Ambimama - India

Sachin Tendulkar chose the best bowling attack, before bringing up the first ever double-hundred in ODI history. The spectators at the Captain Roop Singh Stadium became the envy of world cricket as they witnessed one of the country’s favourite sporting heroes play a breathtaking innings.

Be it bowlers, fielders, mix-ups or cramps, Dinesh Karthik, Yusuf Pathan and MS Dhoni stood by and admired as the master unfurled all the shots in his repertoire.
At 36, Tendulkar hasn’t shown signs of ageing, and his sparkling touch in both forms of the game has ruled out all possibilities of him checking out anytime soon. Fatigue, cramps and paucity of time have stood in the way of batsmen going that extra mile to get to the 200-mark. Tendulkar did cramp up after crossing 150, but he didn’t opt for a runner. His experience of 20 years at the international level came into play in this historic innings, staying at the crease from the first ball to the last, never once losing focus. There were no chances offered, no dropped catches, making his innings absolutely flawless.

The humidity in Gwalior was bound to test him but he stood above it all and played like he owned the game, toying with the bowling with a mix of nonchalance and brute power.
In the 46th over, with a flick for two past short fine-leg, Tendulkar broke the record for the highest ODI score, going past the 194 made by Zimbabwe’s Charles Coventry and Pakistan’s Saeed Anwar, and to say that he acknowledged his feat modestly would be an understatement. His muted celebration on going past 194, true to style, made his innings all the more endearing. He didn’t raise his bat, merely shook hands with Mark Boucher and simply carried on batting amid the din. Coming from a man who is not known to showing too much emotion with the bat in hand, it wasn’t surprising. He reserved his celebrations for the magic figure of 200, which he reached in the final over with a squirt off Charl Langeveldt past backward point. He raised his bat, took off his helmet and looked up at the skies and it was only fitting that one-day cricket’s highest run-getter reached the landmark.

Tendulkar’s innings featured strokes of the highest quality, but his true genius was exemplified by one particular shot which rendered even the best bowler in the world helpless. In the first over of the batting Powerplay - taken in the 35th over - Dale Steyn fired it in the block-hole for three deliveries outside off to keep him quiet. Tendulkar, feeling the need to improvise, walked right across his stumps and nonchalantly flicked him across the line, hopping in his crease on one leg to bisect the gap at midwicket. A helpless Steyn watched the ball speed away and merely shrugged his shoulders. There was no use searching for excuses or venting frustrations at the temerity of that shot. It was just that kind of afternoon for the bowlers.

I just missed the match as I was not well. But my friends called me and I immediately clicked on Cricinfo! In my hurry I am just pasting here some phrases that I liked!

The American Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman ever to win best director at the Baftas when her Iraq war movie The Hurt Locker beat her ex-husband James Cameron’s sci-fi blockbuster Avatar to all the big awards last night. The film, which follows an American bomb disposal unit in Iraq, also won best film, best original screenplay and three other awards.
Earlier in the evening, Bigelow had run down the red carpet to avoid journalists’ inevitable questions about the husband-and-ex-wife duel; in the event, Cameron left with only two awards for Avatar - for special visual effects and production design. While Bigelow’s honours could very possibly be replicated at the Oscars in a fortnight’s time, the Bafta judges were in rather more nationalistic mood when they considered the two big acting prizes.

These went to Colin Firth for A Single Man, designer Tom Ford’s well-received debut as a film director, and Carey Mulligan for her role as a precocious Sixties schoolgirl in An Education.
They will do well to repeat this at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles, where they will be up against serious home-grown competition from the likes of George Clooney and Meryl Streep.
In the supporting categories, the Baftas were back with the Americans. Mo’Nique won best supporting actress for her role as an abusive mother in Precious and Christoph Waltz was awarded best supporting actor for his role in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds.

The event, staged at the Royal Opera House, finished with Vanessa Redgrave being given a Bafta fellowship, announced by the British Academy’s new president, Prince William.
Best acceptance speech - if there were such an award - would have to go to Colin Firth, who was funny and humble, thanking Ford for leaving him “resuscitated, a little more worldly, better groomed, more fragrant and more nominated than one has ever been before”. Most genuinely unprepared recipient was Carey Mulligan. Most inebriated presenter was Mickey Rourke.

OTHER AWARDS:
Best British film: Fish Tank
Best actor: Colin Firth (A Single Man)
Best actress: Carey Mulligan (An Education)
Best supporting actor: Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds)
Best supporting actress: Mo’Nique (Precious)
Director: Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker

I am a vegetarian and I understand the importance of it. Though I am not against the people who eat meat, I saw the news item that was interesting. To people who love cats, this news is painful.
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Italian TV celeb upsets animal lovers by saying cat is ‘better than chicken or rabbit’. He was sacked for giving cat stew recipe.

Beppe Bigazzi, a 77-year-old consumer affairs journalist, cookery writer and panelist for 10 years on Ready Steady Cook, said cat was: “Better than chicken, rabbit or pigeon.”

The white-haired presenter refused to apologise to viewers after he was urged to make amends during the commercial break, while TV channel RAI’s switchboards were immediately jammed with callers complaining, and animal rights groups issued protesting statements.
Bigazzi’s gaffe was made during a discussion of how cat had been eaten in lean times after the Second World War. He claimed that far from being a last-resort meal, boiled cat - or gatto in umido - was one of the “great dishes” of his native Valdarno region in Tuscany. Cat meat should be soaked in spring water for three days before being eaten, he said, adding: “What comes out is a delicacy. Many a time I’ve eaten its white meat.”

The head of the Italian society for the protection of animals said that killing cats was illegal, and a junior government minister called for a criminal investigation on the grounds of incitement to mistreat animals, saying it was “absolutely unheard of for a public service broadcaster to tell people how delicious cats are to eat”.

Meanwhile, Bigazzi tried to back-pedal – though not, perhaps, wholeheartedly. He claimed he had been only joking, but added: “Mind you, I wasn’t joking all that much. In the 1930s and 1940s, when I was a boy, people certainly did eat cat in the countryside around Arezzo.”
And there may be some truth in his claims: inhabitants of the northern city of Vincenza are known as ‘cat-eaters’ (’magnagati’), while some Italian butchers sell rabbits with their heads left on so customers can be sure they’re not buying felines.
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I have not come across people who would hate me for taking Ladies finger curry today!

The fashion world has taken to the former Spice Girl following the launch of her autumn/winter collection in New York. She intends to open her first store within five years but it will be sooner.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING:
Jim Shi, Huffington Post: “Simply put: this woman’s got it going on.
In the tightly edited collection of day-into-night dresses and resplendent evening gowns she presented in an intimate setting, Mrs David Beckham proved she’s got the chops to sit at the adult’s table - and at the head, no less.”
Lydia Milne, Myfashionplate.com: “Once again, the former Spice Girl has shown that she really does know what she’s talking about when it comes to design.”
Imogen Fox, the Guardian: “The designer proved that the phenomenal success her own label has enjoyed so far is neither fluke nor whim, and that she is in the fashion business for the long game.”
Paula Reed, Grazia: “You can say what you like about Victoria Beckham, but she can do a decent dress. And given some of the celebrity fashion offerings out there (Lindsay Lohan for Ungaro anyone? Paris Hilton’s pet couture?) you have to hand it to her: Mrs B stands head and shoulders above the rest.”

I saw a news item in that Mothers can choose when to deliver by Caesarean section. This name came as it is believed that Roam emperor Caesar was born this way. A mother can choose the date of delivery. But the Doctor is the boss and she decides (normally Gynaecologists are women) when to do C-sec.

I saw a news item that is given below:
New Delhi: Anuradha Mattoos two sons, aged 5 years and one month respectively, were born on the same date December 29. But that was no coincidence. When I realized that my second baby is also expected in the same timeframe as the first one, I prayed the delivery happens on the same date as well, says Mattoo. And when she was admitted with labour pains on the evening of December 29th last year, she had two options either to wait for normal delivery which would have taken another day or get a cesarean section (C-sec ) done on the same day. She chose the later.

Around the world, more and more women are going for C-sec over a normal delivery although the reasons may vary. Perhaps that is why a recent WHO report, which reviewed nearly 110,000 births across Asia in 2007-08 , found that 27% were done under the knife, partially motivated by the hospitals business interests or by expectant mothers and their families.

The survey found the world’s highest C-sec rate in China, pegging it at 46%, a quarter of them not medically necessary. According to the report, which was published in the medical journal The Lancet, the C-Sec rate in India was 18%. Nevertheless, C-sec is fast becoming the preferred mode of delivery in India as well, says gynaecologist Madhu Prakash. The reasons are many, she says. Some women opt for the surgery to choose their delivery day after consulting fortune tellers for lucky birthdays; others fear painful natural births or worry about damage to the vaginal region. Some women also prefer the operation because they mistakenly believe it is less risky. On special days, like New Years Day, the number of C-Sec deliveries rise abnormally, says Prakash.

Last year, for instance, operation theatres turned into assembly lines for the Janmashtami baby boom, as it is believed that a baby born on this day is a reincarnation of Krishna. Although mothers can opt for C-sec once the baby has reached the 38th week, increase in this procedure is cause for alarm, since unnecessary C-sections are costlier and raise the risk of complications.