Its been ages - nearly a year since i last wrote... therez been lots of downs and few ups.. life has taken an unexpected turn.
Things aren't the same anymore. What used to bright sunny mornings are now cloudy darkness everywhere. The world seems to be full of sorrows and worries. The killings and natural disasters increasing every day. No-one seems to be at peace. There are cries of despair and distraught everywhere I turn. Faces that used to smile always are now down-trodden. Ppl are just looking on at each other for help but unable to help the other - how can one sinking boat help another one sinking! Medical inventions and discoveries are increasing the lifespan of human beings on one side, but the statistics suggest that death rates are higher than ever before - the only reason being vengence, treachery, greed, hatred and last but not the least - suicides!!! Inspite of all these advancements in medicine and technology the death rate (as of 2007) stays at 8.37 deaths/ 1000 population! And one would normally expect the developing countries to have a higher death rate compared to those well established developed countries..But surprise surprise deaths in the so called "3rd world countries" like India and China are much lesser than those in the "developed countries" like the US and UK. So where is the gap?
If suicide rates are just scanned and compared, it is quite evident that irrespective of the country, the percentage of males suiciding is always much higher than females and females are supposed to be faint-hearted i.e. men are strong-hearted?? These statistics throws that theory into the garbage can. In my opinion if men are much more strong-hearted, then the suicide rates of men should be lower compared to women. The stats stand (per 1000 population) - figures from WHO:
Men Women
US (1999) 17.8 4.1
UK (1999) 11.8 3.3
India (1998) 12.2 9.1
China (1999) 16.7 9.8
Russia (2000) 70.6 11.9
Germany (1999) 20.2 7.3
Iran (1991) 0.3 0.1
Kuwait(2000) 1.6 1.6
Suicide is claimed to be the eighth-leading cause of death overall in the U.S. and the third-leading cause of death for young people between the ages of 15 and 24 years. According to WHO statistics, one person commits suicide every 40 seconds. Suicide rates all over the world have increased by 5- 62% in the last two decades. More people willing to take life - their own and others, televisions, radios, newspapers filled with horrifying stories of deceit and murders.. dont know where the world is heading to.. amidst all this, dont know where I am heading to - the world was a much better place, lively and fun-filled 20 years back..wish i had remained a child always!!!!!!!
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Friday, August 31, 2007
Getting settled....
Life is slowly turning out to be a routine. Past 1 week was pretty decent. First few days was roaming around the Business School - meeting new ppl and utilising the free internet:) Then tookt the trip to London to pick up mine & Anila's luggage. It was fun - a pretty sight - me and 6 pieces of luggage (3 bags + 3 cartons). Dont ask how I lugged it all the way to Manchester. All i can say is that I was relieved once i got everything into the room and took a deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep breath.
Anyway in London, the first day was at home (fitzroy court). Day 2 was spend going to Kuttan's sister's place in Kenton and picking up the luggage from there and getting it to Croydon. Unfortunately couldnt spend much time there coz of many reasons. After getting back, in the evening had a night out with few of my ex-clients and now friends. Walking around Covent garden, we ventured into a pub which looked pretty decent and then suddenly realise it is a "Gay bar" - you dont generally see guys kissing lip to lip in pubs here;)!! Anyway collected our belongings and scampered to the next nearest decent pub and this time I made sure I saw atleast one female (for not so obvious reasons) before I ventured into it.
Anyway that was fun. Day 3 was mainly spent trying to get a refund of my ticket sorted out with Infosys and meeting a few of infy colleagues. Evening was a night out with clients + infy junta. We had dinner at a sushi bar and i hogged out nearly 20 plates of sushi - it was buffet and 20 was the limit!! Since then, I haven't had one morsel to eat..cant eat..too full. I might puke now if i go anywhere near food.
Anyway now back in Manchester.
In the sports side, India as always screwing up things for itself in Cricket. You think they are going to have a cake-walk win and the nincompoops go and gift the victory to the opponents. Each time the captain declares that we will win the next time and we have learnt from our mistakes but the "next time" never seems to be anywhere near!!! High time the BCCI or whoever is responsible, start plucking out the weeds and let the good ones mature and grow!! We are in desparate need of a bowler. Ppl said we needed allrounders. But I personally believe we need more of a genuine bowler rather than an all rounder. Our biggest incapability in the recent matches has been bowling out the opposition. God alone knows when these guys will realise and do something about it.
In football, ManU is havin a terrible time. Worst start in my memory. Rooney yet again away for nearly half of the season courtesy his fractured ankle. Ronaldo getting a red-card in game 2. Ole gunnar retiring due to his leg problems. And the defence sucking big time!!!! Before last weeks' victory they were second last in the table. And with a single victory, they have creeped up to number 10. Hope the tide turns and we see more of victories for ManU. Chelsea seems to be grinding victories just like how they did last season. Every match taken on a 1-on-1 basis. Anyway wishin ManU the best. Hail ManU!!
Anyway in London, the first day was at home (fitzroy court). Day 2 was spend going to Kuttan's sister's place in Kenton and picking up the luggage from there and getting it to Croydon. Unfortunately couldnt spend much time there coz of many reasons. After getting back, in the evening had a night out with few of my ex-clients and now friends. Walking around Covent garden, we ventured into a pub which looked pretty decent and then suddenly realise it is a "Gay bar" - you dont generally see guys kissing lip to lip in pubs here;)!! Anyway collected our belongings and scampered to the next nearest decent pub and this time I made sure I saw atleast one female (for not so obvious reasons) before I ventured into it.
Anyway that was fun. Day 3 was mainly spent trying to get a refund of my ticket sorted out with Infosys and meeting a few of infy colleagues. Evening was a night out with clients + infy junta. We had dinner at a sushi bar and i hogged out nearly 20 plates of sushi - it was buffet and 20 was the limit!! Since then, I haven't had one morsel to eat..cant eat..too full. I might puke now if i go anywhere near food.
Anyway now back in Manchester.
In the sports side, India as always screwing up things for itself in Cricket. You think they are going to have a cake-walk win and the nincompoops go and gift the victory to the opponents. Each time the captain declares that we will win the next time and we have learnt from our mistakes but the "next time" never seems to be anywhere near!!! High time the BCCI or whoever is responsible, start plucking out the weeds and let the good ones mature and grow!! We are in desparate need of a bowler. Ppl said we needed allrounders. But I personally believe we need more of a genuine bowler rather than an all rounder. Our biggest incapability in the recent matches has been bowling out the opposition. God alone knows when these guys will realise and do something about it.
In football, ManU is havin a terrible time. Worst start in my memory. Rooney yet again away for nearly half of the season courtesy his fractured ankle. Ronaldo getting a red-card in game 2. Ole gunnar retiring due to his leg problems. And the defence sucking big time!!!! Before last weeks' victory they were second last in the table. And with a single victory, they have creeped up to number 10. Hope the tide turns and we see more of victories for ManU. Chelsea seems to be grinding victories just like how they did last season. Every match taken on a 1-on-1 basis. Anyway wishin ManU the best. Hail ManU!!
Friday, August 24, 2007
On your marks, Get Set........................
The fun times are over..the relaxation is complete..the race is about to begin!!
My long awaited break - after quitting Infy and before joining MBS - is getting over today. Tonight I fly out to Manchester embarking on a absolutely unaware/unknown platform.
The past 2 months have been pretty hectic. After I got back from Bangalore, time in kerala just flew away. Everyday there was something or the other to do. 2 major event took place during this time - my cousin Asha's engagement/wedding and Anila's grandmom's demise. Due to the latter, my in-laws had also come over to kerala. Amidst all this, my sis was enrolled into P.C. Thomas vacation gulf classes in Trichur. So my time in kerala was spent between travelling from mavelikara to chengannur to trivandrum to Trichur. The good thing with so much of journey was that I started driving on a more regular basis in kerala and i can confidently say that i am expert enough to drive in kerala now though there may be huge lorries and reckless state transport buses coming from the opposite direction!
Anyway we - me & Anila - boarded Gulf Air to come to Kuwait on 19th August morning. After reaching kuwait, it was bliss. No tensions, no power cuts, no disturbances, no sweating and 24 x7 internet access and unlimited supply of delicious yummy food - courtesy mum-in-law!!
Tomo early morning 3:45 is my flight to Dubai and from there connecting flight at 7:55 to Manchester. FOr the first one week, i have arranged for temporary accomodation in Hulme Hall, near the university. Anyway hope all goes well. Keeping fingers crossed. New place, new life style..student yet cant be irresponsible;)lol
Anyway will give further updates later!!
Cheers
My long awaited break - after quitting Infy and before joining MBS - is getting over today. Tonight I fly out to Manchester embarking on a absolutely unaware/unknown platform.
The past 2 months have been pretty hectic. After I got back from Bangalore, time in kerala just flew away. Everyday there was something or the other to do. 2 major event took place during this time - my cousin Asha's engagement/wedding and Anila's grandmom's demise. Due to the latter, my in-laws had also come over to kerala. Amidst all this, my sis was enrolled into P.C. Thomas vacation gulf classes in Trichur. So my time in kerala was spent between travelling from mavelikara to chengannur to trivandrum to Trichur. The good thing with so much of journey was that I started driving on a more regular basis in kerala and i can confidently say that i am expert enough to drive in kerala now though there may be huge lorries and reckless state transport buses coming from the opposite direction!
Anyway we - me & Anila - boarded Gulf Air to come to Kuwait on 19th August morning. After reaching kuwait, it was bliss. No tensions, no power cuts, no disturbances, no sweating and 24 x7 internet access and unlimited supply of delicious yummy food - courtesy mum-in-law!!
Tomo early morning 3:45 is my flight to Dubai and from there connecting flight at 7:55 to Manchester. FOr the first one week, i have arranged for temporary accomodation in Hulme Hall, near the university. Anyway hope all goes well. Keeping fingers crossed. New place, new life style..student yet cant be irresponsible;)lol
Anyway will give further updates later!!
Cheers
Friday, June 29, 2007
Countdown...
The last lines I am writing from Infy office:)
All the clearance process is over - the only thing remaining is deletion of my mail id and network access and that is due to happen in another hour or so!
4 long years and now no more Infy..no more Hosur road - no more sweating out in the heat cursing the 1000's of cars, no more walking at express speed from London Bridge station to Monument, no more coffee breaks, lunch breaks - all has come to a grinding halt. The Machine has stopped!!
Emotions are mixed -
happy? - YES,
sad? - a bit maybe
Apprehensive? - about the future, YES
miss Infy? - Dont think so
miss the friends/banter? - YES
Signing off for the moment...may get very less chance to blog in the next couple of months but will do when time permits.
Adios!!!!!!
All the clearance process is over - the only thing remaining is deletion of my mail id and network access and that is due to happen in another hour or so!
4 long years and now no more Infy..no more Hosur road - no more sweating out in the heat cursing the 1000's of cars, no more walking at express speed from London Bridge station to Monument, no more coffee breaks, lunch breaks - all has come to a grinding halt. The Machine has stopped!!
Emotions are mixed -
happy? - YES,
sad? - a bit maybe
Apprehensive? - about the future, YES
miss Infy? - Dont think so
miss the friends/banter? - YES
Signing off for the moment...may get very less chance to blog in the next couple of months but will do when time permits.
Adios!!!!!!
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Last week @ Keonics Elec. City, Bangalore!
Things are slowly coming to a grinding halt. The train is reaching its destination finally - chugging away the last hundred metres in absolute slow motion. Every moment, every dialogue, every scene is crystal clear. I can see the platform at the far end - feels like the horizon is in grasp finally!!
Another 2 days in Infy and I am no longer employee number 21269! Deleted from records completely or maybe archived!? All the networking, friends, coffee day coffee's, evening chaats/chats , lunch @ Golconda/Kamat - all going to be a distant memory soon! Not that I regret the step I am taking but i am surely getting out of comfort zone now. 4 years - absolutely no worry of money, could spend whatever i wanted without being questioned. Now its slowly back to student days - every penny counted. Coffees and soups are going to be once again 1/2 (dont think this will be the case in Manchester but sure was in Trichy - "Anna, oru one by two podungae";))
I had my exit interview yesterday and surprisingly there were no arguments coz whatever I said the HR agreed and said they are working upon it:D Whoever invented "present continous tense" surely had HR junta in mind - coz they are always "X"ing something or the other and it never reaches the "X"ed state! Anyway all the best to whatever they are doING and hope it gets doED soon!
Leave alone work - the past one week has been pretty smooth. Took a day off on Monday to complete a bit more shopping. Yesterday went for the movie "Sivaji - The Boss". The movie concept was good and the comedy was good but probably the comedy didnt suit
"Thalaivar" - but he made up for that in the second half with his typical "Baasha" role :D. BUt the movie was tooo much of a drag in terms of length of the movie! We(Me & Kicha)went for the 21:45 show and got out of show at 01:20!
In world of football - Henry finally made his impending move to Barca:)))
The new number 14. This was to happen last year but the defeat by Barca in the finals of the Champions league'06 propelled him to continue a unfruitful season with the Gunners! But finally he has joined the Catalans!! What a line-up - Eto and Henry attacking in the front and Messi/ Ronaldinhio feeding in from either flanks. The mid-field have a line-up of Deco, Xavi and Iniesta....
If they click together as a team - Barca is going to be a formidable attacking force. Dont think Henry will find it too difficult to integrate into the team given that Barca play a "Total Football" and one-touch football quite similar to the Gunners. The coach may have problems in trying to integrate the team. One potential issue could be both Henry and Ronaldinhio preference to play from the left flank and into the centre. Hope this doesn't become an issue similar to the much talked about English midfield issue!
Wishing Henry all the best in Barca! Hope they win the La Liga tis time without any trouble - given that my fave. in RM have left - Carlos & Beckham!
Go Catalans:)
Another 2 days in Infy and I am no longer employee number 21269! Deleted from records completely or maybe archived!? All the networking, friends, coffee day coffee's, evening chaats/chats , lunch @ Golconda/Kamat - all going to be a distant memory soon! Not that I regret the step I am taking but i am surely getting out of comfort zone now. 4 years - absolutely no worry of money, could spend whatever i wanted without being questioned. Now its slowly back to student days - every penny counted. Coffees and soups are going to be once again 1/2 (dont think this will be the case in Manchester but sure was in Trichy - "Anna, oru one by two podungae";))
I had my exit interview yesterday and surprisingly there were no arguments coz whatever I said the HR agreed and said they are working upon it:D Whoever invented "present continous tense" surely had HR junta in mind - coz they are always "X"ing something or the other and it never reaches the "X"ed state! Anyway all the best to whatever they are doING and hope it gets doED soon!
Leave alone work - the past one week has been pretty smooth. Took a day off on Monday to complete a bit more shopping. Yesterday went for the movie "Sivaji - The Boss". The movie concept was good and the comedy was good but probably the comedy didnt suit
"Thalaivar" - but he made up for that in the second half with his typical "Baasha" role :D. BUt the movie was tooo much of a drag in terms of length of the movie! We(Me & Kicha)went for the 21:45 show and got out of show at 01:20!
In world of football - Henry finally made his impending move to Barca:)))
The new number 14. This was to happen last year but the defeat by Barca in the finals of the Champions league'06 propelled him to continue a unfruitful season with the Gunners! But finally he has joined the Catalans!! What a line-up - Eto and Henry attacking in the front and Messi/ Ronaldinhio feeding in from either flanks. The mid-field have a line-up of Deco, Xavi and Iniesta....
If they click together as a team - Barca is going to be a formidable attacking force. Dont think Henry will find it too difficult to integrate into the team given that Barca play a "Total Football" and one-touch football quite similar to the Gunners. The coach may have problems in trying to integrate the team. One potential issue could be both Henry and Ronaldinhio preference to play from the left flank and into the centre. Hope this doesn't become an issue similar to the much talked about English midfield issue!
Wishing Henry all the best in Barca! Hope they win the La Liga tis time without any trouble - given that my fave. in RM have left - Carlos & Beckham!
Go Catalans:)
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
il(l)literate!
"Please Do not dump garbage here - Bangalore Mahanagar Palike" -> And the same was inscribed in Hindi and also presumably the same in Kannada! Saw this on the one of the walls on my way home.
Now either the statistics are wrong (claims Bengaluru to have the second-highest literacy rate among the metropolitan cities in the nation) or the citizens of this city have absolute disregard for instructions!
Right in front of the the inscriptions on the wall was a HUGE pile of dump and garbage. And right there when I was pondering about this, I saw couple of really respectable ppl (atleast their dressing sense led me to believe their respectability) comes with few garbage bags and dumps on top of this pile. And next to this huge dump are very posh-styled residential buildings!! It would be least bit surprising if the residents of this residence were the main reason for this filth.
Whats with the common sense of these ppl? Dont they realise they are staying in dirt and they are going to affect their own health by all this? Hygiene ??- whats that? The very word seems to have disappeared from everyone's dictionary.. Its not only these, even the highly educated and sophisticated software engineers lack the etiquettes. How many of us have resisted a pee at the roadside/ a shady corner due to hygiene/environmental reasons? We'd rather have our "release" rather than hold back and think about the environment.
Is this indifference only to our country? How is that when on foreign soil, each one of us Indians transform into a perfect gentleman - where does the extra endurance, patience, politeness, tolerance etc. come from? A simple example is if we walk into someone absent-mindedly in some foreign country, we are courteous enough to apologise and carry on. But in India, you walk into someone - you first check your pockets to see if your pocket was picked. Once you are assured of that, a 95% chance is there of abusing the other person publicly and slinging abuses at each other till each is out of earshot of the other! Why the difference? Do we consider each other (read as Indians) as inferiors and hence this attitude?
What use was it for the British to leave the country and let us rule ourselves? Has our country really developed post-Bristish rule? Or are we still stuck in 1947!
If people can't read, understand and follow a simple rule, how is this economy going to get out of the clutches of "developing" and become a "developed"!God's own country can be saved only by GOD himself now!
ps. for all my atheists friends - this country of ours can be saved only by each one of your efforts (no help from GOD from you!)
As A.P.J. said -
"It's time to wait and see.
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the shadow"
Meanwhile read a related article about the Perennial Problems in Vishakapatnam (Vizag) - once known for its UNspoilt beaches.
Now either the statistics are wrong (claims Bengaluru to have the second-highest literacy rate among the metropolitan cities in the nation) or the citizens of this city have absolute disregard for instructions!
Right in front of the the inscriptions on the wall was a HUGE pile of dump and garbage. And right there when I was pondering about this, I saw couple of really respectable ppl (atleast their dressing sense led me to believe their respectability) comes with few garbage bags and dumps on top of this pile. And next to this huge dump are very posh-styled residential buildings!! It would be least bit surprising if the residents of this residence were the main reason for this filth.
Whats with the common sense of these ppl? Dont they realise they are staying in dirt and they are going to affect their own health by all this? Hygiene ??- whats that? The very word seems to have disappeared from everyone's dictionary.. Its not only these, even the highly educated and sophisticated software engineers lack the etiquettes. How many of us have resisted a pee at the roadside/ a shady corner due to hygiene/environmental reasons? We'd rather have our "release" rather than hold back and think about the environment.
Is this indifference only to our country? How is that when on foreign soil, each one of us Indians transform into a perfect gentleman - where does the extra endurance, patience, politeness, tolerance etc. come from? A simple example is if we walk into someone absent-mindedly in some foreign country, we are courteous enough to apologise and carry on. But in India, you walk into someone - you first check your pockets to see if your pocket was picked. Once you are assured of that, a 95% chance is there of abusing the other person publicly and slinging abuses at each other till each is out of earshot of the other! Why the difference? Do we consider each other (read as Indians) as inferiors and hence this attitude?
What use was it for the British to leave the country and let us rule ourselves? Has our country really developed post-Bristish rule? Or are we still stuck in 1947!
If people can't read, understand and follow a simple rule, how is this economy going to get out of the clutches of "developing" and become a "developed"!God's own country can be saved only by GOD himself now!
ps. for all my atheists friends - this country of ours can be saved only by each one of your efforts (no help from GOD from you!)
As A.P.J. said -
"It's time to wait and see.
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the shadow"
Meanwhile read a related article about the Perennial Problems in Vishakapatnam (Vizag) - once known for its UNspoilt beaches.
Monday, June 18, 2007
वीकएंड कैच-उप
A hectic weekend has come to an end!
It started off with a ride to Zak's home in E-city. The dude's got a classy 3 BHK on a real bargain rate. While we waited for him to transform himself into his classy self, we (myself & Kicha) played Postal2 - just like how the movie trailer suggests - its disgusting, retarded & shocking - to say the least! Keep away if you are the "Love your neighbour/enemies as yourself" types - this one is not certainly for you!!
Anyway once that was done, I took both of them for a guided tour of the Infy campus. It was tiring but fun. Showed them the gym and the food courts and various shaped buildings of Infy infrastructure & recreational facilities.
Heritage Building
Pyramids - Media center
Recreation - Swimming pool
We also managed to play Basketball and Volleyball for half an hour. Once that was done, we proceeded to Marathahalli to Brand factory for my shopping. We spent nearly 2 hours there looking through the various brands and doing our shopping. At the end of it, we had nearly spent 5K - but every penny worth the value:) When we were nearly done, Ashwin (Raks bro-in-law)called and we met up with him. Following that, it was a very good time spent listening to "soft" music and eating, drinking & making merry;)By the time we were done, it was nearly 22:30 and we went all the way to BTM to munch on the ever delicious "Paratha rolls" - Double Egg Chicken for me;) For those of you who have been in bangalore and not tasted this one, you are missing something - this is a small dhaba in BTM 2nd stage just before the new flyover. Its awesome and pretty reasonable as well (and you get both veg and non-veg:)). Post dinner we went back home and had a good sound sleep tired from the hectic outing of one day!
Sunday - church, had to get my luggage sorted out, met Asha and Sheba (cousins recovering from a bout of flu) and met Satishchachan (dad's cousin). Had a good time and then in the evening had dinner with Kicha at Casapicola. Got back home and watched "Baba Kalyani" (Mohanlal flick) and slept off eventually!!
Well that was my weekend!
On the Sporting side - Beckham made a perfect bow-out of the la-liga with the Spanish title in his kitty! What a comeback after capello sidelined him calling him a second-rate hollywood actor - It has been an amazing turn around by Becks and what better way to exit than win the league title after a wait of 4 years!!!!!
In motorsports - the Brit is taking the world by a storm. Near perfect driving by the kid. Alonso seems to be loosing the plot and his mind! Let's see what he comes up with next after his tirade last time that the British team is favouring the Briton!!!lol. Anyway the constructors seem to be more or less wrapped up by the Mclaren's unless the Ferrari's come up with something really superlative and Kimi/Massa start winning races (1-2 finish) regularly!! 7 races and therez already a 35-point gap between them! Season may turn out to be much more exciting than the last one. Hoping that Ferrari makes a turn-around just like last year where they very nearly pulled it off in the second-half of the season, only to be edged out courtesy one man - Mr. Alonso!!!
It started off with a ride to Zak's home in E-city. The dude's got a classy 3 BHK on a real bargain rate. While we waited for him to transform himself into his classy self, we (myself & Kicha) played Postal2 - just like how the movie trailer suggests - its disgusting, retarded & shocking - to say the least! Keep away if you are the "Love your neighbour/enemies as yourself" types - this one is not certainly for you!!
Anyway once that was done, I took both of them for a guided tour of the Infy campus. It was tiring but fun. Showed them the gym and the food courts and various shaped buildings of Infy infrastructure & recreational facilities.
Heritage Building
Pyramids - Media center
Recreation - Swimming pool
We also managed to play Basketball and Volleyball for half an hour. Once that was done, we proceeded to Marathahalli to Brand factory for my shopping. We spent nearly 2 hours there looking through the various brands and doing our shopping. At the end of it, we had nearly spent 5K - but every penny worth the value:) When we were nearly done, Ashwin (Raks bro-in-law)called and we met up with him. Following that, it was a very good time spent listening to "soft" music and eating, drinking & making merry;)By the time we were done, it was nearly 22:30 and we went all the way to BTM to munch on the ever delicious "Paratha rolls" - Double Egg Chicken for me;) For those of you who have been in bangalore and not tasted this one, you are missing something - this is a small dhaba in BTM 2nd stage just before the new flyover. Its awesome and pretty reasonable as well (and you get both veg and non-veg:)). Post dinner we went back home and had a good sound sleep tired from the hectic outing of one day!
Sunday - church, had to get my luggage sorted out, met Asha and Sheba (cousins recovering from a bout of flu) and met Satishchachan (dad's cousin). Had a good time and then in the evening had dinner with Kicha at Casapicola. Got back home and watched "Baba Kalyani" (Mohanlal flick) and slept off eventually!!
Well that was my weekend!
On the Sporting side - Beckham made a perfect bow-out of the la-liga with the Spanish title in his kitty! What a comeback after capello sidelined him calling him a second-rate hollywood actor - It has been an amazing turn around by Becks and what better way to exit than win the league title after a wait of 4 years!!!!!
In motorsports - the Brit is taking the world by a storm. Near perfect driving by the kid. Alonso seems to be loosing the plot and his mind! Let's see what he comes up with next after his tirade last time that the British team is favouring the Briton!!!lol. Anyway the constructors seem to be more or less wrapped up by the Mclaren's unless the Ferrari's come up with something really superlative and Kimi/Massa start winning races (1-2 finish) regularly!! 7 races and therez already a 35-point gap between them! Season may turn out to be much more exciting than the last one. Hoping that Ferrari makes a turn-around just like last year where they very nearly pulled it off in the second-half of the season, only to be edged out courtesy one man - Mr. Alonso!!!
Friday, June 15, 2007
Bye-bye Infy - Hello Manchester!!
Just winding up my last few days with Infosys. It has been quite an eventful 4 years.Joined on 9th June 2003 in a batch of 140 freshers in Bangalore for training. The 3 months of training was the first time in a long time (read as 4 years) that I actually took the pains to study seriously!! From the jovial, fun-loving, noisy back-bencher in college, I had changed to become a studious, serious second/third bencher. What had come over me? Why the sudden change?
It was nothing but the psyched feeling in me that I am no good at programming. In college, I had barely managed to pass my "C" programming exam - thanks largely to few of my friends who taught me few fundas and ofcourse God's grace. Post that, there was never any programming in my curriculum and I never bothered putting in efforts. I was sure of getting into a core communications technical job and determined not to sit for software engineering. But call it fate - I ended up being picked up by Infosys and the brand name kinda pulled me to it and that was it. I knew for a fact that if I remained the way I was in college, there was a possibility of me being chucked out! I decided to play the slog overs in a smart way and lo!!I had become a first-class geek. Add to that the fact that we were getting trained in COBOL/CICS gave me the undue advantage of starting fresh with all the other programming wiz's!!!
From there my stay at Infy was pretty good..Fortunately for me, there was very little coding that I had to do in my period here. Following my first project, I went to UK for production support. After that I was into the client testing team followed by the role of an Onsite co-ordinator. Next up was the technical lead role which I played out to perfection at Bangalore and then again back to UK as Onsite co-ordinator. My main activities till date @ Infy comprised of: understanding functionality, managing people - colleagues & clients, resolving functionality issues, solution designing and discussions - Therez been no (rather very less) developer coding phase in my period here and I thank God for taking me through 4 years in absolute success.
During this period I also got promoted from a software engineer to a Programmer Analyst. This didnt change any of my responsibilities much - I had mostly performed the role of an analyst rather than a developer.
Also this period saw my promotion from a bachelor to a husband - In contrast to the previous promotion, this however did change a lot of my responsibilities. I became the matured, family guy (no cross-checking allowed with wifey;))!
All said and done, my stint with Infy is coming near an end. Another 14 days and I am done. Its back to student life at Manchester Business School for an MBA, beginning in Sept.I got my student visa stamped for 2 years, blocked my tickets and now looking forward to the break before the gruelling starts!
It was nothing but the psyched feeling in me that I am no good at programming. In college, I had barely managed to pass my "C" programming exam - thanks largely to few of my friends who taught me few fundas and ofcourse God's grace. Post that, there was never any programming in my curriculum and I never bothered putting in efforts. I was sure of getting into a core communications technical job and determined not to sit for software engineering. But call it fate - I ended up being picked up by Infosys and the brand name kinda pulled me to it and that was it. I knew for a fact that if I remained the way I was in college, there was a possibility of me being chucked out! I decided to play the slog overs in a smart way and lo!!I had become a first-class geek. Add to that the fact that we were getting trained in COBOL/CICS gave me the undue advantage of starting fresh with all the other programming wiz's!!!
From there my stay at Infy was pretty good..Fortunately for me, there was very little coding that I had to do in my period here. Following my first project, I went to UK for production support. After that I was into the client testing team followed by the role of an Onsite co-ordinator. Next up was the technical lead role which I played out to perfection at Bangalore and then again back to UK as Onsite co-ordinator. My main activities till date @ Infy comprised of: understanding functionality, managing people - colleagues & clients, resolving functionality issues, solution designing and discussions - Therez been no (rather very less) developer coding phase in my period here and I thank God for taking me through 4 years in absolute success.
During this period I also got promoted from a software engineer to a Programmer Analyst. This didnt change any of my responsibilities much - I had mostly performed the role of an analyst rather than a developer.
Also this period saw my promotion from a bachelor to a husband - In contrast to the previous promotion, this however did change a lot of my responsibilities. I became the matured, family guy (no cross-checking allowed with wifey;))!
All said and done, my stint with Infy is coming near an end. Another 14 days and I am done. Its back to student life at Manchester Business School for an MBA, beginning in Sept.I got my student visa stamped for 2 years, blocked my tickets and now looking forward to the break before the gruelling starts!
Monday, June 11, 2007
Privileged to be a ST!!?
There was a time when there were fights to remove "Untouchables".
Gandhi fought for them - to treat them as equals, Lincoln fought for the "blacks", William Wilberforce fought to abolish "slave trade" etc. Now after so many years - all the happenings in India especially is making me think whether I would have been better off being born as an Scheduled Caste/ Tribe!!
Come to think of it - there were recently riots in Rajasthan because the Gujjar community wanted to classified as Scheduled tribes rather than as "other backward castes(OBCs)!! And why this sudden urge - coz of the reservation issue thats become very prominent in India these days. Everywhere you go, you are now penalised for being a normal person rather than a ST/SC!! In the olden days, villagers migrated to the city to raise their status in the society and to earn money. But these days - everyone still wants money but also , at the same time, wants to be classified as one of the many scheduled tribes. When the govt. of India still holds on to such traditional systems, how can we blame the ppl for not thinking otherwise! To get an admission in a good university in India there are basically 2 criterias now - either you are rank 1 or you belong to one of the many ST/SCs. Where is this world going to? We are in the age talking about nuclear technology, microchips etc. but the thinking of the common man is still traditional and backward. Coming to think of it - how many of these ppl are actually backward - not many. Many of the so called "tribal" people are actually financially very well off compared to your average middle class-citizen. But then our system is so damn porous that such things are just ignored. All that is valid at the end of the day, is whether you have some certificate which classes you as a backward - and voila!! - all the good things in India come to you!!
This country will not progress unless such things are completely abolished. Gandhi fought for the untouchables and I think someone (a new father of the nation) should now actually fight against them - to rid them of all the privileges that they get
courtesy the "tag" they carry along.
I am frusturated already with this system and I have not even been on the receiving end yet:(!!
Gandhi fought for them - to treat them as equals, Lincoln fought for the "blacks", William Wilberforce fought to abolish "slave trade" etc. Now after so many years - all the happenings in India especially is making me think whether I would have been better off being born as an Scheduled Caste/ Tribe!!
Come to think of it - there were recently riots in Rajasthan because the Gujjar community wanted to classified as Scheduled tribes rather than as "other backward castes(OBCs)!! And why this sudden urge - coz of the reservation issue thats become very prominent in India these days. Everywhere you go, you are now penalised for being a normal person rather than a ST/SC!! In the olden days, villagers migrated to the city to raise their status in the society and to earn money. But these days - everyone still wants money but also , at the same time, wants to be classified as one of the many scheduled tribes. When the govt. of India still holds on to such traditional systems, how can we blame the ppl for not thinking otherwise! To get an admission in a good university in India there are basically 2 criterias now - either you are rank 1 or you belong to one of the many ST/SCs. Where is this world going to? We are in the age talking about nuclear technology, microchips etc. but the thinking of the common man is still traditional and backward. Coming to think of it - how many of these ppl are actually backward - not many. Many of the so called "tribal" people are actually financially very well off compared to your average middle class-citizen. But then our system is so damn porous that such things are just ignored. All that is valid at the end of the day, is whether you have some certificate which classes you as a backward - and voila!! - all the good things in India come to you!!
This country will not progress unless such things are completely abolished. Gandhi fought for the untouchables and I think someone (a new father of the nation) should now actually fight against them - to rid them of all the privileges that they get
courtesy the "tag" they carry along.
I am frusturated already with this system and I have not even been on the receiving end yet:(!!
Thursday, May 24, 2007
My Solid P(a)unch!!
Not a very attractive thing - but then everyday i look into the mirror and first thing I notice is the ever so evident bulge (stop getting wild ideas - you perverts!:)) - I am talking of ....... my Paunch!! No matter what I do, how much of running, sit-ups, crunches I do - this just seems to haunt my otherwise good looking physique;)
I remember the time when I was a perfectly shaped (assumption: round/ sphere is a perfect shape) weighing nearly 85 kgs in my 8th std. One can well imagine my fitness during those days. I was the chubby dude of my class rolling all over the place when I claimed to be "walking". During sports day (pre-high school), the only race i consistently managed to win was the "Banana eating race" - for those of you who dont know this one,it is quite simple. The physical education sir blows the whistle, you peel the banana off, eat the whole banana, open your mouth to the sir and show you have eaten it completely (and not still chewing) and then you run the 100 meters to the finish line. And for 3 years (4th, 5th and 6th std) in a row I managed to win gold in this particular race (see the Nadal link;)). Then some wise guy decided to scrap this race and that was the end of my winning a medal/certificate for sports - atleast temporarily!
And thereafter, i continued on my mission of reaching 3 figures before I turned 15 years. But then like a silent robber came the attack. There was no forewarning, no hint. Just like every other year, I visited my home town - Mavelikara during the summer vacation in Doha. I had a marriage to attend - one of my cousins getting married. And another of my cousins came for the wedding with none other than.....CHICKEN POX!!!!!A week from then, it had penetrated through the layers of protection I had over me - all that layers of fat I had pain stakingly accumulated over the past years proved of no use! I had it and a pretty severe attack. From 85Kgs, courtesy the pox, I reduced to about 60 kgs - a pretty decent weight for someone who was 14 years old;) - Hallelujiah!!I had become normal:) From then on I was just like any other normal kid and not abnormally huge. I started playing football more frequently. My history in sports was re-written. I started winning some medal or the other during the school sports day though there were no eating competitions anymore - went to the extent of representing my school for high-jump and relay. And came out quite successful to say the least without blowing my horns too much.
Anyway having said all these - one thing that has remained with me is my paunch - even chicken pox could not get rid of that one:( and 1 year of gym could still not get rid of that one. I still continue to dream of that day when I can show off a six-pack or a 4-pack but that always seems to be in the horizon. Everytime I feel that I am near it, within grasps of it, I see it going farther away!!!I dread the day when I may end up looking like many of the elders in the family - pot-bellied and sporting a proud thick moustache!!(typical malayalee):P
Anyway, all things said, after so many years of struggle and fighting, I am finally getting used to the sight of it..slowly coming to terms with the fact that "it" is there to remain - a sign of prosperity, a sign of good health, an asset passed down from generations
I remember the time when I was a perfectly shaped (assumption: round/ sphere is a perfect shape) weighing nearly 85 kgs in my 8th std. One can well imagine my fitness during those days. I was the chubby dude of my class rolling all over the place when I claimed to be "walking". During sports day (pre-high school), the only race i consistently managed to win was the "Banana eating race" - for those of you who dont know this one,it is quite simple. The physical education sir blows the whistle, you peel the banana off, eat the whole banana, open your mouth to the sir and show you have eaten it completely (and not still chewing) and then you run the 100 meters to the finish line. And for 3 years (4th, 5th and 6th std) in a row I managed to win gold in this particular race (see the Nadal link;)). Then some wise guy decided to scrap this race and that was the end of my winning a medal/certificate for sports - atleast temporarily!
And thereafter, i continued on my mission of reaching 3 figures before I turned 15 years. But then like a silent robber came the attack. There was no forewarning, no hint. Just like every other year, I visited my home town - Mavelikara during the summer vacation in Doha. I had a marriage to attend - one of my cousins getting married. And another of my cousins came for the wedding with none other than.....CHICKEN POX!!!!!A week from then, it had penetrated through the layers of protection I had over me - all that layers of fat I had pain stakingly accumulated over the past years proved of no use! I had it and a pretty severe attack. From 85Kgs, courtesy the pox, I reduced to about 60 kgs - a pretty decent weight for someone who was 14 years old;) - Hallelujiah!!I had become normal:) From then on I was just like any other normal kid and not abnormally huge. I started playing football more frequently. My history in sports was re-written. I started winning some medal or the other during the school sports day though there were no eating competitions anymore - went to the extent of representing my school for high-jump and relay. And came out quite successful to say the least without blowing my horns too much.
Anyway having said all these - one thing that has remained with me is my paunch - even chicken pox could not get rid of that one:( and 1 year of gym could still not get rid of that one. I still continue to dream of that day when I can show off a six-pack or a 4-pack but that always seems to be in the horizon. Everytime I feel that I am near it, within grasps of it, I see it going farther away!!!I dread the day when I may end up looking like many of the elders in the family - pot-bellied and sporting a proud thick moustache!!(typical malayalee):P
Anyway, all things said, after so many years of struggle and fighting, I am finally getting used to the sight of it..slowly coming to terms with the fact that "it" is there to remain - a sign of prosperity, a sign of good health, an asset passed down from generations
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
End of a season
Atlast the football season has come to an end - well almost. There is the Champions league finals scheduled for the day after but apart for that everything is kind of wrapped up in England!
The EPL this season, was one of the best fought titles. ManU kicked it off from day 1 and Chelsea were in hot pursuit. Relentless in nature Chelsea never ever gave up till the death fighting out despite injuries, taunting the refs, claiming rules were different for different teams blah..blah... There never was a weekend when I could enjoy the game - if ManU lost one of the games, I would literally pray for Chelsea to loose and if ManU won, I would still pray for Chelsea to loose;)
At the end of the day, I think both the teams have taken EPL to whole new level. Teams 3 & 4 (read as the Mighty Reds n Gunners) are still to catch up on these 2. To be absolutely fair, I think ManU lacks the fighting spirit which has been quite evident in Chelsea. If ManU were to develop the never-say-die attitude seen in Chelsea and Liverpool too, then there would be no stopping them. ManU and Arsenal love to play free flowing football - where they attack and keep attacking until they score. But if there comes an opponent who put 11 men behind the ball, then both these teams find it difficult to get a break through. However Chelsea and Liverpool are quite different. They sit back with a dogged determination, hoping to have that one little chance. And give them that single shot on goal ….. they score. Chelsea nearly had 15- 20 games (I think) this season where they won 1-0 and that too by scoring in the injury time of the second half - no simple feat, if you think about it.
Anyway at the end of the day ManU were crowned League Champions and Chelsea won the Domestic Double - Carling cup & FA Cup. I am hoping for a repeat of 2005 for the CL finals. It would be fantastic to see Stevie lifting the cup again - Go Reds!!!!!
Meanwhile all the blame game, fights etc. have come to an end with the end of the season. Now comes the time where the club owners (billionaires) are given maximum importance during the course of a season - the amount of money they make available for transfers. Just hope this time around Hargreaves comes over to ManU. He would provide the perfect defensive cover for the frequent lapses of Heinze and ocassional lapses by Ferdinand. My only worry is if Carrick would end up being a wasted resource similar to Shaun Wright Phillips in Chelsea.
The other option is for Fergie to use Scholesy as an utility resource - similar to his use of Solksjaer this season and play both Carrick and Hargreaves in Central mid-field. I doubt if Fergie will keep Scholes out for this season - he is one of the gems as is Giggs. And to find their replacements is quite a herculean task. Anyway all this assumptions provided Hargreaves joins ManU. Don’t think Bayern will pull a fast one nor do I think Chelsea will be able to lure away Hargreaves (fingers crossed)!! This season will see the maximum utilisation of the (in)famous "Chelsea bench strength" with their star performers being pulled away for the African Nations Cup - Drogba, Essien, Mikel. A good buy by the Chelsea has been Sidwell from Reading - a very good mid-field player.
Just noticed that amidst all this football gibberish, I have not mentioned anything about Arsenal!! Honestly, I think it is a team in the making similar to the "Fergies Fledglings" of 94-95!
Anyway being a hardcore ManU fan, I hope the Gunners don’t flourish much!!
Ps. Given that I will be just few miles away from the Theatre of Dreams, hoping to get hold of some tickets next season;)!!
The EPL this season, was one of the best fought titles. ManU kicked it off from day 1 and Chelsea were in hot pursuit. Relentless in nature Chelsea never ever gave up till the death fighting out despite injuries, taunting the refs, claiming rules were different for different teams blah..blah... There never was a weekend when I could enjoy the game - if ManU lost one of the games, I would literally pray for Chelsea to loose and if ManU won, I would still pray for Chelsea to loose;)
At the end of the day, I think both the teams have taken EPL to whole new level. Teams 3 & 4 (read as the Mighty Reds n Gunners) are still to catch up on these 2. To be absolutely fair, I think ManU lacks the fighting spirit which has been quite evident in Chelsea. If ManU were to develop the never-say-die attitude seen in Chelsea and Liverpool too, then there would be no stopping them. ManU and Arsenal love to play free flowing football - where they attack and keep attacking until they score. But if there comes an opponent who put 11 men behind the ball, then both these teams find it difficult to get a break through. However Chelsea and Liverpool are quite different. They sit back with a dogged determination, hoping to have that one little chance. And give them that single shot on goal ….. they score. Chelsea nearly had 15- 20 games (I think) this season where they won 1-0 and that too by scoring in the injury time of the second half - no simple feat, if you think about it.
Anyway at the end of the day ManU were crowned League Champions and Chelsea won the Domestic Double - Carling cup & FA Cup. I am hoping for a repeat of 2005 for the CL finals. It would be fantastic to see Stevie lifting the cup again - Go Reds!!!!!
Meanwhile all the blame game, fights etc. have come to an end with the end of the season. Now comes the time where the club owners (billionaires) are given maximum importance during the course of a season - the amount of money they make available for transfers. Just hope this time around Hargreaves comes over to ManU. He would provide the perfect defensive cover for the frequent lapses of Heinze and ocassional lapses by Ferdinand. My only worry is if Carrick would end up being a wasted resource similar to Shaun Wright Phillips in Chelsea.
The other option is for Fergie to use Scholesy as an utility resource - similar to his use of Solksjaer this season and play both Carrick and Hargreaves in Central mid-field. I doubt if Fergie will keep Scholes out for this season - he is one of the gems as is Giggs. And to find their replacements is quite a herculean task. Anyway all this assumptions provided Hargreaves joins ManU. Don’t think Bayern will pull a fast one nor do I think Chelsea will be able to lure away Hargreaves (fingers crossed)!! This season will see the maximum utilisation of the (in)famous "Chelsea bench strength" with their star performers being pulled away for the African Nations Cup - Drogba, Essien, Mikel. A good buy by the Chelsea has been Sidwell from Reading - a very good mid-field player.
Just noticed that amidst all this football gibberish, I have not mentioned anything about Arsenal!! Honestly, I think it is a team in the making similar to the "Fergies Fledglings" of 94-95!
Anyway being a hardcore ManU fan, I hope the Gunners don’t flourish much!!
Ps. Given that I will be just few miles away from the Theatre of Dreams, hoping to get hold of some tickets next season;)!!
Back after a looooooooooonnnng time....
Its been nearly a year since I last blogged anything. But that doesn't necessarily mean I have been sitting devoid of any thoughts/ ponderings! Life had been quite busy/ hectic over the last 1 year. I came over to London on 1st of April, settled down, then had to get my wife here, her job hunt, settling down in London, my app'ngs to Uni's for my MBA etc etc. I have been on my toes and finally I am at peace now - needless to say this is the calm before the storm.
For those who have lost touch with me..i have got into Manchester Business school - some tell me, i am going to learn the complete meaning of the word "tough", "hectic" etc. Meanwhile Anila also has got into Leeds Business school - an hour away (by train) from where I am. Not bad for a start - time will tell how our lives are going to twist and turn courtesy all these! - Hoping for the best.
I have already put in my papers and June 29th is going to be my last day in Infy after 4 years and 20 days (to be precise). Returning to Bangalore on 3rd June and not really looking forward to it this time. Most of my close gang is abroad/outside blore - Vithal is in the US, Kay is in S'pore, Kolli and Ashwin in Phillipines, Assok in Mauritius, Bitla in the US, Sid in Mumbai, Kuts in Kerala, Raj in US - anyway will have to try and meet up with the Kandu magas when in blore!
Will be posting regularly henceforth - atleast i hope to!!
For those who have lost touch with me..i have got into Manchester Business school - some tell me, i am going to learn the complete meaning of the word "tough", "hectic" etc. Meanwhile Anila also has got into Leeds Business school - an hour away (by train) from where I am. Not bad for a start - time will tell how our lives are going to twist and turn courtesy all these! - Hoping for the best.
I have already put in my papers and June 29th is going to be my last day in Infy after 4 years and 20 days (to be precise). Returning to Bangalore on 3rd June and not really looking forward to it this time. Most of my close gang is abroad/outside blore - Vithal is in the US, Kay is in S'pore, Kolli and Ashwin in Phillipines, Assok in Mauritius, Bitla in the US, Sid in Mumbai, Kuts in Kerala, Raj in US - anyway will have to try and meet up with the Kandu magas when in blore!
Will be posting regularly henceforth - atleast i hope to!!
Friday, June 30, 2006
What if....
Sven quit this morning???? An interesting question. Read on - pretty decent analysis, i would say..
Cheers!
Cheers!
Thursday, June 29, 2006
A few good...links:D
1. Penalty shoots - reminded me of Baba's kick in first year inter-section finals - after a big tussle, finally Baba won it for section E thru the classic kick of placing his penalty shot high to the corner!!!hmmm - those were the days. Wonder if it was a freak shot (i am sure Baba will kill me for this comment) or if it was actually planned - whatever it was a fantastic shot!! - wish i had my digi cam then -could have taken a snap of the shot!!
2. Bend it like Beckham - My favourite shot for set-pieces and which i pretty well do - though with my left-foot:)- the surprise factor for many!
3. Strike force - Rooney or Ronaldo?:)
4. Over-ambitious ? - Try this then:)
2. Bend it like Beckham - My favourite shot for set-pieces and which i pretty well do - though with my left-foot:)- the surprise factor for many!
3. Strike force - Rooney or Ronaldo?:)
4. Over-ambitious ? - Try this then:)
World Cup Mania
Its been a while since i last posted anything here but have been too caught up with work and then ofcourse - World cup. The last 19 days were too filled with watching so many games of football. I am sure i have never watched so much football as much as i have in the past 19 days or so!!
After a long time - the heavy-weights of football -(read as Brazil, Germany, Italy, Argentina, England and France) - have made it into the last eight together!! This is quite unlike the scene in the previous world cup in Japan/ S.Korea!! These 6 together with Portugal and Ukraine make up the bandwagon!! Clearly Ukraine are the flag bearers of the underdogs at this point of time. It remains to be seen if they can follow in the foot-steps of S.korea (in last world cup) and make it the last 4.
So far - the 3 teams that captured my attention with creative, attractive football were:
1>Argentina
2>Germany
3>Spain
Esp Argentina has been awe-inspiring. Their range of passes is amazing - its a treat to the eyes to watch them play. To sample what I am blabbering, check this out, especially the second goal where Esteban Cambiasso rounded off a flowing 24-pass move, finishing from 12 yards - which many rate as the one of the best, if not THE BEST, goals ever scored in the history of the world-cup.
With a bench squad consisting of Messi, Tevez, Aimer and their likes, this is one team that could go a long way...
Germany - Out of their 4 games so far, i saw them play against Sweden only. Missed the other 3 courtesy my work timings:( But that one game was enough to raise my confidence in them. What a whopping of the swedes. I would not have been surprised if the germans didnt score more. Klose and Podolski (surprisingly both Polish originally) kep the swedes busy through out hardly giving them any kinda chance to counter-attack!!
Its a pity that 2 of the best teams (so far) have to meet each other in the quarters itself and even more disappointing is the fact that they playing at 1600 GMT- I would be at work:( Will have to try rushing back home to watch atleast the second half. Personally I would want the Argentines to win. Have been an anti-german since the 1990 finals between W.Germany n Argentina where again i was supporting the Argentines courtesy one man - Diego Armando Maradona;).
Hoping this time the results are reversed.
Its a pity that Spain have yet again lived up to their reputation of NOT delivering on the big stage. This time they seriously looked like going a long way but then amazingly they were thrown out of the race by a team of veterans - read as Zidane, Viera, Makelele - I am sure this was the biggest upset of the tournament. A lacklustre , just managed to qualify for round of 16 France defeating the amazing fantastic free flow game of Spain. What a pity. Seeing the form that the Spanish were playing, i was even forced to believe (to an extent)the Nostradmus prediction would actually correspond to football - it went something like this "At the end of the 6th month of the 6th year, The King of Spain and his men will cross the battle fields of Central Europe and win the Holy Grail" - the interpretation was "In the beginning of month of July of year 2006, the Spanish Coach and his team will go to Germany and win the World cup" - What blasphemy!!! Holy grail = World Cup? Someone should have send the forward to Dan Brown - and i am sure he would have build up another great(??:P) story surrounding the Holy grail and how actually it is the world cup which the teams are fighting for every 4 years and how the number 4 has a link some kind of feminism and how the actual Jules Rimet Trophy was stolen once and for all in 1983 by the Knights etc..etc.. lol - (I should probably give him the idea):P
And now comes my favourite team - England. Somehow every one seem to detest the England team!! I would attribute that to probably the English Media which hails the team as winners & heroes well before the world cup and derides every other team/ coach as losers. No wonder the world unity in the hatred-for-England team. Brazil have been playing unattractive football but none complaints. In fact the match against Ghana, i felt Ghana played fantastic football but ultimately they lost -Thanks to the clinical finishes by Ronaldo, Adriano & Ze Roberto!! How come the England team are always blamed of under performing. Scolari plays 5 different formations in the same game in the last world cup and everyone praises him for changing the team play as per the situation (playing according to situation) - whereas Sven changes his game plan from 4-4-2 to 4-5-1 over one game and the pundits are slamming him left and right for experimentation during the world cup - how hypocritical!! Agreed Lennon is much better than Beckham in terms of dribbling and speed and piercing through the defence and the youngster might prove vital to the team, provided he is given more time on the pitch rather than just couple of minutes or 5 minutes of game every match. If you watched the England v/s Ecuador game - the coach and his staff were all set to bring out lennon n crouch instead of Becks (who has suffering from dehydration and was plying on par) and Rooney (i think) around the 59th minute and then Beckham delivers -THE free-kick just before he was being taken off and voila - its the beckham of the past -a wonderful curled in kick - fantabulous goal.
Tell me which coach would have removed the goal scorer, the moment he is scored the goal?? I dont think even the most-daring of coaches would have tried esp when the player in question was someone of the status of Beckham . I surely do hope that this time around - Eriksson gets on top of Scolari for a change. Eagerly waiting for the matches to kick start tomo.............
After a long time - the heavy-weights of football -(read as Brazil, Germany, Italy, Argentina, England and France) - have made it into the last eight together!! This is quite unlike the scene in the previous world cup in Japan/ S.Korea!! These 6 together with Portugal and Ukraine make up the bandwagon!! Clearly Ukraine are the flag bearers of the underdogs at this point of time. It remains to be seen if they can follow in the foot-steps of S.korea (in last world cup) and make it the last 4.
So far - the 3 teams that captured my attention with creative, attractive football were:
1>Argentina
2>Germany
3>Spain
Esp Argentina has been awe-inspiring. Their range of passes is amazing - its a treat to the eyes to watch them play. To sample what I am blabbering, check this out, especially the second goal where Esteban Cambiasso rounded off a flowing 24-pass move, finishing from 12 yards - which many rate as the one of the best, if not THE BEST, goals ever scored in the history of the world-cup.
With a bench squad consisting of Messi, Tevez, Aimer and their likes, this is one team that could go a long way...
Germany - Out of their 4 games so far, i saw them play against Sweden only. Missed the other 3 courtesy my work timings:( But that one game was enough to raise my confidence in them. What a whopping of the swedes. I would not have been surprised if the germans didnt score more. Klose and Podolski (surprisingly both Polish originally) kep the swedes busy through out hardly giving them any kinda chance to counter-attack!!
Its a pity that 2 of the best teams (so far) have to meet each other in the quarters itself and even more disappointing is the fact that they playing at 1600 GMT- I would be at work:( Will have to try rushing back home to watch atleast the second half. Personally I would want the Argentines to win. Have been an anti-german since the 1990 finals between W.Germany n Argentina where again i was supporting the Argentines courtesy one man - Diego Armando Maradona;).
Hoping this time the results are reversed.
Its a pity that Spain have yet again lived up to their reputation of NOT delivering on the big stage. This time they seriously looked like going a long way but then amazingly they were thrown out of the race by a team of veterans - read as Zidane, Viera, Makelele - I am sure this was the biggest upset of the tournament. A lacklustre , just managed to qualify for round of 16 France defeating the amazing fantastic free flow game of Spain. What a pity. Seeing the form that the Spanish were playing, i was even forced to believe (to an extent)the Nostradmus prediction would actually correspond to football - it went something like this "At the end of the 6th month of the 6th year, The King of Spain and his men will cross the battle fields of Central Europe and win the Holy Grail" - the interpretation was "In the beginning of month of July of year 2006, the Spanish Coach and his team will go to Germany and win the World cup" - What blasphemy!!! Holy grail = World Cup? Someone should have send the forward to Dan Brown - and i am sure he would have build up another great(??:P) story surrounding the Holy grail and how actually it is the world cup which the teams are fighting for every 4 years and how the number 4 has a link some kind of feminism and how the actual Jules Rimet Trophy was stolen once and for all in 1983 by the Knights etc..etc.. lol - (I should probably give him the idea):P
And now comes my favourite team - England. Somehow every one seem to detest the England team!! I would attribute that to probably the English Media which hails the team as winners & heroes well before the world cup and derides every other team/ coach as losers. No wonder the world unity in the hatred-for-England team. Brazil have been playing unattractive football but none complaints. In fact the match against Ghana, i felt Ghana played fantastic football but ultimately they lost -Thanks to the clinical finishes by Ronaldo, Adriano & Ze Roberto!! How come the England team are always blamed of under performing. Scolari plays 5 different formations in the same game in the last world cup and everyone praises him for changing the team play as per the situation (playing according to situation) - whereas Sven changes his game plan from 4-4-2 to 4-5-1 over one game and the pundits are slamming him left and right for experimentation during the world cup - how hypocritical!! Agreed Lennon is much better than Beckham in terms of dribbling and speed and piercing through the defence and the youngster might prove vital to the team, provided he is given more time on the pitch rather than just couple of minutes or 5 minutes of game every match. If you watched the England v/s Ecuador game - the coach and his staff were all set to bring out lennon n crouch instead of Becks (who has suffering from dehydration and was plying on par) and Rooney (i think) around the 59th minute and then Beckham delivers -THE free-kick just before he was being taken off and voila - its the beckham of the past -a wonderful curled in kick - fantabulous goal.
Tell me which coach would have removed the goal scorer, the moment he is scored the goal?? I dont think even the most-daring of coaches would have tried esp when the player in question was someone of the status of Beckham . I surely do hope that this time around - Eriksson gets on top of Scolari for a change. Eagerly waiting for the matches to kick start tomo.............
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Camping trip - Saturday
A cold and rainy saturday morning. More than half of the ppl i knew, irrespective of the time zone differences, were fast asleep snuggled up happily under their blankets. At that very moment around 4:45 am on saturday, 8 of us - Myself, Jayesh, Rupesh, Nikhil, Sweta, Sandeep, Vidushi, Kanchan - were getting ready for our CAMPING TRIP. It was the much-awaited bank holiday weekend and we were off camping n trekking (atleast i thought so)...around 5:30 am , one gang (the latter 4) started off from Canary wharf to Edgware road while the other gang (the former 4) started off from Croydon to the very same edgware road to meet up and then proceed towards the fisher ground camping site in Eskdale in Lake District. This was not my first time to this place but then I was all excited about the trip and have been planning for the same for the past 2 weeks (atleast) just coz of the "camp" factor involved!!:)
Well getting back to the trip - we started off at 5:30 from croydon...and after an hour we were still just about 5 - 10 miles away from Croydon, going around in circles - not knowing the way around to reach edgware road. Mind you, we were loaded with print outs of the route, Road atlas, UK road maps and what not. We apparently needed to take a left turn into Parry street from South Lambeth road but then we just kept going up and down the latter not able to find where in the world parry street had disappeared. Either some nitwit had plucked off the board or we were too dumb to notice. I strongly go for the former and still believe the same. After almost an hour , Sandy got frusturated of eating and drinking and waiting for us at edgware road - that he , using his GPS (sweet lady as he calls), came to pick us / lead us out of this goddamn road!! and Guess what - the roads were so confusing that sweet lady got confused as well - lol and sandy too circled a few times before finally finding us and voila..we were off to the motorway M1 following the ford focus in our ford fiesta at around 7 am finally!!!! For us Rups was driving and the other one was driven by Sandy!! The first part of the journey was pretty uneventful ( i was asleep in the back seat) and so were all others including Rups for few seconds!! Lady luck was there with us through out;):)) and then we took our first "welcome break" at one of the services center. Little did i know that the "welcome break" was going to be too often for this trip;):))) All of us unloaded ourselves off the excess water/ coffee/ juice we had drunk and then quickly followed that by sharing/ having a coffee each. We then continued on our way and entered into M6. After a while, Rupesh being tired, I took over the wheels of the fiesta and vrooommmmm......i was Michael schumacher or alonso or whoever...changing tracks from the right extreme to the middle lane...over taking cars..touching the maximum of 120 mph at times :D:) The soul aim of our car was to keep the "Focus" in focus since that had the all important GPS and we (read as the fiesta guys) didnt trust our direction sense much - lol!! The guys in my car were asleep for sometime, chitchatted and generally having fun - the biggest fun being overtaking the focus and then trying to slow down to let the focus overtake us (courtesy the directional problems).
Around 3:00 pm...we finally reached the camping site - all were in a upbeat mood..we drive into the site and the owners come upto us saying "Sorry gentlemen, we are full - there is no space" - ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, what the $%^* did they mean they were full!! we drove the last 350 miles or so not to hear this crap!! The sight of our faces was indeed a sight to be seen!! It was blank/ expressionless!!!!! we had joked about this happening but it never crossed our mind that this could actually happen. We told the lady we had come alllllllll the way from london and that we possible couldnt go back now:(. Then the man of the place came over and said, he will check the camp for a place for us to pitch the tent. We - me, nikhil, jayesh and sandy - went along with him and finally found a place. Ok, now the funda at that place was that each tent would have a campfire to themselves and they didnt have 4 campfires for us..so they asked us to manage with 1 and if thats ok we could (We had 4 tents - 2/tent) - we were kind enough to take up the offer:P;) and once again the (32*8 - not that i counted but just an estimate) teeth were gleaming on everyone's face!!
Now came event 2 - pitching the tent and to add to our existing plight, it was raining hard! None of us had camped ever before except for me (that too long back in school) and we didnt know how to pitch our tent up!! The girls - all enthu- took out first tent and started putting them together (supposedly). The smarter ones (Me and sandy;)) just walked up to few goray's and asked them for help. They obliged - yippeeeee!! We, the smart ones, got our first (and last) lesson in setting up the tent..Anyway by then the hardworkers - read as everyone else except me and sandy- had set up their tent too (full credit to them:P)..Thus going ahead, we set up all the 4 tents around our one campfire place!! Then came the next obvious question - lets eattttttttttttt!!! We went to nearby boot inn for our lunner and now here they tell us they serve dinner only from 6pm and lunch is served only till 3:30 pm!! and we were there at 5 pm!! We took off from there and went to a nearby department store and got our stock of crisps (chips in US/ elsewhere), bread, jam, cheese (for next breakfast - who told u we dont think ahead:P:))) and got back to the inn at exactly 5:59 pm and just placed the order:) All of us had our stomach/ hearts fill!! Enjoying every morsel/ grain and then with an even wider grin went to the camping site back.
Next we started on setting up the fire - Sweta got the logs and kindle for £3.5 and Vidu was the fire-manager - to set up the fire. While the girls were busy with that - Nikhil took care of the seating arrangement while me was handing a bottle of Smirnoff, sprite, packets of crisps, plastic glasses, napkins and playing cards to the remaining - sahi mahol ban gaya tha!! While everyone sipped on their drinks, we played bluff/ 420.....and ppl who played the most honest game actually ended up winning - just cementing the fact - "Truth always triumphs" - by the time it was 10:30 that the game got over..we retired to our respective tents - and into our sleeping bags (again a first time experience for all except me)!!! I had to actually plug my ears coz of the giggles by the girls in the next tent (swe/ kanchan) - they just refused to stop..!!!!all were lying in their own sleeping bags and talking out to each other thru the tents!! and soon we (rather some) were deep in sleep snoring away to glory - the last sound i heard is the rain hitting against the cloth of the tent...plop..plop.....plop....
Well getting back to the trip - we started off at 5:30 from croydon...and after an hour we were still just about 5 - 10 miles away from Croydon, going around in circles - not knowing the way around to reach edgware road. Mind you, we were loaded with print outs of the route, Road atlas, UK road maps and what not. We apparently needed to take a left turn into Parry street from South Lambeth road but then we just kept going up and down the latter not able to find where in the world parry street had disappeared. Either some nitwit had plucked off the board or we were too dumb to notice. I strongly go for the former and still believe the same. After almost an hour , Sandy got frusturated of eating and drinking and waiting for us at edgware road - that he , using his GPS (sweet lady as he calls), came to pick us / lead us out of this goddamn road!! and Guess what - the roads were so confusing that sweet lady got confused as well - lol and sandy too circled a few times before finally finding us and voila..we were off to the motorway M1 following the ford focus in our ford fiesta at around 7 am finally!!!! For us Rups was driving and the other one was driven by Sandy!! The first part of the journey was pretty uneventful ( i was asleep in the back seat) and so were all others including Rups for few seconds!! Lady luck was there with us through out;):)) and then we took our first "welcome break" at one of the services center. Little did i know that the "welcome break" was going to be too often for this trip;):))) All of us unloaded ourselves off the excess water/ coffee/ juice we had drunk and then quickly followed that by sharing/ having a coffee each. We then continued on our way and entered into M6. After a while, Rupesh being tired, I took over the wheels of the fiesta and vrooommmmm......i was Michael schumacher or alonso or whoever...changing tracks from the right extreme to the middle lane...over taking cars..touching the maximum of 120 mph at times :D:) The soul aim of our car was to keep the "Focus" in focus since that had the all important GPS and we (read as the fiesta guys) didnt trust our direction sense much - lol!! The guys in my car were asleep for sometime, chitchatted and generally having fun - the biggest fun being overtaking the focus and then trying to slow down to let the focus overtake us (courtesy the directional problems).
Around 3:00 pm...we finally reached the camping site - all were in a upbeat mood..we drive into the site and the owners come upto us saying "Sorry gentlemen, we are full - there is no space" - ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, what the $%^* did they mean they were full!! we drove the last 350 miles or so not to hear this crap!! The sight of our faces was indeed a sight to be seen!! It was blank/ expressionless!!!!! we had joked about this happening but it never crossed our mind that this could actually happen. We told the lady we had come alllllllll the way from london and that we possible couldnt go back now:(. Then the man of the place came over and said, he will check the camp for a place for us to pitch the tent. We - me, nikhil, jayesh and sandy - went along with him and finally found a place. Ok, now the funda at that place was that each tent would have a campfire to themselves and they didnt have 4 campfires for us..so they asked us to manage with 1 and if thats ok we could (We had 4 tents - 2/tent) - we were kind enough to take up the offer:P;) and once again the (32*8 - not that i counted but just an estimate) teeth were gleaming on everyone's face!!
Now came event 2 - pitching the tent and to add to our existing plight, it was raining hard! None of us had camped ever before except for me (that too long back in school) and we didnt know how to pitch our tent up!! The girls - all enthu- took out first tent and started putting them together (supposedly). The smarter ones (Me and sandy;)) just walked up to few goray's and asked them for help. They obliged - yippeeeee!! We, the smart ones, got our first (and last) lesson in setting up the tent..Anyway by then the hardworkers - read as everyone else except me and sandy- had set up their tent too (full credit to them:P)..Thus going ahead, we set up all the 4 tents around our one campfire place!! Then came the next obvious question - lets eattttttttttttt!!! We went to nearby boot inn for our lunner
Next we started on setting up the fire - Sweta got the logs and kindle for £3.5 and Vidu was the fire-manager - to set up the fire. While the girls were busy with that - Nikhil took care of the seating arrangement while me was handing a bottle of Smirnoff, sprite, packets of crisps, plastic glasses, napkins and playing cards to the remaining - sahi mahol ban gaya tha!! While everyone sipped on their drinks, we played bluff/ 420.....and ppl who played the most honest game actually ended up winning - just cementing the fact - "Truth always triumphs" - by the time it was 10:30 that the game got over..we retired to our respective tents - and into our sleeping bags (again a first time experience for all except me)!!! I had to actually plug my ears coz of the giggles by the girls in the next tent (swe/ kanchan) - they just refused to stop..!!!!all were lying in their own sleeping bags and talking out to each other thru the tents!! and soon we (rather some) were deep in sleep snoring away to glory - the last sound i heard is the rain hitting against the cloth of the tent...plop..plop.....plop....
Monday, April 03, 2006
Here we go around the London Heathrow
Back in london!! Christ sake, i thought it would be setting of spring but it is still so damn cold over here!!Rather, its just normal cold but u get the chill, when the wind blows:)
Anyway on Sunday morning boarded the flight at 6 am...it took off actually 15 min prior to scheduled time. I had to just get into the flight to fall asleep!! The only 2 times i woke up was for breakfast - scrambled eggs, sausage and bread and lunch - rice, chkn curry, dal and chapatthi!!:D The remaining part of the flight, i just slept through watching "England's road to Germany 2006" on my personal tv in the flight. Well we reached London at the scheduled time itself - 12:30 pm. Or rather should i say, we reached OVER London at the scheduled time. Apparently there was no landing space in Heathrow airport and hence we continued going around in circles. It was interesting to see the flight map. First we made a small circle, then a bigger one, then another bigger one, then we went straight past the London (2 dots signifying capital) and then did a 180 degree turn and went right past london again!! The way we were making circles, i was almost sure that we would create the diagram of the solar system on the flight map with the london depicted as "Sun".
Anyway after continuing this for about 1 hour or so, we finally landed. Hurrah!!!- that was the good news -as told by the captain of the flight. Then he conveyed the bad news - we found landing space folks but we are 3rd in queue for obtaining a gate to disembark. Thus the wait continued in the flight now for another half an hour. Finally...FINALLY, we got out of the plane near about 2pm.phhheeewww.......
Immigration unusally went absolutely fine=> without them frisking me (i generally get frisked/ searched thoroughly since i resemble a terrorist - not my fault again;))
and then had to get a medical check-up. Proceeded to the Medical room in the airport and they took an x-ray of my chest and said i was healthy..yooohooo!! Finally got out, picked up my luggage - guess it already made 4 - 5 rounds by the time i got out after the health check up. They were the only 2 bags on the conveyor belt.
Took a cab to croydon and i reach Fitzroy Court where i am supposed to stay. I ring flat number 49 for someone to buzz me through the secured main entrance and i realise they are all outside and none at home. Luckily there was a payphone nearby, called them up and again luckily they were just 5 min away from home. And finally i got into my home for the next 2 months!!!
Hopefully and i seriously hope that things are less eventful than what it was on the day i arrived:)
Anyway on Sunday morning boarded the flight at 6 am...it took off actually 15 min prior to scheduled time. I had to just get into the flight to fall asleep!! The only 2 times i woke up was for breakfast - scrambled eggs, sausage and bread and lunch - rice, chkn curry, dal and chapatthi!!:D The remaining part of the flight, i just slept through watching "England's road to Germany 2006" on my personal tv in the flight. Well we reached London at the scheduled time itself - 12:30 pm. Or rather should i say, we reached OVER London at the scheduled time. Apparently there was no landing space in Heathrow airport and hence we continued going around in circles. It was interesting to see the flight map. First we made a small circle, then a bigger one, then another bigger one, then we went straight past the London (2 dots signifying capital) and then did a 180 degree turn and went right past london again!! The way we were making circles, i was almost sure that we would create the diagram of the solar system on the flight map with the london depicted as "Sun".
Anyway after continuing this for about 1 hour or so, we finally landed. Hurrah!!!- that was the good news -as told by the captain of the flight. Then he conveyed the bad news - we found landing space folks but we are 3rd in queue for obtaining a gate to disembark. Thus the wait continued in the flight now for another half an hour. Finally...FINALLY, we got out of the plane near about 2pm.phhheeewww.......
Immigration unusally went absolutely fine=> without them frisking me (i generally get frisked/ searched thoroughly since i resemble a terrorist - not my fault again;))
and then had to get a medical check-up. Proceeded to the Medical room in the airport and they took an x-ray of my chest and said i was healthy..yooohooo!! Finally got out, picked up my luggage - guess it already made 4 - 5 rounds by the time i got out after the health check up. They were the only 2 bags on the conveyor belt.
Took a cab to croydon and i reach Fitzroy Court where i am supposed to stay. I ring flat number 49 for someone to buzz me through the secured main entrance and i realise they are all outside and none at home. Luckily there was a payphone nearby, called them up and again luckily they were just 5 min away from home. And finally i got into my home for the next 2 months!!!
Hopefully and i seriously hope that things are less eventful than what it was on the day i arrived:)
Friday, March 31, 2006
Barcodes
Ever wondered what the black and white lines are behind every other stuff u buy from the supermarket??
well check this out. Gives you all you ever wanted to know about the stuff.
In addition, it also gives your barcode number. Time is not far when each one of us would have a barcode:)) You would just have to go through a scanning machine in any shop you enter and if its clothes - all your size n specifications get displayed to the salesperson and if its a restaurant, prob. all ur health problems and dietary regulations would be displayed:)) Interesting, aint it:)????
well check this out. Gives you all you ever wanted to know about the stuff.
In addition, it also gives your barcode number. Time is not far when each one of us would have a barcode:)) You would just have to go through a scanning machine in any shop you enter and if its clothes - all your size n specifications get displayed to the salesperson and if its a restaurant, prob. all ur health problems and dietary regulations would be displayed:)) Interesting, aint it:)????
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Gunners shoot and The Magician flops!!
Last night, i stayed up till 2:30 watching the Champions League.
Both the matches started off at the same time and i was in a dilemma which one to watch - Barca v/s Benfica
- Arsenal v/s Juventus
For the first 5 min, i just kept flipping between channel 27 (Star Sports) and 52 (ESPN). Just 5 min and the decision was as simple as it could be...i watched the former with glimpses of the second match in between!!!
The first match was a treat to watch esp since one of my fav. players - Ronaldinho -the magician. The way this dude has control over the ball, i dont think anyone else would have. Amazing reflexes, amazing tackles and fantastic passes!!! it was a treat to watch this dude play and combine this with the classic play of Deco accompanies by Eto and Larssen...i still wonder why Barca didnt score!!!!! They hit the bar like uncountable number of times - they hit the target so many times but nothing converted!! The commentators were very right in saying that Barca is playing like a millionaire with lots n lots of money (shots on the goals in this case) to throw around. I hope they dont regret the wasted chances in the next leg in barcelona!! This is one team outside the EPL that i really admire. Irrespective of whether they score or not, they play entertaining football. What a team!!
Full credit to Moretto though. This guy came up with some amazing saves and fantastic reflexes!!!
The second match - as expected - was pretty dull. Guess Juventus was trying to play too defensive!!Juventus just had 1 shot on the arsenal goal while arsenal had around 8 of which 2 were converted into goals!!
As always the clinical finisher Henry was in his top form and even Fabregas coming up pretty well off late!! In fact Arsenal as a team is coming together pretty good now. Have to wait and see how they fare in the next season of EPL!!!
Cant wait for 2006-07 season to start - Chelsea domination slowly seem to be dwindling while the old race horses - ManU, Liverpool and Arsenal -seem to be finding their lost form back!!
And more importantly just counting days for June 9th!!!
Both the matches started off at the same time and i was in a dilemma which one to watch - Barca v/s Benfica
- Arsenal v/s Juventus
For the first 5 min, i just kept flipping between channel 27 (Star Sports) and 52 (ESPN). Just 5 min and the decision was as simple as it could be...i watched the former with glimpses of the second match in between!!!
The first match was a treat to watch esp since one of my fav. players - Ronaldinho -the magician. The way this dude has control over the ball, i dont think anyone else would have. Amazing reflexes, amazing tackles and fantastic passes!!! it was a treat to watch this dude play and combine this with the classic play of Deco accompanies by Eto and Larssen...i still wonder why Barca didnt score!!!!! They hit the bar like uncountable number of times - they hit the target so many times but nothing converted!! The commentators were very right in saying that Barca is playing like a millionaire with lots n lots of money (shots on the goals in this case) to throw around. I hope they dont regret the wasted chances in the next leg in barcelona!! This is one team outside the EPL that i really admire. Irrespective of whether they score or not, they play entertaining football. What a team!!
Full credit to Moretto though. This guy came up with some amazing saves and fantastic reflexes!!!
The second match - as expected - was pretty dull. Guess Juventus was trying to play too defensive!!Juventus just had 1 shot on the arsenal goal while arsenal had around 8 of which 2 were converted into goals!!
As always the clinical finisher Henry was in his top form and even Fabregas coming up pretty well off late!! In fact Arsenal as a team is coming together pretty good now. Have to wait and see how they fare in the next season of EPL!!!
Cant wait for 2006-07 season to start - Chelsea domination slowly seem to be dwindling while the old race horses - ManU, Liverpool and Arsenal -seem to be finding their lost form back!!
And more importantly just counting days for June 9th!!!
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Time to revise the oath, Doc?????
Have been reading quite a lot of articles on Euthanasia/mercy killing these days. There is a faction of ppl who argue that it is interfering in God's plans by killing those ppl and this is equivalent to murder committed by any third rate criminal. Is it so??
Lets take the case of Joel (fictional character) - he is suffering from a disease which has no cure. It is the kind of disease leading to slow and eventual degradation of the entire body putting him through hell lot of pain & suffering. Every day he is alive is a equivalent to putting him on a pyre and burning him. The doctors have given him a maximum of a year to live - a year of pain, suffering, boils, swellings, rashes and all possible ailments one's mind can think of. In his little left sanity, he requests the doctor to finish his story - khallas!!! Now, should the doctor take pity on him and kill him freeing his soul of the endless pain or should he continue looking after him, treating him and giving "un-needed" hopes to his parents/relatives etc???
Countries like Netherlands, belgium and Switzerland have come to terms with this physician-assisted killing but are they too pro-modern?? Clamouring for the "right to die" the pro-euthanasia group strongly believe that every person has the right to die in dignity rather than suffer through it!!!Doctors in UK who are anti-euthanasia have voiced slogans like "Care, Not Killing" showing that they still attach themselvs strongly to the oath they take when embarking into this profession - that they would aid in the healing n cure of the sick - and NOT encourage their KILLING.
I personally believe euthanasia should not be encouraged!! On one hand, you consider capital punishment unacceptable, suicide unacceptable - then why should you accept mercy killing? All the pro-euthanasia group may say that by letting the diseased live, we are making them go through unwanted suffering. Well, empathy/ sympathy for the ones in pain is human, but intentional killing to alleviate the anguish is like, i think, burning down a house coz of mosquito trouble!!!!
This is the age when medical science is progressing by leaps & bounds every day. They are near to finding out cures for cancer/ AIDs etc(not sure if it is already been discovered). In such a progressive world, if the doctor tells you that you have a year to live - for all you know the very disease which has no cure today, might end up having something few months down the lane and you could actually live to see your generations down the ladder!!!!
Why take your life, when there may be light at the end of the tunnel?
Why force the doctors to change their oath?;)
I started off this write, thinking i would support euthanasia but on second thoughts, naaa!! Live and live as long as you can. Savour every moment of life. There would be troughs but then every trough should be followed by a crest!!!!!
Lets take the case of Joel (fictional character) - he is suffering from a disease which has no cure. It is the kind of disease leading to slow and eventual degradation of the entire body putting him through hell lot of pain & suffering. Every day he is alive is a equivalent to putting him on a pyre and burning him. The doctors have given him a maximum of a year to live - a year of pain, suffering, boils, swellings, rashes and all possible ailments one's mind can think of. In his little left sanity, he requests the doctor to finish his story - khallas!!! Now, should the doctor take pity on him and kill him freeing his soul of the endless pain or should he continue looking after him, treating him and giving "un-needed" hopes to his parents/relatives etc???
Countries like Netherlands, belgium and Switzerland have come to terms with this physician-assisted killing but are they too pro-modern?? Clamouring for the "right to die" the pro-euthanasia group strongly believe that every person has the right to die in dignity rather than suffer through it!!!Doctors in UK who are anti-euthanasia have voiced slogans like "Care, Not Killing" showing that they still attach themselvs strongly to the oath they take when embarking into this profession - that they would aid in the healing n cure of the sick - and NOT encourage their KILLING.
I personally believe euthanasia should not be encouraged!! On one hand, you consider capital punishment unacceptable, suicide unacceptable - then why should you accept mercy killing? All the pro-euthanasia group may say that by letting the diseased live, we are making them go through unwanted suffering. Well, empathy/ sympathy for the ones in pain is human, but intentional killing to alleviate the anguish is like, i think, burning down a house coz of mosquito trouble!!!!
This is the age when medical science is progressing by leaps & bounds every day. They are near to finding out cures for cancer/ AIDs etc(not sure if it is already been discovered). In such a progressive world, if the doctor tells you that you have a year to live - for all you know the very disease which has no cure today, might end up having something few months down the lane and you could actually live to see your generations down the ladder!!!!
Why take your life, when there may be light at the end of the tunnel?
Why force the doctors to change their oath?;)
I started off this write, thinking i would support euthanasia but on second thoughts, naaa!! Live and live as long as you can. Savour every moment of life. There would be troughs but then every trough should be followed by a crest!!!!!
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