to it, so he murdered her.

They try to come up with some ridiculous evidence:

1. They make an email which is more than a year old, written by Arushi to her dad public. The email is something like ‘dad I am sorry that I did this, please forgive me, I will never do it again’. Police say this shows that she was into bad things which explains that Dr. Talwar didn’t like his daughter. What a ridiculous explanation. For me, this email is just something which you can always expect a teenager to have written to her father.

2. Noida police claims that Dr.Talwar has confessed and he has signed a confession. It later turns out that, after the case is handed over to CBI, Noida police could never produce this signed letter! What heights can police go to prove their theory!!

For me, the above theory holds so many flaws. 

1. Is it possible that a father will murder his only child for a frivolous reason that she objected to him having extra marital affair (and beware, this affair is just an allegation by police with no proof). 

2. How did the police conclude that Arushi had a ‘bad character’?

3. It was also evident that more than one person was involved in murdering Hemraj, so this killing in ‘fit of rage’ theory doesn’t hold good.

4. Why is Noida police just investigating on one theory, why are they not examining other possibilities?

Now after the CBI took over the investigation some progress has happened on the case in a scientific manner. It does appear that Krishna, the compounder at Dr.Talwar’s clinic has confessed that the murder was carried out by him and Rajkumar who is a domestic help at Durrani’s home. Based on confessions of Krishna & Rajkumar (as printed in a section of media), this is how the new theory of how things happened goes.

Theory based on confessions: Krishna had been openly critisized for his bad work by Dr.Talwar in front of many people and Dr.Talwar had also threatened to remove Krishna from his clinic for his goof-up during a surgery. Krishna felt insulted and he wanted to take revenge on the short tempered Dr. Talwar. Krishna knew that Dr. Talwar lover his only daughter Arushi very much. Krishna, Hemraj and Rajkumar were mutual friends. All the 3 had got together at the servant quarters at Dr.Talwars place, which is where Hemraj lived and were having drinks. Rajkumar confesses that he had sexual intentions on Arushi. Krishna says even he would want something bad to happen to her as he hates Dr.Talwar. Since Hemraj doesn’t really object to these two friends of his, they proceed towards Arushi’s room where she is sleeping. Hemraj is probably aware that Dr.Talwar and wife sleep with A/C on with closed doors and they generally don’t realize what happens outside their room in the night. Rajkumar now tries to force himself on Arushi and she retaliates. Krishna probably had different intentions, he takes out knife from his pocket and slits Arushi’s throat (remember that all 3 are in drunken state). It probably happened so fast to Arushi that she was totally terrified and never had a chance to scream. Now Hemraj knows that he will be the primary suspect and tells his friends that there is no way to escape this and he is going to tell it all. Krishna calls him to the terrace so that they can plan what can be done next. On the terrace Krishna and Rajkumar murder Hermaj and they leave the place.

Now there is no witness & now since nobody has really seen Rajkumar & Hemraj visiting Dr.Talwars place they are completely out of the police Radar.

It just so happened that CBI realized that there were more than 1 murderers in the house, so they were trying to think who could have assisted Dr. Talwar (based on their assumption that he is the culprit). Since Krishna used to work for Dr.Talwar from long time and he also knew Hemraj, they interrogate him & when the suspicion grew on him and a narco test is done on him, the truth comes to light.

For me this theory looks very genuine. The biggest questionable object in this theory and the reason why Dr.Talwar is probably why still behind the bar is that he was at home on the fateful night and he never realized that two murders have taken place at his house. But I think it is understandable. Has it never happened to you that you are in a hotel room with A/C on and have locked my room and don’t realize if few people passed in the hotel corridor. I also know many people who sleep so deep that sometimes they can’t even hear a loud noise when they are sleeping. And as Dr.Talwar claimed that he took sleeping pills, I don’t think it’s very unreasonable that one would take sleeping pill before he slept. There are lot of people around with sleeping disorder who would take sleeping pill when they sleep. I don’t know about Mr.Talwar, either she also uses some sleep inducing drugs or she is also somebody who is not very sensitive while sleeping who cannot realize little sound coming in the house. And it is very much possible that Arushi was murdered so swiftly that there was no scream and since Hemraj was taken to the terrace with his own consent, I am sure nobody could hear him getting murdered.

Now if the second theory is really true, just imagine the plight of Dr.Talwar and wife. They had their loved daughter who was born after several years after marriage through IVF method is found murdered. Even before they could digest the fact, Dr.Talwar is arrested and put behind the bars. Police start making false statements saying ‘he has confessed’, ‘Arushi had bad character’, ‘Dr.Talwar had affair with family friend Mrs.Durrani’ which are all baseless allegations. Just imagine the mental state of Dr.Talwar who is behind the bars for no fault of his, I am sure he is totally broken and will take a long time to recover from the turn that his life has taken.

In between Media also does lot of character assassination of Dr.Talwar and wife. One section of media published report saying that Dr.Talwar had booked room in a hotel on that night and was not at home & he is just faking that he was at home. This is totally a baseless allegation for which no proof was found by CBI. Has Indian media lost moral values? I am sure there are sections in Indian media which never had moral values.

Till now CBI has not got even a single evidence on Dr.Talwar and my big question is Why is Dr.Talwar still behind the bars from close to two months without even a single evidence against him?

I do realize that the job of CBI was always difficult to start with because the case was handed over to them almost 10 days after the murder. Till that time Noida police had not collected any forensic evidence from the murder location like finger prints, blood stains, etc, they did not even lock the room where the murder took place, so Talwars carried out pooja and other ceremonies in the room unwittingly and lot of evidences got destroyed. The best thing to happen during this case is the handing over of case to CBI, otherwise I am sure Noida police would have put all efforts to make it another Shawshank Redemption.

Do check these links to get updates on the case –>

http://www.rediff.com/news/aarushi08.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noida_double_murder_case

(It sits there as of today July 09
2008).

If you live in Mysore I would really suggest that you should be
going for a walk or for a run around the beautifully made 4 KM track
around the Kukkarahalli Lake. The best time would be early morning 6.
I took these photographs at early morning during sunrise.

Click
here to have a look at the entire album on picasa.

And here’s the photo slide show

Well, skydiving had always been one of my childhood dreams. My
room-mate Rahul suddently planned to go for skydiving and invited me.
Well I did not have much choice but to join him. So me, Rahul and
Karishma set out of the jump.

We wore the skydiving equipment and got ready for tandem. We then
started our ascent in the smalled plane I had ever travelled. It was
so small that one could almost touch windows at either ends if she
steaches her hands! Rahul and I were confident all the time while
Karishma was nervous and was not sure if she will really jump. But
what happened later was one of the greatest ironies!

I was really exited when I was about to jump with Gene. I had seen
lot of skydiving videos in TV and I had thought that I will float in
the air and will move towards earth slowly. Boy I was wrong big time!
All those videos are taken with camera falling at the same speed as
the person who is being recorded. So by looking at the video one can
never get the feel of the speed with which one would fall. As soon as
I jumped I realized earth was sucking me real hard I was falling
at a speed of around 200 KM/Hour!! And the gadgets I was having was
faulty. My glasses were coming off and I since the speed was so high
I was feeling that if the glasses come off my eyes might pop out!
Believe me the the wind was hitting my face real hard. I also
realized that I was unable to breathe! When I was jumping I was all
smiles and within 3 seconds my expressions had completely changed (as
you can see in the video!). We came down from 16,000 feet to 5,000
feet in 1 minute!

After this Gene opened the Parachute and it became real good. Now
I realized that the gloves with holes which was given to me was
causing severe problems. The air temperature was well below zero
degree centigrade and boy my palm really froze. But now the speed of
our fall had really come down and we were just floating in the air.
The view down was amazing. We took 10 minutes to come down from 5,000
feet to zero and this time was the most wonderful experience!

After coming down Rahul was very very eager to have a look at
Karishmas video. He thought that she would have been really terrified
during the fall. But we both couldn’t believe what we saw in the
video. Rahul and I were cool and confident all the time but we both
looked terrified on the camera while falling, both of us found it
difficult to breathe. And this was the best part, Karishma who was
afraid all the while looked really cool after she jumped into the
sky. She was smiling all the time in the video!!

It was an amazing experience which we would cherish for real
looong time.

I you haven’t yet seen my Phili Marathon Video taken by Lend A
Hand for India, here it goes. Can you spot me running?