Another Blog in the Wall

I had been to Bangalore last weekend, after a long time actually. The last time I was there for a 2-day induction last April, but followed to Guest House - Office - Guest House routine. This time caught up with a couple of batchmates, and ended up hogging and some more hogging. Staying in Chennai for 3 months, the difference between Chennai and Bangalore is increasing every passing day. Church Street off Brigade Road apparently has some hazaar eating joints.

Apart from food, I also happened to watch Rock On. DCH-without-the-humour is how my friend described it. I couldn’t agree more. Especially with movies like Chamku and C Kompany for competition ;)

Its been a month since I’ve been in Chennai. This place has definitely changed a lot. Now that I stay in the suburbs compared to the heart of the city, when I was around last year. Work .. as such its still early days.

India are touring the Emerald Isle, yet again during the monsoons. The emerging Mendis will now make sure that the Lankans now field only 1 pace bowler. I think Sangakkara can bowl a couple before the spin duo take over and pain us to death, just like the irreplaceable Ranjit Fernando.

Anyways.. more later. Stay tuned!

On 25^th May 2005, the team from Merseyside pulled off what the pundits call as one of the most remarkable “comebacks” ever. 3-0 down in the 1^st half and everyone thought that the Champions League trophy’s headed to the San Siro in Milan. But 6 minutes of sheer madness, and loads of luck, saw Liverpool take the game into extra time. And when Andriy Shevchenko missed the decisive penalty against Dudek, Liverpool fans across the world celebrated their 5^th European success and chanted “We will not walk alone”. The venue was Istanbul, the capital of Turkey.

So, when Turkey knocked out the Czech Republic out of the Euro 2008, they showed more grit and resolve to win, something they learnt on that remarkable night at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul. Barring from a Petr Cech error, that allowed the Turks to equalize in the 87^th minute, it was a very attacking approach from them in the 2^nd half. The ball traveled mostly in 1 direction. From left to right. From Demirel to Cech . And in the end, after scoring the winner in the 89^th minute, I am sure they must have celebrated as if they have won the trophy. For the Turks were never even considered to progress to the QFs.

I just hope there aint a similar trend in group C, when Germany take on Austria.

Tata Sky doesn’t broadcast Neo Sports as a part their Jumbo pack, and since there ain’t much of an action, we dint subscribe to the same. So in order to catch up with the Kitply Cup, just like the 80% non-Cable TV subscribers across India, we switched on to our Good Ol’ Doordarshan. And since they are streaming the Neo Sports’ feed, 4/5 ball overs and covering 25% of the screen with arbit advertisements were very well expected. Even more painful is the Happydent jingle that comes up whenever a milestone is reached. Anyways, apart from these, Doordarshan has some special properties of its own.

Hindi Commentary – It’s been a while since I’ve heard Hindi Commentary for Cricket. Though Siva, Arun Lal and Ramiz Raja would give them a run for their money, the Hindi chaps are truly unique. Unlike their English counterparts, they don’t watch the match from the stadium. Like you and me, they watch the television set. So whenever a batsman has a swing at a ball, he is not sure about the outcome. Hence you can hear cliches like “Behatareeen shot! Lekin wahan fielder maujood” (What a great shot, but there is a fielder out there) and “Sundar timing, aur yeh char run.. oh nahin! Bahut achchi fielding wahan par” and hazaar more stuff. Reminds me of the days of listening to commentary on AIR.

The Government Ads – State-run DD would be the only broadcaster who would be interested in airing these ads. Or maybe they have no option. The “Jaago Grahak Jaago” ads make a remarkable comeback. With absolutely atrocious acting and useless themes. Guess the producers worked them out for free. A definite mention here should be made to the National Disaster Management ads. Maybe they should start airing those Anti-infanticide ads to keep up their good work.

And as I type these words, India’s facing an uphill task against Pakistan in the final, and Dhoni looks to have definitely slowed down post-captaincy. But then the tournament is almost over, and its time to switch over to ESPN Star for the upcoming Asia Cup.

I have been using “always on” internet, also known as broadband since early 2003. Asianet in Trivandrum, offered me unlimited downloads, but at a pathetic speed and hefty monthly rates. TCS, though had a decent connection, had too many restrictions. Same goes with Dell, where I did my summer internship. XIMB had a lovely and fast internet connection. Torrents and other p2p tools were blocked. So me and a couple of friends pooled in for Rapidshare premium connection. But the download limits were restricted to 32 kbps. Through hazaar underground sites, I’ve been able to build up a huge collection of movies, rock songs and other popular TV shows. The internet connection at Alotra, Marseille, has been the best Wi-fi connection I’d surfed. With downloads as fast as 400 kbps, it used to take me just 6-7 mins to download the latest episode of Heroes. Just the time I took to brush my teeth. During all this time I had never cared for download limits. Never thought twice to open up any website, esp sites such as Youtube. Then things got worse.

Over the past few months, I have been lazing around at home. I have a cable connection from Ortel, which apparently was the 1st company to provide broadband internet at Bhubaneswar. It was a combo pack with both TV channels and internet in the same package. The download limit allowed was 2.5 GB per month. And downloads at 1 am to 7 am were absolutely free.

While in XIMB, I used to visit some hazaar sites, most of them laden with heavy graphics, flash animations etc. So when the same habit continued over here, my parents got freaked out at the bills. The cable operator used to disconnect the connection when the download limit was reached. And I had to rush to the center to make additional payments for addition megabytes. Such a pain it was, in the modern world of information superhighways. Slowly I stopped browsing during the daytime, and used to spend late nights browsing till 4 am on a few nights.

Given the penetration and the popularity in Bhubaneswar, there are aint any options. We thought of taking up a BSNL broadband connection. But then since we dint have a landline connection, it was dropped. Then I heard about BSNL EVDO and had almost convinced my dad to get that, since that would give me the chance to surf the internet with the comfort of the AC. But the blokes at BSNL Bhubaneswar inform me that since there wasnt any significant demand for EVDO out here, they are not really pressing for new modems, once they went out of stock. So much for being a Govt organisation!!

So its back to square one! I ration my internet usage. Dont check mails which have any sort of attachments. Have stopped looking for Flickr updates from my contacts. Thank god.. for all the major TV Shows (Lost, Heroes, Prison Break) are off air for the moment.

Once in Chennai, I hope to manage an EVDO connection. An unlimited connection at 550 pm looks a steal. I just hope that they deliver the speeds that they promise!! Till then, its Ortel ki jai!!

The IPL rules restricted the teams to field just 4 overseas players. But in Amit Varma’s list of the “IPL Combined XI”, there are only 4 Indians. Speaks so much about the success of the tournament!!

Its a neatly compiled list I’d say! :)

1. The top 5 leading run scorers are all left-handed batsmen.
2. The top 2 teams in the points table are the only teams named after states (Rajasthan and Punjab). The team at the bottom (Chargers) is named neither after a state nor a city.
3. The best part about the Royally Challenged Bangalore was their Cheerleaders!
4. The best players from the Mumbai Indians were Jayasuriya, Pollock and Bravo. So much for “Duniya hila denge Indians”
5. The secret to the Kings XI winning has been the “hugs & kisses” promised by Preity Zinta for every victory. I am not sure what Yuvi can expect if he wins the final ;)
6. Sohail Tanvir is the fast-forward version of Paul Adams.
7. VVS Laxman realised its better to act injured and watch from the sidelines. Rather than being blamed for the atrocious performance of DC.
8. Adam Gilchrist lost more matches in the IPL, than he did during his entire cricketing career.
9. This was the worst assorted Commentary team ever. Sidhu and Atul Wassan included, would have been the icing on the cowdung cake.
10. L.Sivaramakrishnan thinks he is the next Harsha Bhogle. Period.
11. Lekha Washington is a total dumbass. “So Takawale, how does it feel to be a wicket-keeper” certifies that. And NO,she is not related to the Red Skins!
12. “Citi Moments of success” would be the theme for the Congress election campain in 2009.
13. i-Pill can be the main sponsor for next years IPL. The punchline could be “Manoranjan ki ho sakti thi Maa”
14. People should boycott the products advertised during the IPL. Notably Max New York Life, Havells Fans and Crabtree switches!!

At the turn of the century, the team from Santiago Bernebau proved itself to be a real dominant force in European Football. Trashing Valencia 3-0 on their way and winning the title 2 years later, it started to flourish under Del Bosque. But apparently club president Fiorentino Perez had other ideas. From 2000 to 2003 was what would later be known as the infamous Galacticos era. Figo, Zidane, Ronaldo and Beckham walked into the team run by the principle called the “Zidanes and the Pavons”. Though initially a success, things went really wrong, when Real Madrid bought Ronaldo from Inter Milan. Fresh from his golden boot winner at South Korea/Japan, he was supposed to bring more laurels for the team, apart from selling more T-Shirts. But it really dint work out that way. Owen came and left, and after Beckham moved to LA Galaxy at the end of last season, the Galacticos era had finally ended. Or that’s what the fans thought.

When current president Ramon Calderon took up the reins, he had in his election propaganda had promised to get Kaka, Fabregas and Robben to the team. Why them? Because they were supposed to be the best footballers around. Kaka confirmed that by winning the FIFA World player of the year in 2007. But Ramon failed in his bid as only Robben ended up in the Madrid Jersey. Real Madrid successfully defended their La Liga title and just when we thought that they were really playing as a successful team, all the Ronaldo-to-Madrid rumors have started to surface. Both Calderon and Coach Bernd Schuster have been publicly going gaga over getting the 23 year old Ronaldo to Bernebau and reiterated the fact that he would fit into the scheme of things. Such was the public and media hype that almost all the Real Madrid fans were ordered to praise Ronaldo and cry about how playing with Ronaldo would be the best moment of their lives.But a closer look would reveal how it would be a very bad move for both the player and Real Madrid:

1: The return of the Galacticos Era: If there is one reason why Real Madrid was successful in defending their La Liga title, then it definitely has to be mood in the team. Players complimented each other throughout the season. And unlike Barcelona, there weren’t any “superstars” as such in the team. No inflated egos, no blaming each other. A sure formula for success. The arrival of Ronaldo, apparently at a record transfer fee and 200,000/week, would definitely upset the dressing room at the Santiago Bernebau.

2: Such a magnanimous transfer would put immense pressure on Ronaldo to perform. And he has to perform consistently in order to justify his transfer price. And the Spanish press would hit back at him, if he doesn’t meet the expectations of the team. Plus one of the reasons of Ronaldo’s success been the stability at Manchester United. With Alex Ferguson, at the helm for close to 2 decades, Ronaldo found a perfect mentor to grow and mature.

3: If Ronaldo has been playing consistently and scoring goals at will over the past 2 seasons, one of the reasons is the departure of Ruud van Nistelrooy to Real Madrid. Ruud was a type of striker, who would wait and wait in the box for the crosses from the wingers, to just net home the goals. But Wayne Rooney and then Carlos Tevez are the hardworking strikers who keep running and running around the pitch, and this gives Ronaldo the opportunity to run into the box himself and thus was formed the holy trinity. Given his current game, I don’t think he would fit into the scheme of things at Real Madrid. With strikers such as Raul and Nistelrooy, Ronaldo won’t have the freedom to barge into the goal keepers, and the presence of fast paced wingers such as Robben and Robinho would ensure that it won’t be a smooth run for Ronaldo. Plus recent reports suggest that Real are ready to pay 35 million plus Ramos, Robinho and Diarra for Ronaldo. What a foolish move it would be!!

So I guess, it remains in the best interests for both the clubs and the player that he remains at Old Trafford. Though Manchester United won’t be tempted with the money, Real Madrid could instead use that money to get a striker, a central defender and another attacking midfielder with that money!

Ever since I had stopped blogging, a lot of changes have happened in my life. I did manage to finish my MBA successfully, though I found it a bigger fraud degree than B.Tech. In a months’ time, I’ll be working as an IT consultant at a Chennai-based Biggie. The MBA took me places, literally!! I spent the 2 months of my summer internship braving the North Indian heat. A month each in Gurgaon and Chandigarh, I biked around most of Punjab. Checked out the highest cricket ground in the world (Chail), rode past Wagah border, visited Bhakra Nangal and in the end the company dint even bother handing out PPOs. Next stop was Europe. A 3-month student exchange at Euromed Marseille followed, where I spent more time in the European trains than I did in the classrooms. More on that later!

Things have been going great on the personal front. Madhu is all set to join Iowa State Univ. This is one of the reasons for taking up CTS. The quickest way to head to the US of A! The parents’ meeting did take place, and of course no hurdles were encountered enroute. Good news would be dished out as and when it happens ;)

For the past few months, I have been totally idle. Doing nothing except watching IPL, EPL, UCL blah blah blah. Oh yeah. Manchester United did the double!! So in the meantime, I thought I’d start blogging, musing, ranting about life post B-School. This blog wont end up as a sports-centric blog. Because in the meantime, I have managed to develop other interests such as travelling, photography (I now have a DSLR bwhahaha) and a passion for cars and bikes! So keep watching this space!!