FC Barca Numero Uno!!

It was a riveting finish to this year football season and FC Barcelona was hands-down Numero Uno. The Final of Champions League between ManU and Barcelona at Rome was totally a one-side affair with Catalans came out triumph with all guns blazing. The match was without doubt between two best football team this season. ManU won the premier league confortably and Barcelona were table topper in La Liga.So it was supposed to be a clash of Titans in Olympique stadium Rome.

In the first few minutes of the match, ManU started showing their class with as many as three to four goal attempts at Barca post in first five minutes. Victor Valdes did well to cut Ronaldo’s 30-meter free kick. But once Barca started making early inroads towards Manu Goal they came in their own groove. It was Cameroonean Eto who started the scoring in Barca’s very first attack. He dribles the ball past Vidic and put the ball beyond Van Der Saar for a thumping 9th minute goal. After this there was no stopping for Barcelona and they started playing the kind of football they are loved all round the world. They started having 60-70% pocession and started controlling the game. The place where Barcelona was very good and ManU felt lost was in midfield. Xavi and Ineista show there class everybit while Carrick, Giggs and Anderson looked out of touch. No wonder Xavi won the UEFA man of the match award for this match. On the other hand ManU forwards including Ronaldo not gettng enough passes from Midfield to take the game forward. By the end of first half Barca was quite comfortably placed.

The second half also shares the same story. Inspite of bringing Tevez and Scholes ManU could not dominate the game. At around 20 minutes more to go, Xavi gave an elegant cross pass Ferdinand and Messi headed the ball pass Van Der Saar second time in the night thereby ending any hope of ManU revival in the match. It was probably the most one sided Champions League Final to have taken place in last 5-6 years. Barca for the kind of football they play totally deserved this victory. I hope Messi wins the world footballer of the year award this time because of the consistent performance his season in all leagues. As for Barca, many people have started comparing this team with Johan Cryuff’s Dream Team which ruled Europe between 1991-1994.No matter what, I am looking forward to witnessing Barca next season with new signings but with same style (some say art) of football and who know if they reach Final next year we will see them play in Santiago Bernbeau, their arch-rival Real Madrid’s local stadium which will be a contest to watch out for.
Go Barca!!!

Rambling along in Life!!

I was away from from this page for last few days due to some prior commitments which I could not relegate further and certainly world has changed a bit in more then one ways during this small span of time. It will definitely be a shame on my part if I haven’t found out anything to write about all this days. So in a small way I will be jotting down the ramblings around my life so as to cut-off this backlog in great deal.

The Red Citadel Breached: Few days back I was attending ‘Brand Equity’ Quiz contest in Bangalore when someone from audience asked Derek O Brien, the host, regarding the chances of Trinamul Congress (TC), of which he is an active member, doing well in this General Election. When he said this time change is going to come in Bengal, everybody in audience laughed and rubbished his claim in unison. I always had the feeling that Bengal is somehow so comfortably settled under left red carpet that rising from it is just next to impossible. Otherwise, how would you explain left ruling Bengal for past three decades and this is ‘biggest democracy in the world’ we are talking about?

But this General election in many ways than one has been remarkable. We saw a rapid demise of identity politics when Nitish Kumar sweeps Bihar on the basis of Governance and development-keeping Lalu’s RJD down and dusted. But one of the major changes that have occurred in this election will undoubtedly be in Bengal. Left being in minority in Bengal was unthinkable some days ago. Seriously, I never thought, I will see this day in next 20-30 years. But this time out of 42-loksabha seats in this election from Bengal TC-Congress alliance won in 25 seats keeping left with mere 15 seats. This surely is a small step before giant leap is taken to snatch state assembly from the left grip after a span of three decades when state election happen later next year and who knows Mamata can certainly turn the table around this time. Personally I have a great respect for the lady for her constant struggle all these years specially when you know that you are banging your head against a wall which is just next to impossible to break. As for Left -‘Communism’ though looks very good on paper, is quite irrelevant and impractical in this globalized world. The same policies that they support in West Bengal are opposed in Center. There was a great disparity in their thought process in every level which I believe will led them to their demise next year in assembly polls.

Chargers roared in this IPL: This is another of a turnaround story that happened last weekend. Deccan Chargers, who were at 8th in last year IPL came out triumph this time around. The major credit of this win should go to captain and Man of the series Adam Gilchrist.I always believed there are only two cricketers in this generation who we can say comes once in 50 years. One of them is Shane Warne and other one is certainly Adam Gilchrist.A wicket-keeper batsman of such a destructive nature was quite unheard of in world cricket before Gilchrist came into picture. If you prepare a list of all time best cricket team in any format of game, these two players will certainly be a part of them. Such was the impact of these players that inspite of being so called old-aged, they lead their team to victory in new format of the game in first two IPL season.

DBA-Dashers made a Hatrick: Well we have our own triumph in OTP (Oracle Tech Park) cricket tournament three years in a row. This time it felt more sweeter coz we were considered underdogs as we lost few good players who played for us last two times. Nevertheless we played some brilliant cricket (as they say) and were being ably led by our captain Animesh to Championship Victory. We played 5 matches this year though Final was washed out in rain and we had to share the Cup with other finalist. Personally I also chip in some useful runs in crucial time and made me believe that some cricketing genes are still left in my body that I seriously doubted few months back.

Champions League Final Barca-ManU: Last but certainly not the least, today Barcelona is going to play ManU in Rome in a Champions League (CL) Final match which I have been eagerly waiting since Barca-Chealsea second leg match. Undoubtedly they were the best two club teams this year considering both were league Champions in their respective country Leagues When I woke up this morning and switched on the TV, last year’s champions league Final between Chelsea-ManU was being telecasted there. John Terry’s final penalty miss in the match still brings shiver down my spine one year later. But today I hope Barca turns the table by making this clash a memorable one and take revenge of their semi-final defeat last season. Everybody is considering this match as more of a Messi-Ronaldo clash considering their dominance in team wins all throughout this season. Their chance of winning world footballer of the year award lies on result of this match. I believe Barca’s chances in this match will depend upon how good Xavi and Iniesta plays and controls the ball. They certainly holds the key to Barca’s chances considering they have few players for defence left due to suspension and injury. On a Personal level, I have made myself prepared for this match.. if you know what I mean.
Remember I said in my last post…this will certainly be a 10-pint match and I will try to keep my word!!

Ciao!!

Its all over for Chelsea (Huahahahaha)!!!

It was surely a match that will be itched in my memory for a long time. Two of my favorite teams were meeing in semifinals but my heart was slight tilted towards Barcelona.It was an amazing end to the two-leg semifinals and I believe Barcelona deserved to win every bit Somhow this match reminds me of France-Italy Euro 2000 final where France snitches the game from Italy’s jaw at Extra time.

I woke up at around 10 pm after having a good sleep knowing it will be long night today. I saw Mumbai losing the IPL match from ‘47 balls left’ –‘56 runs needed’ –‘6 wickets left’ like situation and immediately knew that jinx is very much prevelent. I got myself prepared for the game (u know food, snacks,beer etc) that I have been waiting since first leg eagerly. Finally as the players were marching the ground I opened my first beer of the night hoping it will be an exiting game keeping my finger crossed. By the time Essein scored first Goal of the match at 9th Minute I was down with one pint. Somehow I didn’t expected him to score such an amazing Goal.I thought ‘First touch left footter 30 meter goal’ died the day Zidane said goodBye to the beautiful game. Game was going at its own pace with Barcelona keeping majority of the possesion. I thought it would be shame if Barca didn’t qualify into the final considering they would have kept aprox. 65-70 % possession covering entire two-leg by the end of the game. But that was not to be. Chelsea thought they had done enough to earn a repeat of last season's final as they defended Michael Essien's breathtaking ninth-minute goal with great resilience only for Essien to then err in failing to clear his lines in the dying moments at 91st Minute. Messi squared to Iniesta and he cut his shot skilfully away from Čech to give the Barca - playing with ten men after Eric Abidal's dismissal - victory on away goals and the chance to reclaim their crown.

But I had to admit there were some serious refree errors in the match and unfotunately all has gone wrong against Chelsea.If I would have been supporting Chelsea at this match I would have been completely heart broken.There were definatly 2-3 penalty put down by refree against Chealsea and I totally believe the thrashing, which refree got at the end of the match from Chelsea players specially Drogba and Ballack, were completely justified. Well as they say ,‘all is well if end is well’ and by the time I finish this post I will already be down with 5 pint of beer and I just cant wait to see Barca - ManU Final in Rome on May 27(I belive that will be a 10 pint match).
Adios and have a pleasant night as I know I will :)

Its Chelsea - Barca today in Stanford Bridge

Probably this would be a match of the season. Personally I wanted them to meet in Final in Rome, but that was not to be. Earlier I had high expectation in Camp Nou also when they met two weeks before but due to Chealse strong defensive negetive tactics(some say game's dark arts) match ended in tame nil-nil. Irrespective of the scoreline, match was very worth watching. But I am keeping my finger crossed for this match and hoping Barcelona make it to finals to meet Man U in Rome, considering Barca’s 6-2 thrashing against Real Madrid at Santiago Bernabéu last weekend.

Personally I also want to break my jinx with this match. It seems whichever team I have been supporting for last 2 weeks be it in Cricket or Football, that team somehow loses the match. If this happens again today in this match it will definately leave a big dent in my head that will take considerable amount to Booze to fill it!

IPL’s Deep Throat

I have again taken a long hiatus from posting in my blog. I would like to say, it is so, as I was a bit busy these days but somehow my conscious doesn’t permit this and I would be fair enough to accept that IPL has got a lot to do with this. Well I know few people who haven’t wrote anything in there blog for more than one month so I am considerably well off (Any Similarity or reference to Persons Living or Dead is Purely Coincidental.)

I always believed Cricket is the only thing that unites India. It is undoubtedly followed as a religion here. I remember watching India-Pakistan Under –15 Final in Shillong with around 50 people in a pub in 2003 and the excitement there was simply unmatchable. It somehow amazed me how this game, which we imbibed from our colonial imperialistic hangover, is bigger then religion, gender, caste, language, geographical boundaries that India is very famous for and is quite evident specially in this election season. So it hurt everybody when our biggest cricket extravaganza- IPL was shifted to South Africa (I hope SA also reciprocates the same by shifting some soccer world cup matches in 2010 to India preferably Kolkata, but again this is one of my wishful thinking).

We are already down with around one and half week of IPL and excitement seems steaming up. We have already seen how IPL has taken the thunder from election and suddenly cricketer and film stars are seen everywhere replacing politicians from newspapers and TV news channels. The other day one TV news channel “Till Today” featured an IPL special series called “Priety ko Gussa kyun aaya” showing Preity Zinta’s reaction in slow motion for every King’s Eleven wicket in a match again kolkata for nearly 30 minutes. Recently I checked IPL news has also got its very own space in the world of blogosphere with a new blog, namely under the name fakeiplplayer.

Apparently the blogger – calling himself Fake IPL Player claims to be a KKR team member has been writing about happenings in and around IPL, from dressing rooms to team meeting discussions to night parties and its various other ramifications. The blogger also uses names coined by him to refer to cricketers and owners. So the pieces are about Badshah dildo, Coachie, Skipper (Brendon McCullum), Calypso King (Chris Gayle), Lord Almighty or Lordie (a former skipper) and fast bowlers Kaan Mool (Ajit Agarkar) and Little John (Ishant Sharma). Then there are non-KKR personalities like a commentator, Kishen Kanhaiyya, a star batsman, Prince of Patiala and a pacer, Appam Chutiya (for sreesanth..Just love this name), among others.
Here are some of my favorites from his various posts:

“Lordie took over the match briefing, and boy, was he charged up or what. He just let loose, telling the boys what is expected of them – imagine the slowest member of the team chastising guys twice as fast on matters such as agility, speed and throwing.’’

“Little John skipped as it was optional training. I can understand it, he is after all a fast bowler and he def needed some time off after the "intense workout" he must have had last night. This is what I love abt top sportsmen. No matter how gawky u look or how squeaky u speak, u still get the chicks”

“Learnt a very interesting piece of news. Not sure if it's true or not. Apparently, Appam Chutiya wasn't slapped by Meera Bhai during last yr's tournament. He was crying because his team owner Babli hugged everyone after the match other than him. The Prince of Patiala saw an opportunity to take Meera Bhai out of the equation and accused him of slapping Appam. I think Appam is still waiting for that hug.”

Its time for me to sign-off now as Dada(Oops Lordie) is coming to ball against Rajasthan Royal now and yes I am still betting for Gayle’s 48-ball century in this match(another of my wishful thinking).

Ciao!!

Bungee Jumping---Fall of Life!!

“My feet were trembling as I was about the jump (same say fall) from the height of 130 feet (i.e. approximately 10 Floors) and hesitantly waiting for my turn on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. A curious looking instructor glanced at me with no sympathy, probably he had seen these emotions before a lot many times. My friend who accompanied me for the event came back relieved after his turn was over. He had the same expression one has after a smooth bowel movement while suffering from severe constipation. Now it was my turn to go through all this agony.

The lead instructor called my name as he was checking cords and connections before my turn. I walked up to him and asked for any danger as such. He assured me nothing will happen and pompously told success stories of Bunjee jumping(BG) for last two days. I got a little encouraged by this as he tied my body and foot with elastic cord, which seems quite strong. Once it is finished he told me to board the box, which was connected to a Crane. I boarded the box with two instructors as they started explaining right technique for the jump so that there were no jerks and damages as such in midair, considering software engineers are more prone to these experiences. I asked him whether I could wear my sunglass so that my photo/video comes nice while jumping, but he denied saying it would hinder me from true experience and can also lead to some eye problem. I somehow forgot to ask him “Why and How”.

We already reached the height of around 80 feet and it already seems too high to me. I thought of asking him whether I can jump from this height but I know it will be fruitless as height of the fall depends upon cord length and it was not possible to make it short now. But at one level I know 80 feet or 130 feet doesn’t make any difference, as any technical snag will lead to the same biological fate in both cases.

After sometime crane stopped and I knew its time!!

A whole lot of emotions (grief, fear, shame, regret, resentment, anger, hostility, interest, enthusiasm, laughter, empathy, action, curiosity to name a few) were engulfing me and I tried to focus on the jump as told by instructors. Slowly I started living in this moment more then ever before. The past was completely forgotten and future certainly looks very uncertain. My heart probably was beating at double its speed; strangely I remembered a dream/nightmare, which I saw some days back where I saw myself falling from greater height with any stoppages at all.
I took around 10 steps forward. I knew the moment has arrived. Slowly I leaped forward and plunge myself in air and let my destiny be hanged on the elastic cord.”

This would have been a true story if an untoward incident that happened last weekend in Bangalore would not have taken place.25-year-old marine engineer, Bhargav, from Chennai, plunged to his death as the harness snapped while he was attempting bungee jumping near Bannerghatta on Saturday. It is evident from initial reports that the organizers had not followed basic safety procedures, and it's cut short the life of a young man who was seeking some fun.

Check this TOI story which appeared next day in front page.

When I heard about this news from my friend on Saturday evening I was left utterly shocked. The unpredictability of life simply overawed me. I had called the organizer the same morning asking for any slots available for Saturday for one of my friend (incedently he has Bungee- jumping listed in number 2 in his bucket list) who was supposed to leave for Chennai in night. Now I consider ourselves lucky that he told us , “We are very overbooked and any chance of getting your number is very remote”. This entire incident left me with much bitterness and my heart goes out for deceased person’s friends and relatives. But surely this hasn’t dented my spirit for another go at Bungee Jumping. One of my friend wrote me a mail today saying, “ Bach gaya tu saale…Dekhke kariyo bhai yeh sab…India mein yeh sab bada risky hain”. I wonder if India is ill equipped for all this adventurous stuffs where safety and security in these games are given secondary priority. As far as I am concerned I have taken his advice for time being but I am pretty sure I will get another opportunity of bungee jumping and who knows next time it could be from ALPS!

Adios!!

The weekend that wasn’t

I had a great plan for this weekend. We were supposedly about to go to Pondicherry representing Oracle for Paintball competition. I thought I would start my tourist meter once again which is currently stuck at around 1400 KM for last one and half month and 15K km on road, which I had promised myself at the advent of this year, seems quite elusive. I thought I would again have pleasure of 3 Bs simultaneously after a long time.3 B is basically a concept which I had cofounded with my friend when we were enroute to Goa for the first time .It basically stands for Beaches…Beers…and Babes (in GOA you can call it Bikinis). This sub-concept is again derived from another base-concept, which I had cofounded with another friend while I was working in Kolkata supposedly called 3Ws(namely Wine…Women…and Wealth). Nevertheless the plan was not to be. Perhaps we didn’t have any ‘tryst with destiny’ this time. We were not selected and I spent the whole of weekend with my very own 1B i.e. Bed. I tried to spend some quality with one and only B I am left with this weekend and I must say I had a blast. I had my laptop (yes official one) and some books for my company. So at the end of this weekend I am down with these many stuffs/experiences not necessary in chronological manner

Movies: I had a huge backlog of movies for last few weeks and I was just about to crumble under enormous pressure of finishing those. So I am glad I close some of it. These were the movies that I destined upon this weekend essentially in chronological order: Pyasa-Turistas-Good Luck Chuck-The sum of all Fears-The Devil wears Prada-School of Rock-Hostel-Ghazini.

Books and Magazine: I finished last two weeks Outlook predominately ‘on net in bed’, finished about 100 pages of Joseph’s Heller Catch-22, started Richard Bach’s Illusions (found it enormously boring so fall asleep after 10 minutes), picked ‘Direct from Dell’ and finished its timeline and preface. Apart from this I had my regular encounters with Times of India and Hindu on a daily basis for last two days again ‘on net in bed’.

Calorie Consumption: During all this period of hard work I didn’t wanted to get tired so I make myself had a constant supply of eatables and I over-indulged myself by having too much food of non-vegetarian variety essentially fish and chicken. Apart from this I had a constant supply of Port-Wine to keep myself hydrated throughout this weekend. Some say it’s my new addiction but isn’t wine is called ‘Elixir of life’.

Sports and Leisure: Probably the only active thing I did this weekend was to get up early on Saturday morning and went to play cricket. It was really very very hot and slowly global warming was beginning to sink in under my skin. I went for batting as an opener thinking I will atleast make myself stay in wicket for 7-8 overs but that was not to be. I couldn’t touch a single ball and got caught behind in my third ball. I have a feeling that somehow sporting genes in my body are fast getting diminished and my illustrious (yeah..I want to say so) sporting career is going to be finish soon. I left the field early after fielding for 10 overs under scorching sun and went straight for swimming.I had a very good time there (very is added to underline the feeling when you have three beautiful gals also swimming in the same pool).

In all I would say I had a gala time this weekend even if I couldn’t go to Pondicherry.But only destiny knows how long will it take for me to again bring down my tourist meter and must I say I am already filling fuel for that moment.Am I getting restless because of this?