After a loong time – Part #1

It’s been a very long time since I posted on my blog. People like IV, Tipo kept mentioning on their blogs that I had stopped blogging. To tell you the truth, I have been very lazy regarding this. Anyways, I will not be writing the events of the last 6 months in one go. I have thought of dividing it into sub-posts -

1. Football

2. GRE + Applying to Universities

3. Life in the last 6 months

So let’s begin with Football

Do I need say any more

Ohh wait there’s one more -

A Guard of Honour for our second string team .. gg Sir Alex .. we knocked them right off their fucking perch.

If you cannot win EPL or UEFA-CL with such a strong squad, you will probably never win it.

It was a long season for both the teams with more than 60 games for each of them.

Chelsea are probably the most resilient side in world-football now .. it’s just impossible to dismiss them even if they are trailing 3-1,etc. and a trio is primarily responsible for that – Drogba(u gotta bow to this man), Essien(what a player !), Mikel(is he the next Makelele ?). I agree that the injuries hurt them but they have the best bench strength in the world. Mourinho’s a really stubborn man & instead of helping guys like Shevchenko & Boulahrouz, he prefers dumping them. He may be a self-proclaimed “The Special One” but as BBC pointed out, after the UEFA-CL Semi-Final he was “The Deluded one” for saying that his were the better team & only team which was playing for a win. Passing long balls to Drogba and then hoping for him to pull out yet another miracle isn’t the mentality of a winning team. Mourinho has made Chelsea a machine .. a team that likes to grind out wins .. not football which can be enjoyed .. not the “attractive football” that a fan yearns for. It’s probably reflected in his mentality before the FA Cup Final which they won when he asked his players – “Do you want to enjoy the game or do you want to enjoy after the game ?” Eric Cantona has been quoted saying that Sir Alex always ends his pre-game talk saying “And now enjoy the game. Have fun.”

ManU have had a great season this time and it’s been led by the three R’s – Ronaldo, Rooney & Ryan Giggs. The two veterans of United – Giggs & Scholes simply played out of their skins – Giggs did explain that in the middle of the season – considering his age he treats every game as his last game because there’s no guarantee whether he may recover from an injury at this stage of his career. The central defence was awesome with Ferdinand & Vidic. Evra gives an extra edge while attacking and his defending seems decent to me. Carrick was a shrewd buy .. he did justify the 18+ million pounds tag on him and will mature with experience. The one player who disappointed me was Gabriel Heinze. He looks a shadow of the player from 2004. He’s probably not the same player anymore after his injury against Villarreal. And finally, Owen Hargreaves is coming to Man-United

Elsewhere – Inter Milan won Serie A by quite some margin but La Liga is not done yet. Real Madrid, Barca and Sevilla are in the race for the title. It’s been a great season to watch with it’s twists and turns (because of Barca’s rather poor form and infighting issues ). Sevilla won the UEFA Cup in between.

ohh btw, Chelsea won 2 CUPS (as if it mattered to anybody ).

It may be a busy summer for clubs like Barcelona and Liverpool. Barcelona need a good third striker while Liverpool are now armed with funds from their American buyers. Juventus is back in Serie A and they will be looking forward to improving the squad. Let’s see who lands where (esp. the strikers like Tevez, Torres, Villa, Berbatov,etc.)

There’s the UEFA Champions League Final in about an hour(at 0015 hours to be precise) between Liverpool and AC Milan – a repeat of that great 2005 Final when Liverpool came back to win by penalties after being down 3-0 at the halftime. I would classify this game as Gerrard vs Kaka. You control one of them and their team struggles(esp. Liverpool). I will probably support Milan since I find difficult to support a team playing negative football like Liverpool. But what can Benitez do with such a mediocre squad with the likes of Zenden and co. I think Liverpool will want it to go to a penalty-shootout considering Reina’s ability at that. But let’s hope there’s a good match .. at least something better than what Chelsea and United dished out in the FA Cup Final.

PS – This is NOT the END

ManU vs Chelski – 2130 IST

This is it … the game EPL fans have been waiting for since August …it’s the discussion on all major Sports websites … daily there’s some comment coming from both the camps abt their chances and they have even started discussing the referee-in-charge

It’s the battle for Supremacy between the two titans of English Football ( I hate to say this but my dear Liverpool fan your glory days have long been forgotten ) … both of the teams suffered identical 1-0 losses in mid-week Champions League matches even though Chelsea have qualified for the next round while ManU need a point from their match against Benfica ( déjà vu for us ) … ManU badly need this win coz if they screw up here it might lead to loss of confidence and the win would deflate the Chelski scumbags … I know I am a die-hard ManU fan but I hate to admit this – Chelsea’s bench strength is simply unmatchable

There are some ppl who fail to understand why ManU have such a huge fan-base … why the no. of members in I hate Chelsea FC community in orkut have almost the same no of members as the Chelsea Fans Club community … the point is money can buy you trophies … it cannt buy you affection of the fans – the true fans unlike the ones who believe that ppl follow ManU coz they are the true angrez team

It’s been quite sometime since I posted … well regular readers of this blog(if there were any) will observe that the author is football-obsessed and hardly writes a non-football post … he cudnt find anythin to write on … there were a few interesting games though in between – Barcelona vs Chelsea, Arsenal vs Liverpool, Chelsea vs Liverpool, Arsenal vs ManU

Talking of Barcelona, they are really short of forwards .. Messi, Eto’o, Saviola are all out and it seems they may try to have Larsson on loan for sometime … btw last nite I was jus goin to the cooler to fill up the bottle .. chked the TV Room … Barcelona were playing Villarreal(leading 3-0 that time) … so I thought why not watch my 2nd fav football team … and here’s the result of that short stay –> Ronaldinho is God

Elsewhere I have filled up a few Univ forms … wud start posting to univs Monday onwards … placements gonna start soon and my prep for that is simply pathetic … need to brush up my fundas soon … some BTP-Open Day gonna be held next week … am jus not interested in it

watched Departed at PVR … simply awesome movie … Nicholson, Di Caprio n Damon rocked … dialogues – f***ing awesome … a 9/10 movie (since there exists no perfect movie )

PS 1 – not really interested in PSes today

PS 2 – IV n Tipo are copycats

PS 3 – Two and a Half Men is nice

PS 4 – ppl seem to have aced CAT … let’s see what happens in January … kiskiska number aayega

PS 5 – ppl playing CS again … woohoo

PS 6 – This is the END

Long Time No Post

It’s been a long time since I posted(probably a month) & frankly speaking I couldnt find anything to blog about … with the World Cup over in early July evenings were always boring for a few days with no matches to view
I suppose this one would one of those blaahish posts
A few incidents did occur in the last couple of days
- 3 of my juniors have been sentenced to 3 months imprisonment in Mussoorie sadly for interacting a bit too much with the 1st years

- Sham Navathe (haan wahin jiski DBMS book padi thi 4th sem mein) paid a visit to IIIT about 2 days back … he gave a talk related to text-mining in boimedical stuff …the talk was pretty OK … at least I wasnt sent into a comatose state like the other talks that I have attended here in IIIT … a day before that he visited CDE & discussed the work that was going on in here … he did make the point that here the projects seemed more of a research kind while back at Georgia Tech they usually have projects related more to the industry … btw we personally discussed our BTP with him after his talk

- IIIT Buzz’s pretty boring these days … the author of that HSSM post shud seriously be banned frm posting anymore on that blog

- CS is almost dead … but me,ZorA & Amigo do play once in a while & there are some really funny rounds sometimes

- was expecting a few parties at the end of vacations but so far it’s been nil bate sanaata (sorry Maalik i had to use your phrase)

- There have been some high-profile transfers this summer with Juventus being the biggest losers(got kicked frm Serie A for rigging matches)
Shevchenko to Chelsea

Ballack to Chelsea

Mr Cry-Baby aka Nistelrooy to Real Madrid

Cannavaro to Real Madrid

Thuram to Barcelona

Zambrotta to Barcelona

Vieira to Inter Milan

There have been many many other transfers but these were the ones that caught my attention

ManU have bought Carrick for a whooping 18+ million pounds but ManU fans remain skeptical … let’s hope for the best or I am seriously gonna dump ManU as my first choice club … I still feel that they need a good striker to fill Nistelrooy’s shoes(after all he scored 150 goals for us) .. Tevez would be cool
cannt write any more blahish stuff

PS 1 — 18 days for D-Day .. the countdown rebegins

PS 2 — Last Sunday’s AIMCAT was profitable

PS 3 — Whom will Rooney kick in the nuts next

PS 4 — ZorA is really enthu abt CS these days even if he loses 35-15
PS 5 — Why do terms like Shivir, Yukta Ahaar irritate me so much X(

PS 6 — Tipo rocks … lucky bushi

PS 7 — Schumi’s on a hot streak & Alonso’s really feeling the heat now

PS 8 — Can somebody tell me what is E.V.S. … it’s some kind of exam – that’s the only thing that I know … any more info abt it wud be welcome

PS 9 — This is the END to a very boring post

I love these

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adios Zizou :( & goodbye 108

It wasnt supposed to be this way

What a shameful end to the career of one of the greatest players ever
The lasting image of the final wouldnt be Cannavaro lifting the cup but Zidane walking past the trophy

And of course this

The only info that I got so far that Materazzi used a racial slur (Source:- French players who spoke after the game to the media) … if that isnt true, we will forever wonder just what did Materazzi say?

This is just a small entry … the final World Cup post will be posted later
Also adios OBH-108 … I miss u so much

Adios Samba Boys :)

Brazil were simply outplayed by the French & for the first time in 24 years there will be no South American team in the semis :O … The French eclipsed Brazil’s galaxy of stars with crisp passing, aggressive tackling and superior play in the air … I cud hardly see Ronaldinho,Kaka in action … only in the last 10 minutes did the Brazilians realize that they were a goal down … France’s win over Brazil provides the perfect answer to critics(including me) who said they were too old esp. looking at their performances in the Group Stage … A few quotes found on the net to describe Zidane’s performance in the game “The executioner Zidane makes Brazil cry for a second time,” … “Zidane had one of those Zidane days and one of creative football’s last, unpredictable mohicans defeated Brazil,” … “Whatever is driving Zinedine Zidane at this tournament, he should market it and therby give hope to 30-somethings the world over!” … do I need to say any more ?

Elsewhere Italy decimated Ukraine 3-0 with Luca Toni scoring a brace … the Italians came up with some slick moves & arent that bad after all … let’s see wat they can do in the semis

& then comes England – the home of football … they learnt their most important lesson – that they play better with 10 men instead of 11 … Rooney cudnt check his temper & Cristiano Ronalo’s shameful antics may lead to an interesting welcome back at ManU by ahem … Rooney , Rio Ferdinand & Gary Neville. David Beckham has finally resigned as England captaincy to spare himself the indignity of being stripped of this role which he holds with great pride … ohh I forgot to mention – England lost again on penalties & once again to a team managed by Scolari

and finally the game that I wished to see as the final – Germany vs Argentina. The Germans werent fast paced as they usually are at the start of the games … the first half was boring but with Ayala’s goal in the 49th minute, the game sprang to life with Germany carrying out raids after raids & their efforts finally bore fruit in the 80th minute courtesy a goal from Miroslav Klose(who now has 10 goals in World Cup-finals) but before that Jose Pekerman probably made the biggest blunder I have ever seen in my life … he fking removed Lord Riquelme … why the hell will any coach remove his best player who is held in awe by the opponents … Mr Pekerman you simply screwed your team’s chances … I wonder if he will return in 2010 with the kind of form he had shown this time with him being 32+ by then … the game went to penalties & well if it’s the Germans + penalties combo at the World Cup, we all know the result

Finally a quick analysis -

Brazil vs France -> Zidane was god-like & Parreira shud have brought on Robinho,Cicinho & Gilberto

England vs Portugal -> nobody to fill into Rooney’s shoes & let’s hope Lampard stays out of form for Chelsea as well

Italy vs Ukarine -> well played Azzurri … Ukraine werent expected to do much anyways

Argentina vs Germany -> Pekerman, stop coaching … Hail Die Mannschaft

Semi Finals line-up ->

Italy(Azzurri) vs Germany (Mannschaft)

France(Les Blues) vs Portugal(Selecção das Quinas)

No more predictions from this expert … as Sreejith said Que Será, Será

PS 1 — Most people missed that had something to do in Germany’s win … It seems that Jens Lehmann was given a list of Argentina’s penalty takers & the direction in which they usually shoot. He saved 2 & tried hard to save the other two
PS 2 — ESWC format sucks … Single Elimination is bulls*** (ask Peesu for more details abt it )

PS 3 — Amongst all these posts about football, I failed to mention something important … India’s won a series in the West Indies after 35 long years !!! … all hail Rahul “The Wall” Dravid

PS 4 — how does this quote sound -> a good ps is worth half a post

PS 5 — This is the END

The Expert Column

Continuing my posts on FIFA World Cup-2006, we have reached the round-of-8 with Spain being the biggest casualty so far. The French play a game reminiscent of their game at France-98 & the biggest news is Zizou back in form … sadly the greatest player of my generation(during my teen-years to be precise) would retire from professional football at the end of Germany-2006 … He had been condemned to be consigned to memory after tha game against Spain but he has risen like a phoenix & proved his legend is greater than the moment … anyways the victory over the perennial under-achievers of the World Cup i.e. Spain means that the French are up against Brazil … Ronaldo’s back in form but Kaka & Emerson may miss the game … while my mind says Brazil’s gonna win this game, my heart beats for the French(primarily coz of Zidane ,Vieira & Ribery)

The first quarter-final pitts Germany(buoyed by great support at home) against Argentina(who have been probably the best at this tournament) … the only sad part is that this shud have been the final on 9th July … The 2 teams have met each other twice at the World Cup(the finals at Mexico-86 & Italia-90) with them tied at 1 game apiece … I have been a supporter of both these teams(supporting them at EURO & Copa-America) but to watch my two favourites team battle against each other pains me … Messi has spoken of keeping the ball on ground considering the two tall German central defenders i.e Metzelder & Mertesacker … this one’s gonna be a cracker of a game … I am damn sure that today’s winner will win on 9th July … may the best team win

The other 2 quarter-finals are between Italy v Ukraine(blah) & England v Portugal … I wonder why Sreejith supports the Italians … I find them so boring(except the game against Ghana where they really played well) … England vs Portugal … damn the English have it so easy … 2 important Portuguese players out(Deco & Costinha) & 5 more on yellow cards & to cap it all Cristiano Ronaldo’s injury status isnt clear … Scolari’s got a really big problem on his hands … but I guess he will come up with some good gameplan(after all he’s won his all matches as a coach at the World-Cup)

My predictions for the quarters

Italy beats Ukraine(1-0 … will be a boring game probably)

England beats Portugal 1-0(probably becoz of a freak goal )

Brazil beats France 2-1(plz plz I shud be wrong here)

Argentina vs Germany – may the best team win

PS 1 — ESWC-2006 has started

PS 2 — The team frm India were drawn in Team-3D’s group (probably the best in the USA) … sadly they wont be attending due to visa problems

PS 3 — I wonder where’s Tipo … Bushi(aka Aziz) says he went home but I remember Tipo telling me that his parents wont be home till August

PS 4 — BF-2 craze gripping many guys .. thankfully I am unaffected by it

PS 5 — This is the END

Ole, Ole, Ole, Ola, Argentina cada dia te quiero mas

Before you start reading this, lemme tell u that this is one of those football-related posts … dont complain later on

Well the title means Argentina, I love you more every day & why shouldn't I ?

With a team that has yougsters like Tevez,Messi who wouldn't love this team ?

The only problem for them is that Samba Boy Ronaldo is back in form !!!!

Brazil played like they are supposed to against Japanese … poor Japan … why did u have to score against Brazil

Well the 1st round's over & my predictions did go wrong … I got 13 of the pre-quarterfinalists correct (80% correct ) … Australia, Ecuador & Ghana spolit my score X(

So lemme pick the quarter-finalists for you ( this time I dont think I will be wrong at all )

Germany vs Sweden – Germany should win this one

Argentina vs Mexico – Argentina who else

England vs Ecuador – England (seems that England are shifting to a 4-5-1 formation with Rooney as the sole striker)

Portugal vs Netherlands – the game of the 2nd round & very tough to predict … I pick Portugal

Italy vs Australia – Italy … Australia may give them a good fight though

Switzerland vs Ukraine – most probably Ukraine … Shevchenko seems to be in form

Brazil vs Ghana – do I even need to tell ya … Brazil

Spain vs France – Zidane's farewell match … u guessed it right – Spain

PS 1 — NiP won Dreamhack & ESWC-Sweden

PS 2 — ppl not playing CS these days & sks(my neighbour) is not worthwhile a look

PS 3 — just 18 days left for D-Day

PS 4 — saw T3 busy in a conversation with Sangal's yoga-baba today

PS 5 — seems that Vasan's studying a lot for CAT

PS 6 — Superman Returns getting very gud reviews … wanna watch it … pukka chalunga is baar Atwal

PS 7 — This is the END

24

Well the title isnt about the 24 TV Series … It’s number of passes that went into creating one of the greatest goals in the World Cup … Argentina rocks … screw Spain … screw Brazil … Argentina are my favourites for this Cup … go Argentina go … The Argentina that pummeled Serbia & Montenegro 6-0 reminded me of that great Brazilian side which had Zico,Socrates,Falcao … control possession over the ball & gradually build-up the goal & when absolutely sure pounce upon ur chance … talking abt the goal here’s a virtual replay of the match … Messi and Tevez made their World Cup debuts with goals …  I didnt see Tipo at any of the 2 games that I had mentioned … poor guy missed a great match … actually 2 of them I guess … I had written Argentina vs Serbia & Holland vs Ivory Coast today .. yummy … well the 2 matches were worth the wait … I felt really sad for Ivory Coast at the end of their defeat against Holland … Ivory Coast have played like champions & the exit of such an exciting team from the tournament saddens me

PS 1 — Argentina should thrash Holland

PS 2 — tsncentral is too slow to open on my PC but I still got to see a live Quake-4 match on the internet

PS 3 — Czech Republic vs Ghana shud be gud esp. with the Czech first-choice forward line missing

PS 4 — AR-gen-tina, AR-gen-tina …. Vamos a salir campeones, como en ‘86,

PS 5 — Seventeen of the 23-man Argentina team played for Pekerman when he coached Argentina to three world youth titles – ‘95, ‘97 and 2001. … Well they are gonna win the FIFA World Cup now

PS 6 — I had a doubt … many times we open websites & there’s an icon in the browser .. like the Y! in yahoo’s website & G in google’s website … how does one get those icons ?

PS 7 — Should Spawn be allowed to enter the hallowed halls of OBH ?

PS 8 — This is the END 

So I was proved wrong

Wasnt able to blog for the last couple days since my IP had been blocked by the all-powerful 204 for badboy-like activities … that problem has been taken care of as for now … coming back to the title of the post –  

Some days back in my expert "predictions" for the World Cup I had predicted the exit of Ecuador frm the 1st round. Well Ecuador – the supposedly high altitude team – is now fighting for the 1st place in Group A with Germany. The World Cup never fails in springing up surprises

Talking of Germany, they created so many chances against Poland & deserved to win.

Good News for England … Rooney's back … Ferguson must be pissed off

Spain thrashed,decimated,destroyed,crushed,whipped(OK go & chk on thesaurus.com for more synonyms) Ukraine … me a Spanish supporter now

An interesting point a fan made in the fan-chat at the matchcast available at FIFA's website was that there have been goals in the last 10 minutes in the tournament … maybe the defenders are getting tired coz of the heat & hence that maybe leading to a lapse in concentration … my expert opinion wud be to send in a defender in the later stages of the game to bring life into the defense 

Talking abt CS (hey Vasan read this part) … 2 important tournaments coming up … Lanwar(US-based teams wud be there) & Dreamhack(the cream of Europe wud be there) … Alternate ATTAX is looking very strong … I predict a NiP vs ATTAX final

PS 1 — Argentina vs Serbia & Holland vs Ivory Coast today .. yummy

PS 2 — for the uninformed NiP stands for Ninjas in Pyjamas & I am a die-hard supported of that team

PS 3 — ESWC India CS Finals Demo  

PS 4 — Interesting quotes by Google Founders -

           The Star Trek computer doesn't seem that interesting. They ask it random questions, it thinks for             a while. I think we can do better than that. – Larry Page

            Some say Google is God. Others say Google is Satan. But if they think Google is too powerful,                 remember that with search engines unlike other companies, all it takes is a single click to go to             another search engine.  – Sergey Brin

PS 5 — This is the END