The Best of 2008 - Cricket and Sports!

Top batting performances
Graeme Smith's 154 not out at Birmingham against Eng
South African top-order at Perth against Oz
Virendra Sehwag's 83 at Chennai against Eng
Bhajji & Zak's 80 run partnership at Bangalore against Aus
Ramnaresh Sarwan's 128 at Antigua against Oz
J.P. Duminy's 166 at MCG against Oz
Ganguly's 87 at Kanpur against SA
Kevin Pietersen's 144 at Mohali against India
Gautam Gambhir's 67 and 104 at Mohali against Oz
V.V.S. Laxman's 79 at Perth against Oz


Top batting performances - Special mention
Sehwag's 104 at Adelaide against Oz
Sachin's twin innings in the CB series finals at Sydney and Brisbane
Symond's century against Rajasthan Royals at Hyderabad
Rohit Sharma's beauties in the IPL

Top bowling performances
Dale Steyn at Ahmedabad.Period.
Ajantha Mendis and Murali's 19 wicket- haul at Colombo against India
Mitchell Johnson's 11 wicket haul at Perth against SA
Ishant Sharma's one wicket haul at Perth against Oz in the second innings
Bhajji's 10-wicket haul at Galle
Jimmy Anderson's 7-wicket haul at Trent Bridge against NZ
Mendis 8-wicket haul at PSS Colombo


Top bowling performances - Special mention
Mendis in the Asia Cup Final
Shoaib Akhtar against Delhi Daredevils
The Sohail Tanvir show in IPL

Shot of the year
KP's switch hit - all over again!

Dismissal of the year
Ishant's wrecking Ponting's stumps at Mohali

Catch of the year
De Villiers ( Pick any of his, really!)

Drop of the year
Hussey and Ponting grassing chances in MCG against SA

Runouts of the year
Mishra running out Ponting at Nagpur
Ian Bell running out Sehwag at Mohali

Best sporting moments of the year
Abhinav Bindra shooting a near-perfect last shot to give us Gold!
The final of finals at Wimbledon
Revival of Celtics-Lakers rivalry & Celtics thrashing Lakers!( You can imagine me with a 150W smile here!)
Usain Bolt!
Hamilton making it (finally...)
Roger Federer pulling one back at US Open

Sportsman of the year
Michael Phelps!

Have a great year folks and stay away from drinks if you driving!

The Best of 2008 - Movies, Music & Books

My list for 2008- The best in each category.(Or worst.. as specified!)

Movies - Best of New Releases
Mumbai Meri Jaan
Lives of Others
A Wednesday
Dark Knight
Rock On!

Movies - Best of old movies- English (seen this year)
Stalag 17
Body Heat
Escape from Sobibor
Sideways
Day of the Jackal

Movies - Best of old movies- Hindi (seen this year)
Ek Ruka Hua Faisla
Sparsh
Do Aankhen Barah Haath
36-Chowringhee Lane
Dev

Movies- The Best of dark horses - (old and new- seen this year)
Dasvidaniya
Midnight Run
Shoot on Sight
Biwi-o-Biwi
Leon
Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye

Movies - The worst of the lot
Singh is Kinng
Wanted
Wall- E (Blame me... but I absolutely despised it to the core)

Songs- The best of Hindi
Teri Ore - Shreya Ghoshal, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan
Sindbad the Sailor/ Tum ho toh - Farhan Akhtar
Kahin to- Rashid Ali
Kehne ko jashn-e-bahaara- Javed Ali
Kaise Mujhe - Benny Dayal

Songs- The best of English
Touch of Love- Allen Toussaint ( And thanks Axe!)
Violet Hill - Coldplay
The Day that never comes- Mettalica
Just too busy being fabulous - Eagles
Bubbly - Caillat

The best of books(read this year)
Classic Cricket Clangers (The undisputed #1...)
A Maidan View
Indian Summers
Maximum City
Beyond a Boundary

Concluding part on "Cricket and Sports" to follow.

No good this

I took a cab in Hyderabad last week, and as I always do, started chatting up with the driver.

"What's your name?"

"Ahmed Hussain."

Something rankled me a for a second. Could he be involved?

Normal conversation followed. But in that one second, I went from being suspicious to feeling guilty for having just judged him for his religion.This had never happened to me before.

And I'm convincing myself it'll be the last time.

But do the perpetrators see the futility of it all?