kiva.org

If you have the heart of a good samaritan, then this website ( www.kiva.org ) is for you. The site takes us through the stories of people in third world countries, who need help in starting a small buisness. For as little as $25, you can choose a loan to finance and help lift someone out of poverty. The money is loaned via paypal and the kiva field agents deliver the money to the person. Most of these people just need this one shot to get out of poverty. Lenders can check on the progress of the venture via e-mail and our new buisness partner could payback the loan when he has made a considerable profit in his buisness. Once the loan is paid back you can look for someone else to help. The website claims that 99.7% of the money has been repaid. Kiva's thousands of success stories include a peanut butter stand in Uganda, carpet weavers in Afghanistan and a fruit vendor in Vietnam. I was totally bowled out by the concept of this website. Here you would be a lot happier to learn that you have trully made a difference in somebodies life.

Kimi Steals The Spotlight

Brazilian Grand Prix was the best season ending any Formula One enthusiastic could ask for. The race was expected to be a thriller with 3 drivers fighting it out for the Championship. Kimi won the race and the Championship leaving the Mc Laren team with nothing to cheer for. The whole season was shadowed by controversies between Mc Laren and Ferrari and arguments between teammates and the two leading drivers Alonso and Hamilton filled the news boards. Nobody ever thought Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonean (Iceman) had a chance to win the championship this year. He was 17 points behind the championship leader Hamilton with 2 races to end the season. But Kimi won the last 2 races to lead the points tally by a narrow lead of one point and swooping the Championship from right under the nose of Hamilton and Alonso. Moral of the Iceman story?, "Fast and 'Steady' wins the race".

Rugby: Ruf and Tuf

I had seen rugby lot of times before on the tele, but it never intrested me mainly because I hardly understood the game and at that time it looked more like an attacking sport where the teams brutally attacked each other just for the sake of getting hold of a ball.

My interest for the game started last year during the Asian Games held in Doha. I had gone to watch the rugby match at the stadium just because India was participating in the event. I didn't even know India had a rugby team until I saw the match brochure. Few minutes into the match, I slowly rolled down my Indian flag and slipped it inside my jacket because the Indians were getting massacred on the pitch by their opponents and there seemed no point in cheering India. The final score: 75 - 0. Clearly the Indian team was new to the game just like me. I was shocked to learn that our neighbours, Srilanka had a strong rugby team and they play club level rugby regularly in Srilanka. A Srilankan supporter sitting near to me was kind enough to explain to me about scrum, rugby 7, ... etc, in short the game of rugby. That is how I stumbled into the world of Rugby.

The recent Rugby World Cup 2007 in France got me more intrested into the game with some thrilling matches in the Knockout phase. The entertainment was complete when South Africa won the Final against England. Rugby is a contact sport and injuries are expected to be really bad that 6 days of rest is given for the teams between matches. Even though professional rugby players look well built to absorb the aggressive attacks and rams, most of them are injured and badly bruised. Once the match starts, its like a war out there. I have never seen women play rugby, but I learned there are lot of women who are rugby fans, maybe because they like to see hunks get aggressive and brutal. Sexy or not, I would prefer to watch this macho game from the sidelines.

Cancer Terminator

Finally scientist have come out with a breakthrough to kill cancer cells. The idea is to inject cancer patients with live genetically engineered herpes virus (NV1020). Talk about fighting evil with evil. This virus is designed to kill cancer cells and leave normal tissue unharmed. Herpes simplex virus (HSV-1 & HSV-2) cause infections in humans and sometimes stays dormant and it is a Sexually transmitted disease (STD). Hope none of these traits shows up on the injected cancer patient. Animal tests with NV1020 was effective at killing colorectal and liver cancer cells. The prognosis looks promising and surely will bring relief to lot of people.

The smart Car

Don't be deceived by the name, there is no Artificial Intelligence (AI) induced into this machine. smart simply stands for Swatch Mercedes ART, that happened when swiss watch manufacturer Swatch merged with Mercedes-Benz. Smart looks compact and simply cute, sure to make anyone fall in love with it at first sight. This two-seater is an apt car to take on your honeymoon, exactly like Ashton Kutcher and Brittany Murphy does in the hollywood movie "Just Married". Just the right car for Indian roads. With a body length of only 2.5 metres, you are sure to find lot of parking spaces in the busiest Indian metros. It is less polluting as it uses a hybrid engine and is produced by the best (Daimler-Benz), so getting one for yourself would be a "smart" move.

La Tomatina

The first time I read about La Tomatina, I was really intrigued. In India, tomato (usually rotten) is thrown at someone to demean that person. But in the town of Bunol in Valencia - Spain, La Tomatina is a food fight festival where participants throw each other tomatoes for fun. La Tomatina can be added to the list of already crazy Spanish festivities like Bull fight and so on. In other words, La Tomatina is just like Holi festival in India - with the exception of only red being used and lot pulpier. La Tomatina started in the year 1944 and is held every year on the last wednesday of August. More than thirty thousand people from all over the world descend on Bunol for this brutal street battle of throwing over-ripen tomatoes. Secretly every human being longs (I meant me) to be part of this messy carnage, especially if you are there with your friends. More than 100 tonnes of tomato's are used for la Tomatino every year (what a waste of food). La Tomatina surely does give a new meaning to the pharse "painting the town red".

We Are The Champions

Have to say, this was one of the proudest moment in my life as an Indian. Indian cricket team stunned everyone by taking the inagural Twenty20 Cricket World Cup. Nobody expected them to even go beyond the super eight stage of the tournament, but they fought hard in every discipline of the game, rooting favourites like South Africa and Australia on their way to the dream final with arch-rivals Pakistan. India looked so young and dynamic under the leadership of their new captain M.S. Dhoni. The final was a must see match with both teams playing their best to give the spectators a nail-biting finish to the tournament. There were moments in the game when I thought Pakistan would win the game, but India won in the last minutes of the game taking all Pakistani wickets with just 4 balls to spare. Chak de India.... song filled the air and I was celebrating like any other Indian, these were moments every Indian had to savour. I had only one thing to say to our team.

Wah! Superb performance ......... Ummmaaah