Deccan Chargers road to IPL Championship

Its indeed a rags to riches story of Deccan Chargers. The team which was placed in the bottom of the IPL table in the inaugural section, came back strongly under the inspiring captaincy of Australia's legendary opener Gilchrist and won the IPL 2 title. Deccan Chargers won their first four games in a row, but they ended the league stages with only seven wins.

A look at the proceeding of Deccan Chargers that helped them to win the IPL 2009 title.

Game 1: Deccan Chargers vs Kolkatta Knight Riders: Deccan Chargers won by eight wickets

Game 2: Deccan Chargers vs Bangalore Royal Challengers: Deccan chargers won by 24 runs

Game 3: Deccan Chargers vs Mumbai Indians : Deccan Chargers won by 12 runs

Game 4: Deccan Chargers vs Chennai Super Kings: Deccan Chargers won by six wickets

Game 5: Deccan Chargers vs Delhi Daredevils: Delhi Daredevils won by six wickets

Game 6: Deccan Chargers vs Rajasthan Royals: Rajasthan Royals won by three wickets

Game 7: Deccan Chargers vs Chennai Super Kings: Chennai Super Kings won by 78 runs

Game 8: Deccan Chargers vs Mumbai Indians : Deccan Chargers won by 19 runs

Game 9: Deccan Chargers vs Kings XI Punjab: Deccan Chargers won by three wickets

Game 10: Deccan Chargers vs Rajasthan Royals: Deccan Chargers won by 53 runs

Game 11: Deccan Chargers vs Delhi Daredevils: Delhi Daredevils won by 12 runs

Game 12: Deccan Chargers vs Kolkata Knight Riders: Deccan Charges won by six wickets

Game 13: Deccan Chargers vs Kings XI Punjab: Kings XI Punjab won by 1 run

Game 14: Deccan Chargers vs Royal Challengers: Bangalore Royal Challengers won by 12 runs

Semi-final: Deccan Chargers vs Delhi Daredevils: Deccan Chargers won by six wickets

Final: Deccan Chargers vs Royal Challengers: Deccan Chargers won by by six runs

Zeroes to Heroes: Chargers are Champs!

Hyderabad celebrates Chargers' victory

Hyderabad, May 25: Celebrations broke out in this southern city after Deccan Chargers beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by six runs to lift the second edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the New Wanderers in Johannesburg Sunday.

Hailing the victory of the home team, the fans burst crackers and came out on the streets raising slogans.

As R.P. Singh bowled the last ball, the fans went wild and gathered on the roads, congratulating each other. Those watching the match live on giant TV screens at pubs, restaurants and hotels hugged each other, hailing the achievement of Adam Gilchrist and his boys.

Young fans were seen enjoying the moments before the giant screens at pubs. Dancing to the tunes of popular Bollywood numbers, they celebrated the fall of every Challengers wicket.

The celebrations peaked as Chargers mounted pressure on team Bangalore after the strategic break.

'The wicket of Rahul Dravid was the turning point. Earlier, it appeared as if Dravid and Ross Taylor would walk away with the match,' said Sunil Kumar, a young software engineer watching the match at a popular pub.

Fans termed the victory historic, saying this had brought fame and glory to the city. 'It is a fantastic victory for this city as it will bring more laureals,' said Waseem Hyder, a class 12 student.

Diehard fans felt the Chargers deserved the victory as they worked very hard from the start and came back in the tournament despite losing a few matches in the middle.

'The team should have won the first edition of IPL but it was bad luck that it ended at the bottom. This time, it has got its deserved position,' said T. Ramna, a young cricketer.

Earlier, the fans were disappointed when Gilchrist was out for a duck in the very first over of the match as they were expecting fireworks from him after his aggressive match winning knock against Delhi Daredevils in the semifinals.

Mobile Number Portability in India by Sept 20

Department of Telecom has issued a notification stating that long awaited number portability will finally be available by September 20. The main object of number portability is to be able to retain the same number even after switching between different mobile service providers.

Mobile Number Portability gives a mobile subscriber the leverage of retaining his/her mobile phone number even after switching between networks. As per Department of Telecom - Mobile Number Portability is to be implemented in Delhi, Mumbai, Maharashtra and Gujarat Service areas of Zone I and Zone 2 includes Kolkata, Tamil Nadu, Chennai, Andhra and Karnataka of within six months of award of license by September 20, 2009, and in the rest of the country by March 20, 2010.

Syniverse Technologies have been licensed for MNP operations in Zone I while MNP Interconnection got licensed for MNP operations in Zone 2.

TRAI will decide all kinds of mobile number portability tariffs like the transaction fees from customer seeking number change. Also TRAI will try to keep cost of the Mobile Number Portability at reasonable level so as most subscribers are not put off by the charges.

Sequel to Wolverine announced

Hollywood bosses have announced a sequel to X-Men Origins: Wolverine after the mutant movie took a massive $87 million in its opening weekend in the US.

The comic-book prequel slashed its competition at the US box office and despite a mixed critical response, Australian actor Hugh Jackman will reprise his role as the adamantium-clawed mutant Wolverine in a sequel set in Japan, reports contactmusic.com.

The sequel will be based on a samurai and Yakuza storyline from the original Marvel comic book series, informed Jackman.

"I won't lie to you, I have been talking to writers. I'm a big fan of the Japanese saga in the comic book. I love the idea of this anarchic character—the outsider—being in this world," said Jackman.

"I can see it aesthetically, too, full of honour and tradition and customs, and someone who's really anti all of that, trying to negotiate his way," he added.

The Japanese storyline hinted at in the closing credits of X-Men Origins: Wolverine sees the mutant training in the way of the samurai in a bid to control his primal urges and falling in love with Mariko Yashida, heir to a Yakuza family.

The Google Bus Surfs Karnataka Towns

Google's special custom-built bus is on its way to teach the folks of Karnataka about the Internet including email, social networking, browsing for maps, and even stock market trends.

This bus started on Monday from Kolar and will drive through 15 towns of Karnataka for the next 50 days to educate the locals about the Internet world.

The core aim of the project is to enlighten people about how technology can make their life simpler. Also, to let people know that they access information through English or local language (Kannada) in various formats like data, audio and video.

Teaching locals about how they can use mobile phones to access local information without the need to use a data plan will also be a focus of the Google bus.

In Karnataka, the Google Google bus will travel through the towns of Mandya, Mysore, Hassan, Shimoga, Chikmagalur, Chitradurga, Davanagere, Hubli-Dharwad, Belgaum, Hospet, and Tumkur.

"The Internet bus project is an attempt to educate the people, especially the younger generation about the worldwide web and how Internet serves as a platform to step into the digital world for information, communication, entertainment and education," Google India research and development (R&D) head Prasad Ram said.

Prior to this, the Google bus has made rounds across Tamil Nadu from December to February. In the coming months, the Google bus will travel across different states in the country for similar purposes

Ram Gopal Varma plays with national anthem for Rann

Twisting the Indian national anthem Jana gana mana to Jana gana mana Rann' hai won't be everyone's cup of tea. But filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma, infamous for courting controversies with his movies, has gone ahead and done just that for his forthcoming project Rann.

The lyrics of the title song go like this: "Jana gana mana Rann hai, is rann mein zakhmi hua hai, bharat ka bhaagya vidhaata, Punjab Sindh Gujarat Maratha...". Though the song hasn't been released yet, chances are that it would create controversies. But Varma is unfazed as he says he hasn't shown it in bad light.

"I have not tinkered with the national anthem. Tinkering would be if I would have shown it in bad light. I haven't done anything of this sort. Through this song, we are talking about the disputes in the country but there were no intentions to ridicule anything," Varma told reporters on Wednesday at a press conference in the capital where the first look of Rann was unveiled.

The filmmaker, who has made films like Rangeela, Satya, Company and Sarkar, is confident that no authority would raise fingers at him for this.

"I think no one will have a problem with it. It's something I felt in my heart and it was my idea to place the song like this. It is based on the script of my film and I don't think there's any offence in it. Yet, if there is a problem, we will deal with that," he said.

Commenting on the same, actor Amitabh Bachchan, who plays a pivotal role in the media-based film, said: "I am sure that before doing something, the producers have taken adequate legal actions. I have faith in them and I do believe that they have adhered to the requirements (of using the national anthem)."

Rann is an attempt by Varma to 'expose' the Indian media and apart from the Big B, it features actors like Paresh Rawal, Rajat Kapoor, Riteish Deshmukh, Manisha Koirala, Purab Kohli as well as Gul Panag.

Varma says his movie is based on 15 years of his experience in the Indian film industry and focuses on the "psychological aspect of the media business" rather than its "technical" side.

Power woes shock Hyderabad

HYDERABAD 05-05-2009: Indiscriminate road expansion, lack of coordination between utility agencies, obsolete underground and overhead cables and frequent collapse of high tension towers are responsible for the current power crisis in the city.

Shockingly, this situation is arising even as power generation is higher than demand. “The power distribution system hangs by a thread and can snap anytime,” a senior official of APTransco confessed.

And snap it did on Tuesday plunging large parts of Hyderabad and neighbouring districts into darkness for several hours after the 12-km long 132 KV underground cable line between Chilkalguda and Moula Ali got burnt. Areas affected included Lalaguda, Osmania University, Sitaphalmandi, Chilkalguda, Monda Market, Gymkhana, Begumpet airport, James Street, Clock Tower, Bowenpally and Marredpally.

The city has two 132 KV underground lines, the second being from Chilkalguda to Erragadda. According to sources, the Chilkalguda-Moula Ali cable was laid 14 years ago. “This line has seen continuous overloading and aging. Had two cables been laid, it would have been possible to switch over to the other cable in case of a crisis as this”, an official said.

Analysts said that the long power cuts in the city are also due to mindless and random expansion of roads (in which the cables originally running parallel to the roads end up in a maze), collapse of high tension towers and non-replacement of underground power cables.

Because of the burning out of the Chilkalguda-Moula Ali cable, Secunderabad residents are facing power cuts ranging from two to four hours everyday. With over 20 technicians and labourers doing the repair work at Chilkalguda cross roads where the fault was detected, it will take a week for the cable to be repaired.

But the power crisis in Hyderabad is not just due to one cable going down. The 220 KV tower at Shahpurnagar on the outskirts that supplies power to the city from Kothagudem thermal power station, collapsed five days ago, leading to major loadshedding in the Gachibowli, Madhapur, Medchal, Shahpurnagar and surrounding areas falling in Ranga Reddy district. Transco sources said it will take another four to five days for the tower to be restored.

Apart from residential colonies, the faulty distribution system has affected medium scale industrial units like dairy farms, poultry, sugar and cement industry. The sudden rains have added to the woes of citizens with sub-stations having standing instructions to shut off power as wind and rain can result in the snapping of overhead cables and transformers can get burnt out as they are oil-based.

The current daily demand of 9,000 MW of power in AP is easily being met with thermal, naptha and purchased power accounting for 7,300 MW and gas-based units accounting for the remaining 1,300 MW.