Barca had Messi, Manu was Messy !

Anyone who hasn't seen a football match before could have seen yesterday's Champions league final between the two top clubs of Spain and England and guessed who was playing better. Even though Barcelona were the clear favorites as always, many people had their hopes pinned with Manchester United because they had lost to Barcelona in 2009 in a similar Champions league final and were unlikely to give away this shot at the title without a good fight.

And they didnt, except they were fighting for ball possesion half the time they spent on the pitch at The Wembley in London. Barcelona outclassed the English with their agility and constant passing to keep the devils running for the ball. Within 20 mins of the game, Barca had succesfully completed double the number of passes as United. They continued to dominate in the first half with four solid attempts at scoring, one of which was converted when Evra failed to coordinate with Vidic both of whom gave up their run and moved inwards to an advancing Xavi who was quick to pass the ball to a clear Pedro who then had just Van Der Sar to beat. Respite came soon for United fans when Hernandez returned Rooney's pass laying down a neat shot for him which he completed in classic Rooney style to level the score 1-1 before half time.

Second half was similar with United struggling to complete their passes and generating goal scoring oppurtunities. Ten minutes into the second half, what looked like a potentially harmless pass to Messi by Iniesta, saw the 23 year old swoop in and take a shot from just outside the box to equal Ruud Van Nistelrooy’s record of 12 Goals in a Champions League season . Soon after, at the 70^th minute, a similar build up saw Busquets passing outwards from inside the United Box to Villa who had enough time to stop the ball and take a calculated world class shot which went right into the top corner taking the score to 3-1 which they held till the final whistle.

Time and again, Barcelona have demonstrated their unique style of playing. Relfective of the spanish league version of the game, they never let the ball stay too long with any player. With such world class players as Messi, Villa and Pedro in the front who have 98 goals between them this season, they are perfect in completing their passes and executing shots when it is required of them. United lack this agility, the english league has a slightly sluggish overtone to its play, it was visible yesterday when United players refrained from going after advancing Barca players while the spaniards were always first to go after their opponents to try and dispossess them, giving them absolutely no breathing space.

United depend on gaps, long balls and headers to get their goals, Barcelona are comfortable passing around even within a crowd of defenders. In fact many a times, they keep passing until the last minute before a s triker just eases the ball in. Yesterday at Wembley Ferguson’s men could not come to terms with this handicap and Barcelona deservedly took away the Champions League trophy. I believe had Christiano Ronaldo been on United’s side, it would have given them an edge as he has just the right supply of tricks, speed and un-predictability up his sleeve to generate goal scoring oppurtunities for his side. Hernandez seems to have that kind of potential but he wasn’t really at his best yesterday.

Even though the devils would be dissapointed they lost twice at Wembley this season, they have had a good overall season with the English premier league win and making it to the Champions League final for the third time in four years. None the less, Sir Alex Ferguson will look forward to retrospect over his team’s gameplay in the light of yesterday’s match .

The Semi Final Road

While the country deals with fake ass pilots , lok sabha walkouts , naxalites kidnappings , a shameless list of scams , ruthless rapes and arguably an omnipresent derth of female company, eleven men will walk out into the field at Mohali next Wednesday to play what will be the most important game of their life. And ours. The air is so electric with the anticipation of that match that news channels right from the maturely perceived (only perceived mind you) NDTV to the likes of those that quote the changing wind as breaking news are going to be running constant programs, rope in all the best panelists their asses can afford and have day-long discussions, predicting which players Dhoni should be playing , weather conditions , pitch and also if they can fit it in, how that new Shahrukh flick Ra-one will do (no rocket science there) .

The Indian junta is so revved up about this match that even people who didn’t know Sourav Ganguly had retired from one-day cricket until they saw him in the commentary box are talking about it . Even the new generation of young boys who have taken to football with their jerseys and Nike studs will probably miss a Manchester United – Chelsea match to watch this encounter, and also because Man U will win anyway . Every strong critic of the Indian team who has said they have always been a one man army because of Tendulkar will continue to say so , except next Wednesday in their hearts they will be secretly hoping the other players perform just as well.

Indian team has always had the talent, it’s just the attitude that has lost it for them previously. Even a guy who cant spell cricket correctly can tell you one thing , and that is that we do not fumble with the attitude when it comes to Pakistan.Next Wednesday, that’s right . Mohali will be the epicenter of every Indians prayers that day. All our energies , hopes will go to the Indian cricket team and somewhere deep down, we know we are going to beat them . And they know it too.

Respect.

Shantanu J

Benga-Lure-you : A City Review !

Like most of us, I too had secured a campus placement with the once drooled after IT mass recruiting companies or MRCs, as we call them , and after a four-five month gruelling 'pregnancy' period it was time for the 'deliverables' , which is

the term they use for providing the commited product, in this case, the joining call to us.

Two things follow in such a typical scenario.

1.All your college friends flock to one place. So it feels no different from Manipal. Cheers !!

2.That place is usually Bangalore. Cheers again !

The city has been getting away with the above mentioned phenomena for myriad students from many colleges and moreover from numerous cities around the country. Thats right. Its almost as if it was a Black Hole gobbling people up. Its not boring because everyones doing it, and not knowing Kannada isnt an issue because the auto guys probably put more effort in learning Hindi, for negotiating exhorbitant fares off course.

Whether its the air-conditioned Volvos or the Rock music, the Crowd,the weather or simply the Shanthi Sagars. Everything that spans the city seems to follow the Law of Attraction. And they attract you , they attract me. The point I am trying to make is people, no matter which part of India they come from, dont just tag along here. They enjoy here ! Over the years, a certain culture has evolved, a typical IT professional's way of living has evolved. This city and its hangouts have given birth to that way of living. A young vibrant outgoing people are living the work hard party harder life. True this is probably happening everywhere, there are people making money and splurging and everything but for some reason this city seems to be at the forefront of this movement.And its doing it without the malls !

Let me elaborate for a moment. Suppose you say " I work in Delhi " and the picture it probably paints is that of rich businessmen in thier mid-50s driving to office in their BMWs and their mercs, of delicious punjabi food, and big bungalows , parliament and white ambassador cars. Then someone says " I work in Mumbai" and the picture that probably paints is of overcrowded streets, local trains, marine drive, bollywood actors-as glamourous as they come, stock brokers on dalal street and heavy rains. Another voice pops and says " I work in Bangalore" . and one immediately imagines people in their 20s and 30s with a beer in hand grooving to the music at Hard Rock Cafe, or at palace grounds, and off course the blueglassed IT buildings , and traffic jams. I think you now know what I mean.

And theres more ! Guess what,the city still has its share of classical music followers and classical music concerts, regular dramas, drama schools and spiritual temples of learning. It has allowed this vast expansion of itself not at the cost of its culture but despite it. Yes it has got affected in many ways but hey ; What with the capital lagging behind in commonwealth construction; Mumbai mishandling its overcrowded self, and Chennai still refusing to attract outsiders,I beleive Bangalore has and is handling the change well. Whats worth appreciating is that Bangalore has much more to give to the country than just the IT success story. The defence aviation sector has a strong base in Bangalore, with three major aviation research giants HAL, ISRO and DRDO all based here, who are making constant contribution to the country in areas which determine how the world looks at us. The Indian Institute of Science ( IISc) is one of the leading technical institutes in the country, and has had many great scientists as students or faculty since its inception. Bangalore houses an IIM, whose mention itself is enough to raise eyebrows,nothing further be said. Appreciate Alan Shore from Boston Legal ?, Well, the National Law University(NLU) here brings out many of those every year, infact the Boston Consulting Group is a major employer at NLU too.

I love the multi talented personality of this city. There are so many reasons why this city has and continues to evolve into a world class city. The impact of living only two months here was enough to lure me into writing this review. This very 'luring' nature of Bangalore led me to rename it from Bengaluru, as the politicians named it, to Benga-lure-you, as the youth would re-christen it. I just came back from Hard Rock Cafe. What are you waiting for ?

Yeh hai mumbai meri jaan !!

"Bhaiyya Big bazaar ? " I say for the umpteenth time as I watch the autowallah zoom past me. Sometimes they dont even nod their heads implying a "No", they just accelerate out of sight. At others they manage to pass a wicked smile. I turn back and look along the length of the road, my eyes scanning the back seats of every auto that passes in the hope that some autowallah will have mercy and drop me off to work, the nearest landmark to which is yes, you guessed it , a Big Bazaar. " Inko Bandra tak ka bhaada chahiye " . (" They want to go to far away places like Bandra where they'll fetch larger fares") one passerby remarks observing the desperation on my face as the next auto ditches me.

Whats Ironical is that theres an Auto stand rite next to the soceity I live in. All that goes through my mind every morning as I start walking from my Mumbai flat is the hope that today I won't have to go through that humiliating ordeal of Auto wallahs zooming past you as if you just asked them to go to Jhumritallaya. Most of the times they will be going in the same direction as well but wont bother making a quick ten bucks. At others they will continued reading newspapers, chatting, drinking their morning tea, cleaning their autos and tightening screws with screwdrivers but its obviously taboo to carry a passenger to a nearby place.It amazes me.

So heres how it works. Me and my friends, four of us divide ourselves into groups of two each day. Our usual 'strategy' is to keep walking and asking every empty auto if he will forgive us for taking a flat 'near' our work place and bless us with his generous "lift" till Big Bazaar. I believe if we asked for lifts from cars we'd get to our office earlier. There have been times when we kept walking, and asking , then walked a little more, asked another bunch of autos, waited some more, walked furthur and furthur, and " Whoala " reached our office on foot. We tried naming places that exist nearby to fool them into it, " Bhaiyya hanuman nagar ?" " Station tak chaloge ? " But all in vain. On another occasion I and my friend Roshan were hardly 5 minutes away from the office by foot. But we still kept asking and one guy agreed. We took the Auto just for the satisfaction of having travelled in an Auto after all those efforts.

Each day is a struggle. A fight. When I get an early auto my face lights up like the ones my company manufactures. I surprise myself with my own reactions. This maximum city pushes my mind to wonder. Whether I will ever be able to decipher the psychology of these auto wallahs is left to time, till then I just hope I find my daily auto to work and back.

Mute Opinion

I wonder how it would be had I been a loquatious person. A talktative one. Umm....Lets see.

I would get to hear my voice a lot, so the next time my own voice echos back to me when I'm on the phone I wont wonder " What.. thats how I sound ..weird ".

I would have people look towards me more often than at others.I would instantly come up with topics to talk about in a group.

There have been so many times when Im with a person and conversations going on.. and then he says things and then I add things, but he has said more than his fair share of things, so
now its my turn after the you know 'awkward silent moment' in the conversation to say something but nothing pops in my mind. Absolutely nothing. Sometimes I even conciously make an
effort to think what topic could interest us, but in vain.So well Im left there. Staring. Wondering whether that guy thinks i am some boring geek .
But it doesnt bother me at all. I dont 'wish' that I was talktative. Because its not that I dont have thoughts. I just invariably speak only when necessary. In a similar manner, I have
opinions and they do come out in a healthy conversation. May be I don't like giving everyone my opinion without being asked for it. I beleive staying silent at the right time is just as
important as saying something when it matters. At times being silent also lets you slip away leaving the interpretation to the listener itself. Silence is as powerful as speech.

I get along well with talkative people. Two silent people and two talkative people wouldn't make a constructive conversation. In the former it would become boring and in the latter each
one would probably not bother what the other was saying. I know i'm a good listener. People who talk need people who listen as well. Its interesting how the world is full of such opposite
pairs. Sometimes I wonder whether god gave me such big protruding ears for the same reason. May be I'm meant to be a good listener after all !! HeHe !

What we silent people dont 'speak' out of our mouths obviously finds ways through our facial expressions and eyes. Sometimes through a smile that effectively says " I agree". Sometimes
the same smile says " I dont think so ". Off course the person should know us to interpret which one is it. And its not difficult even after knowing us a little. For all the others who don't
know us, we enjoy the stealth fully.

Silence spawns thought. Sometimes constructive at times completely random and unnecessary . People have asked me where I was lost many a times. Thats because my mind takes a
thread and starts developing a thought process on it which continues till its interrupted. A word said, a picture seen, a sound heard is enough to initiate a potential thread. Such things
happen often if i'm bored or when i'm alone. When I am interested , I am listening, even if I am staring into the air, I know i am listening.Thought can get you involved a lot. So i also
appear serious to many people. I was once asked why I look depressed. My teacher once said " Why are you sad shantanu ". I love my life. I love the way I am. People !! Silence is not
sadness. Its peace.

Silence is a tool, not a handicap. Silence is not a fear to speak but a mere ignorance to waste ones energies on something unneccesary. Silence can instill peace at times and be enraging
at others. Silence can be just as loud as anything else. Silence isnt the absence of knowledge or opinion, it infact is an interestingly hidden mute opinion.