Gilchrist >> C Age B Family 100(100)

If there is one event over the past week of happenings in cricket which made me nostalgicand a bit sad, then that event would be retirement of Adam Gilchrist from Test and ODI's.

Gilly, as he was affectionately called by his fans was a thorough gentleman cricketer, a rarity in these days of personal sledging and bitter rivalry(as seen in the recently concluded Gavaskar-Border trophy won by champion team of Australia. Gilchrist, an attacking batsmen par excellence in any form of cricket, he had one of the best strike rates for a batsman over a long period of time. His primary forte though was in standing behind the wicket and helping Warne, Glenn McGrath, Gillespie etc. become 10 times more deadlier then they were as they were assured that there is always a safe pair of gloves which will do it's acrobatic best to hold on to the faintest edges and nicks by batsmen. Perhaps it was a fitting tribute to his masterful skills that he retired on his last test after overtaking Mark Boucher as the test wicketkeeper who had the highest number of dismissals to his name in his playing time.

Found out a link to Gilchrist's blog, not sure though if he writes regularly or not; as the last blog entry was done on Nov 2007. Anyways some old articles do give a peep on the thoughts of the genius man !

http://www.adamgilchrist.com/About-Adam/Adams-Blog.aspx

My favorite bollywood movies of 2007

My top 10 bollywood movies of the year 2007 gone by :-

1) Guru - A mani ratnam production/direction effort loosely based on the inspiration from the life and times of Dhirubhai Ambani; this movie was the first biggie of the past year and boasted of some excellent music by the maestro Rehman. Finally the pairing of Aby Baby and Ash clicked on silver screen.

2) Jab We Met - An honest sincere effort by Imtiaz Ali, in his second outing this time scores big time among the movie goers. Effortless acting by Bebo & and her ex beau Shahid helped for sure.

3) Johny Gaddar - A Vijay Anadnesque movie from the seventy's thrillers; this movie was a surprise all the way by Shriram Rahgvan who had impressed in his debut some years back with "Ek Hasina Thi".

4) Taare Zameen Par - Amir Khan both in front and behind the camera, this movie had to be something great. Indeed stirring stuff.

5) OSO - Thoroughly entertaining and had some real eye candy with Deepika as the female lead. An opportunistic debut by the pretty lass !

6) Chak De India - Post Swades, SRK had built up tremendous expectations regarding his potential as an actor of serious merit(bos office success not counting). In CDI he delivers and O boy how !

7) Cheeni Kum - An intelligent, intellectual slightly subdued romantic comedy starring Big B and Tabu, it was worth the 2 hrs it consisted of.

8) Life in a metro - A great compilation of some real rock music in Hindi ever delivered in a movie made this ensemble start cast movie a treat to watch. Some interesting story lines and competent acting proved to a big draw in the multiplexes.

9) The Blue Umbrella - The best children film in ages (probably after Makdi, nothing else comesup in my mind) had Pankaj Kapur as its lead actor and what an actor he is, super ! Thogh a bit tweaking on the sound of the movie would have helped for sure. Nand Kishore Khatri's accent was a bit incomprehensible to listen.

10) Namesake - I loved the novel by Jhumpa Lahiri based on the life of a first generation immigrant from Kolkata. It made everybody emotional I'm sure, though released in north America without much hype it surely got its audience through word of mouth in later stages. Kudos to Mira Nair for Namesake. I hope it gets noticed by the jury of academy awards this year.

P.S. - There is no ranking in this list and its the list of movies which I had seen and as a result could have missed out on some other equally deserving movies.