Stanford Cardinals beat the UCLA Bruins

A source of tremendous joy, excitement and entertainment for me this weekend was the Mens Basketball game at the Maples Pavilion, Stanford. Both Stanford and UCLA teams looked in good shape initially and were giving each other a run for their money to take the 3rd spot in the PAC-10 rankings.

As the game progressed, just like a bottle of good wine, the Cardinals started showing more and more of their class and character and the Bruins could do nothing to undo the sparkling effect of the ever so cute Chris Hernandez. Chris led Stanford to a 78-65 win over UCLA while scoring an all time career high of 37 points. That does not go to say that the team did not put in a solid effort. Scott Allen, sports editor at the Stanford Daily best summed up the team's performance with:

"Stanford seems to have found at least one recipe for surviving the rest of the season without its leading scorer Dan Grunfeld: Seven guys play solid basketball while one plays completely out of his mind."

Matt Haryasz was also a great contributor to the team on Sunday. While the Cardinals ruled, UCLA star player Dijon Thompson struggled against the Stanford defense. Jordan Farmar was the only one who tried to fuel a second half resurgency on the Bruins part but his efforts were undermined by the over performance of Chris Hernandez. Coach Trent Johnson looked more than happy with the Cardinals performance.

With four more games to go, all I've gotta say is "GO STANFORD!"

For more coverage about the game in question:
The Stanford Daily
The Daily Bruin

Monologues of a dreamy, lazy and last minute traveler

So I am back to writing after a very long time, cursing myself ever so subtly about how I let my laziness overpower my motivations to spend time creatively rather than watching TV. When a friend told me sometime back that when he goes home after work all he wants to do is to lie down on a couch and watch meaningless TV shows, I had totally not believed him. But time tells its own tales and today I feel the same clichéd feeling myself on every single working day.

Getting back to an exciting topic, I recently went to see the newly formed country of Eritrea. This is a small country, an offshoot of Ethiopia that undividedly enjoys the coast of the Red Sea right across from the Saudi nations.

Highlights of my trip that I hope I will never forget:

• Sipping great coffee all over the country. Oh man, that was real coffee! Starbucks is nowhere near their bar on quality.
• Enjoying and at times getting annoyed over the raw and rudimentary level of services available to tourists.
• The ever smiling faces of the poor people of Eritrea hiding their real aspirations in life. Unlike Indians, these people are not at all fatalistic, which is definitely a positive for there are very few paths by which ordinary Eritreans can create easy and happy lives for themselves; given the various anti-developmental policies adopted by the current Eritrean Government.
• The gut-wrenching gun shelling marks that covered all over the walls of homes in parts of Massawwa, the port city.
• The people both to and fro on the airplanes clapping loudly so as to laud the pilot’s efforts in helping us reach our destination safe and sound. This was obviously very amusing to the non-local observers.
• The peculiar nature of the happy-go-lucky population which by no means could afford meals twice a day but somehow could manage to have a coffee or beer at the local café/bar in the evening. During the evenings, it seemed as if nobody was at home, the streets were always so full of people.
• The unique quality of every local presenting him/herself as a very well dressed individual never ceased to lose my attention. I even told my Mom that our maid was better dressed than us.
• The calm and in a way very slow motioned life there. It was more of an irritant to me but I guess in a way its better to lead a slow paced life rather than an ultra-high paced all American lifestyle.
  

There is more that I want to recollect and capture before I forget all about it…But time is my enemy at the moment….Hopefully, the next few days will allow me more time to scribble!