Desicritics Author: Lomi

My Experiences with Cricket Part 1

Lomi — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 02:27:44 EST

I have been a student of a game called cricket for 17 years now. I am 23 years old now, thus my journey started when I was a six year old kid.

I was first introduced to this game by one of my relatives who was cheering for India in a classic India-West Indies clash. Yes, that India- WI clash of 1991 Australian World Series. India was all out for a paltry 125. Then we saw Windies struggling, all my relatives were so glued to the screen and so was I, not understanding what was going on. Everyone had tensed faces. I wasn’t feeling the tension but I also became tensed. I was a cute little kid as a 6 yr old but boy, my relatives didn't seem to care for me. They liked this game called cricket and were cheering for our Indian team. Then I as a somewhat intelligent boy understood if one is in Rome, do as the Romans do, so I also started having a tensed face and started cheering India India!

Hush, they were getting close. All were so tensed. Wickets were falling, runs were made. I heard my relatives say, our captain is our man, Azharuddin; he will win it for us. I then cheered Azhar, Azhar! (I also liked him because his name rhymed similar to mine Asad). Then they said he is very intelligent and cool captain. I obliged. Then finally it got to one run to win, one wicket in hand. Some cute little kid-like face (Sachin) was going to bowl. I was asking my relatives, what is happening, what is happening? But they didn’t listen to me and said shut up and were again glued to the screen. O.k. fine I again start cheering India India!!! They said, shut up close your mouth. Here runs Sachin to bowl to some black colored Windies player, The ball edged to the slips, I suppose Azhar caught a diving catch. The match was tied. Wow, all were shouting their throats out and I followed them, shouting the slogan, India India!

The match tied, all are dancing. I am also dancing. As a 6 yr old kid, am laughing and dancing, shouting India won India won (actually tied). This is how I became a cricket-crazy kid and till date I am cricket crazy although I have changed a lot. That whole day I was thinking only about cricket. I was also thinking, I would become a cricketer one day and blast all bowlers and make India win every match. Hurray! India is so strong!

This is how cricket was introduced to me. I would henceforth support India whenever they played and would never miss a match. From that match till today I haven’t missed one match of India and have been a student of this fabulous game called cricket for sixteen long years. From a kid who was 6 yrs old to a 22 year old so called professional, I have followed every movement of the Indian team and also most other teams.

I will divide these 16 yrs into 4 parts of how I followed this game. There have been umpteen occasions when people have taken various forms in distracting me away from cricket. Despite this, I am still a student of this game.

Stage 1: Initially for the first 5 yrs from 1991 to 1996 I had virtually no one distracting me from the game in this period. Of course because I was a 6 yr old kid to 11 yr old kid (I still consider myself a kid though others don’t). My mom never said anything when I was glued to screen for 5 years postponing everything for cricket. I saw 2 WCs in this period. The first one was the famous 1992 WC which we lost very badly. The only consolation was that we defeated Pakistan. The next WC was an emotional one for me. I was a typical grown up Indian in this stage, emotional, patriotic and unselfish for cricket. I used to jump in joy when India wins (emotional). I used to be supporting Indian team so patriotically even when there was no chance of winning. I used to be unselfish in prioritizing cricket over everything else like studies, play or my mom's work.

The most emotional period came in the 1996 WC semifinal. We were watching the game as a family, when India restricted SL to 241. We were chasing well with my hero Sachin murdering Lankan bowlers. I had high hopes of India lifting WC, I cheered India all the way through the campaign emotionally, patriotically and unselfishly 100%. Then came the fateful time, we lost wickets in a heap and were suddenly struggling at 120/8. I was shocked and down and out. I was crying. I of course had some crap midterm exam next day (WHO CARED!!!). Still, it was my favorite subject Mathematics. So I said to my parents "don’t worry I will get good marks."

My dad was very understanding but my mom was like a pain in the neck. She said "You can only see the score every 30 minutes."

You know me, I said I forgot my pencil. I forgot my notebook, I left my bag, I left my slippers and made umpteen trips to the living room to know the score.

Then when the wickets were falling, I was so emotionally down that I didn’t move an inch. I slowly started crying. People were throwing bottles, papers everything they had. I felt like breaking my TV. Kambli was crying as well. I felt so bad that day that I failed in my favorite Mathematics exam for the first time or I got very low marks. My mom knew the reason. I consoled myself and my parents consoled me saying it was just a game but I wasn’t ready to listen. I said Indians deserved to win the WC and we would definitely win it next time. Though after 2 days I was back to normal, it was an emotional phase in my experience with cricket.

STAGE 2: 1996 to 1999 was a period when Indians performed very badly under leadership of Sachin and then unbelievably excellently under Azhar and finally ending with a super six exit in the WC.

Under Sachin, we lost everything. I was very disappointed and used to feel very bad. I basically lost interest in game as we couldn’t even defeat small teams. This was a time when Azhar lost form. Kambli, Manjrekar, Prabhakar were all dropped. New guys like Robin Singh, Sourav and Dravid came and Sidhu was also doing well. I loved it in 1998 when we won most of the tournaments under Azhar. We won everything in reach. We defeated the Australians in the 1998 Sharjah cup, the Champions trophy and at home as well in the Test series (though we lost the one day series). We also won against Pakistan in the Independence cup. We defeated SL too after hiatus. We looked so invincible that people started saying Indians could win the 1999 WC.

Then came the shocker 1999 New Zealand series. It was a shocking series and then the 1999 WC was even worse. Although we played well individually we lost badly against Zimbabwe, South Africa (a game we should have won). I did have my tenth board exam but that was before the WC so no hindrance to the WC. I did fairly well in the exam. I followed the game very vigorously again from 1998 after dull 1997 but was again disappointed that we lost the WC again. This time I didn’t cry. Come on I was from 11 to 15 and I was grown up. But I felt for Indian team a lot.

Movie Review: Guru

Lomi — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 13:31:51 EDT

What a heck of movie it was, once again from the guru of directors Mani Ratnam. I know it's not a mega hit, just a hit or maybe even lesser according to Bollywood sources which are nothing but crap according to me. Otherwise how else can you explain films of real sub standard quality when compared to Guru like Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, Krishh, Dhoom-2, Don, etc. becoming mega super duper hits. Please give me a break; these movies are not even 5% of what Guru is. And Mani is like so much times better director than Karan Johar, Nikhil Advani, Farhan Akhthar put together. They have loads to learn from Mani. This just explains the politics in Bollywood. They just don't want another Southie there. Already AR Rahman is the best music director, now they cannot stand Mani being called the best director. What makes it personally exciting is that both are from my state and by, we Tamilians should be real proud of these two jewels from Tamil Nadu.

Coming back to the movie, could Mani have done better? I don't think so. Everything was perfect. Dialogues, characterization, cinematography, music, background score, etc. A few songs seemed out of place but one cannot do without songs in Bollywood or Kollywood. I haven't seen a better movie in Bollywood for a long time. This movie was better than Yuva for the message and execution was more subtle. Abhishek according to me, acted well for the second time in his career after Yuva. Aishwarya didn't have much of a role except during climax when she speaks for Abhishek. I am too humble to comment on other people in the movie. They are just awesome. Whether it is music, cinematography, choreography, direction, screenplay, story, dialogues, etc. they are just extraordinary.

Then why isn't this movie a super-hit? Well as far as my friends go, all of them loved it except maybe the climax. Even so, this ought to have been a bigger hit than those one line movies of Karan Johar but unfortunately as shown in the movie itself, the big players (Chopras, Johars etc) don't want a common man from the South to make big in Bollywood. They know they will go bankrupt in five years time. Such is the politics in Bollywood that Mani has to be content with just a hit.

Now about the climax, people say Abhishek should have been punished. Guys wake up, wake up please. When will Indians realize that there are no white or black people in this World? Everyone is gray. Only the shades of gray vary. One guy could be darker gray, one guy could be lighter gray but no one is white or black. Abhishek was medium gray. He wasn't dark gray by any chance. Yes he cheated the government and made millions of money but who is to blame for that. The government itself which never supports the middle class or lower class and is always obsessed with upper class people then how could he make big. Moreover he cheated government, not the people. In fact people made huge money from his impeccable business tactics through stocks. Now when middle class start getting money, what should government do, close his industry and let everyone suffer. Because if his industry is closed then it's not Abhishek alone who loses money, it's all his share holders which includes countless middle class families. Rather the government fined him like 63 Lakhs or Crores (I'm not sure of exact amount) I suppose and let him free. Amazing decision by the court and three hurrahs for Abhishek for convincing the judge with his four and half minute speech. Again he made 30 seconds profit.

Basically I loved this character of Abhishek, what India really needs is thousands of Abhisheks who don't make profit only for them but for thousands of people trusting him. He enacts an amazing character. People say he cheated, he cheated, who doesn't cheat in this world. When your mom said sleep, otherwise some ghost will come and eat you, she was cheating you, when your boss said wait two more months, you will get promotion, he was cheating you. When the politician said I will give roti kapda makaan he was cheating voters. When Abhishek said he will make profit to his shareholders, he didn't cheat. He didn't smuggle heroin or ganja, he didn't kill people at his will, he didn't bribe a honest person. In fact till the end he respected his godfather Mithun. Awesome.

Yeah I know there is an analogy in this movie to a real character which Mani is known to hide as always. Like he did with his Tamil movie Iruvar. What ever it doesn't matter, as they say in the Hindi song. Samajne wale samaj rahe hai, jo na samje, woh anari hai.

Paruthiveeran: A Movie of Real Class

Lomi — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 07:42:24 EDT

I saw this movie with little high expectations, thinking that its director Ameer will not disappoint me and I should say that I got more than what I bargained for. Though the movie is rural-themed and had no real city values attached to it, I liked it. I personally did not like the rude story, rogue hero or heartless heroine. But when you consider that the amount of effort that the director has put in to each of the scenes and each and every character of the movie then you cannot do anything but bow your head to this breathtaking director.

Ameer used to be another great director's (director Bala) assistant and I personally feel he has become touch better than Bala in this movie. People talk of Selva Ragavan as next Mani Ratnam; I think now they should think of Ameer as next Mani Ratnam. The reason is not that his direction is great but is rather unique. His parallel clips (showing two different shots in same clip) show he is not afraid of experimenting. Ridiculing fan clubs of famous and top actors shows he is not afraid of anyone. His audacity to pick newcomers and make them act in his movie shows that he wants himself and his story to be the heroes and the movie the selling point and doesn't want to rest on a hero's laurels.

Talking about the hero of the movie, Karthi, he has done wonderful job. In fact Superstar Rajinikanth was surprised to hear it was his first movie and his brother Surya said that in his first movie he did no acting and this performance from his brother was impeccable. The scene where Karthi impresses the most is when he shows love for heroine. He looks so natural and his witty scenes with his uncle are very comical. For first time, atleast for me, I saw a Tamil heroine in a Tamil movie having equal character as her counterpart. The heroine of the movie has proved that when given a proper character the heroines can also influence the movies. She was so good and true to her character that it seemed as if she were living the character and not merely acting. She was simply breathtaking with her dialogue delivery and performance. The comedian deserves a special mention for his simple yet wonderful scenes in the movie.

The credit for these should go to the director, for bringing out so much from newcomers is remarkable achievement. This is where Ameer impresses me the most and promises a lot for Tamil Cinema.

The movie is a must-see for all village people, though the city dwellers might not quite like movie and would certainly hate the climax. This means movie might be hit but will not have huge collections. It is every critic's hit movie but am not sure how good will it be at the box office.

I would love to see Ameer take a city subject next with bigger moolahs and that would probably set the ball rolling for making him the next Mani Ratnam.

Watching Movies Like Rang De Basanti

Lomi — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 01:19:23 EDT

If I had to rank the great patriotic films I've seen over the last few years, the list would include Yuva,Swades,Rang De Basanti, and Mudhalvan a.k.a Nayak

All these movies had something in common - the power of contemporary youth. In all these movies the hero was youth, the youth power, what the youth can achieve, etc. And now the interesting part - I am one of the youth of this great nation called India; so, after watching all these movies, what do I do? Do I replicate the hero of the movie? After I watched RDB, the latest among these movies, I found it more appropriate, especially in the first half, to what the youth of our nation is thinking. The youth of our nation is least bothered about anything that is happening in our country. There is no Nayak like journalist (when I say no its mostly) who cares so much about the nation. There is no Yuva-like youth who wants to enter politics, despite the hullaballoo (an exception being the founders of Lok Paritran). Again, there are no Swades-like youth who give up their fortune in a dreamland called USA and come back to serve their motherland (once again, with the exception of Lok Paritran).

Thus, the majority, if not all, of our youth are pretty much like the folks in the first half of RDB; they are least bothered about the nation, who think in terms of what nation has done to them and not in Kennedy's terms of what they have done for the nation. They need that spark like in RDB to transform themselves like the youth did in the second half of RDB.

After watching these four movies, especially after RDB, I was inspired to write something along similar lines. So an idea struck my mind, let me make a drama of this script and present it to the youth of the nation. The difference is that, I am studying in the U.S. and the youth to which am showing this, at least most of them, have come to make their fortunes in the U.S. and don't want to even dream about going back to India. So I decided to show them the situation replicated at my own university (Anna University). I show how the youth become the Vice Chancellor of university for one day and changes the happening of university in one day so that the foreign people start coming to this university for their studies. You see glimpses of my play here and here.

The response for this play was mixed; of course the acting, coordination, etc. were great, which pleased me. I did not hear any comments along the lines of "Great concept, but will it happen. You were joking weren't you?" Most of them knew it was just a play and boy, they have seen so many movies in the same fervour and very well accept that these things sound good in movies but in reality are least practical.

I wonder if it is really hypothetical or are these things that we see in movies really possible?

Post Mortem of Indian Cricket Team

Lomi — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 10:41:41 EDT

It is said in cricket that it is easy to pinpoint errors after the loss but difficult to judge before it starts. Actually if you had followed my blogsite I gave India very little chance of advancing to semifinals but they beat me on predictions by not even qualifying for the Super 8s.

As you all know the excitement of Cricket World Cup 2007 is just starting but unfortunately two of the most followed teams in the Indian subcontinent, India and Pakistan, are out of the tournament. So, I thought why not analyze the Indian team and see what really went wrong with our team.

First, here was our team:

Opening Batsmen- Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Virendar Sehwag, Robin Uthappa

Middle Order- Rahul Dravid (Captain), Yuvraj Singh, Sachin Tendulkar, Virendar Sehwag, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Dinesh Karthick

All Rounders- Irfan Pathan, Virender Sehwag, Mahendra Singh Dhoni

Wicket Keepers- Dinesh Karthick, Mahendra Singh Dhoni

Fast Bowlers- Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar, Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel, Sreesanth

Spinners- Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh

Fielders- Yuvraj Singh, Ajit Agarkar, Dinesh Karthick

Note there are only fifteen players in the team but some players qualify for more than one position.

Opening Batsmen:
India's opening batsmen are the World's best; there are no two ways about it. You won't get any better. On one hand you have the best ODI batsman Sachin with 40 tons, on other hand you have Ganguly who is arguably second best ODI batsman in the world. Then Sehwag on his day is the most destructive ODI batsman and Uthappa is what Sehwag was six years ago.

In simple words this is the best and it doesn't get bigger than this in terms of statistics but on field we had so many deficiencies even in our best part of the game. Moreover cricket is not about what used to be, it's about what is now. We found that Sachin was batting in middle order, which he has not done in recent past or leading in to WC. Then did why our captain ask him to play in the middle order?

Ganguly was in form but not as we know him. Uthappa came a cropper, which was expected as he was a youngster with hardly 3 or 4 matches under his belt. This again raises the question, why did the selection team pick such a youngster for a major tournament like WC and why did Dravid play Uthappa ahead of an all-rounder like Pathan?

I think we just had too many openers unnecessarily for WC. We could have picked someone like Kaif or Raina ahead of Uthappa for the simple reason they have played more.

Middle Order:
The middle order also did not come that good. In the game against Bangladesh, once Ganguly got out, others failed to chip in and India bundled out like a pack of cards which was sorry to see for an Indian cricket fan.

Also the running between wickets was very poor, anyone watching cricket with bit of sense could say that we should have picked at least one of the two - Kaif or Raina, which would have improved our fielding and running between wickets a lot. By putting Sachin in middle order we further weakened our middle order.

Except Dravid, there was no experienced solid middle order batsman who could wage a battle against strong teams (it was a different matter we did not even need to face them). Players like Dhoni, Yuvraj, Sehwag or even Sachin for that matter should understand what type of responsibility is required to play in middle order.

All Rounders:
Did we have anyone called as all-rounder? Oh, we never did for like the past 10 years and all we had at most were batsman like Sachin, Jadeja, Sehwag, Ganguly, Yuvraj, etc trying to fill in that 5th bowler slot.

Still they did the needful with Sehwag being the best among them for his ability to bowl at death. Who can forget his impeccable bowling against South Africa at ICC Champions trophy 2002?

Now there was one guy touted as the next Kapil Dev and still possess excellent average in both bowling and batting. Then why wasn't he used in this WC? Yes I am talking about Irfan Pathan. Yes of course his form was not that good but there is classic saying in cricket that "Form is temporary, Class is permanent".

Pathan has lots of class in him. He could have commanded a place in the team ahead of Uthappa in terms of his batting alone. It was sorry to see Dravid backing a couch potato but not Pathan.

Wicket Keepers:
This could a quiz question for the WC 2007. Which was the only team in the WC that had two specialist keepers? (I know the Aussies have two but that's a cover for Gilchrist who wanted a two or three match rest.)

Answer: India. Correct answer! And you win cash prize of 1 Lakh rupees and free ticket to India vs Sri Lanka match in the WC 2007.

Seriously, why did we need two keepers - because Mr. Dravid doesn't need to keep for even one match? Being captain, couldn't he even do this small thing? If at all Dhoni would have got injured then Karthick could have reached Caribbean in 3-4 days, which meant losing one match that could have been filled in by Dravid.

Thus this points to a question why do we need two keepers? In simple words Mr. Dravid likes Dinesh Karthick. Why this favoritism? Also Dhoni needs to work on his keeping more than giving advertisements. His keeping lacks some general technique and he is covering up with his batting which is not good.

We could have had both Raina and Kaif instead of Karthick and Uthappa in which case we would have had youth with sufficient experience for WC. The problem with Dinesh Karthick and Uthappa was that they had no match experience leading into such a big tournament like WC.

Fast Bowlers:
I feel this set of fast bowlers were the best India has ever had in world cricket in the past 15 years. I have followed the Indian cricket team for the past fifteen years and seriously it's only of late that I can proudly say that we have great fast bowlers.

On one hand we have the great upcoming swing bowler Pathan, then we have Zaheer who with his experience is damn good. And now I want to dig a little on Indian media.

The Indian media highlights Zaheer's WC 2003 experience as his performance in the finals, it's another matter that none of them bowled well that day and only he gets highlighted. But why, Media, do you forget he was India's highest wicket taker in WC 2003 and he was the best in the show overall.

I call it ridiculous. Judge him by overall performance and not just one match. Also Munaf Patel is good upcoming fast bowler along with Sreesanth. Ajit Agarkar with his so called all rounding abilities still gets to find a place in the team though I seriously don't know when he will ever make it permanent.

Agarkar always comes a cropper when he is put under even a little amount of pressure. This means he should remain a standby pacer at most rather than a frontline. Also I would have had both Sreesanth and Pathan ahead of Agarkar because he just lacks basics in bowling under pressure. He has been around for nearly 10 years now and still is 2nd or 3rd fast bowler and rather than the leading paceman.

Spinners:
Our spinners Anil Kumble and Harbhajan were world class, one with so much experience behind his name that he has done it all seen it all and another a really established spinner. But that was only on paper.

Anil Kumble should have retired from ODI cricket 4 years ago along with his compatriot Srinath in the last WC. He obviously was a passenger in the team and blocked the place for Ramesh Powar who could have made a world of difference to this already very heavy headed team.

Fielders:
Everyone knows it, we have the worst fielding set in the world, maybe along with Pakistan. Then of late we had a good set with people like Kaif, Yuvraj and Raina.

Only one of those was selected and he was also not 100% fit. Other two were dropped for I don't know what reasons. Dropping Raina is a bit understandable as he is a youngster and needs some time in Ranji trophy to regroup but I would have had Kaif in my team any day.

People talk about his batting ability but what about his running between wickets, runs saved and his continuous encouragement? Please give me a break with your selection, you couldn't seriously have told him to go back and correct your technique in Ranjis. He has been around for more than 7 years so that his strengths and weaknesses are well known.

And who did not have weaknesses? Everyone has them. If you were to believe me, even Sachin did. Sachin cannot score boundaries when the score is 85-100 even when he has 40 tons behind his name and it's a fact.

With all this I would have had Kaif for Dinesh Karthick any day. Why can't people remember it was Kaif who instigated the collapse of England vs India in that WC 2003 match. Who knows, if that run out would have been affected England could have won that match and our whole WC 2003 could have been different?

Overall:
Our team was very good on paper and would have won WC 3 times in a row but unfortunately this cricket WC was not played on paper. Instead it was played on something called a cricket field, which required things like strategy, captaincy, fielding, running between wickets, pressure, team skills, etc to name a few.

And all that counts for 50% and skill set counts for 50%. With our strong skill set even if we had got 50/50, our other abstract factors were so bad that we just were too exposed in this WC.

The ideal team if our coach and captain had used more mind than heart was:

Dravid �
Sachin
Ganguly
Yuvraj
Suresh Raina
Sehwag
Kaif
Dhoni (wk)
Pathan
Powar
Harbhajan
Zaheer
Agarkar
Munaf
Sreesanth

Well as they say there no ifs and buts in cricket, what happened is the past and we should look towards the future. Bad luck for both Dravid and Chappell but there was something much more than luck that was wrong with them.

MS In The U.S: A Beginners Guide

Lomi — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 15:18:49 EDT

So you want to do MS in U.S.? Well then I hope that this article will be very useful to you. I actually wanted to bring about the procedures that have to be done for getting into any top graduate school in the U.S. Treat this as a useful guide.

Why?

This is the first question that you should ask yourself and try to answer. It, most probably is one of the following:

Dream to pursue higher studies in the country where the latest technologies are developed or readily available. (They are so advanced!)
Higher standards of studies in American universities. (When will I be sitting in those lecture halls?)
The studies/courses are practical oriented and not just "learning by rote" studies followed in some universities in India. (If that was the case, I wouldn't be cutting classes)
Faculties in the USA are PhDs. (They know their stuff, I hope)
To pursue higher research, USA provides the facilities for this to be possible. (One day I will find something)
To get the stamp of a US education (Dude, I'm a graduate from USA!)
To get a good high paying job.(The salary slip that I will envy)
To just get to the U.S. by some means. (Hey, I just wanna be there).

Where?

The next logical question is where should one do it? Of course, everyone wants to do in the top school but then it's not always possible. So, finding the best fit for you is the next step. There are two ranking systems that you can follow; looking at both would be great. One is the NRC rankings which are taken every 10 years. So you can take a look at NRC 2001 (this one is free), the next ranking system that is available is U.S. News ranking which is available at their website if you are ready to shell out some nominal amount. Also the question arises - which one can I afford? This is a tough one to answer but as a thumb rule, public (state run) universities are cheaper than private ones. Also climate plays an important role. To shortlist the schools, it's essential to visit the college website and know its details (weather, student community, international community etc). The internet is the most powerful weapon for unlocking all the details about the colleges.

How?

The previous two questions were dealt with a little ease but this one needs quite a lengthy answer. In fact, it's easier to list out things to do starting from April of your pre-final year:

April - June (of your 3rd year in a 4 year bachelor's degree):

Decide on your field(s) in which you wish to apply.

Write a draft statement of purpose/personal statement.

Surf the internet to find university links and learn more about them.

Start browsing Web sites of graduate programs and college catalogs.

Prepare and schedule for the required standardized tests.

July - September:

Take the standardized tests of GRE and TOEFL.

Report your scores sensibly. You will be saving $ 96.

Meet with faculty members that you know to discuss your personal statement and learn about possible programs.

Request Application Forms from graduate schools.

Start writing to faculty members of prospective graduate schools.

Begin to develop your personal timeline for the application process.

October - November:

Based on your GRE scores determine the schools to which you plan to apply.

Finish your timeline based on each institution's deadline and financial aid deadlines.

Complete your personal statement, adjusting it to meet each application's specific needs.

Order transcripts from all post-secondary institutions (If fall term grades are expected, then check with staff in the registrar's office to see if a transcript including fall term grades can be sent in time to meet the deadlines of programs to which you are applying).

Complete application forms (First, do a draft on a photocopy of the form).

Approach your faculty members for Recommendation letters. Give your faculty all the information that they will need to write recommendations for you for each of your application schools.

December - January:

Prepare your applications. Get your bank drafts. Report your GRE/TOEFL scores if you haven't done so earlier.

Mail applications. Even if deadlines are later, it is good to get the applications in early.

February - April:

Wait for your admissions.

Keep track of your application forms .Check your online status regularly.

If you do not get financial aid, then decide according to the situation.

If you have obtained more than one admission, try to make up your mind about which program you will join.

Reject other offers politely.

June - August:

Contact your program coordinator to get more information.

Write to your guide and learn more about his/her latest research interests.

Block your tickets early. (Shop around for a good offer!)

Shopping! Prepare to leave.

GRE/TOEFL:

These are the two exams you will have to write if you want to go to any graduate school in US. Preparing for TOEFL isn't that tough and I would recommend you to take GRE first and take the TOEFL later. The idea behind this strategy is that preparing the verbal section of GRE will itself equip you to tackle the TOEFL exam. The TOEFL also tests some things different from GRE like listening skills and grammar skills but I think if you can master GRE verbal then TOEFL should be walk in the park. Now let's see how we deal with preparation for GRE.

Preparation for GRE:

First I will suggest few materials for preparations, they are as follows:

Barrons' Guide for the GRE - For Verbal prep only. Please buy the present edition.
CDs for computer based testing ( I would suggest Kaplan, Power prep and Princeton Review)
Question papers, Verbal & Analytical exercises by Kaplan, Princeton, Peterson's etc
Norman Lewis: How to build a better vocabulary & Rosenblum - These books can be used to strengthen your verbal skills.

Allow yourself at least six months of continued preparations for cracking the GRE. First you can start by reading a vocabulary building book like the Norman Lewis one and then slowly go about going through the word lists of Barron's. It's hectic work going through those unheard words but then its worth that hard work. One thing which is also widely accepted in GRE is that only way to improve your scores drastically is to improve your vocabulary.

Structure of GRE:

Going through any of the books on GRE will tell you more details like the system of scoring. It's a computer adaptive test (CAT). The 'adapt' feature is its uniqueness i.e. it gives you the next question depending upon how you answered the previous questions. GRE has three sections: Verbal, Quantitative and Analytical writing sections. Quantitative section is easiest of the three. All it requires is not to be over confident, that's all. Verbal section is the toughest and requires all the hard work that I prescribed earlier. Writing section is something for which you can't do much as it is inborn talent in you. The only thing you can avoid is spelling mistakes, grammatical mistakes etc. though the GRE actually tests you on your analyzing skills. The scores for each section are: Verbal = 800, Quantitative = 800. Writing = 6 point scale. That doesn't mean that writing isn't important. All three sections scores are equally distributed. For engineering students quantitative is the most important section. Going through any of the books will give more details regarding these sections.

Conclusion :

I think that this guide is good enough for a novice at education in US. I haven't dealt about the costs, financial aids, SOPS, recommendation letters since it's supposed to be a general essay. I would like to conclude hoping that every reader of this article got some benefit out of this. If anyone wants me to write another article on other particular topics of MS in the U.S. then it will be my pleasure to do the same.