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Saturday, June 30, 2007

Apple iPhone is ready..


Apple's eagerly awaited and (grossly) over-hyped iPhone has finally arrived as promised on the 29th of June, 2007. Love it or hate it, but you can't ignore it. The iPhone will hit Indian shores in early 2008 though

The Apple iPhone is not just a phone - it is a phone, music player, video player, internet device, and camera all in one. Like its Apple iPod Nano and iPod video cousins, the iPhone is slim and sleek at just 11.6mm thick, 2.4-inches wide, and 4.5-inches tall.

Steve Jobs has such confidence in the new iPhone that he has said he wants to sell over 10 million of them by 2008. I think he's setting his sights a little low, and project that Apple will sell over 10 million iPhones in less than 6 months. With the following that Apple has, and the fact that this device has been rumored about and anticipated for almost four years now, it shouldn't be too far out of the realm of possiblity.

iPod Features:

The Apple iPhone is a widescreen iPod that features touch screen controls that allow you to enjoy all your content, including audiobooks, music, TV shows, and movies. It features an amazing 3.5-inch widescreen display, and allows you to sync content from your iTunes library on your PC or Mac, making that content also accessible with just the touch of a finger.
iPhone users will be able to scroll through songs, artists, albums, and playlists with just a flick of a finger. One cool new feature of this function is the display of album artwork - you can now use Cover Flow to browse your music library by album artwork for the first time on an iPod.

Phone Features:

Using the phone function of the Apple iPhone, you can calls by simply pointing your finger at a name or number in your address book, a favorites list, or a call log. All your contacts from a PC, Mac, or Internet device are also automatically synched, you can select and listen to voicemail messages in whatever order you want — just like email. Calls can easily be merged together with just the touch of a button to create a conference call. Conference calling has never been easier!
A demo of the iPhone is attached below (from YouTube..)




Courtesy: YouTube....

SMS Text Messaging:

Using the iPhone, you can send text messages withan SMS application with a predictive QWERTY soft keyboard that prevents and corrects mistakes. This makes it easier and more efficient to use than the small plastic keyboards found on many smartphones.
Camera Function:

The Apple iPhone also features an amazing 2-megapixel camera, as well as a photo management application unlike anything available on a phone today. Users can sync photos from a PC or Mac, browse or email them with just a touch of the screen.

Internet Device:

The iPhone features a rich HTML email client as well as the Safari browser, which automatically syncs bookmarks from a PC or Mac. The Safari browser has built-in Google and Yahoo! search. You can also multi-task by reading a web page while simultaneously downloading your email in the background via WiFi or EDGE. Safari also includes built-in Google and Yahoo! search. You can even display Google Maps as they were meant to be seen, and zoom in to view specific points.

E-mail:

The iPhone is great for multi-tasking, so you can read a web page while downloading your email in the background over Wi-Fi or EDGE. Its e-mail client fetches your email in the background from most POP3 or IMAP mail services, and then displays photos and graphics along with the text.

Widgets:

Extend your iPhone with widgets, small applications that give you helpful information like stock reports, weather reports, and more in real time.

Touchscreen:

The iPhone features an amazing 3.5-inch widescreen display, and has one of the most revolutionary user interfaces since the mouse. The interface is unlike anything you've ever experienced on a phone, with a large multi-touch display and innovate new software that allows you to control everything with the touch of a finger.

Intelligent Keyboard:

The iPhone features a full QWERTY keyboard that allows you to send and receive SMS messages, email, etc. It is predicitive, and therefore prevents and corrects mistakes.

Built-in Sensors:

The iPhone incorporates an accelerometer, which detects when a user switches from holding the phone in landscape to portrait mode, and automatically updates the image on screen to fit the mode. The sensors also detect when you put the iPhone near your phone, and automatically shuts off the display screen until you move it away to save on battery power. An ambient light sensor automatically adjusts the screen's brightness to the appropriate level for the current ambient light, which enhances user experience and also saves on battery power.

Accessories:

As of now, Apple has announced a Bluetooth headset that will work with the iPhone, as well as new headphones that incorporate a small white box in the middle of the cord. This box has a built-in microphone and a switch to answer and hang up phone calls.
The phone is expected to come out in June 2007 in USA, Europe in the fourth QTR and Asia in 2008 and it will be available exclusively on Cingular for $499 on a two-year contract for the 4GB version and $599 for the 8GB version.

iPhone Specs:
  • Screen size: 3.5 inches
  • Screen resolution: 320x480 at 160 ppi
    Input method: Multi-touch
    Operating system
    OS X- Storage: 4GB or 8GB- GSM: Quad-band (MHz: 850, 900, 1800, 1900)
    Wireless data: WiFi (802.11b/g) + EDGE + Bluetooth 2.0
  • Camera: 2.0 megapixels

  • Battery: Up to 5 hours Talk/Video/Browsing, 16 hours Audio Playback
  • Dimensions: 4.5 x 2.4 x 0.46 inches / 115 x 61 x 11.6mm- 4.8 ounces / 135 grams

For more info, visit http://www.apple.com/iphone/

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Sivaji is Rocking...Some facts about the movie...



Sivaji: The Boss -- is directed by S. Shankar and produced by AVM Productions. Rajinikanth stars in this film as Sivaji Arumugam. Shriya Saran, Vivek and Suman also portray pivotal roles. The film's score and soundtrack was composed by A. R. Rahman.

The release of films starring other major Tamil actors was postponed to release much after Sivaji. It is the costliest Tamil film venture to date with an estimated cost of Rs. 80 Crores. It was dubbed into Telugu language and released simultaneously.

The movie was released on June 15, 2007 in over 2,500 theatres worldwide, after several postponements.

Plot

Sivaji is a Software Systems Architect who returns home after working hard for many years in USA. With a Rs.200 crore budget he wants to setup a charity medical college and hospital. Adiseshan is a politically influential businessman who plots his downfall and Sivaji ends up losing all his money. The rest of the movie revolves around how he starts from scratch to get back his money and resume development of his foundation.


Casting



For his crew, Shankar picked his preferred technicians; with Sujatha as the dialogue writer, K. V. Anand as the cinematographer, Peter Hein as the stunt master, Thotta Tharani as the art director, Vairamuthu as the chief lyricist, Manish Malhotra as the costume designer, Prabhu Deva as the choreographer, Anthony as the editor and J. D. Jerry of Pavithra fame, Balaji Sakthivel of Kaadhal fame, Hosimin of February 14 fame and Gandhi Krishna of Chellamae fame as the team of assistant directors. Also, despite receiving rave reviews for the music composing in Anniyan, Harris Jayaraj was dropped as the music director and Shankar's orthodox music composer, A. R. Rahman was chosen, creating great expectations for the project.
In late 2005, Shankar and Rajinikanth announced officially that Shriya Saran had been selected to essay the role as Rajinikanth's love interest.


Shankar and his crew opted for Manivannan, Livingston, Vadivukarasi, Pyramid Natarajan, Uma Padmanabhan, Solomon Pappayya, Muthukaalai, Nellai Siva, Bose Venkat and M'Sia Prabhu to play supporting roles.


Another key role of a doctor played by a guest actor was given to Raghuvaran,. Another guest role was supposed to feature an actress in the form of an item number for the song, Balleilakka, a range of heroines were considered for the role and Nayanthara paired with Rajinikanth for the second successive time after their pairing in Chandramukhi.


Publicity and Release

Ratings India: U[20] United Kingdom: 12A[21]

As the Rajinikanth-Shankar combination has raised great expectations of the film, almost dozen other Tamil films that were ready for release were postponed due to pressure by risk-averse distributors viz. Pirappu, Satham Podaathey, Oru Ponnu Oru Paiyan, Kaanal Neer, Unnale Unnale, Ninaithu Ninaithu Paarthein , Solli Adippen, Chennai 600028 , Thoovaanam , Kannum Kannum and Koodal Nagar.


From early days, the film had been expected to rewrite records set by the previous Rajinikanth starrer Chandramukhi as it saw the combinations of all the biggest stars in Tamil cinema. The production house AVM, owned by M. Saravanan and M. S. Guhan was the largest, oldest and most successful to date production house in Chennai. Shankar, the director, had delivered eight back-to back hits and had worked with all the major technicians in the industry. The music director, A. R. Rahman was one of the big names from Indian music industry and had claimed several international honours with his work in The Lord of the Rings Musical. While as, Rajinikanth was undoubtedly Tamil cinema’s most prominent figure, earning him the title Superstar among his fans. After the announcement several infamous brands including, Coke, Hutch, Aircel and Reliance roped in as brand sponsors to the project.

Sivaji's chances at the box-office were set to be hampered by the ICC Cricket World Cup initially and the film was postponed again to sort out post-production work. The delay continued, when A. R. Rahman, claimed he was disappointed of his background score and planned to re-do it, delaying the release finally to June 15, 2007.

The film's distribution rights, as distributed by AVM Productions to various companies are - 3.5 crores for the selling of rights to Kerala, 14 crores for Andhra Pradesh and 13.95 crores for the rights to Ayngaran, an international Tamil film distributor. Sivaji was given the rating Universal by the Censors Association, only cutting three scenes - a double meaning dialogue by Vivek and two scenes of close up views of Shriya Saran's naval and cleavage.

A pre-teaser trailer was released by CNN-IBN on May 30, 2007 lasting for three minutes. The official trailer was released by AVM to Galatta.com, the official online sponsor and Ayngaran International..

Soundtrack

A. R. Rahman was paid Rs. 2 Crores for the project, making him the highest paid Indian music director. He re-recorded the entire background score in London. The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and some choral singers have rendered out moments in a background track.

For the trailer and more details, visit the official web site http://www.sivajitheboss.com/

For more stills, visit http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/tamil/moviegallery/7911.html

For review of the movie, visit http://www.rajini-in-sivaji.com/

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Sunita is Back Home...


Atlast, Sunita returned to earth in Atlantis..after days of uncertainity and bad weather...Thousands prayed to god for a safe return. Everybody was fearful about what happened to Kalpana Chawla some time back.

This time also, the space shuttle got damage in the heat resistant outer tiles. But, this time NASA didn't attempt for a chance. The damage was corrected before the return journey. Then, the computer system (Russian made), which was supplying the oxygen to the astronauts, stopped functioning. It was a serious problem. Normally, when such a problem comes, rebooting of the system would resolve the issue. But, this time it didn't help. Engineers in Houston and Moscow worked around the clock to come up with a fix. It took some 2 days to fix this damage.

Finally, Sunita and her team (pilot Lee Archambault and mission specialists Patrick Forrester, James Reilly, Steven Swanson and Danny Olivas) started their journey back to home. This time around, it was the turn of bad weather to delay their come back. And finally, today shortly before 1.00 pm (US time), they successfully landed at the Edwards Air Force Base (Mojave Desert) in California (earlier they planned for Kennedy Space Station Cape Canaveral.)

Now, Sunita Williams holds the record for stay in Space by any woman (195 days). She also set the world record for a female astronaut on spacewalks, totalling 29 hours and 17 minutes. She also proved that, she can not only walk, but run too, in space. During the Boston Marathon, she completed her race in a tread mill.

After the landing, 41-year-old Sunita was chosen Person of the Week by the ABC Television Network.

We, the Indians can celebrate this moment as she is an Indo-American.

About Sunita Williams...

Sunita Lyn Williams, born on September 19, 1965 in Ohio . A NASA astronaut, she is the second woman of Indian origin after the late Kalpana Chawla to go into space after being selected by NASA.

Married to Michael J. Williams, her family roots go back to Gujarat from her father's side. She carried a copy of the Bhagavad Gita, a small statue of Ganesha and some samosas into space. She completed her Masters in Engineering Management from the Florida Institute of Technology.

Her stint with NASA started in 1998. She flew into space on Space Shuttle mission STS-116, aboard the shuttle Discovery, on 10 December 2006.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Hamilton Creates History in F1...


The Formula 1 circuit in Canada will be better known for the fact that Hamilton lifted his first F1 win. Now, Hamilton is the First Black Driver to clinch this prestigeous car race. Those who watched the race are lucky to see one of the finest F1 races, where Ferrari was crushed, McLaren team mate Alonso taken over by Sato(cpmmentattors told that, even sato has overtaken Alonso), Raikonen struggling (I don't know whats his problem..he may be under pressure to perform), Massa getting Black signal (due to the stringent rules of F1, he was forced to stop his race in between), and some amazing accidents (really I likes accidents in F1 race..I dont know why..). Because of the frequent accidents, Safety car was in place 4 times and Hamilton was lucky in that, just after he took his pit stop, safety car was imposed.

BMW Sauber's Kubica met a very serious accident. He has collided with Toyota's Jarno Trully. By the time I'm writing this post, he has been released from Hospital. There is nothing to worry, he is perfectly fine. He is looking for driving the Indianopolis GP next week.


But, all these times, there was one guy, the wonder boy from UK, without making even a single mistake, looking for the checkered flag. I think, now Mclaren cannot consider Alonso as their leading driver and Hamilton as the supporting driver. In the points tally, Hamilton is leading with 48 points, so is the case with the McLaren in the constructors championship.

Hamilton got one more recognition now. Going to the podium in his first 6 races (including sundays Canadian GP win). I doubts Hamilton will be the next champion and he will fill the gap left behind by the all time champion driver Michael Schumacher. Till last year, it was Alonso who was supposed to be predeccessor to Schumi.

Hamilton is only 22 years now. He should not get carried away by what he achieved in the yearly stages of his carrier. He should concentrate on his driving and his first target should be to win this years championship.

I seriously doubt, there is some problem with Ferrari cars, because, see the way Raikonen is driving (by the way, he is my favourite driver). Last year, he had some last lap car crashes and forced to stop the race just before 1 or 2 laps to finish (he was leading in all those races). Alonso became champion with very marginal advance over Raikonen. But this year, Raikonen is driving just like any other ordinary driver.


Year 2007 for Hamilton












Australian18/03/2007McLaren-Mercedes4366
Malaysian08/04/2007McLaren-Mercedes42814
Bahrain15/04/2007McLaren-Mercedes22822
Spanish13/05/2007McLaren-Mercedes42830
Monaco27/05/2007McLaren-Mercedes22838
Canadian10/06/2007McLaren-Mercedes111048

Saturday, June 9, 2007

Battle for the Title @ "Tournoi de Roland-Garros" (French Open)




Now, the only point of discussion among the tennis lovers around the globe is who's gonna win the French Open Title, whether its Rafael Nadal or the elegant Roger Federer. Before putting your predictions, it will be good to know the history behind the prestigeous Grand Slam Tennis Tournament and why its special.








Roland Garros, also known as the French Open, is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks between mid-May and early June in Paris, France. It is the second of the Grand Slam tournaments on the annual tennis calendar (Australian Open is the first one) and is the premier clay court tennis tournament in the world.

Roland Garros began as a national tournament in 1891. In 1925, the French Championships opened itself to international competitors with the event held on a grass surface alternately between the Racing Club de France and the Stade Français. For the 1928 Davis Cup challenge, a new tennis stadium was built at Porte d’Auteuil. Named for a hero of World War I, the new Stade de Roland Garros, and Court Philippe Chatrier, was built with a red clay ("terre battue") playing surface. In March 2007, Roland Garros announced that it will provide an equal amount of prize money for both men and women in all rounds


Why Pete Sampras(total 14 grand slam wins) could not win French Open. Why Jimmy Connors (won all the other grand slams) could not win at Roland-Garros.

The reason, clay courts slow down the ball and produce a high bounce when compared to grass courts or hard courts. Clay court specialists have evolved who often succeed here while many higher ranked players struggle.

The last 7 French Open Titles were won by men who did not win any other Grand slams. So, this will tell story, right..???

This years final is the carbon copy of yester year where these 2 players clashed against each other and Nadal was crowned. One more thing, in 2005 also, Nadal was the champion (defeated Marianofrom Puerta Argentina) here and now he is looking for a hat-Trick at Roland Garros. From April 2005 to May 2007, he won 81 consecutive clay court matches. He is currently undefeated in the French Open.But, at the Hamburg Masters (last month), Nadal's clay court winning streak came to an end, when he lost the final to Federer 2-6, 6-2, 6-0.

For Federer has already won the three Grand slams except French Open. So, he has a point to prove to the critics that, he is the greatest tennis player by winning all the French Opens and more number of Grand slams. In his current form, he can easily defeat Nadal. The pressure will definitely be on Federer to win the match. But, we all know how cool this guy is when it comes to handling pressure.

So, all the tennis fans can expect a Royal Fight @ Roland Garros, tomorrow(10-Jun-2007) @ 15.00

Player Profiles



Singles performance timeline


Tournament 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Career SR Career Win-Loss
Australian Open A A 3 R 4R A QF 0 / 3 9-3
French Open A A A W W 2 / 2 14-0
Wimbledon A 3 R A 2R 0 / 3 9-3
U.S. Open A 2R 2R 3R QF 0 / 4 8-4






Tournament 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Carr. win-loss
Grand Slams
Australian Open A A 3R 3R 4R 4R W SF W W 6-5
French Open A 1R 4R QF 1R 1R 3R SF F 20-8
Wimbledon A 1R 1R QF 1R W W W W 2-4
U.S. Open A A 3R 4 R 4R 4R W W W 1-4

A = did not participate in the tournament.
SR = the ratio of the number of singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played.

For more details, logon to http://www.rolandgarros.com/

Friday, June 8, 2007

Should Orkut be banned in India ...?????

Today in news papers, I came across a news that, in Mumbai Shiv Sena supporters had destroyed some ciber cafes protesting against some hate comments against Chhatrapati Shivaji that appeared in an Orkut community. And subsequently, the Maharashtra police recommends to the Union Government for the banning of the site, Orkut (http://orkut.com).

In fact, this is not an isolated case. There are n number of the so called hate communities in orkut, which are not under the scanner. They will be posting all sort of nonsenses and hate messages. You can find lots of Hate India communities also. Orkut should take some stringent steps to stop all such abusive groups. Now, the situation is like anybody can create a group and all like hearted people join it.

But, banning orkut is not at all a good idea. Its like banning the freedom to express. There are millions of groups which are really helpful, like higher education, migrating to US, UK or any other country, etc etc... Orkut is the biggest Social Networking site, which is connecting Billions of people through out the world. You can always end up in meeting any of your old friend to whom you lost all the contacts.

Rediff (http://rediff.com) discussion forums are coming with the feature of Report Abuse section, where users can straight away report an abuse against any hate/abusive/pornographic comments. I am recommending such type of proactive steps from Orkut in this regard.

The protest from Shiv Sena is more like a Political drama to get public attention. Indian govt should not ban Orkut. The govt can command the Orkut people to take some stringent action against this anti social elements.

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Testing the speed of your broadband internet connection

There are lots of speed testers available on the internet. I am mentioning about one which is reliable to test the speed of your broad band connection.

Eventhough your subscription scheme may be 256 kbps, the actual speed will be very less (somewhere around 60-80). You can find the real download and upload speed of your connection by going to the web site, http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest. From this site, you can click on the link Flash 8 plugin based speed test, which will open a flash page (wait for some time for the page to open). This page will list down some six or seven servers to which you can connect to and test your connection speed. Note: Select the server with more free connections available.

It will give you almost correct download and upload speeds at that point of time.

Saturday, June 2, 2007

Gilchrist may retire from One-Day cricket


Gilchrist has hinted out to the media that he may consider retiring from One-Day cricket soon. The statement came after the birth of his third child. He is stating like he need to spend more time with his family.

But, he will continue playing test matches.He will be remembered by all the cricket fans throughout the globe, except his last one-day innings (World cup cricket final) in which he has used a squash ball under his glove. That incident is considered as an act of cheating. The ICC has to clear the issue.

one thing the Indian cricketers should copy from these Australian players is that, most of the world class palyers are retiring from the game at their peak performance, to give chance to the younger players. Here in India, the selection board has to throw them out, then only they will retire.

Gilchrist Profile:



Full name Adam Craig Gilchrist
Born November 14, 1971, Bellingen, New South Wales
Current age 35 years 200 days
Major teams Australia, ICC World XI, New South Wales, Western Australia
Nickname Gilly, Churchy
Playing role Wicketkeeper batsman
Batting style Left-hand bat
Bowling style Right-arm offbreak
Fielding position Wicketkeeper
Height 1.86 m









































Batting and fielding averages
MatInnsNORunsHSAveBFSR100504s6sCtSt
Tests90129195353204*48.66650582.2917246529734437
ODIs26826110903817236.00935196.651550109913638851
Twenty20 Int.440654816.2548135.41005510
First-class1822694510002204*44.65304071455
List A332320181059117235.06175849660
Twenty20440654816.2548135.410010








































Bowling averages
MatBallsRunsWktsBBIBBMAveEconSR4510
Tests90000-----000
ODIs268000-----000
Twenty20 Int.4000-----000
First-class182000-----000
List A33212100---5.00-000
Twenty204000-----000

















Career statistics

Test debut Australia v Pakistan at Brisbane - Nov 5-9, 1999
Last Test Australia v England at Sydney - Jan 2-5, 2007
ODI debut Australia v South Africa at Faridabad - Oct 25, 1996
Last ODI Australia v Sri Lanka at Bridgetown - Apr 28, 2007
Twenty20 Int. debut New Zealand v Australia at Auckland - Feb 17, 2005
Last Twenty20 Int. Australia v England at Sydney - Jan 9, 2007
First-class span 1992/93 - 2006/07
List A span 1992/93 - 2006/07
Twenty20 span 2004/05 - 2006/07





Notes

Wisden Cricketer of the Year - 2002

One-Day International Player of the Year - 2003

One-Day International Player of the Year - 2004


For more details, visit http://content-www.cricinfo.com/australia/content/player/5390.html




Kerala Film producers to strike from Aug 1

The film producers association in Kerala has announced an indefenite strike from Aug 1,2007 onwards, objecting against the proposals made by the MACTA(malayalam Cine Technicians Association). Eventhough I'm against the concept of strikes, in this particular case, my moral support is with the producers.

The demands from the MACTA includes salary hikes for all the technicians, by more than double (for eg, they demands the drivers salary to be increased to Rs 350 from Rs 150). If you analise the profit made by the Malayalam movies which are released in year 2007, only 2 movies were hits, only 3-4 movies were average hits(minz, no loss to the producer) and the remaining were all flops. In such a scenario, if the production cost also is increasing, there is no other way for the Producers, rather than stopping the production itself.

Why malayalam cinemas are not becoming hits? the technicians should answer this question. If you observe, you can see, when malayalam cinemas are flopping, tamil/hindi and english movies are collecting big money from Kerala. So, this means that there is no shortage for the movie lovers in Kerala.

The govt has reduced the tax imposed on movie production.

After the Rishiraj singh encounter against the piracy, pirated CDs are not available and people started coming to theaters to watch movie.

All these factors were boosting the movie industry and still mallu movies are not doing good. So the only reason for failure is that, not many good quality movies are coming to theaters. Malayalees have accepted good movies all the times. There are no experiments coming from our technicians to attract the people.

If the things are going like this, its not so far that Malayalam movie industry will be no more, one day.

For more information, visit http://www.dailyindia.com/show/145279.php/Kerala-film-producers-to-strike-from-August-1

Friday, June 1, 2007

Suspension for V S and Pinarayi...

Finally...they got what they reserved...both V S and Pinarayi are suspended from the CMP pulit-beuro for breaching the code of conduct.

But I don't think the punishment is that serious, since both are allowed to continue with the current posts what they are holding. Infact it was Pinrayi who deserves severe punishment than the innocent V S. Pinarayi started all these allegations out of jealous the publicity and people support v S got after the Munnar demolitions and Smaret city.

Pinarayi told the press people that V S is a fool to believe that the Munnar operation is a credit of the V S government, rather than it is a credit of CPM (internally means the credit should go to Pinarayi). V S replied very decently saying he is also not believing that all the credit is his own.

Then Pinarayi and his team started the demolition of V S group members; from all the districts. They will raise some issues and finally throw the V S camp memebers. I think this act has provoked V S and he decided to give proper reply to Pinarayi. But, instead of replying Pinarayi publically, he could have raise a complaint to the PB.

Pinarayi is still not understanding the mass support V S is having. If V S is be the CM candidate for the next assembly elections, CPM can defenitely win and they can change the system of alternate congress/cpm ruling in Kerala.

As an opposition party, Congress is dead. Oommen Chandy is raising some issues which are not at all relevent and sigificant. One thing we have to accept about the Congress party is that, they are giving full support for all the good reasons for the CPM govt, which you cannot expect from the CPM party when they will be in the opposition seats.